Nothing beats being able to say, “I made this.” It’s the reason most hobbies exist in the first place. Of course, it’s one thing to knit a scarf that you may only end up using a few months out of the year, but it’s an entirely different thing to create something that you use consistently, day in and day out. Building an e cig mod yourself can be extremely rewarding. It can spark dialogues with passers-by, allowing you new opportunities to provide a little vapor education for people unfamiliar with the benefits. Plus, as with all handmade things, your mod can become a reflection of yourself and your personality.
Building your own mod certainly isn’t easy. The creation process is limited to the manufacturing tools and materials you have on hand, as well as your personal experience. If you’re a machinist who works with CNC lathes and metal on a daily basis, then this might be a quick after-hours study. But if you’re an accountant for a marketing firm, unless you’re used to building tiny birdhouses and retrofitting your home’s plumbing as a hobby, there will probably be a steeper learning curve and a larger investment. Sure, a tube containing a battery and a switch with a screw thread on top may look simple enough, but without the right tools and process, it can get complicated pretty quickly.
If you’re determined and clever, then the difficulty and even the knowledge gap won’t get in the way. There are tons of resources online that will guide you on your quest. From forums to pre-drawn plans, every question can be answered by a quick Google and a bit of time spent reading.
So, the main obstacle is really deciding what you actually want to build. Maybe a box mod is in your design. Or, heck, if you’ve got an old toy ray gun sitting around, you could retrofit that. Perhaps you want to go big and create a home-only mod, like an e-hookah that doubles as a drink caddy for your coffee table in the living room. The sky’s the limit for creative options.
Not to rain on your newly-founded parade, but remember that slapping an atomizer on a lump of stuff does not an e-cig make. There are a few things that must be taken into consideration.
First, power: are you going with batteries or AC? About 99% of the time, you’re going to want to use batteries. Very few people want to build a mod that has to be plugged in, as it’s hardly convenient (unless, of course, you’re making that e-hookah at-home mod). Using standard off-the-shelf batteries won’t cut it. AA batteries aren’t designed for the kind of tolerances needed for efficient vaping. The most common choice is using a lithium-ion battery in the 18000 size range, usually 18350 or 18650, but keep in mind that this limits the minimum diameter for your battery housing.
You’ll need to connect an atomizer of some sort to the mod. Virtually all tanks and atomizers use what’s referred to as a 510 connection, which is a type of screw thread of a particular size and thread count.
Does your design allow for easy access to both the battery housing and the tank mounting point? Questions like this and more await the eager mod designer. Granted, these questions can seem daunting, but remember, there’s always an answer. Between the online community and Google, it’s just a matter of finding them. Once you’ve answered them, it’s time to start building.
This is the best part: the point when you decide just how the mod will function. Are you tired of having a button on the bottom of your mech mod? Rig a button on the side! Springs just feel too springy? Switch to relying on the science and magic of magnets! Feel like your last mod just wasn’t hitting hard enough? It’s time to lose the aluminum and go for copper and silver! You have complete control of your vaping experience from the ground up.
But above all else, and we cannot stress this enough: you must BE CAREFUL.
Electricity is a powerful thing, and the engineering that goes into battery and wiring design must be precise. While 3.7 volts may not seem like much, it’s enough to deliver a painful jolt from an exposed gap in your circuit.
If you push your batteries too hard, you could wind up with a hazardous situation quickly. If the amp limit of the battery is exceeded, it can enter thermal runaway and rupture or even explode. If the battery housing isn’t designed with vent holes, thermal runaway can turn your mod into a pipe bomb. There have only been a few reports of electronic cigarettes exploding in users hands, and nearly all of them have been homemade mods that were improperly designed.
If you decide to make your own, make sure you don’t accidentally add yourself to that statistic.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you’re informed and you don’t rush. With proper planning and a steady hand, you can make a mod that works well and is uniquely your own.