Cotton unwicking trick.

[Snickerfritz]

Hi all, thought I might pass this along. I'm all about staying in a happy vape zone, and for this reason I've been generally either recoiling or rewicking every day. May seem like trouble to some, but to me, not being in happy vape zone is trouble. Now, I finally keyed into the absolute joy of cotton wicking a month or two ago, thanks to the encouragement of some kind souls on here helping me along the way. So, for the last, say, month I've been basically rewicking with cotton daily, but the method I'd been using to dewick the old cotton (twisting and pulling from one side) would booger up the coil every other time or so, so I'd just end up having to do a new recoil just too damn often. It took me a month to work out this dewicking trick that just occurred to me in a flash. This may be old news to some, and may seem obvious to others, but the thing to do is to grab the wick from both sides using two pairs of tweezers or needlenose, and pull both sides outward, so the wick tears in the middle of the coil and you're not trying to pull a whole swollen side of the wick all the way through the coil. So, there it is.

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[curisu]

Nice, never thought of doing that. Will try it out.

I've done the stinky version: dry burn till the wick falls out

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

 

[Chas F.]

I boogered up one of my micros pulling out the wick so now I just use some cuticle trimmers and snip one side and pull it out the other direction.

Ack, snip...I don't like that word!

 

[MrStik]

When boogering up the coil, can't you just burn off that booger?

 

[Snickerfritz]

By "boogering up the coil" what I mean is bending it all out of shape and rendering it unusable.

 

[Jaguar07]

What I do with my cotton wicks:
Make the fatter side usually my right side facing the coil larger, then I slide the skinny side of the wick in and twist and pull it in a bit. Then I trim off the ends. When I go to remove the wick, I grab the "Fat" side and pull. This pulls it out the opposite way of what I pulled it in and makes it a snap to get it out, without disturbing the coil.

 

[MrStik]

By "boogering up the coil" what I mean is bending it all out of shape and rendering it unusable.

ahh.. I thought booger would have meant leaving booger sized gunk on the coil.. lol..

I do the dragon coil, so no wick to pull out of the coil..

 

[Pita]

The brilliance of some ppl amazes me. I admire intelligence. I'm not rewicking.....yet, but wonder if I could have thought of any of these solutions. I get flustered easily so I doubt it

 

[DoogieTony]

If when you pull the wick it creates enough tension to warp your coil you are using too much cotton.
It should slide through with little to no tension.

 

[Scarey]

I just use cotton yarn. I twist it tight, thread it into the coil, untwist it to a very loose state, and juice it up. When I want to remove it, I just hold both ends and twist it down tight again, and unscrew it out. Never messes up a coil.

 

[Snickerfritz]

I like to wick the cotton kinda snug. Not too snug, but kinda snug.

 

[Ryedan]

This may be old news to some, and may seem obvious to others, but the thing to do is to grab the wick from both sides using two pairs of tweezers or needlenose, and pull both sides outward, so the wick tears in the middle of the coil and you're not trying to pull a whole swollen side of the wick all the way through the coil. So, there it is.

An excellent way to do this Snickerfritz. Thanks for sharing

 

[Ryedan]

If when you pull the wick it creates enough tension to warp your coil you are using too much cotton.
It should slide through with little to no tension.

You're right. We're talking about removing the wick after its gotten gunked up

 

[DoogieTony]

You're right. We're talking about removing the wick after its gotten gunked up

So am I.

 

[Vwls]

My coil never gets messed up when I pull the old cotton out. Are you using 30 gauge or higher? That may be the reason. I typically use 28 gauge and it is nice and firm. Coils last for weeks and take a lot of abuse without changing shape. Also, the vape is better if you use a strip of cotton that slides in and out easily (here come the jokes) - if it's too thick, it tends to cut off airflow at the coil ends and reduces vapor production.

 

[mgmixology]

Not enough cotton leads to hotspots on longer drags ( No wick contact to the coil ) and are more prone to burnt hits.

 

[Snickerfritz]

I'm using 32 gauge kanthal, and applying the method I'm suggesting on rebuilding Protank heads, though it may work for other applications too.

 

[D. Waterhouse]

I use 26AWG on my IgoS, I could pull an old T-shirt though it and not worry!

 

[Ryedan]

So am I.

OK. So if I get this right, you're saying that when the cotton gets gunked up it will still slide out when you pull on it gently?

This has not been my experience, but I could still be putting in in too much cotton.

 

[State O' Flux]

2-3mm ID - 26 & 28 ga wire here... in Kayfuns and RDAs... so issues with removing wicks just doesn't come up. What atty, wire and coil diameter are you building, that this is an issue Snickerfritz... clearos or something?