i went to the grocery store and found the cotton rounds. All the ones they had were bleached cotton, i don't feel comfortable vaping on something that's been bleached. I think ill try some unbleached cheese cloth.
I think (but I'm not certain) that a good boil should render them safe to use. I'm not sure how much or what residue is left from bleaching, but I do know some foods are bleached so I figure there can't be too many bad things left after the process. Also, according to Quigs (Quigsworth1 on forum), the bleached loose weave cheese cloth wicks better than the unbleached tight weave.
However, cheese cloth makes great wicks (I'm using the loose weave from wallyworld). In fact I've moved back to it for the primary wick in my reduxes. Here's a couple of tips I've learned from Mack and a few others on the forum here.
1. Cheese cloth expands a lot. If you are prebuilding your coils, make sure your cheese cloth wick slides in smoothly with just very little resistance.
2. Cheese cloth needs a little extra soak time. Mack recommends three hours, but I've taken to just setting them aside overnight. If you're getting any popping, it's probably coming from a cotton fiber burning. A pop here and there is ok, but one or two every vape means you'll need to replace that wick within a few ml. Cause is usually the wick didn't get to soak long enough or it's too big for the coil.
3. in shaping your wick, try just folding instead of rolling. Then roll down one end really tight to get it started. For a small diameter coil, about 1/2 in. of loose weave cheese cloth is plenty (and may be too much for a needle wrapped coil). I recommend trying a small drill, nail, or something that will almost fit into the slots to wrap your coil, then using a needle or something that will fit in the slots to install your coil, as that will mean you can install a wick that won't choke in the slots or the coil.
I hope some of this helps. I think you'll like the cheese cloth.