Discontinued Lil' Bud by Vapwood

Yea........prob gonna have to get on board here. Wouldn't be surprised if I had the 50 down tonight. Dreaded VAS. Not sure whether to curse or praise this place......yea praise....... def praise!

I have a Mi and in 2nd batch for a Nomad so this will fill my in between Nomad VAS for unregulated convection...and the way y'all are talking about it perhaps beyond!!

Just gotta love supporting people like @Bravesst who seem to have great service and communication, full of passion and truly wanting to help people, not to mention they look beautiful!!

Besides my justification is Ive always wanted a vape in Purple Heart and Burl, my Nomads Burl....so naturally Purple Heart is staring straight at me....

Whats tha time frame on tha timber ??? Also will that gorgeous purple heart be available for tha timber ???

Actually, Timber will be a bit easier to acquire wood for, due to its narrower shape. I might be able to use turning blanks, so yes, look for exotic woods. Timber design is drawn up, just a matter of taking a little LB break to get it up and running. Maybe July will see the first Timber, but definitely sometime this summer.

Sales have picked up for LB once again. Batch 7 is now at 10, but I've decided to extend it to 15 units and push the ship date until mid July. If you wanna a July LB, you can still get in. I'd like to bump this up further in the future, but for now, 15 per month is about what I can handle.

R & D still eats up a bit of my time. As you know, I am trying to get a Timber prototype done, as well as a couple of very special *plug in* projects that I'm working on with Alan. In addition, always trying to improve Lil' Bud, and there are a couple of cool ideas on the horizon. At a some point, it'll be LB 2.0, but first let's see how this round of R&D turns out.

Things evolve quickly in this fast paced world, but what doesn't change is the painstaking care that I put into creating each unit. My goal is to improve Lil' Bud, but never make changes that might jeopardize quality or reliability - and that is the true challenge.

Alright, I jumped in! Purple Heart should be awesome can't wait!

Happy Father's Day to me!!!



Ps- @Bravesst, I assume this means I'm in batch 7 and can expect in mid July sometime?

Thanks for all you're doing!!!

Just a note to say I have been taken care of. Broke LB going home. Joining a Zion, Da Buddha, Enano and 15 or so long gong Underdog stems and power cords all wiped out by my prodigy.
Hulkette thinks she should be in quality control. I think she should be dropped into North Korea to help with their reconstruction.

Bdubbdiblets said:

Alright, I jumped in! Purple Heart should be awesome can't wait!

Happy Father's Day to me!!!



Ps- @Bravesst, I assume this means I'm in batch 7 and can expect in mid July sometime?

Thanks for all you're doing!!!

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Anyone who buys now, gets into batch 7.

Today, literally working my fingers to the bone on completing the back plates. The smaller the piece, the harder it is to work, especially when it requires a 6mm x 2mm slot. I've tried 5 different ways to do this, none were easy. Recently, I've taken to using a 2mm drill bit / exacto chisel knife blade / and a 1/4 inch diamond file, along with endless sanding and sanding. But, happy to say, all done, as well as magnets installed. Tomorrow, it is on to gauges and final finish.

My hands are numb.

Super cool

Can't wait! Two more days till my lil b drops

Bravesst said:

Anyone who buys now, gets into batch 7.

Today, literally working my fingers to the bone on completing the back plates. The smaller the piece, the harder it is to work, especially when it requires a 6mm x 2mm slot. I've tried 5 different ways to do this, none were easy. Recently, I've taken to using a 2mm drill bit / exacto chisel knife blade / and a 1/4 inch diamond file, along with endless sanding and sanding. But, happy to say, all done, as well as magnets installed. Tomorrow, it is on to gauges and final finish.

My hands are numb.

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Mike have you considered an on/off switch? The Mistvape Touch used to use them to avoid accidentally having the button depressed.

LB inovates the best on off switch so far already....
The safety tab and backplate slot makes accidentaly button depression imposible.

sickmanfraud said:

Mike have you considered an on/off switch? The Mistvape Touch used to use them to avoid accidentally having the button depressed.

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I already have a coffee can full of sliding on off switches that I just don't want to rely on for my LB to work. Not wanting to add electronics for numerous reasons, I will continue to go with the slot, but eventually figure a quick and easy way to cut it.

Always something new going on both cosmetically and functionally. My oscillating drum sander has give me more freedom with certain *rounding* operations, such as the back plate ends, so the unit is a bit more ergonomic, but a few performance ideas are on the horizon as well. I hate giving away too much in case it just doesn't workout for whatever reason, and normally the upgrades are small.

At this point in Lil' Bud's progression, every batch evolves a bit. I just built a unit with a new switch, larger (16 vs 12mm), heavier, a bit harder to press. I'm not sure if this switch will work its way into unit's I sell, but I'm going to test it out. It may make LB even more reliable, possibly impervious even to Hulkette, or others who tend to push LB to his limits day in and day out (me).

The other performance upgrade involve the coil compartment, and making a slight change to the inside diameter, again, testing it on this new unit. One other item, I'll keep to secret for now, is about to be tested as well.

Bravesst said:

I just built a unit with a new switch, larger (16 vs 12mm), heavier, a bit harder to press

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I like the sounds of that !

Bravesst said:

It may make LB even more reliable, possibly impervious even to Hulkette, or others who tend to push LB to his limits day in and day out (me).

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#metoo

Happy to hear you are being proactive on all fronts , Mike !

As for the on/off switch , always the "what if the on/switch accidentally gets turned on, bigger vape to accommodate extra switch, etc. At first I thought it be cool too and was going to use the "new toy with battery plastic tab to remove prior use" technique prior to Mike creating the battery tab slot in the cover.

