In a previous blog titled 'My Kayfun Lite Build Odyssey', I rambled on at length about my efforts to achieve a good vape. I talked frankly about some of my mishaps and mistakes in hopes of providing some answers to others with similar problems. Now that some time has passed and I've had some more experience, I thought I would set the record straight on a few things, and provide a handy chart of drill bit size comparisons.
First of all, much of the frustration and difficulty I mentioned in my previous blog was based on one really bad assumption: that I was getting an occasional short with my Kayfun build. I wasn't. My Atomo clone mod was shorting at the switch, details about that are spelled out in the blog titled 'Atomo Clone Update'. This mistake, thinking it was my build and not the mod that was shorting, actually turned out to be a good thing, because it forced me to examine what I was doing a lot more closely. It also gave me a lot of practice wrapping coils. I was wrapping two or three coils a day for a while, and it helped me get really good at it. Now my coils last a really long time. In fact, I haven't had a coil fail on me yet. I get bored and decide to do a new one long before I need to.
Secondly, I wanted to point out that, again, my math skills are absolute crap. Thankfully, you can google almost any type of conversion table you'd like to use, and it will bring one up for you. Pounds to ounces, grams to pounds, inches to miles, whatever. It's incredibly handy. So a while back I buckled down and did some homework, because I wanted to see exactly what I had and what I was missing when it came to my drill bits. I only have one small set of bits, and their sizes are listed only in fractional inches. Since a lot of youtube build tutorials are by Europeans and other folks who have drill bits measured in millimeters, I had no idea which bit I had to use to match what they were using.
The one thing in my previous blog that I did get right was that one of my main problems in building a good microcoil was that I was building it too big in diameter. Not by a lot, but enough to make it difficult to achieve my target resistance. I've been wrapping my microcoils on the 1/16th drill bit ever since my 'Odyssey' blog, and the performance has been spectacular.
So, here's the chart:
Drill bit sizes: Inches to millimeters:
1/16 = 1.5875 mm
3/32 = 2.38125 mm
1/8 = 3.175 mm
the one I don't have that everyone always wraps on in youtube videos:
5/64 = 1.98438 mm
Notice that the 1/16 bit is .39688 mm smaller than the 5/64 bit, while the 3/32 is .39687 mm larger. That seemingly tiny difference in size made a significant difference in resistance. A 1.2 ohm coil in a Kayfun works WAY better on a mechanical mod than a 1.8 ohm coil does. To get that lower resistance at a larger diameter, you need fewer wraps, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a microcoil, which is more surface area. The more coil touching wick, the better the flavor (or, so I am told). A microcoil achieves that because, with all the wraps touching, it heats up faster and is therefore using those extra wraps more efficiently. This effect is completely defeated by wrapping a microcoil on something with a large diameter.
I'm not entirely sure that more surface area of coil touching wick makes better flavor, but it sounds pretty reasonable. The main benefit that I've noticed in my microcoils over regular loose coils is that they last a helluva lot longer. They are much more stable and far easier to wick and rewick without screwing them up. A quick dry burn and they clean up exceptionally well.
Another thing I've learned with all this practice is that torching my Kanthal before wrapping is completely unnecessary. I did it for a long time, but once I stopped I realized it was a wasted step. I found it much easier to simply wrap the coil, then pinch it with pliers and torch the whole thing all at once. If it comes apart a little bit while you're installing it, a quick pulse-and-pinch fixes it right up. Before I started doing that, I would have to pulse-and-pinch four or five times.
The Joy of Rebuilding.
When I started vaping, I had no interest in rebuilding. None at all. I thought it sounded like a gigantic pain. I have ADHD and a tremendous shortage of patience at times. At a certain point, I was forced to tear apart my Protank coils and fiddle with the wicks to get them to work well. Once I got in there and experienced the satisfaction of successful tinkering, I was hooked. After replacing a few flavor wicks, I got an RDA. I didn't go near it for a few months because my Protanks were doing quite well and were much easier to deal with, but eventually my financial situation forced me to revisit the rebuilding issue. It was obviously much less expensive to wrap my own rather than shelling out for new coils all the time.
Because I was sort of forced into it, I approached rebuilding with a fair amount of trepidation and even resentment. It made me nervous. My hands shook and my poor eyesight was a serious disadvantage. But the money situation wasn't going to get any better so I invested in a gooseneck magnifier with an LED light source. It was about 35 bucks from Office Depot, and it was one of the most helpful tools I've ever purchased. It wasn't long after that I got an inexpensive Kayfun clone, which is now my favorite way to vape.
After a few months of trials, errors and a whole lot of practice, I've become pretty adept at building a coil that really works for me, and in one tenth of the time it took when I started. It's remarkably satisfying and fun, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you're even remotely interested in it. It's not as difficult as you might think, though it does require a lot of homework with regards to battery safety. In my opinion, though, totally worth it. Would I still rebuild if my ship came in and I could once again afford to buy prewrapped coils? Absolutely.
