Steve K's Vaping World

ECig Workshop, the company behind the Juice Jar has recently began expanding their e-cigarette product offerings. The company now sells a line of hand-crafted wood box mods. The mods are available in three sizes, tall, short and “dinky”.  I got my hands on the dinky model, so without further ado, here’s the ECig Workshop Dinky Box Mod Review.

Design
I have to say the term dinky is a bit of a misnomer.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen my fair share of minuscule mods like the V-MOD and the Tiny Tony, I don’t think of this mod as particularly diminutive. The term is relative, since the Dinky is built around an 18350 battery, which is about half the size of the 18650 in the tall version.

Does this product image make me look fat?

Despite the Dinky being much less dinky than I originally envisioned, the size actually works pretty well in this e-cigarette mod.  From an ergonomic standpoint, this mod has a great hand feel.  The height to girth ratio also means that it is very stable when standing on end, even on the cheap, wobbly desk I use when writing these e-cigarette reviews (and everything else here at SKVW).

This desk is supported with duct tape and wishes

The overall shape and wood construction reminds me of a 1960’s desk lighter.  Back when everyone was just like Don Draper and smoked at work, people would have large lighters that were meant to just live on the desk for visitors to use and be impressed by the fancy lighter.

That wooden construction is of course the main point of interest when it comes to wood box mods.  Despite being fairly inexpensive as far as wood mods go, the Dinky is no slouch in this department.  ECig Workshop kind of lives up to its name, they build these things by hand in an actual workshop.

The Dinky in my possession is constructed out of a block of spalted maple. These mods are built from a single, solid block of wood.  A portion of the block is cut off and serves as the door.  The openings for the 510  atomizer connector, firing button and wiring are drilled into the block and the battery compartment is carved out of the main block.

The door portion of the block is re-attached to the main body with a pair of hinges.  The hinges are cleverly countersunk into the main body of the Dinky so as to not bulge out from the side.  The door securely latches shut with a tiny but powerful magnet.

Flush-mounted hinges

The overall impression of the fully assembled mod is quite solid.  The Dinky still feels like a solid piece of wood.  All corners and edges are nicely rounded on the mod and the the exterior is sanded to a smooth finish.  The wood is protected with an oil seal which also brings out the grain. This gives each mod a very unique and natural look.

Each of the mods offered by ECig Workshop are available in a variety of different woods.  Inlays and more exotic woods are also available for an additional, but modest charge.

Experience
Box mods are a pretty straight forward experience, and ECW’s offerings are fairly no-frills.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as there’s nothing to distract from the natural wood appearance of the mod.  Externally, other than the battery connector, the Dinky has only a black plastic horn style switch.

I found this switch to be quite pleasurable to use.  The switch itself is fairly large and has a nice, flat area on the button for the thumb to rest while depressing the button.  The button action is smooth with a noticeable tactile click when the mechanism is fully engaged.
As I mentioned earlier, I find the overall diameter of the Dinky to make for a very comfortable device to hold.  The button is perfectly placed for easy activation with the thumb.  In addition, despite its solid-wood experience, the Dinky is quite light weight, even when equipped with a battery and a 5ml cartomizer tank.

Before receiving the device I was a little unsure about the battery compartment.  Despite both being 18350 batteries, the IMR batteries I have are shorter than the TrustFire batteries sold by ECW.  Fortunately the spring inside the compartment has no problem with my slightly shorter batteries.

The 18350 batteries have around 1000mAh of capacity (depending on manufacturer).  As a result, you can expect several good hours of use out of these batteries easily.  If you want an all-day and then some mod, the Tall’s 18650 should do the trick for you.

Under the hood

Using cartomizers mostly, I didn’t really run into this as an issue, but there isn’t really a drip cup on the atomizer connector.  If you are a dripper, and get a little overzealous in your dripping, you may end up dribbling some juice onto the mod.  The connector is sealed and the finish seems to repel juice pretty well, so it should just be a matter of wiping off excess.

If I have one gripe about this mod it is that there is no separate on/off switch to prevent accidental misfires.  Mostly this will become an issue if you want to store the mod (always store your gear with the batteries removed for safety, trust me.) Since I believe that the Dinky is a little too chunky to really be pocketable, I don’t anticipate many pocket misfires.

Too Long; Didn’t Read
ECig Workshop is an actual workshop staffed with woodworkers who make e-cigarettes.  Their line of mods are built from a single block of wood and have a very solid feel as a result.  The design and finish is quite good on these devices.  Each one is a natural product so will be unique from any other mod produced by the company.

While the Dinky is a little bit chunkier than I expected, the size works well.  It has a great hand feel and looks great sitting on a desk.  The lack of lights or other extra features help to keep the all-wood feel going for this device.  It also helps that these mods are fairly inexpensive as far as wood mods go.

Pros:

• Handcrafted in the USA
• Reasonably priced for a wood mod
• Excellent fit and finish
• Good ergonomics
• Excellent button mechanics