Meerschaum pipe mod

[domesticextremist]

I had this brought back from Turkey by my sis about 20 years ago:



It has been used (not for tobacco )



but is unlikely to be used again.
It is also quite delicate and has a crack in the stem:



It has spent the last decade or more rattling around in the back of a
drawer, so I thought why not convert it from gas to electric

After all, it is beautifully carved.

[domesticextremist]

This has been some time in the planning, involving lots of head scratching
and browsing for appropriate bits. I want to get this done with out comlpetely
destroying the pipe, so eventually marshalled the following:



One 16340 550mAh IW AMR battery,
One Smok stainless steel Mega DCC
One set of Ego electrics and button.

Not shown is the required Ego connector (at this point
in transit from China )

First problem - the battery doesn't quite fit:



Lol. Will need to fix that.

[maccafan]

Best of luck Dom..Keep us posted..

[domesticextremist]

Before doing anything else, I encased the whole pipe in
insulating tape. This is to prevent any stresses causing further
cracks and make sure the violence will only attack the bits I want
it to

I then used a 16mm wood hole boerer and a hand drill to bore out the
bowl to a bit wider than 16mm (by wiggling it and holding at a slight
angle)



This took quite a while as I didn't want to overshoot and pierce
the bottom of the pipe and the hole needed to be wide enough to take
the battery and wiring.



I also emeried down the neck of the stem to less than 14mm. I then cut a 10mm
ring off the Smok DCC and used it as a collar to accept the Ego connector and
also strengthen that part of the pipe.

[domesticextremist]

Next it was time to attack the mouthpiece. I measured it up against a kanger carto:



The stem has a 10mm inner diameter near the base, and 8mm threaded
portion and then 3.5mm air tube up to the mouth. I drilled this out to 9.5mm.

Actually, drilled is not the word. The plastic is very soft and the drill just
grabs it and spins it around. I had to run it in reverse and basically grind/ream it
out from 3.5mm to 9.5mm in 0.5mm increments. Took bloody ages

I then cut and o-ring from a carto and super glued inside the base to provide a seal
and grip for the carto:



Here it is test fitted to and SDK manual, with tank plinth and a Boge LR:



At which point, I dscover that Boges are slightly longer than Kangers!
Dog!
I dare not drill any deeper - the stem is already eggshell thin near the top
(about 1mm by my reckoning), so I'll just live with a slight gap.

[maccafan]

Well done..#icon_bravo#

Looks nice..Couldn't you cut off the end of the boge cart by 3-4 mm with some pipe cutters?

[warlordxxx - (Mark)]

i was thinking the same thing there Macca - Looking great there can't wait to see this one finished

[domesticextremist]

Things went on pause for a day or two whilst awaiting the arrival
of Ego connectors from the group buy.
Then disaster struck - the connectors were obviously designed for
larger buttons and the ones from the LF kits fall straight through.

Looking back at the pctures on the various sites t is clear that the HC
ones are bigger than those from C9V or LF - so my own fault.

After some hours digging around the bit box and trying out various rigged
up things involving bits of condom and old centre pins, I hit upon a very
simple solution.
I cut a 9 by 11mm rectangle of plastic from some packagin (can't remember
what was in it, but it was marked as PET). Then I assembled the
connector/holder and circuit, slid the plastic over the micro swithc inside the
connector and put a blob of super glue on the back of the button and dropped it
down through the hole.
bingo - the button no longer falls out and it is perfectly lined up with the hole and
switch. It also makes final assembley of the button and connector a whole lot less faff

[domesticextremist]

Next job is to wire up and solder together the circuit and centre pine.
Hit some problems trying to earth the negative side of the attty circuit
on the SS collar. Basically, you can't solder to stainless steel (at least I can't).

Ended up redoing things severeal times and earthing to the bottom edge of the Ego
connector. No pics of this bit, which is just as well as it was no too pretty

[domesticextremist]

So all done tested and tapped together gently with a mallet.
Removing the tape, I fully expected it to crumble into dust, but
it didn't.

Here it is in Stardust mode:



On its own stand - an old ashtray I made (even older than the pipe).

It would be a lot better if I could find a way to rig the pipe mouthpiece
to the stardust (working on that one).

Also, I need a nice cover cap for the bowl to hide the battery
- suggestions welcome

[domesticextremist]

Here it is in cartomiser mode.



Lovely with a LR Boge and some VG heavy tobacco flavoured juice.
The mouthpiece really makes the difference to the vaping experience.

[domesticextremist]

And finally in Frankentank mode.



Pure Vaping Bliss

[warlordxxx - (Mark)]

That looks AWESOME!! well done mate

[maccafan]

Looks fantastic!! Brilliant stuff..

Really like the carto mode.

Does it charge with a regular ego charger?

[domesticextremist]

No, sadly, it takes one look at it and refuses to charge.

I have to use the SDK charger which means about
5 hours to charge.

It's a 550mAh battery so it lasts a while though.