Success! The small blade on my Swiss penknife couldn’t shift the top but levered out the base easily, revealing an IP20400 3.7V 1500 mAH, showing 3.7V on my test meter. Three of those would run my FT817, six in 3S2P would be better than my present arrangement. I don’t want to encourage smoking (terrible habit!) but… 
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Well I need one more 20400 to make up a pack for the QCXs. But if you have a supply, you may as well recover the cells rather than have them just wasted.
There’s a petition to ban disposable vapes: Ban the Import and Sale of Disposable Vapes - Petitions
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Signed!
Sorry chaps - for the greater good and all that. 
73,
Rod
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No need to apologise Rod, I fully support you and will sign it myself.
I’ve written about these so that more of you will collect them and recycle the batteries. Either in your own SOTA/POTA etc. battery packs or recycle the cells correctly at recycling centres.
Stopping them would be great but until then lets minimise the environmental impact.
EDIT: Now signed.
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I agree. pity we can’t find a use for all those discarded lighters!
You could use them for lighting up your vegan green-vape.
The ones I buy from the supermarket have the standard butane lighter fill hole in the bottom, even if they are styled as disposable.
I’ve heard snatches of Andy singing happily, if somewhat tunelessly, to himself as he goes wombling* of a warm summers evening…
… I charge e-stogies that I have found - flat and no longer round …
… Two hours of climbing hills gets me 5 by 9 qsos …
*scabbing in these parts
Well for better or worse it seems they are rare here in old Melbourne town. Or at least in my part of it. I now have a doggie doo bag (empty) in my pocket when out and about, just in case.
Seems to be illegal here in VK3 but not in VK5. So I’ll have to check that out. I wonder what these things cost new? 18600 cells are expensive.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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These have smaller capacity cells but online prices for the Elfbar 600 sells for around £4 to £5 each. A pack of 20 cigarettes is between £12 to £15.
I been keeping my eyes open but haven’t seen any disposable vapes lying around, and I don’t exactly live in the nicest of areas.
It might be that the dedicated local litter pickers clear them up frequently, I’ll ask a couple of them and see if they find many.
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I think these are also used for ‘charging’ cream for cakes & coffee in the catering industry. If empty, you can drill a hole thru’ one end as use as a weight to lob a bit of string over a tree branch for the EFHW antenna. The shape is ideal for not snagging branches.
73, Lea M0XPO
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The tubes I’ve found are metal (aluminium?) so haven’t found a great use for them yet.
73, Lea M0XPO
My local anarchist dive bar asks patrons to hand them in instead of throw them out and will happily donate batteries if you ask for them from the stash!
It makes acquisition as hard as going for a pint or two!
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Dave,
I did a Google and found two vape shops in my nearby city centre. I went to one, windows painted grey as was the door and only the store name on the fascia board. I went in and noted the prices for delights such as tortoise blood from $15 to $35.
Then I saw there was a vape recycling bin at the end of the counter.
I joined the queue and then asked the lady in charge if I could take some of the old vapes for their batteries which I hoped to recycle. She was very happy for me to do so, even offered a larger bag than I had and invited me to come back for more.
I was prepared to pay $5 per kilo but got just over 2.5 kg for free. My weekend is planned out.
The wife is concerned I may inhale fumes. The recovery operation will be conducted outside with gloves and a mask available.
Anyway if I can get some useable battery packs from this lot I’ll be grateful.
Thanks Andy FMF for the tip.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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Update.
It’s different here.
Every one of the devices I collected from the Vape shop recycle bin are rechargeable multi use things. They have a USB port, a battery management CCT and a voltage regulator. Oh and a battery. They have solid metal cases. Some have had a rough life. No wonder the manager was happy for me to take as many as I wanted. They were presumably dumped because they no longer held a charge.
The first one I attacked I managed to break the connection to the battery foil. It still retains its battery in a sturdy case
The second one yielded a 1.1 Ah battery of unknown age. It charged but I have yet to do a load test. The next three each yielded a bigger battery. Voltages from 3.3 to 4.0 V as found. All have solder tabs. The last device I opened has a small soft skinned battery.
So I need to resume looking for single use devices as the battery life is probably going to be better in those than a rechargeable. Maybe not common here?.
I’m about to check on one of the larger batteries. It has been on a half amp charge for three hours. The voltage supply is set for 4.2 V max.
Regardless of whether they only last for a short time, the price was right. I also have a collection of small screws and some PCBs with things on them.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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Ron, I commend you for doing your bit to reduce electronic waste.
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Hi Andy,
Well after costing the IKEA NiMH batteries and finding no cost advantage of 10 off over 3 LiPo I thought I’d try the vape battery source.
How are your reclaimed prizes going?
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Parts of Australia have been years ahead of the UK in recycling terms, so maybe folk over your way simply make better choices than folk here, or maybe the single-use vapes just get chucked somewhere other than the vape shop’s recycling bin… 
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I haven’t wired in the BMS I bought yet, I’m in the market for a smaller one. The 3S2P pack charged and the IMAX B6 gave sensible numbers for the charging and balanced the pack. I’m doing a discharge test now and will post the numbers. It draws a constant 400mA which is a close to an 817 in RX although this is intended for some QCX radios.
EDIT:
After 100mins (1hr40m) at 400mA discharge the voltage is down from 12.45V to 11.16V with each group of cells being well balanced at 3.71V. No single group has ever been more than 0.01V different than its neighbours.
EDIT2:
Recovered batteries provided 1074mAhr before the cutoff voltage was reached or 400mA for 146mins or 2hr26m. Final voltages per pair 3.43V 3.42V 3.26V, possibly one weaker cell.
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