A little background info on the master himself, in his own words..
"Ok I feel like I am on stage here.
It is true I did masonry most of my life; started working in the trades when I was a teen. I worked for old school tradesmen so we did carpentry as well. I did lots of concrete flat work and tons of foundations and my fair share of roofing. I am not a business man; just a regular guy with a will to work hard and a lot of determination....
How did I end building mods? Well I had to. There were tube mods and pen style e-cigs. I disliked dripping with a passion. Dripping is for guys that have lots of free time. There were no tanks and no bottom fed mods. Actually, there was a bottom fed mod out there. You couldn't buy one… well you could, but you wouldn't get it. It didn't use standard atomizers and you couldn't replace the coil yourself. As far as I was concerned the rest of the world was doing it wrong .
I had never bought a mod. I went from a pen style e-cig to building my own mods. I decided to build my own bottom fed mod that used standard atomizers. I had no intentions of going into business selling mods. I just wanted to vape without carrying a juice bottle and the hassle of juicy fingers. I made a few out of plastic. Having some wood working experience, I started making them out of wood. I shared some of these in the modder’s section here on ecf. Lots of people showed interest in the mods, so I decided to sell them as a side business. The Reo was born.
Selling the wood reo wasn't a huge hit. Don't get me wrong. The people who “got it,” loved them, but most people were non-believers. I was still working construction at that time. One of the complaints was the reo was too big. At this time in the prehistoric vape world tiny mods were the “in thing.”
So I had a plan… make a metal bottom fed mod. Muttered under my breath “oh the reo is too big, I will show you.” But there was a problem. I had no metal working machines and at the time, I didn't have a clue as to how to run a metal working machine. So I found a guy. Yeah, I needed a metal guy. One that was willing to work with me for some green, of course. After months of trial and error, the Reo mini was born. This is where things got crazy… all of a sudden everyone and his brother wanted a reo. I don't care how many I would list, people would buy them all in minutes.
I thought that was great. The hooples love metal mods, oh and they did. The early metal mods were rough compared to the reos being put out today. Never a peep about the quality back in prehistoric vape world. Hooples were not fussy back then… a little pock mark on the finish wouldn't cause one to toss himself into the dirt. The prehistoric juice junkie just wanted nicotine and a reo was built for juice junkies.
In late 2010, I was still working in the trades; building chimneys, pouring concrete floors, painting buildings, and roofing… anything to make some green before the cold Maine winter crept in and shut me down. Well I thought the reo mini was nice but the truth is, I never really used the mini. I used my Wood reo with the 18650; the 14500 just didn't have the power needed for a guy that vaped 6 mls a day. What I wanted for a long time was an 18650 metal reo. Oh yeah, that's the ticket. Even when I was working on the mini, the whole time I really wanted to build the grand but the hooples rode me hard about the size of the reo. I had to put the hoops in their place.
So it was time to build the grand or the Grande. After building the mini, the grand came much easier. Same problem. I would build and build and build mods until I had a huge pile of grands. I listed them and *poof*…they were gone in minutes. Also I was having problems with my metal guy. He was unreliable and he did sloppy work. Frustrated, I started buying metal working tools. I picked up a mill shortly after I picked up a lath. Next, a cnc router and eventually a couple of cnc machines, once I realized I could run them. It’s a little scary buying large $ tools when you’re not sure if you can run them. Turns out I can run them and find it rather easy compared to working in the trades. But I digress.
I went to a large machine shop they just laughed at me, well…. not really, but yeah… they were laughing on the inside. You can’t just go to a machine shop without blue prints. I found a guy that was willing to make some prints for me. Yeah, I had to give him a pile of green. It is how these things work. He made me some really nice prints. So nice in fact, that the owner of the machine shop, you know…the guy that laughed at me, asked for the guys phone number. He wanted to hire him.
The owner of the cnc shop I use today jokes with me about the day he met me and how he never thought he would see me again after our first meeting. Many years later, he's not laughing anymore. I have spent a lot of cake with his company. I still use this company for the grand and mini bodies. I don't have the time to run them myself with all the other projects I have going. Most days both of my cnc machines are running all day long.
It wasn't long after the grands were released, I knew I had to make a choice. Build mods or build chimneys. My body is pretty beat up, it wasn't a hard choice. Many years later, most of the mod builders that were around when I started are gone and I am still shucking mods. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t like tube mods.
