hey guys, I'm finishing up modding my Vmod and figured I'd put a thread here to show what I've done, how I did it and maybe give some information that may help others do the same. it is a bit of work and space is very tight but the end result is a really cool mod that can vape with the best of them
just a little background, I've been a dripper for several years, since back when that was pretty much the only game in town besides sponge filled cartridges, and I've been happy with dripping up until recently, my mods and batteries were all used up and I was in need of some new gear and decided to hit the forum again to see what's new... wow the options have changed in the past few years, i seen so much new stuff and I bought a bunch of different new things to try, I started to think maybe I don't have to drip all day to still get a good vape all day. first I bought some vivi novas and pro tanks and tank over carto setups but these all just proved to be not for me, too finicky, unreliable and leaking here and there, just didn't do it for me. I've been dripping at 6v up until now and I like a nice strong vape, the little almost disposable tank things just didn't cut it.
so then I started looking at bottom feeders, sounds like the best of both worlds, promising the vapor of a drip, but without all that dripping. I looked and quickly realized that the REO is generally the best regarded bottom feeder here, and I see that the construction of it is def high quality, it was almost a no brainer for me, but personally I just can't warm up to the boxy feel and look of it no matter how hard I try, and try I did, but I just can't bring myself to actually buy one. this is NOT to say anything negative about the reo, I wholeheartedly agree that it is probably one of, if not THE best commercially available bottom feeders out there, this is just more about personal preference and personal opinion of the aesthetics for me. while looking I also seen the Vmod, and although it is very obvious that it is a much more cheaply made, cheap product, it did still have a look that I liked, and the box format of side by side battery and tank, but without that stuffed in a box look, this thing looks sleek, and even though I generally hate cheap crap I decided to buy it and try it out.
at first I thought it would fall apart soon, but the aluminum case over plastic skeleton proved to be more durable than I first imagined it would be, I beat the crap out of it, treating it like the cheap piece of crap that I thought it is, but it just kept on going, the composite construction really isn't as bad as I first thought it would be and I started to almost even like the thing, but it def has some shortfalls too, so I decided to mod it to make it better, and that's what this thread is about.
the first thing that I didn't like after using it for a while is the way it feeds, there is a small upper secondary chamber, and to feed it you have to turn it upside down, then right side up, then squeeze, or turn it up side down and squeeze it just a little, then turn it back over and squeeze it to purge... overall was not so cool, and it leaked a bit sometimes when overfed. the stupid cone thing that is part of the whole upper chamber design was a pain too, if I flooded it a bit and tried to blow it out, it would shoot juice in my eye, plus being restricted to carto's and atty's proved to be a drawback too since I also started playing around with rebuildables, so my first thing to do was to convert it to a rebuildable atty and eliminate the whole upper chamber/cone setup. then, once I'm in there and taking it all apart anyway, I decided why not also eliminate the cheapo switch design that I also dislike and just rewire it while adding a DNA20D chip that I had laying around from a different project, now were talking... end result would hopefully be the awesome feeding of a reo, with the ergonomic look fit and feel of the Vmod, and all while being regulated by the 7-20 watt DNA chip. I figured if I cram enough awesomeness in there the end result should at least be pretty good, so I started chopping
first is the upper chamber, after releasing the positive positive spring from the atty connection by pushing the end of it down to disengage the bent tip inserted into the firing pin and pulling, pivoting it out of the hole you then push the lower part of the inner chamber down a bit from the top to release the negative spring wrapped around the feed chamber, then remove the ground spring from the chamber and push the chamber all the way out. the right sized socket from the top should allow you to push the center of the assy from the top and just push the bottom part out, then lift the top out.
when I did mine I didn't know how it was assembled so I winded up just pushing the whole mess out through the bottom, this works fine too as I had no trouble reassembling it and for all I know you too may wind up having to push the whole thing through but after seeing the.way it's designed you should try to just push the inside part down
this is what the chamber looks like, it is reassembled by pressing the top part in from the top, and the bottom part in from the bottom, all the way until the white oring in the lower seats to the upper chamber, easily done in a vice, just line them back up and squeeze. the top part is larger inside and this is the upper chamber, the 2 holes you see in the lower one at the lip are the holes that feed the upper chamber. ideally you seal these holes to completely eliminate the chamber. i did this with a tight fitting o ring right over the holes and then stacked a few thin orings to close the rest of the space and keep the lower o ring in place. this chamber is now inactive a sealed off, if you just put an o ring at the top it can work without disassembling this whole head, but the chamber will still get juice and get crudy after a while, better to just eliminate it if you can
if you look at the lower part of this next picture you can see that the upper chamber has met where the white o ring is, but has not yet fully seated
and here you can see fully seated. this is how far you must squeeze them back together on reassy
and here are a few shots of the dna install, I'm still tweaking it here and there and will put up completed shots and more complete dna install stuff when I cut the cover out for the dna display and have it done, but it is working great so far, I'm vaping with it right now at 17 watts, squonking away and blowing clouds
I'll put some more pics up soon with more details. I just kicked it up to 20 watts, man this thing hits nice so far
just a little background, I've been a dripper for several years, since back when that was pretty much the only game in town besides sponge filled cartridges, and I've been happy with dripping up until recently, my mods and batteries were all used up and I was in need of some new gear and decided to hit the forum again to see what's new... wow the options have changed in the past few years, i seen so much new stuff and I bought a bunch of different new things to try, I started to think maybe I don't have to drip all day to still get a good vape all day. first I bought some vivi novas and pro tanks and tank over carto setups but these all just proved to be not for me, too finicky, unreliable and leaking here and there, just didn't do it for me. I've been dripping at 6v up until now and I like a nice strong vape, the little almost disposable tank things just didn't cut it.
