Cartridge filler materials

[Kate51]

I've seen some people are using coffee filters, cotton batting, etc. etc. etc.......Ok, we gotta be careful here. NOT to use coffee filters or any paper product...there are know carcinogens a dirty stuff in paper, any kind. Cotton? NO NO....remember the people in the 60's who used their clothes drier to humidify their house..lot of 'em died, they did, cotton particles have a way of clinging to lung tissue and rotting, with terrible repurcussion.
If you are using polyester batting, do not use the kind that is stuck together with any kind of chemical fusing material. Most batting is made that way. More kinds of bad things. Either get heat-bonded (questionable) or non-bonded, and good luck seeing that on the package. I have tried REAL wool, roving kind, NOT dyed or treated in any way. It's ok. WASH it really well with a good Green Cleaner, rinse WELL, dry, and tease together a nice not too loose or not too tight wad, trim to fit your cartridge. If your draw is too hard, take some fibers out, if it dries out too fast put a little more in. Replace as needed. Wool will char over time, keep the little fringees trimmed, it will shrink a bit over time so leave it a little long to start. It WILL char, but it won't stick to the atomizer element like poly will, and it will not burn.
OR: just replace your cartridges when they turn dark, unfilled ones are cheap enough, I ordered 6 for $.60 with my pen801, thought I was getting 6 cartridges and got six BOXES of 5. I really think this is the way to go. New ones do seem to work best, after quite a few fills I notice vapor amount diminishes and they turn dark, and do not absorb as much juice. And you need to put on a new mouth piece once in awhile for sanitary reasons, anyway.
Hope this helps.

[Bombshell]

Teabags are working brilliantly, excellant idea!
I'm going to pull that nasty poly fiberfill out of all my 901 carts and go teabag material all the way. No more burned up plastic taste from the fibers. Yuk.
Kudos to the peep who came up with this idea!!

[Wolf]

I didn't need to read that. I'm having wonderful success with paper towel as a cartridge filler. They don't seem to scorch or burn at all. What about the natural coffee filters, the brown ones that aren't bleached?

[Waffler]

Lika

I was just wondering how you are making out with the new wicking material/delivery system ??
Sorry if it has already been posted , I looked quickly through the posts but didn`t see any further comments from you.

[chippez]

Material that i use , just wont ware out , teddy bear filling , its just great , been doing that for some time now.....

[808kicks901hits]

Material that i use , just wont ware out , teddy bear filling , its just great , been doing that for some time now.....

I'm having some somewhat decent results with tea bags in my m401 which I am recycling since I am a tea drinker. They are your basic tea bags made of abaca hemp / wood fibers. Not exactly sure if this is healthy or not, and it doesn't seem to be working better than an empty cart. I was looking into some polyester teddy bear filling online and that looks fairly promising. Is this what you are using? I wouldn't want to use any teddy bear filling with cotton in it.

[Lika]

Lika

I was just wondering how you are making out with the new wicking material/delivery system ??
Sorry if it has already been posted , I looked quickly through the posts but didn`t see any further comments from you.

Hi Waffler,

No, I hadn't posted any more about it since the original post. I was successful in fashioning a unique core delivery system for 901 and 801 carts. It worked well and to my satisfaction. I'm sure further fine tuning would make it even better which is a given with any beta product. However, I realized my efforts were possibly for naught due to manufacturer discrepancies (different manufacturers/same model #). So I've put the project on the shelf at least temporarily.

I'll just say this: All atomizers of the same model are not the same. The atomizer is an integral part of the eliquid delivery system as a whole especially when combined with the core system I built. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't work.

Theoretically my system will work with any atomizer that has a flat or slightly rounded bridge and metal wick (the stuff that sits atop the atomizer coil) and a suitable cart. As of now I've only built and tested with 801's and 901's.

The system is easy enough to build although a bit tedious - definitely not for everyone. The downside is it requires the purchase of bulk material that would give a DIY person enough to build a few dozen when they would only need a few single units. I'm not sure the cost/use ratio is worth it. My original intention was to share the plans for DIY'ers as well as sell them ready made and possibly market them to manufacturers.

I'm reluctant to share a homemade delivery system knowing full well that it won't work with all devices of the same model number. IMO, that's just asking for trouble and I'm really not in a position to handle complaints over a shared schematic. I don't like saying that but I'm just being honest.

I'm not sure where I stand on this at the moment or where I'll go with it. I feel like I've got something really good here but can't do anything with it. I'm sorry I don't have anything more positive to tell you.

[Derfman1963]

Ok, found this out purely by accident. I used to refill my carts with the poly fill from walmart, but one time I had used two pieces because first one was too small. Well it just so happened that one piece got "stuck" in the atomizer tube of my 801 cart. I didnt realize it till I had dripped on it and decided to just use it. Welllllll, whadda ya know, it worked great. Just to clarify, I use a small amount of wadding that I stick directly over the heating element, well the bridge piece to be exact. No it doesnt melt, or catch on fire, just remember, thats where the cart sits normally. I drip onto the fill instead of directly into the atomizer and it works great. The atomizer doesn't get flooded, and it smokes longer per drop then a direct drip! It's easy to replace with a pair of tweezers and I can drip more onto it then I would be able to without it. It doesn't last as long as a full cart by any means, but it doesn't leak nearly as much either. I been doing this for a few days now and I prefer it to either carts or direct dripping. Others I have show and have tried it like it too. Especially those that normally drip. It's alot less messy. Let me know what you guys think.

[Derfman1963]

Of course this only works with atomizers that are recessed, like the 901's and 801's.

[kathyst]

Big roger on that.

As a result of my first week of vaping...

A few pharmacies (looking for PG)
I've been in Tractor Supply (found PG)
Hobby Lobby (VG & Flavorings)
Homeless depot (looking for storage widgets)
Countless grocery stores (looking for Lorann stuff)
Electronics supply store (Shrink wrap and momentary contact switch for my home made USB passthrough)
Hobby Lobby Again (eyedroppers and little mixing bottles)

Some of these places I've never set foot in before.
My wife's already bitching that part of our kitchen cupboards are starting to look like a meth lab.

I never had this much fun with analogs.

I'm way back on page 8 or so of this thread, but I'm having so much fun. I love the Tips & Tricks thread, and this Cartridge Filler sub-thread. And then I LOL'd when I got to this post, lewnworx, which replied to Strayling's LOL post, about the crazy fun of hunting and gathering all our e-cig components!

Plus that smallparts website, for instance -- I love all this materials R&D stuff. That's all just so interesting, about what NOT to use and why.

Anyway, I'm fine so far, being so new, with my empty but poly-fiber-filled cartridges I got, but I can't wait to try teabag material.

Thanks to all of you!

kathy