1st Day Using Nextel XC-116 (1/32") Ceramic Rope

[boilednuts]

I made this on Thursday when i got home from work and have used it ever since - it works like a charm. I think the difference is i tried to get it thru a microcoil but no luck, so i put a pin thru it and wrapped a coil on it. I think that may make the coil the right size so that it expands just right to fit it.

Today i decided to rinse it out under water since i was cleaning my reo bottle out at the same time after running 7 thru it. The wick was a golden honey colour is all and went white again after a quick rinse, apart from where my coil sits. Dry burned the coil a bit, to get some of the crap off it (DRY4 @ 18mg, 50/50 vg/pg) and off we go again!

My wick is cut off to the edge of the RM2 cup on the right and has a tail (i just stuffed it past the post - who cares?) that runs round the post and round the back a bit.

So far so good.

T

This is the best HRH could do. This is before i cleaned it a bit.

View attachment 213953

T

Nice setup Jim, could you pass along the approx vapes per squonk you getting. Very happy to see that your wick (tail) is able to stay in place like that, maybe my wire inside the hollow core is unnecessary, I will give it a go in a future build. I'm into my third build already with mods to the first 2. Beginning to come around performance wise, will post full update tomorrow (getting pretty close to Miller time) .

 

[supertrunker]

It measured 1.7 Ohms when i made it and was 1.8 today with all the crap on it.

I have used nothing since i made it and the flavour and vape are still good and better than day one which i think is 'break in' for anything. Now the wick is saturated i am getting about 6 hits per squonk - but then my idea of a puff causes HRH's eVic to stop! I had wanted a decent micro on it - but 1/32" it may be if you crushed it. Hence my old-school coil.

It's been flawless for 3 days and i am pleased with it. Whether i can replicate such a crap coil - i dunno!

Be interesting to see what the wick looks like at the end of the coil's life.

T

 

[supertrunker]

day 4 and a bit.

It's still working well and will be coming to work with me tomorrow!

My thoughts are that it improves with age (but all women tell me that). HRH thought i was barking mad to pay that for 2' of it - but the ease of cleaning it and the long life makes it a contender for one of the best wicks ever. Just needs someone with more talent for these things than me to fit it in a microcoil.

I'm very pleased with it and have resorted to making new coils for her stuff just to keep my hand in!

T

 

[Commie]

I can't wait to try. Got a foot of nextel and 2 ft of ecowool coming in tomorrow. Yay!

 

[Gioajack]

Commie:

Before you cut or use your Ekowool torch it with a chef's torch or hot butane lighter, it will help reduce the fraying when you cut it. Be careful handling it right after torching, it stays very hot for a short while but the flavor is outstanding right from the very beginning and just seems to get better and better.

I don't have any of the Nextel but from what Nutz and Trunker have been reporting they sound very similar in performance. May just come down to price and availability.


Jack

 

[supertrunker]

I had wanted a bash at ecowool but i could not find any - apart from on a closed co-op. Before this little nonsense i was very happy with my renewed enthusiasm for fat (3mm) silica wick.

What i do like is a wick and coil that lasts a bit longer than a day - if i tell you that when i am at work i can get thru 12 mL a day, you'll get some idea of the abuse my poor grand tolerates!

Do compare both and tell us what you think.

T

 

[Commie]

Commie:

Before you cut or use your Ekowool torch it with a chef's torch or hot butane lighter, it will help reduce the fraying when you cut it. Be careful handling it right after torching, it stays very hot for a short while but the flavor is outstanding right from the very beginning and just seems to get better and better.

I don't have any of the Nextel but from what Nutz and Trunker have been reporting they sound very similar in performance. May just come down to price and availability.


Jack

Thank you, Jack! I've recently learned to do that with regular silica. It might be wishful thinking, but it seems to improve silica's atrocious fraying too.

 

[Gioajack]

I had wanted a bash at ecowool but i could not find any - apart from on a closed co-op. Before this little nonsense i was very happy with my renewed enthusiasm for fat (3mm) silica wick.

What i do like is a wick and coil that lasts a bit longer than a day - if i tell you that when i am at work i can get thru 12 mL a day, you'll get some idea of the abuse my poor grand tolerates!

Do compare both and tell us what you think.