so then I started looking at bottom feeders, sounds like the best of both worlds, promising the vapor of a drip, but without all that dripping. I looked and quickly realized that the REO is generally the best regarded bottom feeder here, and I see that the construction of it is def high quality, it was almost a no brainer for me, but personally I just can't warm up to the boxy feel and look of it no matter how hard I try, and try I did, but I just can't bring myself to actually buy one. this is NOT to say anything negative about the reo, I wholeheartedly agree that it is probably one of, if not THE best commercially available bottom feeders out there, this is just more about personal preference and personal opinion of the aesthetics for me. while looking I also seen the Vmod, and although it is very obvious that it is a much more cheaply made, cheap product, it did still have a look that I liked, and the box format of side by side battery and tank, but without that stuffed in a box look, this thing looks sleek, and even though I generally hate cheap crap I decided to buy it and try it out.
at first I thought it would fall apart soon, but the aluminum case over plastic skeleton proved to be more durable than I first imagined it would be, I beat the crap out of it, treating it like the cheap piece of crap that I thought it is, but it just kept on going, the composite construction really isn't as bad as I first thought it would be and I started to almost even like the thing, but it def has some shortfalls too, so I decided to mod it to make it better, and that's what this thread is about.
the first thing that I didn't like after using it for a while is the way it feeds, there is a small upper secondary chamber, and to feed it you have to turn it upside down, then right side up, then squeeze, or turn it up side down and squeeze it just a little, then turn it back over and squeeze it to purge... overall was not so cool, and it leaked a bit sometimes when overfed. the stupid cone thing that is part of the whole upper chamber design was a pain too, if I flooded it a bit and tried to blow it out, it would shoot juice in my eye, plus being restricted to carto's and atty's proved to be a drawback too since I also started playing around with rebuildables, so my first thing to do was to convert it to a rebuildable atty and eliminate the whole upper chamber/cone setup. then, once I'm in there and taking it all apart anyway, I decided why not also eliminate the cheapo switch design that I also dislike and just rewire it while adding a DNA20D chip that I had laying around from a different project, now were talking... end result would hopefully be the awesome feeding of a reo, with the ergonomic look fit and feel of the Vmod, and all while being regulated by the 7-20 watt DNA chip. I figured if I cram enough awesomeness in there the end result should at least be pretty good, so I started chopping
first is the upper chamber, after releasing the positive positive spring from the atty connection by pushing the end of it down to disengage the bent tip inserted into the firing pin and pulling, pivoting it out of the hole you then push the lower part of the inner chamber down a bit from the top to release the negative spring wrapped around the feed chamber, then remove the ground spring from the chamber and push the chamber all the way out. the right sized socket from the top should allow you to push the center of the assy from the top and just push the bottom part out, then lift the top out.
when I did mine I didn't know how it was assembled so I winded up just pushing the whole mess out through the bottom, this works fine too as I had no trouble reassembling it and for all I know you too may wind up having to push the whole thing through but after seeing the.way it's designed you should try to just push the inside part down
this is what the chamber looks like, it is reassembled by pressing the top part in from the top, and the bottom part in from the bottom, all the way until the white oring in the lower seats to the upper chamber, easily done in a vice, just line them back up and squeeze. the top part is larger inside and this is the upper chamber, the 2 holes you see in the lower one at the lip are the holes that feed the upper chamber. ideally you seal these holes to completely eliminate the chamber. i did this with a tight fitting o ring right over the holes and then stacked a few thin orings to close the rest of the space and keep the lower o ring in place. this chamber is now inactive a sealed off, if you just put an o ring at the top it can work without disassembling this whole head, but the chamber will still get juice and get crudy after a while, better to just eliminate it if you can
if you look at the lower part of this next picture you can see that the upper chamber has met where the white o ring is, but has not yet fully seated
and here you can see fully seated. this is how far you must squeeze them back together on reassy
and here are a few shots of the dna install, I'm still tweaking it here and there and will put up completed shots and more complete dna install stuff when I cut the cover out for the dna display and have it done, but it is working great so far, I'm vaping with it right now at 17 watts, squonking away and blowing clouds
I'll put some more pics up soon with more details. I just kicked it up to 20 watts, man this thing hits nice so far
