901 atomizer disassembly

[kinabaloo]

Well, not all the juice vaporises; what does not is the 'dry-residue'. Say you spill some tea on your desk and let it sit there till it evaporates; some will remain (mostly a resin called tanin that gives tea its bite).

Ideally then, cleaning the atty coil would be an unnecessary matter. The best advice is make sure you have spare atomizers!

My personal favorite cleaning method is described here: Getting Annoyed : This is an effective method of prolonging atomisers

Once per day; till you see the coil glow red.

[mogur]

Hey, Mogur, why not use something like Pt or Au wire? I understand it is expensive, but it is relatively quite nonreactive and could potentially make a longer lasting coil. Is it because of the amount of heat required to take it to the vaporization point? Further, what is the 'vaporization point' with respect to the coil and the liquid and what will be considered the optimal surface area and temperature?

Great questions, and again, I am a student, not a teacher, but yes, 38 ga platinum wire is a hundred bucks a foot. Both Pt and Au are nonreactive, tarnish resistant, high temperature and possibly are great plating metals. Yet their resistance is way too low as a solid wire by themselves. The platinum alloys, usually from the same family- palladium, ruthenium, iridium, osmium and rhodium, maintain platinum's high melting temperature and increase its strength and resistance, but the resistance of any of these alloys are still a factor of 3 or 4 below NiCr, making them either too fine of a diameter, or too large in overall dimensions for the tiny space allowed for an atomizer. Some the alloys, however, have the interesting property of a large positive temperature coefficiency of resistance, making them possibly suitable for a self-regulating temperature control (or, at least controllable by kina's PWM feedback circuit).

Even as a wire plating, though, these elements don't seem to be much used in heater designs, and I can only guess at the reason. Either the platings cannot withstand the stress on their adhesion to the wire, or NiCr oxidation is as tough and resistant to degradation as a nonreactive plating. Kanthal, which is newer version of NiCr, is reputed to have even more corrosion resistance and therefore longer service life than standard NiCr. [Oxidation is the tough coating formed on the surface of the wire, while corrosion is the flaking off of material eventually resulting in degradation.]

Sorry about this post turning into a lecture, so I'll try to answer your other questions briefly. I don't know the vaporization temperatures or optimal surface area of the coil. Resistance wires generally have a melting temp above 1000C, and suffer that fate only after prolonged dry heating at high amps. Unfortunately, we need those high amps to get a coil covered with liquid up to vape temperatures quickly (which the literature suggests is only around 200C for a PG solution). That is why a temperature controlled circuit would help. Feed huge current to the coil until the liquid is vaped, but don't allow the dry coil to then run up to its melting point. Long life of coil, less burned residue. Waiting on that thermocouple to get a few more clues about temperature.

[coldgeo]

Wow, THANKS, mogur. Awesome post!
I'm highly interested in how this turns out.
Could you please post schematics for what you're going to do? How big will the form factor be? Awesome man, just awesome.

[kinabaloo]

Just started to work on a practical temp controller

[q258]

foam nickel (a.k.a. nickel foam, bubble nickel)

I wonder if there is the potential for any adverse effects of the constant heating and exposure to liquid? i.e. is it hot enough and/or is the liquid acidic enough to cause any sort of breakdown of the material?

[framitz]

Hmmm coil surface area get's me to wondering about the feasibility of using tungsten light bulb filament. Filaments are coils wound into coils with a huge surface area. Maybe a filament from a low wattage bulb? Not sure of oxidation issues with tungsten, but possible food for thought.

[mogur]

I'm lost as to which threads I've been posting coil data to. Anyway, the really slow boat showed up today with my spanking new K-type thermometer.

The very first trial-


The sucker didn't burn up on me, but the thermocouple was only rated to 200 something degrees C, so I stopped there. This is free air, thermocouple bead tensioned against one loop of the coil. I suspect the wire temp was a bit higher, but I'll get better at this as I go along.

[Vaporer]

Hi All,

My 1st post here and thanks for all the info, great pics and ideas.
I have an atty very close to the great pics mogur posted.
I have 2 questions.
1. Exactly where is the juice that is getting vaped? At 1st thought it was from the bridge...then I read ref's to the "juice cup" that holds the coil. The cup appears to be ceramic with a few holes or a couple of slots. The bridge wicks the juice down , but then outside the cup. Does it weep back in the holes?
2. My coil fried and I broke the cup on disassembly removing the metal sleeve.......ouch. Any good ideas or substitutes for it?

I'm sure its been mentioned here, if so..I apologize.
My mini pen style coil is 3.4ohms.
You can get 10ft ($2 + Free Shipping) of 36ga (27ohms/ft)...1 1/2" = 3.75ohms...very close. jacobs-online.biz/nichrome_wire

Thanks in advance,

Tony

[mogur]

Welcome aboard, mate. Hope you enjoy the ride. Sry, I don't know a substitute for the ceramic cup, maybe jam it back in and let the foam hold it together? A long shot, but it's no good without trying something.

You can get a good idea of the 'juice cup' from my drawings on page two or three of this thread, or even better drawings from an Exo post in another thread (sry, can't remember the exact thread, but use the search engine, it's worth the trouble to find, exo's drawings are killer). The bridge wicks the liquid around the ceramic, and the airstream through the nickel foam behind the ceramic cup pulls droplets off the edges of the foam. At least that is my best guess, I haven't built a transparent cig... yet.

Wait a minute, yours is an 801 penstyle? If you've ripped the atomizer out of there, then you know more about that one than I do. At any rate, good to meet ya. Take care.

[Vaporer]

Mogur,

Thanks for the quick reply.
After studying the last cup pic of yours, it appears that when you take a hit the liquid enters from the 4 holes, nears the coil and gets vaped. It may get sprayed or splatters onto the coil. I don't notice any heaps of carbon crud on the bottom and the coil doesn't rest on the bottom.
That would explain why its called a 4 hole. My mini had 2 horizontal slits parallel to the coil. All that remains is 3 "large" pieces lol and about 16 small ones............grrrr. It didn't release from the knurling well at all.

I just ordered 2 spares....would be nice to be able to make our own in case the gov sticks their nose in it.

Finally, something that shows so much promise but we dare not step on the tobacco lobby toes. Somethings still amaze me.

Tony