First of all, much of the frustration and difficulty I mentioned in my previous blog was based on one really bad assumption: that I was getting an occasional short with my Kayfun build. I wasn't. My Atomo clone mod was shorting at the switch, details about that are spelled out in the blog titled 'Atomo Clone Update'. This mistake, thinking it was my build and not the mod that was shorting, actually turned out to be a good thing, because it forced me to examine what I was doing a lot more closely. It also gave me a lot of practice wrapping coils. I was wrapping two or three coils a day for a while, and it helped me get really good at it. Now my coils last a really long time. In fact, I haven't had a coil fail on me yet. I get bored and decide to do a new one long before I need to.
Secondly, I wanted to point out that, again, my math skills are absolute crap. Thankfully, you can google almost any type of conversion table you'd like to use, and it will bring one up for you. Pounds to ounces, grams to pounds, inches to miles, whatever. It's incredibly handy. So a while back I buckled down and did some homework, because I wanted to see exactly what I had and what I was missing when it came to my drill bits. I only have one small set of bits, and their sizes are listed only in fractional inches. Since a lot of youtube build tutorials are by Europeans and other folks who have drill bits measured in millimeters, I had no idea which bit I had to use to match what they were using.
The one thing in my previous blog that I did get right was that one of my main problems in building a good microcoil was that I was building it too big in diameter. Not by a lot, but enough to make it difficult to achieve my target resistance. I've been wrapping my microcoils on the 1/16th drill bit ever since my 'Odyssey' blog, and the performance has been spectacular.
So, here's the chart:
Drill bit sizes: Inches to millimeters:
1/16 = 1.5875 mm
3/32 = 2.38125 mm
1/8 = 3.175 mm
the one I don't have that everyone always wraps on in youtube videos:
5/64 = 1.98438 mm
Notice that the 1/16 bit is .39688 mm smaller than the 5/64 bit, while the 3/32 is .39687 mm larger. That seemingly tiny difference in size made a significant difference in resistance. A 1.2 ohm coil in a Kayfun works WAY better on a mechanical mod than a 1.8 ohm coil does. To get that lower resistance at a larger diameter, you need fewer wraps, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a microcoil, which is more surface area. The more coil touching wick, the better the flavor (or, so I am told). A microcoil achieves that because, with all the wraps touching, it heats up faster and is therefore using those extra wraps more efficiently. This effect is completely defeated by wrapping a microcoil on something with a large diameter.
I'm not entirely sure that more surface area of coil touching wick makes better flavor, but it sounds pretty reasonable. The main benefit that I've noticed in my microcoils over regular loose coils is that they last a helluva lot longer. They are much more stable and far easier to wick and rewick without screwing them up. A quick dry burn and they clean up exceptionally well.
Another thing I've learned with all this practice is that torching my Kanthal before wrapping is completely unnecessary. I did it for a long time, but once I stopped I realized it was a wasted step. I found it much easier to simply wrap the coil, then pinch it with pliers and torch the whole thing all at once. If it comes apart a little bit while you're installing it, a quick pulse-and-pinch fixes it right up. Before I started doing that, I would have to pulse-and-pinch four or five times.
The Joy of Rebuilding.
When I started vaping, I had no interest in rebuilding. None at all. I thought it sounded like a gigantic pain. I have ADHD and a tremendous shortage of patience at times. At a certain point, I was forced to tear apart my Protank coils and fiddle with the wicks to get them to work well. Once I got in there and experienced the satisfaction of successful tinkering, I was hooked. After replacing a few flavor wicks, I got an RDA. I didn't go near it for a few months because my Protanks were doing quite well and were much easier to deal with, but eventually my financial situation forced me to revisit the rebuilding issue. It was obviously much less expensive to wrap my own rather than shelling out for new coils all the time.
Because I was sort of forced into it, I approached rebuilding with a fair amount of trepidation and even resentment. It made me nervous. My hands shook and my poor eyesight was a serious disadvantage. But the money situation wasn't going to get any better so I invested in a gooseneck magnifier with an LED light source. It was about 35 bucks from Office Depot, and it was one of the most helpful tools I've ever purchased. It wasn't long after that I got an inexpensive Kayfun clone, which is now my favorite way to vape.
After a few months of trials, errors and a whole lot of practice, I've become pretty adept at building a coil that really works for me, and in one tenth of the time it took when I started. It's remarkably satisfying and fun, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you're even remotely interested in it. It's not as difficult as you might think, though it does require a lot of homework with regards to battery safety. In my opinion, though, totally worth it. Would I still rebuild if my ship came in and I could once again afford to buy prewrapped coils? Absolutely.
