Lindsey: Check this out: In the Exhibitor's Hall at CatalystCon, there was a Build-Your-Own-Vibe station, where I could take pieces, parts, and create a true pretty. I indulged my inner engineer and set to work on a Crave vibrater called Duet.

(00:13) Michael Topolovac: "This is the Duet. It's actually our signature product. It's a two-motor vibe made of–with a silicone cover, and then a metal base. It gives it a sort of jewellery high-quality feel to it. It also helps it produce a very rumbly, quiet, strong vibration. To charge it, discretion's a big part of all our products, so there's no charger to worry about, no extra cables to fuss with, you just take it apart and you plug it in to any USB port. Could be your computer, could be your phone charger, could be the USB port on your car, if you wish. And then, put it back together, push the button to turn it on, and it's ready to go."

Lindsey: First, we needed to gather parts. Pants, then a motor assembly, body, battery, motherboard controller, and switch assembly.
Michael explained that most vibrators have the motor directly mounted to the device, so that, when the motor is vibrating, the whole thing vibrates. His company tries to address these full-body shakes.

Michael: "Yes. We actually mount the motor to little, tiny, stainless steel tubes, that we custom made, that allows the motor to vibrate freely, independent of the rest of the object. That makes for a much more rumbly vibrator, a much quieter vibrator, a much stronger vibrator, cos you're not actually having to vibrate the entire object, just the actual intended area."

Lindsey: And then, I was instructed to slide the motor into the pants. After this, half of the project was complete. I then needed to seal the top with a silicon grease that would waterproof it.

Lindsey: You cannot tell that I am the daughter of two art teachers here. (laughs)

Michael: And then the next thing we're gonna do is put this band on.

Lindsey: Ooh, it's pretty. Uh, this direction? 

Michael: The right direction's–You got it. 

Lindsey: And then it doesn't matter which way?

Michael: It does matter but you have it the right way.

Lindsey: Oh, excellent!

Michael: You had a one in four shot, and you did pretty good.

Lindsey: To secure the band, we use tiny screws dipped in blue threadlocker.

Michael: Because it's a vibrator, and hence it vibrates, the screws, over time, could unscrew, which is not what we want, so–

Lindsey: Right.

Michael: So we have a threadlocker, that you put on the tips of the screws before you screw it in

Lindsey: Aaah.

Michael: So you do that next. 

Lindsey: This is where I relearned "Just the tip, just the tip".

Michael: Just the tip. 

Lindsey: Just the tip. 

Michael: Just the tip. 

Lindsey: (laughs) So much sex all the time.

Lindsey: We tested whether or not the vibrator was waterproof with a pressure gauge. If the pressure stayed at the same level for a minute 30 (seconds), we could safely say that water wasn't going in or out. 

Lindsey: Yeaaaah!

Lindsey: Alright, on to part 2!

Michael: So this is the body of the Duet. This is actually a part that is die-cast out of metal, which is actually injecting metal into a mold. It's then machined with little O-ring grooves inside. It's then hand-polished. It's then plated. It's then hand-polished again, and then it's plated again. And that's how you get this very high-end, jewelry aesthetic to it.

Lindsey: And this coating is not going to come off in chunks.

Lindsey: I wanted to know how body-friendly Craves are. 

Michael: No, it won't come off in chunks. It's also nickel-free. We do pay a lot of attention to the materials that we use to make sure that yes, they do stay intact during use, and are also body-safe. 

Lindsey: We continued. Michael explained the components of the vibrator's...torso, so to speak. 

Lindsey: This is the circuit board, which controls the vibrator. This is the battery or the power source. 

Michael: The battery has about 400 to 500 full cycles on it, which translates to 5 or 6 years of normal use.