Ebony Veneer "Sleeve" for SX Mini M Class

I love my M Class, it's been a rock solid mod since I bought it on first release. Unfortunately it has suffered the same fate as many from that first run.



Well I got sick of looking at it, and was looking around for options when I saw dr_egenius' thread on reddit.........

https://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_cigarette/comments/3tidam/sx_mini_veneer_project_complete/

And the accompanying imgur album..........



The minute I saw it I knew it was what I wanted, and he left just enough breadcrumbs for me to work out what he did.

The first step was disassembly, I couldn't get enough heat into the negative solder joints without heating the whole thing up too much, so I just snipped the two negative wires.

Then, using a linisher, I slowly took off some of the thickness all the way around to accommodate the veneer. I found I could completely remove the contours without running out of material. This provides a nice even surface to bond the veneer to.



I then cut the veneer oversize, and, ensuring both surfaces where clean, sprayed both the sleeve and the veneer with contact adhesive.




Then I applied steam to the veneer using a hand held steam cleaner. A steam iron or even a boiling jug will do the same job. This makes the veneer very flexible. With the veneer on a flat surface, I then pushed the spine of the sleeve onto the centre of the veneer, and rocked it to one side, then the other, ensuring the veneer bonded to the sleeve smoothly. Then clamped it up for about an hour.



Trimmed, shaped and sanded.



I then applied a CA finish, sanded and polished with micromesh. Soldered the wires back and..........



Now it's not perfect, but this was the first time I have attempted anything "wood" since High School, and I have never done CA before, so I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It's not up to dr_egenius' standard, but infinitely better than it was.

This was completed over 4 days, however there wouldn't be more than 2 1/2 hrs work in it

I'm not a redditor, but if anyone reading this is, I would appreciate if you could poss on my thanks to dr_egenius, as without him, this would never have happened.

 

Wow. That's gorgeous. Great job.

 

Top job laurie, get a lot of satisfaction when things turn out the way you planned.

 

Great job Laurie
it looks professionally done

 

That is stunning Laurie. I bought myself a pink SX Mini not because I especially like pink but because most of my mods were black or silver and I just wanted something bright for the novelty factor.

But the SX Mini is by far the best mod I've ever owned and I use it almost exclusively, and now I'm stuck with bright pink wherever I go.

 

Stunning, very classy, well done!!!

 

Lovely job Laurie, you should feel very pleased with your unique M Class.

When I first saw what you did to it by grinding it down, I thought, now there's a courageous decision. But then I went back to see your first picture and I realised that you didn't have a lot to lose. The end result looks better than the original original, so being bold has paid off. Not sure I'm going to follow you just yet, mine was from a later batch and is holding up well so far (although there are some signs of cracking and weaknesses appearing), but if I do I might be back to ask about some details if that's OK?

 

This is just beautiful! I love your work.

I might have to try to give this a go with one of my mods Likely not to turn out to the same standard as yours though!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "CA finish"?

 

I'm all for sharing, I could only achieve this because dr_egenius, and others, shared their techniques. I have some veneer left over too

 

CA is cyanoacrylate, otherwise known as superglue! There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube if your interested.

 

Oh wow Laurie, you are super clever. Now it looks amazing!!! Well done.

 

Now, to accessorize!

Now, to accessorize!

I picked up a couple of these..............


https://www.fasttech.com/products/2192903

Everyone was complaining about how the wood soaks up condensate and eventually falls to bits. So I gave it the CA treatment............spun it up in a pistol drill...........



A pretty good match!



Not bad for 15 minutes work and $2!

 

Well done!!! I find it so hard to find drip tips that I like. The combo looks awesome!

 

Top work mate, your skills are amazing !