DIY Coils: Tips, Tricks, and Whatnot

More to do with wicking than coiling but a buddy of mine recently bought a Digiflavour Drop after trying mine and was impressed with the flavour. Visited me today as the flavour he was getting was crap. Tried the same juice in mine and even though I still had an entirely different flavour juice in there (albeit I was using different coils), the flavour popped compared to his. He's fairly new to vaping and had been watching a lot of vids on wicking.

Pulled it apart and it turns out his wicks (IMO) were WAY too tight. The centre of the wick in the coil was dry and the centre of the tails were also dry. Too much bulk and stuffed way too tight. I watched loads of reviews and tutorials on wicking when I started out (still do!!!) and find that what works well on some attys / coils doesn't work well on others. It's also all about this telling whether you have the right resistance (to the wick) in the coils. He had stuffed it just to the point where it starts to tug (in his case) quite a hefty coil, as many reviewers suggest, but with which coils and which attys? Some might indeed benefit from this, but not THAT tight and not this atty. On this atty and with those coils, way too tight. Several reviewers also point out the need to thin the wicks quite a lot and that the longer the tails, the more it needs to be thinned and the Drop has VERY long tails.

Took out the coils he had and stuck in a dual micro coil 24 ga, 3mm ID, Kanthal A1 build at 0.37 ohm. Wicked it more so that the wick wasn't loose, not so that it was tight and definitely not close to tugging the coils, thinned the tails to around 40% of their initial bulk and the flavour was there. I also don't stuff loads of cotton under into the deck as some reviewers seem to favour with the Drop, but that's just me, I cut them just beyond touching the deck.

Touching briefly on the battery part, he has a single cell reg mod too and I told him to be careful to use the right battery with that. He kept saying about ohms not mattering in a reg mod, true, the reg doesn't see them, BUT the amp drain per battery definitely does need to be considered to stay within headroom limits and the wattages which he vapes at will put a dangerously high drain on the Samsung 30Q (15A) batteries he uses, exceeding the battery A rating by 2-3 A (but that's another thing altogether). Told him to go and watch Mooch's 'Minding your mAHs' series, esp no. 3 which deals with regulated mods. I only use 20A batteries, 25 preferably, on my (now) two single cell reg mods. A reg mod will do it's best to protect you, provided the protection is working, but can only do so up to a point.

As for cotton, anyone else had experience with the Coil Master sheets? I've tried it in a few builds and get an atrocious taste from it for ages! By far the worst I've used. Might test it in a few more builds to check it's just not reacting to a specific juice type but it has a real papery dry / burnt taste, and the wicks weren't burnt.

 

Easy way of wicking. Go to youtube and look up Scottish Roll, then you can have the same wick all the time for 3 mm and 2,5 mm coil Very easy to make, take the top layer and under layer of the cotton pad away, stretch it out and cut it in the middel, roll it in to a wick, insert it and cut it, trim the end, cut it so the wick barely touch the deck. You cant go wrong with it.

 

Yeah I use the Scottish Roll on some builds but not all. I find it works well but not on everything. YMMV

On the wick building my chum said to me "how do you manage to get good taste on all your stuff?". I said "Sadly, by trial and a shit load of error"

Not looked too closely at the Steam battery drain as I only use reg mods. Not sure if it caters or not. I just Mooch's equation for reg mod battery calculation (given on a reg mod the battery has no idea of your ohms):

Wattage (per battery) that you Vape at OR the max wattage of your mod (if you think you'll ever use it) / 3.2 (average battery cut off voltage) / 0.9 (battery efficiency / could be 0.95 on a DNA chip).

So for that 30Q 15 A battery above in a single cell mod:

50w (what he normally vapes at / 3.2 / 0.9 = 17.36 A (Danger Will Robinson!!).

Obviously no problem if he'd been using 20A or, better still, 25A batteries.

Dual cell at 50w, same battery, no problem:

25w (50w divided by number of batteries) / 3.2 / 0.9 = 8.69 A.

Almost 6A headroom.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

I only use it in RBA, never in a RTA, in the RTA, I just cut of 2,5 mm or 3 mm strip of the cotton pad, just loosen it and put in the coil, just pull the wick forward and backward inside the coil, trim it that way is easy, better to make it to tick than to thin, cotton is so cheap anyway so just try and fail and you will make it perfect sooner or later. The beginner error is that they use to much and to long cotton ends, better to make them short, that is shorter travel for the juice, and dont mess up the structure in the cotton to much. If you are a Chain Vapour, change you wick daily.

 

Yeah. Like I say. Just never used it. Didn't check the screen shot. On a mobile at the moment

Just checked it in fact (the mobile screen for Steam works well doesn't it). Sure gives lots of detail! I'd always use the approx battery cut off voltage though, not the 4.2 fresh out the charger, as that's how low it might get run. And like I say, the simple equation above will give you all you need in this instance if you're not in a position to, or can't be bothered to, use Steam.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

Back in 2013 we used silica wick, the problem that time was to figure out how to get the juice faster up the wick, everybody was thinking more and longer wick, it was Opposite, then we experimented with SS mesh wick, we did the same error, to long wick in a top coil, then we used SS wick, same error in top coil, then som brilliant mind come up with the bottom coil in Kanger Pro Tank 1, that was a wicking revolution, shorter way for the juice to travel, it was perfect, then cotton wick was introduced, a lot of people was scared to use cotton, they didn't belive in it, but today its a success, but its the same principle, make it short so the juice can travel faster. Its easy to make a test if you have a VG 70/30 Juice, cut of som cotton and dip in the juice and see how fast it travel, More PG then VG use ticker wick, more VG, use thinner wick in the ends so the the juice can travel faster. Its all about Physics.

 

At times I've used a kind of half-way house with rolling too. Cut a strip that you'd normally use for a coil, strip the top and bottom layers, then stretch the remainder out and roll it. Not quite as effective but OK if a standard strip isn't cutting it.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

Just finished this one, cant use it inside, it will set of the fire alarm hehe

If you se the cotton is little bit fluffy, a good way to make it better is to prime it and heat it up, take a lighter and sett fire on the cotton for a second, then you got rid of all the small ten tackles.

9 WRAP 3 MM 0,3 oHm SS Fused clapton

 

I posted this in the newbie's section with hopes on helping noob keep more of there cash in their pockets.

This is a trick I have just learned after chain vaping for the past five years. Regardless of what kind of coils you are using this technic will help save you big money.
Before you take a hit (press the button) make a 2-4 second draw and then push the button and do the same at the end of your draw. That's it, By doing this you will use far fewer coils and your nic juice will not turn brown/black burnt cotton is reduced substantially.