So today, I ventured into the wide world of rebuilding... Ooh, scary!
Although I ordered 100 feet each of Kanthal A-1 28 awg, 30 awg and 32 awg, all from the same vendor, for some reason I received the A-1 28 awg today, but not the other two. Yep, two separate shipments.
Anywho, I just couldn't help myself. After all, I've spent the last week or so researching the different methods and watching all the tutorials, reading up on the dangers, and studying Ohm's Law inside and out. I even built a spreadsheet last night just so I could plug in the numbers and double-check that I would be operating within the safety range of my iTaste VV 3.0.
And though I had been planning on my initial coil attempts being the more standard A-1 32 awg... What can I say? I doubt very many of you would have waited either!
So we continue, my desired resistance being 1.5 ohms...
After annealing, my first attempt involved patiently and painstakingly wrapping the wire around a 1/16 inch drill bit pilfered from the garage. I must say, I was rather happy with the end result. While at first I thought I had achieved a true ten wrap micro-coil, when I finally finagled the little guy into the atomizer head and reassembled, the coils had somehow spaced themselves out just a bit. So I'm not quite sure if it counts.
View attachment 245071
And yes, I did a quick heat set before assembling, as I had the hubby watching over my shoulder the entire time and he wouldn't let me do otherwise. After checking that no coils were in contact with the metal, via one of those handy quilting needles, I screwed the little guy onto my iTaste for the dry burn... It was so very, very pretty!!!
For my next coil I used the machine screw method, and I cannot express how much easier it was. Seriously! The only problem, I was so concerned about the final fit of the coil that where I had calculated out eight wraps initially, I unwound one and went with seven instead.
View attachment 245074
The dry burn on this one, not as pretty. But still quite nice. I can see this method quickly becoming my go-to with a higher gauge wire. Seriously. That. Easy.
The final coil involved a similar approach as with the drill bit, but this time I used an itty bitty little jeweler's screwdriver, approximately 2 mm in diameter. It was a little easier than with the drill bit, in that the handle of the screwdriver served as a kind of stop to work against.
View attachment 245076
Nine coils, which again spaced themselves out just a bit during assembly. Not quite as pretty as the first one, and I wasn't as satisfied with the dry burn, either. It took three seconds or so for the glow to fully spread, never quite reaching the final wrap on either end. Meh.
Also, for some reason, while the resistance upon completion read at 1.5 ohms, the double-check before threading the wick kicked back a result of 1.7 ohms.
Overall, not too bad for my very first attempt, if I do say so myself. Especially considering I was aiming for a goal resistance of 1.5 ohms with all three.
And now for the all important taste test... Or would it be vape test?
The glow on the first coil was just so pretty, I decided this one deserved to be my maiden voyage. Oh... So tasty. So very, very tasty. Who knew the Cinnamon Red Hots had such nuances? And I've been vaping this flavor for a solid month now. WOW! WOW-oh-WOW-oh-WOW!!!
And that's just at 6.0 watts!
I'm gonna have to go add a bit more flavor wicking before upping the power, as there is a pronounced gurgle and the occasional unexpected pop of cinnamon delivered directly onto the taste buds. But that's a quick and easy fix.
For those of you currently straddling the fence on whether to buy or build, may I recommend build? Highly recommend. After all, if I can do it...
Otherwise, very much satisfied with my new and improved vaping experience. Now I simply cannot wait for some of the higher quality e-liquids currently on order!
View attachment 245080
Although I ordered 100 feet each of Kanthal A-1 28 awg, 30 awg and 32 awg, all from the same vendor, for some reason I received the A-1 28 awg today, but not the other two. Yep, two separate shipments.
Anywho, I just couldn't help myself. After all, I've spent the last week or so researching the different methods and watching all the tutorials, reading up on the dangers, and studying Ohm's Law inside and out. I even built a spreadsheet last night just so I could plug in the numbers and double-check that I would be operating within the safety range of my iTaste VV 3.0.
And though I had been planning on my initial coil attempts being the more standard A-1 32 awg... What can I say? I doubt very many of you would have waited either!
So we continue, my desired resistance being 1.5 ohms...
After annealing, my first attempt involved patiently and painstakingly wrapping the wire around a 1/16 inch drill bit pilfered from the garage. I must say, I was rather happy with the end result. While at first I thought I had achieved a true ten wrap micro-coil, when I finally finagled the little guy into the atomizer head and reassembled, the coils had somehow spaced themselves out just a bit. So I'm not quite sure if it counts.
View attachment 245071
And yes, I did a quick heat set before assembling, as I had the hubby watching over my shoulder the entire time and he wouldn't let me do otherwise. After checking that no coils were in contact with the metal, via one of those handy quilting needles, I screwed the little guy onto my iTaste for the dry burn... It was so very, very pretty!!!
For my next coil I used the machine screw method, and I cannot express how much easier it was. Seriously! The only problem, I was so concerned about the final fit of the coil that where I had calculated out eight wraps initially, I unwound one and went with seven instead.
View attachment 245074
The dry burn on this one, not as pretty. But still quite nice. I can see this method quickly becoming my go-to with a higher gauge wire. Seriously. That. Easy.
The final coil involved a similar approach as with the drill bit, but this time I used an itty bitty little jeweler's screwdriver, approximately 2 mm in diameter. It was a little easier than with the drill bit, in that the handle of the screwdriver served as a kind of stop to work against.
View attachment 245076
Nine coils, which again spaced themselves out just a bit during assembly. Not quite as pretty as the first one, and I wasn't as satisfied with the dry burn, either. It took three seconds or so for the glow to fully spread, never quite reaching the final wrap on either end. Meh.
Also, for some reason, while the resistance upon completion read at 1.5 ohms, the double-check before threading the wick kicked back a result of 1.7 ohms.
Overall, not too bad for my very first attempt, if I do say so myself. Especially considering I was aiming for a goal resistance of 1.5 ohms with all three.
And now for the all important taste test... Or would it be vape test?
The glow on the first coil was just so pretty, I decided this one deserved to be my maiden voyage. Oh... So tasty. So very, very tasty. Who knew the Cinnamon Red Hots had such nuances? And I've been vaping this flavor for a solid month now. WOW! WOW-oh-WOW-oh-WOW!!!
And that's just at 6.0 watts!
I'm gonna have to go add a bit more flavor wicking before upping the power, as there is a pronounced gurgle and the occasional unexpected pop of cinnamon delivered directly onto the taste buds. But that's a quick and easy fix.
For those of you currently straddling the fence on whether to buy or build, may I recommend build? Highly recommend. After all, if I can do it...
Otherwise, very much satisfied with my new and improved vaping experience. Now I simply cannot wait for some of the higher quality e-liquids currently on order!
View attachment 245080
Quick shout-out to the photographer.
