I have no idea how many he's made... the first m118's were in use by Doug and his brothers in 1985 or so (a check of the db.etree could probably pin point the date better)
he does still make them, they just take awhile... I've heard 6-9mos.
i believe the first boxes were just an oade p/s, dunno the details, but from my understanding this was different than the m118