Rest of the story here
"Ok I feel like I am on stage here.
It is true I did masonry most of my life; started working in the trades when I was a teen. I worked for old school tradesmen so we did carpentry as well. I did lots of concrete flat work and tons of foundations and my fair share of roofing. I am not a business man; just a regular guy with a will to work hard and a lot of determination....
How did I end building mods? Well I had to. There were tube mods and pen style e-cigs. I disliked dripping with a passion. Dripping is for guys that have lots of free time. There were no tanks and no bottom fed mods. Actually, there was a bottom fed mod out there. You couldn't buy one… well you could, but you wouldn't get it. It didn't use standard atomizers and you couldn't replace the coil yourself. As far as I was concerned the rest of the world was doing it wrong .
I had never bought a mod. I went from a pen style e-cig to building my own mods. I decided to build my own bottom fed mod that used standard atomizers. I had no intentions of going into business selling mods. I just wanted to vape without carrying a juice bottle and the hassle of juicy fingers. I made a few out of plastic. Having some wood working experience, I started making them out of wood. I shared some of these in the modder’s section here on ecf. Lots of people showed interest in the mods, so I decided to sell them as a side business. The Reo was born.
Selling the wood reo wasn't a huge hit. Don't get me wrong. The people who “got it,” loved them, but most people were non-believers. I was still working construction at that time. One of the complaints was the reo was too big. At this time in the prehistoric vape world tiny mods were the “in thing.”
So I had a plan… make a metal bottom fed mod. Muttered under my breath “oh the reo is too big, I will show you.” But there was a problem. I had no metal working machines and at the time, I didn't have a clue as to how to run a metal working machine. So I found a guy. Yeah, I needed a metal guy. One that was willing to work with me for some green, of course. After months of trial and error, the Reo mini was born. This is where things got crazy… all of a sudden everyone and his brother wanted a reo. I don't care how many I would list, people would buy them all in minutes.
I thought that was great. The hooples love metal mods, oh and they did. The early metal mods were rough compared to the reos being put out today. Never a peep about the quality back in prehistoric vape world. Hooples were not fussy back then… a little pock mark on the finish wouldn't cause one to toss himself into the dirt. The prehistoric juice junkie just wanted nicotine and a reo was built for juice junkies.
In late 2010, I was still working in the trades; building chimneys, pouring concrete floors, painting buildings, and roofing… anything to make some green before the cold Maine winter crept in and shut me down. Well I thought the reo mini was nice but the truth is, I never really used the mini. I used my Wood reo with the 18650; the 14500 just didn't have the power needed for a guy that vaped 6 mls a day. What I wanted for a long time was an 18650 metal reo. Oh yeah, that's the ticket. Even when I was working on the mini, the whole time I really wanted to build the grand but the hooples rode me hard about the size of the reo. I had to put the hoops in their place.
So it was time to build the grand or the Grande. After building the mini, the grand came much easier. Same problem. I would build and build and build mods until I had a huge pile of grands. I listed them and *poof*…they were gone in minutes. Also I was having problems with my metal guy. He was unreliable and he did sloppy work. Frustrated, I started buying metal working tools. I picked up a mill shortly after I picked up a lath. Next, a cnc router and eventually a couple of cnc machines, once I realized I could run them. It’s a little scary buying large $ tools when you’re not sure if you can run them. Turns out I can run them and find it rather easy compared to working in the trades. But I digress.
I went to a large machine shop they just laughed at me, well…. not really, but yeah… they were laughing on the inside. You can’t just go to a machine shop without blue prints. I found a guy that was willing to make some prints for me. Yeah, I had to give him a pile of green. It is how these things work. He made me some really nice prints. So nice in fact, that the owner of the machine shop, you know…the guy that laughed at me, asked for the guys phone number. He wanted to hire him.
The owner of the cnc shop I use today jokes with me about the day he met me and how he never thought he would see me again after our first meeting. Many years later, he's not laughing anymore. I have spent a lot of cake with his company. I still use this company for the grand and mini bodies. I don't have the time to run them myself with all the other projects I have going. Most days both of my cnc machines are running all day long.
It wasn't long after the grands were released, I knew I had to make a choice. Build mods or build chimneys. My body is pretty beat up, it wasn't a hard choice. Many years later, most of the mod builders that were around when I started are gone and I am still shucking mods. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t like tube mods.
Rest of the story here
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