Do you "torch" your wire before coiling ?

[Solaire]

Hi folks, I have seen people getting their wire red before they coil it I guess to make it more pliable , Annealing it basically.
I haven't done it ,,, yet ,
Have you?.
Do you ?.
And does it help for those pesky , springy wires?.

 

[kiba]

This was for back when we had to wrap a wire with the right tension around SS mesh (not too loose, not too tight) also somewhat useful for silica/ekowool. Now it's completely unnecessary since you pull your wick through the coil.

Also, according to Dr. F. you shouldn't glow any material red hot. I mostly don't do it anymore bc it screws up flavor and also bc if i use a coil jig there's really no point.

 

[EddieAdams]

Aside from annealing, it removes any machine oil from the wire. I have and always will torch prior to wrapping.

FDA BOC

 

[wheelie]

I do not usually torch before wrapping. But I do always straiten the wire prior to wrapping. I do fire the coil after coil is installed and before wicking to make sure it is glowing properly. Some atomizer rebuilds I torch them to make smaller micro coils to fit in atomizer after coil is wrapped. CHEERS!

 

[Ben85]

I don't as I don't see the difference between torching it and glowing it once wrapped. Unless someone feels there is an advantage to?

 

[EddieAdams]

Just heating a wrapped coil doesn't make the legs glow hot. The taste of machine oil sucks...

FDA BOC

 

[glasseye]

Aside from annealing, it removes any machine oil from the wire. I have and always will torch prior to wrapping.

FDA BOC

Me too. And I like the way it wraps better. Not so springy.

 

[kiba]

You know you can wipe it down with alcohol, instead of heating it to the point where oxides start to form

 

[6steelstrings]

I used to do that when I was using kanthal because it was pretty springy wire. Now that I am using stainless steel, which is very a malleable metal I don't do that any more because I don't have to.

 

[ChelsB]

I only seem to notice a difference with 28g and up. I find the wire still spring-y with thicker wire...


Sent from my iPhone, please excuse any typos

 

[EddieAdams]

You know you can wipe it down with alcohol, instead of heating it to the point where oxides start to form

Yes you don't want to heat your heating wire. You're not melting it. Just heating it to a quick glow with a torch or flame. A dry burn puts far more stress on the wire then a quick torch.

FDA BOC

 

[bwh79]

I don't usually, but recently I attempted a twisted build with 26ga Kanthal. The first attempt was very springy; ended up expanding quite a bit as soon as I released the tension after coiling (though I suppose I could have just coiled around a smaller mandrel to accommodate), and warped severely out of shape when I did a dry-burn after installation. On my second attempt I torched the wire both before and after twisting, and the recoil ("decoil"?) and warping were both far less extreme. It still didn't turn out very well, though, even with the torching to reduce the springiness. I guess I need to work on my twisting technique, as looking at the length of wire I have left I can see that the twists are not very even along its length; they are spaced very close together in places and then spread more far apart in others.

 

[kiba]

I don't usually, but recently I attempted a twisted build with 26ga Kanthal. The first attempt was very springy; ended up expanding quite a bit as soon as I released the tension after coiling (though I suppose I could have just coiled around a smaller mandrel to accommodate), and warped severely out of shape when I did a dry-burn after installation. On my second attempt I torched the wire both before and after twisting, and the recoil ("decoil"?) and warping were both far less extreme. It still didn't turn out very well, though, even with the torching to reduce the springiness. I guess I need to work on my twisting technique, as looking at the length of wire I have left I can see that the twists are not very even along its length; they are spaced very close together in places and then spread more far apart in others.

If you must glow it, hold the top of the coil with the tweezers while you glow it, it shouldn't be able to warp.

 

[bwh79]

If you must glow it,

I always do, I guess it's something I picked up from watching videos when I first started, and now I keep doing it to 1) find and work out any hotspots, 2) make sure they glow evenly when I'm installing a new dual-coil setup, and 3) burn off any gunk when I rewick. This is mostly coming from single-wire microcoil builds though, I don't dabble much in the more "artistic" wires. This latest twisted build were only the 2nd/3rd attempts I've made at such things.

hold the top of the coil with the tweezers while you glow it, it shouldn't be able to warp.

It, like, constricted in the middle, like a snake. I can't fit the mandrel through it anymore. I don't see how a tweezers could have prevented that. Maybe if I had a ceramic mandrel and fired it with that still in, but the one I have is a solid metal bar so that seems like a bad idea...