The battery safety slot and tab work pretty good . Vaping outdoors a lot , I tend to lose them while vaping but figured out i can wedge it in battery cover and body while vaping like in photo below


Edit : the battery tab which I round off one end to slide in easier also doubles as my stir tool

Good morning FC. After all is said and done, I still love Cherry, and my DD is almost always Cherry. Had a customer just ask me to switch from QM to Cherry for his batch 7 unit and as I congratulated him on a great choice I realized how much I personally love everything about Cherry. Thursday I may stop at the local hardwood lumber yard and scope out what I'll call *Cherry Cherry*.

@Bravesst Cherry is really appealing to me. I think it’ll be my choice when it’s time for LB2.

You said something in passing that really grabbed my attention about a desktop you and Alan discussed. That really intrigues the heck out of me. There’s really nothing in the plug in world that gets me excited right now, but I think you two would make an amazing desktop.

And Timber. That’s going to be my birthday present to myself.

We're so close I can almost taste it.

bossman said:

We're so close I can almost taste it.

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Not to make it worse for you, but I AM tasting it right now. Checking all the units one last time, as I apply the final finish sanding. Still have some last minute work to do (tabs, gauges, pics), and I'm always surprised how long it all takes. I'm going to *do my best* to get to the post office Friday, but there is never a guarantee. Lots going on...

I can tell you I received a nice large mouthpiece / screen shipment from @Alan (thank you!), so I should be able to accommodate all stem requests. Now it's just a matter of getting the work done. What slows me down to a crawl is 2 things - back plate and finish sanding. That adds two full days work to the each batch - but I do have a plan, hoping to take 12 or 16 hours of work and turn it into 3 or 4, while improving LB both in appearance and function. So there is always lots going on to continue to bring you a better and better Lil' Bud. With all the changes piling on top of each other, it's almost time for an LB 2.0...

As @beyond6strings noticed, not only is Timber on the horizon, but a collaboration of sorts, but more than that I cannot say at this juncture. I have to add, if Alan is involved on any level, it is guaranteed awesome.

Just to clarify about you guys jumping on the Cherry bandwagon (and I applaud the choice). I love Cherry, but my Cherry praise refers to its awesome appearance, tactile feel, and ease of work-ability, rarely tears out, but also rarely has crazy grain. All the woods used are well within limits of functionality for vaping. Remember, this isn't combustion, we're dealing with much lower temps that are easily handled by walnut, maple, purple heart, cherry, and most other hardwoods. I do have to say, if I had to mass produce LB with one wood, it would definitely be Cherry.

I find that some of the darkest, densest walnut actually gets the warmest to the touch, and the lightest quilted maple stays cooler. Logic might have predicted the opposite, but the light maple insulates a bit better, but to balance things out, the heavy ass walnut can take it. Cherry is right in the middle.

Bravesst said:

Just to clarify about you guys jumping on the Cherry bandwagon (and I applaud the choice). I love Cherry, but my Cherry praise refers to its awesome appearance, tactile feel, and ease of work-ability, rarely tears out, but also rarely has crazy grain.

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My Cherry love is about the appearance as well. Your daily driver has some gorgeous grain in it-almost like sap lines. And I just love wood that has 'movement' in it. So I dig the crap out of Quilted or Birdseye Maple too. As well as that Gnarly Walnut.

And dense wood my indeed hold more heat than lighter woods-just as SS holds heat longer than Titanium

Lil b dropped unexpectedly today I am more than happy with the performance. Impressed with my first two bowls will comment further when I do some more testing. Awesome work @Bravesst
https://imgur.com/a/VFJb2Mf

Question, which way does the battery go? Button up or down? Thanks

Good morning all... Things are moving along nicely, except for the nasty cut I got on the tip of my middle finger. I'm opening a package, using a chisel to cut the tape (bad idea), as I'm doing it I'm thinking how dangerous this is and SLIP, right into the middle finger of my left hand (always the victim hand). What a putz. Nice clean incision about 1/4 inch, but kinda deep. I was able to stop the bleeding with direct pressure and get the wound to kinda seal on its own. Hurt like hell, still throbbing a bit. The left hand does take some beating when using lots of hand tools, but this was opening a package...

Zow237 said:

Question, which way does the battery go? Button up or down? Thanks

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Either way is OK. There is no positive - negative.

Zabou said:

Either way is OK. There is no positive - negative.

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However Mike recommends you aim the positive end away from your face. Safety first.

Those who've followed the thread know I'm not a big fan of the battery safety slot. I mean I like what it does, don't like how it looks or how hard it is, and how much time it adds, to the build process. When I first started building LB's, the battery compartment was about 23 mm deep. I've since taken to going as deep as 26, allowing an 1/8 of an inch between battery and top, leaving room for a tab to stick up to be easily removed, and still allow the back plate to be installed. The tab will store nicely in the compartment. The material is the same 1/64 inch stock, but could be anything thin enough. I like the tab better as well, more substantial, more area.

Look ma, no slot!

FULL COVERAGE


PROTRUDES FOR EASY REMOVAL


STORES EASILY - BIGGER, HARDER TO LOSE


LOOKS AWESOME

• SAVES ABOUT 45 MINUTES PER VAPE
• EVERYONE WILL GET ABOUT A HALF DOZEN
• WILL BE PART OF BATCH 6

@Bravesst that's cool as shit.

I've been using the LB with two screens in order to have a "pancake" shape to the material, with a small amount. And I've been getting FANTASTIC results with really even heating and no need to stir.

ZC said:

I've been using the LB with two screens in order to have a "pancake" shape to the material, with a small amount. And I've been getting FANTASTIC results with really even heating and no need to stir.

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Is it possible to get a picture of that?