T

I built my first Ekowool wick last Tuesday or Wednesday, can't remember which, naturally. Used the 3mm size, that's all I had at the time, and since then I've had to replace the coil, (I put so much cinnamon in my Apple Fritter it'll eat through the side of an Abrams tank), but the wick is still going strong, no loss of flavor or vapor. Didn't even rinse the wick just blotted it with a paper towel before I wound the new coil.

That same day, or the next, I can't remember again, my order came in from Stormy's Vapor Cellar which was several feet of 1.5mm. They were out of everything else. Built a coil/wick for an ERA with the 1.5 doubled over and the two loose legs wrapped around the positive post. Again the flavor is outstanding and I haven't even changed the coil yet. I think I like using the doubled 1.5 a little better than a single strand of the 3mm. It's actually much bigger than 3mm, (more like 5 or 6), and poofs up in front of the ERA air hole and tends to restrict the draw.

I just now finished a little experiment with my Cobra tank atomizer. I built a new SS mesh wick but wrapped it around a single strand of Ekowool 1.5mm. It's just a tad tight and had to cut down on my mesh but it is wicking much better than plain mesh. Yesterday I was bored so I ordered some 1mm plus 2mm and 3mm from Kidney Puncher Vapes. They have all the sizes in stock and their prices are pretty much the same as Stormy's Vapor Cellar.

The downside of the whole thing is while I was on Stormy's website I saw that they had the Terminator-C tank atomizer in stock. I'm starting to get the itch... it's a silica atomizer instead of rolled SS mesh so it'd be something else to use the Ekowool on. I'm so glad vaping is cheaper than smoking.

Jack

 

[Commie]

I had wanted a bash at ecowool but i could not find any - apart from on a closed co-op. Before this little nonsense i was very happy with my renewed enthusiasm for fat (3mm) silica wick.

What i do like is a wick and coil that lasts a bit longer than a day - if i tell you that when i am at work i can get thru 12 mL a day, you'll get some idea of the abuse my poor grand tolerates!

Do compare both and tell us what you think.

T

I got both ecowool and nextel from KidneyPuncher. It's a bit more expensive per foot than from the manufacturer, but you can buy smaller amounts, and don't have to wait for it to be shipped.

 

[pdib]

day 4 and a bit.

It's still working well and will be coming to work with me tomorrow!

My thoughts are that it improves with age (but all women tell me that). HRH thought i was barking mad to pay that for 2' of it - but the ease of cleaning it and the long life makes it a contender for one of the best wicks ever. Just needs someone with more talent for these things than me to fit it in a microcoil.

I'm very pleased with it and have resorted to making new coils for her stuff just to keep my hand in!

T

What's the interior dims of the micro-coil you want to fit out with nextel, Supertrunker? I haven't tried smaller than 1/16 with the drill bit method; but I know that works. Just takes a drop of juice on the nextel, and some insistent and repeated pressing corkscrewing. As soon as it breaks the initial rim (of coil), it slips right on through.

Also, I've wrapped both the skinny and fat nextel freehand, and have had no issues with "choking" the wick.

 

[Sterno]

im thinking my new wick of choice is hemp love the flavor and durability

 

[boilednuts]

Build #3

Definitely my best build to date. An additional step before wrapping the wick with wire was included with this build. On my previous build the wick inside the coil area looked to be too tightly wrapped, restricting juice capacity (not vapor production). To solve this problem I cut a piece of ss mesh about 3/4" x 1" in dimension and wrapped it around the Nextel which still had the paper clip leg and ribbon wire inserted into the tunnel. This provided a sleeve of mesh of about 5 layers covering the Nextel wick. I wrapped my coil wire directly over this, this time doing 8 wraps which gave me 1.3ohms after mounting. Removed the mesh after pulling out the paper clip leg which left me a larger diameter wrap of wire around the Nextel. This provided better expansion of the Nextel inside the coil. If I was to use a drill bit as a mold to pre-wrap the coil first and later thread the Nextel through it, my best guesstimate would be a bit the diameter of 5/64- 3/32".

Presoaked this completed wick while still attached to the RM2 for 5 hours before firing it up. Folks, the presoak did not improve anything. Vapor production was there but flavor was unsavory and muted. IMHO presoaking the wick is a waste of time and only through direct use will the coil break in. In my case about 3ml of juice. Its not a bad vape but certainly not anywhere close to its full potential. Supertrunker's experience seems to confirm this.

