How To: SS Mesh Wick with Twisted Coil in Spheroid...
Had pondered over it for a while and upon receiving my second Spheroid - gave it a try. Two things took me to it - (A)had plenty of mesh lying around since I have given up on Gennys for good, and (B)curiosity!
EVERYTHING LAID OUT:
A piece of stock Sera Wool, 400w SS Mesh, 32AWG Nichrome. Spheroid all washed up...
SIZING UP THE MESH:
A thin piece of 400w mesh, 8 x 2 cms works well for the wick...
SIZING UP THE SERA:
The fluff filling should neither be too dense nor too thin. 4 x 2 cms seem to hold the juice perfectly...
TORCHED THE MESH:
Since the only conducting area would be at the coil I just torched the two ends of the mesh strip...
ROLLING THE WICK:
This part is tricky. I rolled only the ends of the mesh strip, leaving the centre as it goes:
1. Started rolling each end,
2. Tightly held the rolled ends and pulled them apart,
3. Then flattened the centre a bit, so that it bent well into a loop rather than at an angle.
TWISTING THE WIRE:
Easy peesy. There's already a tutorial with images at the GP thread. I just used a locked safety pin, which makes the job tad easier as it doesn't slide off. Remember, it is a 32 gauge wire (pretty thin), which has been looped so that both its ends meet. Then rotated the safety pin till the resultant cable became a perfect spiral.
ATTACHING WICK & COIL:
For one, we should ensure that the tail ends of the coil come in the same plane. I prefer the ends lying at bottom while the coil-head remains on top before being attached to the posts (positive & negative). This gives us enough space between the air-channel of the base and the coil to play around.
NOTE: The lower you get (closer to the air-channel) - higher the vapor production and flavor. The further away u move the wick & coil from that air-channel you'd get more TH, but loose the vapor quantitatively/proportionally. However, we cannot get the coil to touch the air-channel, else we'd have a dead short. -DANGER
FIRING UP THE WICK & COIL:
As we do with our Gennys, gently started pulsing to get that evenly lit coil. We all know what it's all about, don't we? This is a 3/4 wrap coil giving exactly 1Ω. Seems to heat up soon - the moment I press the button... there's no delay at all!
JUICED UP THE WICK & COIL:
Dropped some juice over the wick & coil. Saturated it well and fired it up. Repeated this until (see below)...
LOADING THE SERA AND JUICING IT UP:
Rolled the Sera wool around the air-tube. Remember, the key is in "lightly rolling" it. We shouldn't wind it tightly... there should be enough breathing space between the weaves of the Sera... this is the space where the juice would be held and remain jellyfied (akin to!). Too tight/dense - it'd hold less and wick poorly. Too loose - it'd leak! A 4 x 2 cms piece fits the bill well. Also, with time, the Sera swells up (with juice) and fills up whatever gap there is.
BOTTOMLINE: Have this setup for over two days now. Gone thru many tank-fulls. It vapes great. I have no issues whatsoever. As regards, the vapor, TH and flavor - let me reiterate once again, I don't find any significant difference between this setup and the Silica ones that I have over the other Spheroid. But, one thing I've definitely noticed - it blows more vapor than the Silica setup. However, that could be due to many 'other' factors... but I've run the same juice over both the Spheroids. And I also notice that I get more aroma and taste. Yes, this mesh wick seems to taste & smell good! I'm enjoying my Spheroid all over again!
______________________
Rejoinder: Don't worry about the mesh wick shorting out touching the body of the Spheroid - it won't, unless u've a short at the coil level. Remember, the only electrically conducting area is at the coil. Once that's sorted - the rest of the wick is as good as a non-conductive silica. B'coz it's only the coil loops which are processing the current from post A to post B. You didn't have a short there, did you? Thus, you wouldn't elsewhere on the wick as well.
Had pondered over it for a while and upon receiving my second Spheroid - gave it a try. Two things took me to it - (A)had plenty of mesh lying around since I have given up on Gennys for good, and (B)curiosity!
EVERYTHING LAID OUT:
A piece of stock Sera Wool, 400w SS Mesh, 32AWG Nichrome. Spheroid all washed up...
SIZING UP THE MESH:
A thin piece of 400w mesh, 8 x 2 cms works well for the wick...
SIZING UP THE SERA:
The fluff filling should neither be too dense nor too thin. 4 x 2 cms seem to hold the juice perfectly...
TORCHED THE MESH:
Since the only conducting area would be at the coil I just torched the two ends of the mesh strip...
ROLLING THE WICK:
This part is tricky. I rolled only the ends of the mesh strip, leaving the centre as it goes:
1. Started rolling each end,
2. Tightly held the rolled ends and pulled them apart,
3. Then flattened the centre a bit, so that it bent well into a loop rather than at an angle.
TWISTING THE WIRE:
Easy peesy. There's already a tutorial with images at the GP thread. I just used a locked safety pin, which makes the job tad easier as it doesn't slide off. Remember, it is a 32 gauge wire (pretty thin), which has been looped so that both its ends meet. Then rotated the safety pin till the resultant cable became a perfect spiral.
ATTACHING WICK & COIL:
For one, we should ensure that the tail ends of the coil come in the same plane. I prefer the ends lying at bottom while the coil-head remains on top before being attached to the posts (positive & negative). This gives us enough space between the air-channel of the base and the coil to play around.
NOTE: The lower you get (closer to the air-channel) - higher the vapor production and flavor. The further away u move the wick & coil from that air-channel you'd get more TH, but loose the vapor quantitatively/proportionally. However, we cannot get the coil to touch the air-channel, else we'd have a dead short. -DANGER
FIRING UP THE WICK & COIL:
As we do with our Gennys, gently started pulsing to get that evenly lit coil. We all know what it's all about, don't we? This is a 3/4 wrap coil giving exactly 1Ω. Seems to heat up soon - the moment I press the button... there's no delay at all!
JUICED UP THE WICK & COIL:
Dropped some juice over the wick & coil. Saturated it well and fired it up. Repeated this until (see below)...
LOADING THE SERA AND JUICING IT UP:
Rolled the Sera wool around the air-tube. Remember, the key is in "lightly rolling" it. We shouldn't wind it tightly... there should be enough breathing space between the weaves of the Sera... this is the space where the juice would be held and remain jellyfied (akin to!). Too tight/dense - it'd hold less and wick poorly. Too loose - it'd leak! A 4 x 2 cms piece fits the bill well. Also, with time, the Sera swells up (with juice) and fills up whatever gap there is.
BOTTOMLINE: Have this setup for over two days now. Gone thru many tank-fulls. It vapes great. I have no issues whatsoever. As regards, the vapor, TH and flavor - let me reiterate once again, I don't find any significant difference between this setup and the Silica ones that I have over the other Spheroid. But, one thing I've definitely noticed - it blows more vapor than the Silica setup. However, that could be due to many 'other' factors... but I've run the same juice over both the Spheroids. And I also notice that I get more aroma and taste. Yes, this mesh wick seems to taste & smell good! I'm enjoying my Spheroid all over again!
______________________
Rejoinder: Don't worry about the mesh wick shorting out touching the body of the Spheroid - it won't, unless u've a short at the coil level. Remember, the only electrically conducting area is at the coil. Once that's sorted - the rest of the wick is as good as a non-conductive silica. B'coz it's only the coil loops which are processing the current from post A to post B. You didn't have a short there, did you? Thus, you wouldn't elsewhere on the wick as well.
