Cool Coil building & wicking Tutorial.

I bet most of you know how to do it but since i get many DMs and questions from my Instagram followers ( @vaping_kitty ) I wrote up a simple tutorial and thought i might as well share it here.

I will not go into details as for how many wraps of wire of a X gauge will get you X Ohm, you can look that up or try it out.
First of all, what you need is:

1) Wire ( you can try Kanthal A1 gauge 26 )

2) Ohm Meter (even tho many mods have a nice ohm meter, it is a lot easier to build when it’s mounted on an ohm meter as it has a good base and will not fall over)

3) Scissors to cut your cotton

4) Pliers for handling wire

5) Ceramic pliers for holding the wire while torching it

6) A micro torch

7) Tweezers to cut the wire

8) Cotton (Japanese organic cotton, not the cotton pads from your girlfriend) or silica

9) Some small drill bits/screwdrivers or stick or a coil set, basically something to wrap the wire around.

Now pick some object to wrap the wire around, I use some small tool set but you can also use a small screwdriver or anything else, don’t pick something too thin as you will have a hard time to wick it (insert the cotton) later. I usually go with 2 mm diameter.
Before you start wrapping your coil, cut a piece of about 12 cm and hold it with your ceramic plies and torch it until its glowing red, this will take out the spring from your wire.
Don’t grill that poor thing for hours, simply start from one end and when you see it glows, keep moving.
Let it cool down for a couple seconds, you can swing it around a bit if you like and now you finally can start wrapping it. Firmly hold one end pressed against the object of your choice, make sure to leave a piece of about 2 cm as you will need both ends of the coil to stick out so you can attach it later. Make firm wraps close to each other, try out something like 8 wraps for a test.

When you are done wrapping make sure both ends point into the same direction, slightly outward and pull it off your screwdriver or whatever you use.
Now carefully hold your spring with the ceramic pliers so that the pliers compress the spring from both ends, don’t apply too much force so you don’t bend that poor thing.
Torch it until it glows from both sides and let it cool for a couple sec, then torch it again.
Careful, the coil will be very hot and will cool down a lot slower than the unwrapped wire so don’t burn your fingers unless you are into this kind of things…
Once cooled down a bit place the coil on your desk, you will see that the coil will remain compressed thanks to torching. Voila, you just made your first micro coil (unless you failed)

Now it’s time to attach that baby to the base of your atomizer, before you do it, reinsert the screwdriver back into the coil so it does not lose its shape and then pull the ends through the connector holes of your base (or for some models under the screw) Some atomizer have 2-4 poles, make sure that one end goes to the negative and the other end to the positive pole. If you use an atomizer with some airflow holes in the bottom of the base, place the coils so that they are above those holes.
Read the manual of your RDA/RBA so you know what you are doing.
Screw in the screws that hold the wire tightly and use your screwdriver that is still inserted inside your coil to adjust its position and then gently pull it out.
Now use the Ohm meter to check the resistance, make sure your coil has an Ohm value that your mod supports, if you burn up your mom’s house with your mechanical mod, do not blame me!
Screw on the atomizer hardware on your mod and fire it up, start pulsing until the spring glows, if it does not glow evenly, keep pulsing and use your ceramic pliers gently to compress the coil until it glows evenly and has no hotspots. Now let it cool down. (don’t lick it)

Make sure the coil does not touch the pins, chimney or any metallic parts of your atomizer!
Also before you go any further, go wash your hands! You do not want any oil or drool on your cotton!
Alright, now it’s time to cut some cotton, cut it along the fibers or it will fall apart easily. Depending on the thickness of the cotton pad you have to cut more or less, just try it out, I usually cut about 4-5mm. Then roll it a bit with your fingers, very gently, it will make some of the loose fiber particles shed off.
Roll one end tighter so you can insert it into your spring, then gently pull it so the cotton stripe is centered. If you feel no resistance you likely used too less cotton, if it doesn’t go in easy and clumps you may have too much cotton, doh.
Now depending on what RDA/RBA you use, the cotton needs to be trimmed differently. You may want to look up how to wick your atomizer on youtube but there are some basics you should know.
Do not block the air holes with your cotton and if you use a RBA it’s always good to place the cotton so it goes right to where the juice channels are, the juice channels are the other holes where the juice comes in, don’t confuse em with the air holes!
Most drippers have no juice channels and air holes in the base (except some like the X-Pure for example), so before you vape it make sure to saturate the cotton nicely.

Now drop some drops on your coil and cotton, this will make it a lot easier to shape it.
This is it, the rest depends on the type of RDA/RBA you use, for most drippers you just insert the top hardware and start vaping (after dripping some more to saturate the cotton) but for many RBA you have to screw on the chimney/tank and so on and let it stand for a moment so the cotton gets soaked with the juice. (see your manual)

here is some basic info regarding wires:
- higher gauge means the wire is thinner and the resistance is higher.
- more wraps will increase resistance.
- you can make a coil with a thicker wire and more wraps having the same Ohm as a thin wire with less wraps.
That’s it, hope it helps.

Cheers

- Vaping Kitty

 

Very nice of you to share here, VK.

Hope you do no mind the suggestion but for future shares to your Instagram pals etc. , a reference to Steam Engine Coil wrapping | Steam Engine | free vaping calculators could be helpful. That is, for targeting a resistance range with wire gauge, number of wraps, diameter etc. I remember the first times I built coils where oftentimes I had to repeat the process because my coils didn't hit the resistance I wanted. Now steam engine is a regular use resource for me, even if only to double check things.

Anyway, just a friendly suggestion! You've done a really nice thing with your write-up!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

yeah, nice link! Thanks! i will share that.

 

This is Todd's beginners guide to Steam Engine and building Dual Coils...

 

A.tip here regarding if too much cotton wicked through the coil.. Place your atomiser on the device.When cotton is threaded, pull the cotton tails gently... if the device moves, then you have too much cotton in the coil...

 

Thanks for the video and website link. Having just started vaping and making my own coils I've a natural curiosity toward doubles and other coil configs. This was a nice into learner video.
With so many videos out there is hard to know if all are putting forward good advice. At least in this forum we have other vapers lending advice and further info.

Thanks again

 

Yup, one has to be careful with videos on YT, even tho some videos have many views a lot contain bad info, i have seen people washing and dryburning stock coils that contain cotton), torching nickel and lot's of other things one should not do.

 

Glad I found this old thread, especially the link to Tod's tutorial. If Tod can be happy with coils that look like I built them, I'm happy as well.