So I've been planning re-casing my 4050 mod for a while. It's currently using a 2 AA battery box with one 14500 and a touch switch using a 510 atomizer connection. It works great, though I'm thinking of going to a regular fire button (not sure yet, lately it's been firing with the switch off and I have to double check to see if I screwed up somewhere) and going up to 18650s. I love the size (well, it's a bit small for these big musician's hands), but the 14500s don't last all day at work. I have 4 and I am usually well into my 3rd battery or just into my 4th by the end of my work day. I should probably just buy another charger and keep one at my desk, but that's not the point!
I've always liked box / grip style mods, tubes aren't bad, but I'll be honest, I always feel like I'm going to (and have) dropped them countless times (not that I've never dropped box mods... I'm just glad the worst I've done with a drop is break the XL+ size clear-o-mizers when I still used them).
I repaired the VW Gripper that's popular for a friend of mine (poor ground battery plate / wire connection, re-solder was all it took). The form is one I've always liked, though the particular one honestly felt ... flimsy. Especially after popping it open to fix his and having to use hot glue to keep it shut again. Plus the rubberized coating is what I think was responsible for the battery door being so hard to open when he applied enough force to slide it over, the tab holding it "shut" snapped, so it isn't wonderful.
I found and bought a box for 2 18650s (2 in series should last me the day, I'd hope) that was designed for recharging cell phones. It isn't bad, but honestly, it's a little bigger than I would've liked. Here's what I picked up:
http://goo.gl/e3ugB (eBay link). It has a cut-out with a membrane holding some plastic on the face for pressing a tact switch on it's own board, that could be used on another tact switch, especially since the dna20 solder points are only logic functions that don't require power handling. But as I said, it feels a bit big.
I was wondering if you guys had any wonderful recommendations. If you know of a case like the VW gripper that's just not a flimsy piece of crap, get the idea of the size I'm looking for (I'd prefer rubberized aluminum, but plastic is great, since I can cut a display slot in it). 2 18650s in parallel aren't required, just a thought. I'm sure a 1600 or 2k mAh AW would be perfectly fine.
Thanks!