There was an unexpected observation to all of this though. A reduction in sizzle and small popping, was noticed while vaping. Electrical principals dictates that a higher resistance (in my case 1.3 vs 0.9ohms) would produce more heat. Seems the direct opposite was the result of my new coil. I can only attribute this to more juice being inside the coil because of the larger diameter, which effectively cooled the wraps of the coil.

Vapes per squonk continues to be outstanding, far exceeding my needs by a wide margin.

 

[clyde2801]

im thinking my new wick of choice is hemp love the flavor and durability

Is that like the American Indians using ALL of the buffalo?


I keed, I keed!

 

[hildicat]

Build #3

Definitely my best build to date. An additional step before wrapping the wick with wire was included with this build. On my previous build the wick inside the coil area looked to be too tightly wrapped, restricting juice capacity (not vapor production). To solve this problem I cut a piece of ss mesh about 3/4" x 1" in dimension and wrapped it around the Nextel which still had the paper clip leg and ribbon wire inserted into the tunnel. This provided a sleeve of mesh of about 5 layers covering the Nextel wick. I wrapped my coil wire directly over this, this time doing 8 wraps which gave me 1.3ohms after mounting. Removed the mesh after pulling out the paper clip leg which left me a larger diameter wrap of wire around the Nextel. This provided better expansion of the Nextel inside the coil. If I was to use a drill bit as a mold to pre-wrap the coil first and later thread the Nextel through it, my best guesstimate would be a bit the diameter of 5/64- 3/32".

Presoaked this completed wick while still attached to the RM2 for 5 hours before firing it up. Folks, the presoak did not improve anything. Vapor production was there but flavor was unsavory and muted. IMHO presoaking the wick is a waste of time and only through direct use will the coil break in. In my case about 3ml of juice. Its not a bad vape but certainly not anywhere close to its full potential. Supertrunker's experience seems to confirm this.

There was an unexpected observation to all of this though. A reduction in sizzle and small popping, was noticed while vaping. Electrical principals dictates that a higher resistance (in my case 1.3 vs 0.9ohms) would produce more heat. Seems the direct opposite was the result of my new coil. I can only attribute this to more juice being inside the coil because of the larger diameter, which effectively cooled the wraps of the coil.

Vapes per squonk continues to be outstanding, far exceeding my needs by a wide margin.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but assuming that same voltage was used, wouldn't .9Ω be hotter than 1.3Ω?

 

[boilednuts]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but assuming that same voltage was used, wouldn't .9Ω be hotter than 1.3Ω?

I first thought this to be true as well, but did research in this matter and found this (from an electrical engineering study site).....in a way it does make sense:

Applications
We saw that the more the electrical resistance of the wire the more the generated heat in the circuit but to know more accurately about the heating effect of current we should know it in the atomic level. As the flow of electric current is nothing but flow of electrons there will always be resistance from the fixed atoms of the wire. The fixed atoms of the wire resist the flow electrons and as a result there are collisions and as the kinetic energy converts into heat energy we see that the wire is getting hot
Now the generated heat can be viewed from many points of angles. Sometimes it is only seen as loss and is tried to be minimized. Various steps are taken to minimize heat dissipation from the conductor. But many positive application of this heating effect we can see in our daily life. Electric iron, the whole idea or working principle depends upon the heating effect of electric current. High resistant wire is used as the main coil in the electric iron when current flows through the coil, the coil gets heated and the iron works. But what about over heating of electric iron ? This problem can be overcome by using bimetallic conductors. Metal plates made of two different metals are used in the circuit. As expansion co-efficient of heat is different for two metals so due to heating effect one metal’s expansion is different from the other metal as a result the plate is bend and after reaching or certain temperature the contact of the circuit is broken and current flow through the coil is stopped and the electric iron too is not heated anymore.

Same mechanism is used in electric heater the only difference is that there is no bimetallic plate or circuit breaker involved.
Another application of heating effect of current is seen in electric bulbs. The wire which is used inside the bulb gets illuminated and emits light after reaching certain temperature. The metal used in bulb mainly made tungsten.
Finally and perhaps the most important application of heating effect of electric current is in electrical fuses, which are used in almost everywhere. From huge industries to domestic level, everywhere electric fuse is must. Fuse is made of such metals which has certain melting point. They are okay for normal current but when over current flows through the circuit the generated heat in the fuse wire is enough to melt the metal portion of the fuse wire and break the circuit. In this way the costly equipment are protected as huge current flow, can damage the equipments permanently.

