Ok, got my mini and set it up.
The finish was just as shiny as the original A7. I ended up sticking it in the drill and brishing that shine off, just like I did with the original.
Washed it, secured the positive connector by Karen's condom method (Karen's method, not condom), and made the coil.
That's where I ran into the first difficulty. The same diameter coil (I wrap them around a toothpick) is very hard to fit between the posts. The distance between posts is a good 1.5mm less than the original A7. Sorry, I don't have the tools to measure exactly. As I only have 30gauge kanthal, I couldn't easily make a smaller diameter coil, or I'd end up with about 10-12 loops. So, tight fit.
Once I got my coil far away from the posts, everything went fine. Stuck my wick through it, put the ends into the atty cup. The cup is noticeably smaller, so less wick fits in there. Adjusted it closer to the air intake, put on the cap and vaped like crazy.
Conclusions:
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The original coil that comes with it is horrible. As in, soaked in machine oil
I think it looks better on the Grand than the bigger A7
It's a tiny bit shorter.
The outer shell seems to heat up very fast
As far as TH, flavor and amount of vapor, it seems the same as A7, which is a good thing
It does not work on a VMod. The diameter is too small to hold the mod's shell on. Bummer, since that's what I got it for. Oh well, now I can put my old A7 on the VMod.
Edit -- picture explanation, in order: big A7 on Grand, big and mini A7's side by side, mini A7 on the Grand, mini with coil and wick from the top.