The SS Minnow

[RawPaul]

The SS Minow
As some of you remember the show Gilligan's Island, what started out as a 3 hour tour, ended up being a life time endevore. Thus the name.
And of course being made from SS.
This is a 2 cell 18650 host. Most of the dimensions are similar to a C-6. The top and heat sink are a little longer. I'll explain below.
I also apologize for the size of some of the pics as I have been having issues with imgur and imageshack, plus I mostly use my phone for internet because I don't have it at home and have to use the computer at work to adjust the pics, plus I put this together just before going on vaction.
Started out with 304 SS stock

Beginning of first end of host body. I actually made a couple of changes to the CNC progam to pre-drill the hole just enough so I can thread for the pill which normally fits a C-6 and you can get from Survival Laser or others.

Finished host body.

Top for heat sink, I made 2; a little different. I prefered the one on the right. They are a little rough around the diamond cuts. Still have to smooth and polish.

Copper and alum. heat sink. If you'll notice the counterbore on the bottom, it is to allow for wiring or stacking of drivers. As most of us know there is barely any room in a C-6 host.

Tailcap.
Notice the taper. At first it wasn't as much and the lip where the switch goes was thicker. I didn't like it, and think this has a sleeker look.

532nm 80mW diode & driver.
This was something I won on e-bay. I want to put a 510nm in it later. But for now this is all I had.

I needed a sleeve to hold the 2 AA batt to run this diode. The smaller 1/2 pvc couplings for water fountain pipe worked to slide the batt in, but had to turn the O.D. a little.

Battery sleeve

Ohh, NOW I find some nylon. Would have been great for the batteries.
I needed a conductive spacer to make up the battery length, so I turned a piece of nylon and drilled a 1/8 hole off- center for the wire.
Making a battery spacer.

I flattened both ends and bent them over, heated them with my soldering iron so they stay in place. Now I have a good center point for contact.
Battery spacer.

Here it is....
Finished host

Rear of host w GITD switch cover.

Front of host

Powered up

I've been finished with this for 3 weeks now. Started back in June though. I've just been waiting to post this before I go to the PGI convention with Jeff a.k.a.-Flaminpyro, but I was trying to fix the pics before I left.
I left this past Friday. I will be returning on the 17th and sleeping with the dead for about 12hrs.
I'm going to get him to do a proper review on it and then see if anyone would be intrested in purchasing one. Oh, BTW, he wonlt be back until the 1st of Sept as he went to SELEM and visiting his daughter in North Carolina. Must be nice to be retired. I'm going to talk to him about price, and maybe Sinner as well since this is more his area. I can also make it in aluminium. They will come standerd with aluminum heatsink (more $ for copper), clicky switch, and a GITD cover. I will ask Jeff to help me set up a PP acount as well.
Not sure how fast I can make them as I am still on OT at work.

Also if anyone is intrested, I can make the extension tubes for the C-6 as in my first laser post. They also fit the 501B as well.
They will be plain(no color) as I don't have a way to anodize, but nothing a can of Krylon won't fix as I did mine.

Thanks for looking,
Paul
P.S. I would like to point out how great Jeff and.his wife are. Hanging out with them has been great. He also let me play with his White Fusion time machine. I could have played with it for hours had it not been for a seminar I wanted to attend.

 

[nueces]

Very cool looking host. Impressive. Quite original too ... AFAIK:yh:

 

[bloompyle]

Looking good! I've always wanted a "swirly" host.

Although you're going to be told to resize your images, best to use 800x600

 

[BowtieGuy]

Very nice lathe work and machining on that host, plus, being S.S., you won't need to be constantly polishing it! :beer:
Good job.
+1 for the Minnow.

