REO Technical Issues/Shop Talk

[Brew1961]

So I got an odd issue that I can't seem to pinpoint. I use a variety of REOs all with the Chalice III RBAs but I have been having a problem of dropping springs that can't be tied to not checking resistance of the built/capped Chalice. I just met a friend for lunch and left my REO Grand/Chalice setup out in my cupholder. It sat there about 2 hours until I got back to the car. The battery had dropped, the gold spring is blue and the mod is hotter than all get out. When I got back to work, I checked the coil and do not see it all burned up. It's dirty from a week of use but not burnt up. The real kicker is that this is the 2nd REO Grand to display this behavior that I attributed to maybe a bad 510 connector on the 1st REO. I would stick the mod in my pocket and then notice at some point that the battery was flopping around in the mod....3 times With this failure on my 2nd REO after 2 weeks of nothing, I have to believe it is this particular Chalice but is there anything else that could cause such an issue. I have a spare Chalice so I'm going to sideline this one since my other 2 are running just fine for close to a year. I also have a few RM2s but I have never had a Chalice leak and that is worth every penny spent. I obviously need more springs ;-) Anyone else have ghost shorting with a Chalice. Brew

 

[Rule62]

Have you checked for a bent or cracked firing pin? With a Grand, it wouldn't be possible for it to auto-fire unless the firing pin contacts the battery positive pole.

 

[Brew1961]

Positive pin sitting up, centered and curled over as expected. I may not have had the firing button locked but there was nothing near the REO to push down on the button.

 

[Brew1961]

I had been using the Grand/Chalice all morning. Headed out for a lunch meeting and on the way realized the bottle was empty. So I took one last toot, put it in a foam cupholder insert that keeps the mod upright and left it sitting there for 2 hours. Came back to the spring dropped. Brew

 

[muzichead]

As Rule62 already pointed out, the only way for the device to fire is if the firing pin comes down and makes contact with the top of the battery. Is there springiness still in the firing pin when you push the button down? Does it spring back up with the button? Have you checked the feed tube pin to see if it is tight. Maybe it is loose and the firing pin is moving some. That would be the only thing I can think of that might cause it to fire unattended.

 

[puffon]

Strange.
Overheated battery, in a hot car?
Check the voltage on the battery.

 

[Layzee Vaper]

I have only ever dropped one spring on a Reo. I was using a chalice 3 clone. I had tested the atty resistance with the cap on, no short. Used the build for a couple of days without issue. Hit the fire button and it failed to fire. Spring collapsed. Turned out there was a partial short between the positive terminal and the inner chamber of the atty. (there was a small burr on the positive screw.) I went back to the RM2 and have had no issue since.

 

[Brew1961]

Thanks for the replies!! Definitely hot in the car and could have been in the sun for some time of that 2 hours. Firing pin appears to return to position but can't say for sure if something got stuck on that last toot. Feed tube seems tight. The spring is both collapsed and has one of the coils that is blue so I'd say it was passing a bunch of current even though I run a 1.5Ohm coil build.

 

[KentA]

I'm of the opinion that the button did not rise after you let go.

The firing pin's spring could be weak for the reasons mentioned, &/or there is something causing excessive friction around the button.

Without a battery or new spring, try leaving it in the hot car again & see if the button sticks.

 

[TwistedThrottle]

My bad experience with a chalice was also with a clone. the sleeve inside was loose and caused several shorts before I figgrd it out. Got 3 authentics and hasn't happened again. I have also had the experience where the button sticks after being pressed. Took the derlin insert out, pulled the firing pin to the side and popped the button out. Cleaned the hole with alcohol and reinstalled. No sticky no more. I noticed right away the button was still depressed because I could hear it, otherwise it would have stuck down until the spring collapsed. Make sure your battery didnt drain past 2.5, other than that- replace the spring, swab the hole down, rewick and your back in business.

 

[Layzee Vaper]

@Brew1961

What state was the wick in?

I would have thought that if the Reo had been firing for an extended time, with no airflow over the coil and wick the cotton or other wicking material would have been burnt up? Think about how quickly you get a dry hit if you forget to squonk!

If the car was hot enough for the battery to overheat enough to blue the spring, would the battery not have continued and gone into thermal runaway and vented? The spring would have made no difference in this scenario.


Given the state of the spring I would think there was a direct short of some description......

 

[Brew1961]

Thanks again for your welcome answers. This particular Grand had just been swapped in when my other Grand was assumed to have the same issue. The button on this one was not gummed as I had given it a bath and cleaned out prior to setting it back in my spares inventory. So this issue has now happened on (2) grands with the same Chalice. Today I have a fresh spring installed and will be swapping in a yet unused Chalice from my spares. We will see where this goes from here. I did check the battery voltage and found it at 3.97VDC. When I put this atty on my screw-on resistance checker it showed 1.39Ω. This is exactly what I saw with the previous (3) spring drops and is what is driving my batty. I use (8) AW 18650s in rotation and I'm sure it has happened on varying batteries. I did not see any wire ends hanging or problematic although I'm no spring chicken and didn't use a jewler's loop to magnify. I have a Grand, Mini 2.0 and Mini 1.0 all with Chalices and this particular setup is the only one to give me trouble. I can say that I do crank down a bit on the post connections and wonder if I hosed something there. This is my primary 8-hours a day unit so not sure if it might be an insulator that's intermittently failing. I'll follow up in a few days or if this fails quickly to finish the thread. NEED MORE SPRINGS ;-) I still have 4 springs left but I'm getting a few more and I need repair or replacement of a badly glued Mini door. The magnet polarity is fine but too much glue keeping magnet from sitting flush... Brew

 

[Layzee Vaper]

From what you have said it is almost certainly a problem of some sort on the chalice. Good thing you were using a Reo, the hot spring did its job

 

[Brew1961]

The wick was pretty nasty but had been in use for over a week with sweet, fruit juices. Hard to tell if it was cooked through 40+ hours of use or from the incident. I had been planning to recoil/rewick that afternoon but never got there before it failed. Brew

@Brew1961

What state was the wick in?

I would have thought that if the Reo had been firing for an extended time, with no airflow over the coil and wick the cotton or other wicking material would have been burnt up? Think about how quickly you get a dry hit if you forget to squonk!

If the car was hot enough for the battery to overheat enough to blue the spring, would the battery not have continued and gone into thermal runaway and vented? The spring would have made no difference in this scenario.


Given the state of the spring I would think there was a direct short of some description......

 

[muzichead]

Sounds like a bad Chalice RDA... It wasn't the greatest post design internally with the nuts instead of screws and even the originals had all sorts of people dropping springs. The one thing I would check is to make sure after you re-tighten the post nuts is that the wire hasn't moved from its original place from where you clipped the leads. If they moved and are touching the cap, this will cause a short, as you probably already know by now...

 

[Njt07]

Hi everyone, its been a (long) while since I was last here on ECF and my go to forum is shut down.... Luckily I found the new threads.

Anyway to stay on topic, anyone have any idea how much it would cost to refurb my old 14500 Reo mini? Bought it back in 2011 and have been using it since. The anodizing has pretty much worn off all sides but it still works great.

I'd also like to find out how much it would be to get the well ground down so it will be LP and I can use some of the newer BF attys.

 

[JC Okie]

Hey! Welcome back. There have been lots of changes since you've been gone. If I were you, I'd give Rob (REO) a call and just talk to him. He can totally upgrade your little Mini with new contacts, a new SS adjustable 510, whittle down the catch cup, etc. I'm thinking maybe $50 or so, but I don't know for sure. He's always fair. His number is 207-490-9783.

He's in Maine, remember, so pay attention to the time zones.

Tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern time he's having a sale of P 67s, so maybe either call him early, or pick another day.

You should go to www.reosmods.com and just look around. Lots of changes....including shutting down the ECF REO sub-forum. But we're still here, and he's still there doing business as usual.

Welcome back!

 

[LarryPer]

NEED ADVICE ON MAKING MY REO A LP
Thanks in advance
Actually its a evil clone
I do have a real Reo

I certainly can't send it to Rob
Is it best to use sand paper or a Dremmel
I don't have a band saw

 

[muzichead]

So the hammer method must not have worked for you, huh? The best way would be either a belt sander or a disc grinder. Those would be the quickest and truest form to do it. You could use a dremel, but I would highly doubt it would be straight and you will notice it when you put an atty on top of it. You could use the sandpaper / figure 8 method, but would likely take a few days to do it that way.

Then again, its a clone so who cares what it looks like!!!

 

[puffon]

I've used a chop (miter) saw, with a carbide blade.
Then cleaned up the cut with a flat file.
You could do the whole job with a file, however aluminum likes to clog up the file teeth.
This was on an authentic REO, not sure if the clone is milled or alloy aluminum.