Firing pin stuck??

[zenoland]

Unless I remove the battery, my Grand does not seem to want to stop working. Does that mean a stuck firing pin? Is it something I can fix myself or should I send it for repair. I've ordered a new Grand so I will need to keep this one till my new one arrives. I have a Mini as backup but find the Grand easier to hold.

Thanks!

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

Hi Zenoland
First...pop out the batteries, remove your atty and juice bottle. As long as this one isn't VV, run some hot tap water through your mod. Try working the button up and down. You can also run some alcohol through it to see if that helps clear it up. If that works, then either let your mod dry or use compressed air to blow excess water out. Re-assemble and then vape. If that doesn't clear it up, call Rob for assistance. Keep us posted!

 

[zenoland]

Other than using alcohol, I have tried the cleaning route. I will try the alcohol too.

Thank you!

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

I forgot to mention that yes, most things you can fix yourself. But calling Rob always helps.

 

[FeistyAlice]

Alcohol soak. Do not do this with any Wood REOs or VV REOs. Also use a syringe or similar to gently force alcohol into firing pin area from top, at button, and bottom where you can see the firing pin. Work the button around some and up and down. Repeat as needed. Best to wear latex or acrylic "exam" gloves as isopropyl alcohol will do funky, uncomfortable things to finger skin and hands, although not permanent.

 

[FeistyAlice]

My previous post raises question that I've wondered about since my first "chipped" PV. Would 99% isopropyl really do any harm to chip if device was allowed to dry thoroughly before using? Isopropyl at high % is used to clean all kinds of electronics.

Also be aware that most OTC canned air can spray out a bit of moisture. After using canned air to blow out my REOs I like to let them air dry over night before using if I can. (Not that I and many people haven't used wet REOs without failure.)

Feisty Alice - Home of the "Swimming" REOs

 

[Dan Patrick]

I think it could be done, it's not water, but I don't see how that would ever be necessary with a VV, since there are no moving parts, and everything is sealed up pretty well. I will say that I can disassemble a metal reo and do pretty much everything except take off the tube. (only because If I take it off, I don't have a new one to put on) I found that if you use one for about 6 months and never clean it, it will gum up, especially if you just keep adding noalox and not cleaning it. I got ahold of one I sold a friend the other day and it was so bad the button wouldn't move. Even some kind of gunk under the spring. Just unscrew everything and put it back together. It's easy peasey.

 

[FeistyAlice]

I think it could be done, it's not water, but I don't see how that would ever be necessary with a VV, since there are no moving parts, and everything is sealed up pretty well. I will say that I can disassemble a metal reo and do pretty much everything except take off the tube. (only because If I take it off, I don't have a new one to put on) I found that if you use one for about 6 months and never clean it, it will gum up, especially if you just keep adding noalox and not cleaning it. I got ahold of one I sold a friend the other day and it was so bad the button wouldn't move. Even some kind of gunk under the spring. Just unscrew everything and put it back together. It's easy peasey.

I've had a couple of really old, over noaloxed REOs get sticky buttons from my over noaloxing them over a period of time. The older pins, also, lose some springiness and are more apt to have sluggish or even stopped button action with noalox gunking them up. Been there; done that. When that occurred the only way to get all the noalox out was to disassemble firing "box" to get to everything
to manually wipe/scrape off the excess noalox mixed with environmental particles stuck in the goo.

BTW... the normal environmental dust, at my place, is so microscopic it can get into anything and will. Some of it is smaller than the finest DE particles. Majority of people will never experience it, thank doG. Amazing stuff and a major hassle but I have a theory that it does help keep the flea population and others down without using chemicals (I do use dreaded monthly Advantix on Bubs mostly for ticks and to help repel year round flies and mosquitoes. Otherwise Bubs carry in seed ticks that love me as much as mosquitoes do.); action similar to agricultural DE. The dustier my place gets the fewer scorpions and spiders we see inside. I haven't had house cleaners in a couple of years and I hate house cleaning so the dust has been mounting up for a while. I still vacuum the living room ceiling once a month. Who has to do that???!!!!! So I'm pretty sure I'll eventually have a collection of microscopic dust in VV REO and others innards unless I do regular blow out.

Feisty Alice

 

[Sterno]

i dont use the noalox

 

[FeistyAlice]

Oops, sorry. I just hijacked this thread.

I'm still wondering about any issues the Buzz Pros (same chip as VV REOs) have had with gunk getting into the chip/button area. Buzz Pro chip is more "exposed" than VV REOs.

One VVG beta tester had an issue when juice got into the button opening. Because of that I'm always careful to use a clean finger to fire my VVGs and Wood REOs and use a 3.7v metal REO when my hands will be messy or dirty. After my button sticking incident from literally soaking all Woods in a bowl of Howard's I'm more protective of all Wood REOs and non-submersible mods from dirt and gunk. And, yes, it is funny so all have permission to laugh and poke fun at me. Button stuck in, with batteries in it, and collapsed the spring because wax had congealed inside the button and I didn't know it.

Feisty Alice

How NOT to "treat" your Wood Mods.

 

[FeistyAlice]

So getting back on topic..... the non-VV metal REOs are pretty easy to keep de-gunked by washing regularly and refraining from using way more noalox than needed. I have had some rust form down by spring when I've left them soaking too long in soapy water (over night or more) or not blown them dry after cleaning. Easy to clean off and to be even more sure one gets best firing is to remove spring, wipe off rust at spring and REO and apply some noalox under spring area and into screw hole.

BTW... the rust is from spring assembly and does not harm the REO; easily cleaned off.

Feisty Alice

 

[zenoland]

Thanks, Alice! I found all you wrote interesting. I just moved (from Near Dallas) and still don't have any alcohol around here. My Reo Grand is 2.5 yrs old and is my exclusive vaping machine. It has had one repair already. I don't use noalox but did put a dot on when this first started happening. I think it should go for a tune-up. I'm using my Mini till my new Grand arrives. At least my old Grand made it through the (nightmare) move and didn't fail me before now.