 

[hildicat]

Not trying to argue, just want to understand things correctly.

According to my calculator

0.9Ω @ 3.7v = 15.2w

1.3Ω @ 3.7v = 10.5w

It was my understanding that more watts meant more heat, and my own experience has been the same. A 1.5Ω HH357 was a hotter vape than the 2.0Ω version. The same has held true for RBA's, though there are many other variables they introduce into the equation.

To your earlier observation that the new 1.3Ω coil showed reduced sizzle and pop than the 0.9Ω coil, I can point to two factors.
First, your coil is about 5 watts cooler. Second, your wick was less restricted in the coil. I've had similar experience with cotton.

When I force a very dense amount of cotton through the coil it will hiss and pop like crazy, but if I use a loose, fluffy wick, one that is not compressed, I don't get any of the fireworks.

Again, I don't wanna start any trouble, and I hope this doesn't come across in a bad way. Since we're all experimenting I want to make sure I understand the principles correctly.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

 

[boilednuts]

Not trying to argue, just want to understand things correctly.

According to my calculator

0.9Ω @ 3.7v = 15.2w

1.3Ω @ 3.7v = 10.5w

It was my understanding that more watts meant more heat, and my own experience has been the same. A 1.5Ω HH357 was a hotter vape than the 2.0Ω version. The same has held true for RBA's, though there are many other variables they introduce into the equation.

To your earlier observation that the new 1.3Ω coil showed reduced sizzle and pop than the 0.9Ω coil, I can point to two factors.
First, your coil is about 5 watts cooler. Second, your wick was less restricted in the coil. I've had similar experience with cotton.

When I force a very dense amount of cotton through the coil it will hiss and pop like crazy, but if I use a loose, fluffy wick, one that is not compressed, I don't get any of the fireworks.

Again, I don't wanna start any trouble, and I hope this doesn't come across in a bad way. Since we're all experimenting I want to make sure I understand the principles correctly.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

Believe me until yesterday, I was in your camp on this....but found so little information on Google. So I take no offense since I'm not at all familiar with the physics of electricity. Typical numbnut in this field, and like you, I wish for a better understanding. In fact, I think yesterday was the first time I read into Ohm's Law with any degree of interest, it seemed to take more time to understand in prior reads than I was willing to spend.

I'm thinking now that the two factors are true....where resistance does incur some heat build-up and watts the one with the most accountability. To use friction as an analogy, where an object passing through two different media, the media which is denser has the greater effect. Thank you for the correction and better understanding.

 

[supertrunker]

What's the interior dims of the micro-coil you want to fit out with nextel, Supertrunker? I haven't tried smaller than 1/16 with the drill bit method; but I know that works. Just takes a drop of juice on the nextel, and some insistent and repeated pressing corkscrewing. As soon as it breaks the initial rim (of coil), it slips right on through.

Also, I've wrapped both the skinny and fat nextel freehand, and have had no issues with "choking" the wick.

The wick i have says it 1/32" - but it's hollow - so it really doesn't seem anything like that small. Next time i shall maybe even dip one end in candle wax or something and force it thru!

T

 

[Commie]

The wick i have says it 1/32" - but it's hollow - so it really doesn't seem anything like that small. Next time i shall maybe even dip one end in candle wax or something and force it thru!

T

They measure it in a silly way. 1/32" is the internal diameter rather than external. Its original purpose is to serve as insulation for wires, so they mean that you can put a 1/32" thick wire through it.

 

[pdib]

The wick i have says it 1/32" - but it's hollow - so it really doesn't seem anything like that small. Next time i shall maybe even dip one end in candle wax or something and force it thru!

T

Yes, but what size is the coil? What did you wrap it on? The outside dims of the 1/32 (so called as boilednuts describes) nextel is 1/16" or 1.5mm. So a coil wrapped around a 1/16 drill bit accommodates it nicely. Anything you might add (other than juice) like wax or superglue, just makes it bigger (I've tried).