 

[RawPaul]

Thanks for the comments guys.:thanks:
Hopefully Jeff will be home around the 1st or 2nd of Sept so he can do a review. From his and Sinners input, I think I may ask around $160 for S.S. host, tail switch, GITD tailcap and aluminum HS. About $15 more for Copper HS. And probably $120 for Alum host. If I can get a quanity of say more than 10 orders, I can do a price drop. But if it's only 1 or 2 it may not be in my best intrest, as to having to set up a PayPal selling account and go through the proper channnels here on the forum.

 

[IsaacT]

I would definitely be interested in a SS host. I love steel hosts more than I can say.

 

[offroadfreak8582]

Awesome host! Am i the only one with BIG pictures? I would loeve to see a polished 445 version! :beer:

 

[IsaacT]

I have big pics on there too.

 

[RawPaul]

Yea, the first 5 are ok, but after that I don't understand why I can't get them to change size. I sent a PM to daguin with my login info at imageshack to see if he could help out, but as he is probably busy and it may take him a bit.
I'm hoping for a minimum of 5 orders, otherwise it's not worth the effort of setting up.
Still waiting on Flaminpyro to do my review, but I'm sure he's busy as well trying to catch up on orders since getting back from vacation. Jeff?

 

[RawPaul]

Well, I guess it's going to be another 3-4 weeks before Flaminpyro can do a review. I finally got hold of him (his mailbox was full and he couldn't get any more messages, so I had to text his wife). Says he is trying to get caught up on the many orders he has for the members here on the forum and get stuff together for another pyro convention that he is a member of out west in his neck of the woods. So please be patient so he can do a proper review.
I gave him my aluminum set up piece, which turned out pretty good, and he says he wants to do a build with it then show it. Ah, well.

 

[IsaacT]

That sucks :/ the curves on that host look magnificent! I am positive you will be a strong addition to the list of host builders. When will you start taking orders?

 

[Flaminpyro]

Yep sorry I can't get on this review any faster but I have outstanding orders I have to get out the door first !

Then there is Do-It which is a pyrotechnic event held in the desert of Nevada this time every year and I have
missed many of them but I'm not going to miss this one so the review will have to wait till I return

What I can say about this host is it's a really nice one and feels good in the hand, it is well crafted
and I would buy one, I guess I got the aluminum model but the rest are SS.

@ Paul, buy a polisher

Later...

Well, I guess it's going to be another 3-4 weeks before Flaminpyro can do a review. I finally got hold of him (his mailbox was full and he couldn't get any more messages, so I had to text his wife). Says he is trying to get caught up on the many orders he has for the members here on the forum and get stuff together for another pyro convention that he is a member of out west in his neck of the woods. So please be patient so he can do a proper review.
I gave him my aluminum set up piece, which turned out pretty good, and he says he wants to do a build with it then show it. Ah, well.

 

[RawPaul]

Wanna burn. Think I'll wait until jeff does a review. I want people to feel confident in their purchase.
And this will give people time to save up.
@ Jeff. Just cause the Aluminum one I gave you isn't super SHINEY, doesn't mean that I can't polish. You seen mine at PGI (after all the one I gave you was my set up piece):na: and look at the reflections in the finished pics. I use 500 grit then 1500 grit, Cretex polishing wheels (Jeff and I talked about those, he has a bad memory) and then my special polishing compound. So again :na:
I hope he makes a special focal adapter to compliment this as he is the go to guy for those.

 

[Flaminpyro]

What did we talk about :thinking: wait just one second who are you anyway :na:

Wanna burn. Think I'll wait until jeff does a review. I want people to feel confident in their purchase.
And this will give people time to save up.
@ Jeff. Just cause the Aluminum one I gave you isn't super SHINEY, doesn't mean that I can't polish. You seen mine at PGI (after all the one I gave you was my set up piece):na: and look at the reflections in the finished pics. I use 500 grit then 1500 grit, Cretex polishing wheels (Jeff and I talked about those, he has a bad memory) and then my special polishing compound. So again :na:
I hope he makes a special focal adapter to compliment this as he is the go to guy for those.

 

[RawPaul]

Ok wise guy. Don't make me call your wife.:evil: