AGA-T+ Rebuildable Atomizer

[ericska]

@ericska, I just ordered 3 ceramic wicks, now I'm not sure why they call these ceramic because they really are mineral stone, I used to have a lot of aquariums. I have tried to cut my own, I met with some success but its a lot work and messy, I really don't want to work that hard. So I quests that would solve some problems I'm having. I just wanted to quit smoking and be done with e cigs. When I started I never dreamed I be in this deep. As far as saving money, cigs are about 9 bucks a pack here, 12 in the city. I suppose I'm saving some, but I throw a lot of money at this Hobby? or Habit? Anyway I might a well get these wicks before I get too frustrated. My big expense is really juice, I go thru at least 30ml a week and I pay nearly 30 dollars a bottle. I live near ***** ***** and I just drop by and have it made up. Well what heck I did quit smoking. I'm a Streetrodder, and when I'm out in my 39 Chevy I have got my hands full so it's difficult to fool with these things I need to rely on simpler devices which are not as satisfying bu a little safer.

LOL! I did said the same thing as you did, why they called it ceramic. It is sandy mineral stone with Aluminum Oxide and a vitrified ceramic bonding agent. It's totally same material as air bubble stone used in aquarium, also very close to popular bench grinder wheel stone. I did made my own stone wick from aquarium air stone, but you have to fire test it to see whether it is the correct one. See my other thread how I made mine in - http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/malaysia-forum/384046-alamak-omg-all-hail-porous-ceramic-wick.html. If you're interesting to know more try read this thread - http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/362182-next-big-thing-porous-ceramic-wicks.html, people there are even going crazy trying to make their own atomizer special for ceramic wick! Now I'm also going too deep trying to build my own PV and atomizer too, anyway I love handcraft stuff which is part of my hobbies. I also don't know how much money I have wasted on the juices.., that's why I also started to DIY my own juices, that did saved lot of money but too troublesome indeed. All in all, money isn't big deal, the important part is we are saved! From that over 4,000 chemicals and 250 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer, the cigarette! So, vape on, my fellow vaper!

 

[Jonathan Ng]

Hey peeps. Great thread! Here's mine, with my fav blend - kona milkshake from vv and american tobacco from liqua

 

[ericska]

Hey peeps. Great thread! Here's mine, with my fav blend - kona milkshake from vv and american tobacco from liqua

Welcome fellow vaper!
Nice looking PV there! What's that wrap on eVic? Enlarge it for better grabbing?

 

[ericska]

A friend brought me his ATA-T2 for enlarging the wick hole to fit his FC2000 ceramick wick. Thanks to him I have a chance to see what the different between T+ and T2. Disassembled it and alamak...

Here the different...


T+ uses orange o-ring as seal.


But T2 uses white silicone as seal...

The bottom of the deck...

For T+, there's plenty of space for large wick hole.


But T2... it's getting my head big... NO SPACE!!!


Called my friend, and he said "Go ahead, if ruin buy new one."....
Ok, go ahead... drilled with 9/64"(3.56mm) drill bit with head full of sweat... and here the result...

It look horrible... The wick is contacted the silicone seal... I believe silicone can withstand the heat from ceramic wick, but just don't like it... Friend said no problem.


And for T+, I believe I still can drill up to 4mm if I want to..


I still love T+, but if who don't need large wick, T2 is good to go.

 

[brolaf]

AWESOME work bro. been reading your posts and you have some really great material.

on the AGA T+/2, any idea why there's a difference? are they different batches or something? Or is the T+ actually T3? (terminator!)

EDIT: I asked a supplier and he said this: "The one you're talking about is actually AGA-T+ vs the original AGA-T (with the knurly bottom ring). The manufacturer themselves describe the orange O-ring version as AGA-T (v1), Aga-T+ is the new version (smoother chrome finish without knurly rings), and AGA-T2 as the pyrex glass version (just the tank). Since we give both PCC and glass tanks, ours is essentially both the AGA-T+ and the AGA-T2. Hahaha, confusing but just to let you know."

So i guess the one your friend lent you is actually the original Aga-T? that would explain the extra space for a large wick hole. alot of people actually complain that there's too much space between the wick and the center post, causing the top wire hot spot. Apparently this was fixed in the T+ version (which also means less space to enlarge the wick hole).

A friend brought me his ATA-T2 for enlarging the wick hole to fit his FC2000 ceramick wick. Thanks to him I have a chance to see what the different between T+ and T2. Disassembled it and alamak...

Here the different...

T+ uses orange o-ring as seal.

But T2 uses white silicone as seal...

The bottom of the deck...

For T+, there's plenty of space for large wick hole.

But T2... it's getting my head big... NO SPACE!!!

Called my friend, and he said "Go ahead, if ruin buy new one."....
Ok, go ahead... drilled with 9/64"(3.56mm) drill bit with head full of sweat... and here the result...

It look horrible... The wick is contacted the silicone seal... I believe silicone can withstand the heat from ceramic wick, but just don't like it... Friend said no problem.

And for T+, I believe I still can drill up to 4mm if I want to..

I still love T+, but if who don't need large wick, T2 is good to go.

 

[ericska]

AWESOME work bro. been reading your posts and you have some really great material.

on the AGA T+/2, any idea why there's a difference? are they different batches or something? Or is the T+ actually T3? (terminator!)

EDIT: I asked a supplier and he said this: "The one you're talking about is actually AGA-T+ vs the original AGA-T (with the knurly bottom ring). The manufacturer themselves describe the orange O-ring version as AGA-T (v1), Aga-T+ is the new version (smoother chrome finish without knurly rings), and AGA-T2 as the pyrex glass version (just the tank). Since we give both PCC and glass tanks, ours is essentially both the AGA-T+ and the AGA-T2. Hahaha, confusing but just to let you know."

So i guess the one your friend lent you is actually the original Aga-T? that would explain the extra space for a large wick hole. alot of people actually complain that there's too much space between the wick and the center post, causing the top wire hot spot. Apparently this was fixed in the T+ version (which also means less space to enlarge the wick hole).

Thanks for compliment, me just wanna share what I have experienced.

There's no original AGA-T(or T1) in my post #244... Long ago I did saw and tried the original T1 from another friend and never like it, cause it was a screw on cap and air hole not aligned to the wick. Already shown in my post #6.

This is the original AGA-T(Terminator 1. ), with knurling ring.

=============================

The AGA-T+ you saw in post #244 is mine. Which used the same orange o-ring glass tank sealer as the original AGA-T. The only different between original AGA-T and AGA-T+ is, AGA-T+ don't has knurling ring and it's a snap on cap with adjustable air hole. The rest are similar to original AGA-T.

Post #16 shown lot more detail about my AGA-T+.

=============================

And my friend brought me his two of AGA-T2 asked me to help enlarge the wick hole was bought from here. There were "AGA-T2" written on its packing box(I don't have the picture of that boxes, he took them back already when I done the help.).
This is AGA-T2...

As you can see, there is no knurling ring and it's also a snap on cap like AGA-T+.

Here few pictures from where my friend bought his AGA-T2.

===============================

And, the different between AGA-T+ and AGA-T2 is the glass tank sealer. Original AGA-T and AGA-T+ used the same orange O-ring.


And the groove for orange o-ring is narrow, that make there's still plenty of space to drill out a large wick hole.

But AGA-T2 has wider groove and wider silicone ring, there's no more space...

===============================

For the distance between the wick hole and center post. From my view, the first version original AGA-T to AGA-T+ to the last version AGA-T2, still not much different... I think they(manufacturer) can't make it any closer because of center post pillar is too big, too fat, limited! Unless they redesign the center post pillar thinner, slimmer. Or bigger thumb nuts for center post. But that won't be big issue, it's easy to solve. Just leave the coil end at center post a bit long, then twist the coil end back to the wick like the picture show:

Thanks to eHuman for this tip! Or another way, add the washer.

And extra photos here, I helped my friend installed and coiled the FC2000 in his AGA-T2s.

Testing... passed, coil glow nicely from the middle...


Edit:
AGA-T is the first version, came with Polycarbonate tank.
AGA-T+ is the second version, came with Polycarbonate tank. Pyrex glass tank optional, but some vendors added in for free.
AGA-T2 is third version, come with Pyrex glass tank only.
The rest differences already mentioned above. Those are what I know. If you wanna know more, email sale@yourcig.com the manufacturer.
By the way, they have come up another new tank! AGI dripping & tank stainless rebuildable atomizer! A 2 in 1 tank, can be a dripper can be a genesis tank.

 

[eHuman]

I know it makes no sense, but I have knowledge of the changes to add for your consideration.
When the AGA-T came out with the o-ring cap and no knurling they called it the AGA-T+. The AGA-T+ came with the plastic tank. At the very same time they came out with the AGA-T2 which was identical to the AGA-T+ except it came with the glass tank option. (So + was o-ring cap and plastic tank, 2 was o-ring cap and glass tank both introduced at the same time)

The AGA-T2/+ was a very good RBA, the best of the line to date. Youde had a problem with their machine breaking glass tanks during assembly, it would apply too much pressure while "placing" the tank, and as a result ended up with much broken glass piling up needing recycling. They could not "teach" their software/hardware to place tanks with no breaking. So they changed the AGA-T design not because there was a engineering/design problem with the AGA-T+/2, but because they could not build AGA-T assembly machines that was capable of doing what they needed/intended.

They redesigned the tank to receive a silicon grommet so it would cushion the pressure during insertion by the assembly machine. Changing the tank design to accept grommets instead of o-rings required changing the top and bottom cap milling profile. They then release this new RBA as the "AGA-T2". No name change, they did not notify vendors or customers of this design change. It upset very many people for various reasons, one of which is the ability to drill out the wick hole that you so thoroughly detailed above. Another problem is that after market colored glass tanks for the AGA-T2 that vendors shelves were full of no longer fit this newly changed tank. Owners pre purchased tanks for their incoming AGA-T2s only to find great disappointment upon opening up the box..

I was in the beginning stages of a co-op that included AGA-T2s and IGO-Ls when I came by this information and with it the co-op leader was able to negotiate a special production run of the original AGA-T2 design, but also with 1/8" wick holes. (in reality we got 3mm holes but it was better). We got the last of the "good version" to my knowledge, hopefully enough people will complain that they will revert back to the superior design permanently.

So in reality there is no naming convention difference of the o-ring AGA-T2 and the gommet AGA-T2 (grommet AGA-t+ where never offered, only glass tank at that point in production change). Unless the manufacturer has come out after the fact to change or settle the naming conventions that I am not aware of, you can't know which T2 you have by name alone, you have to pop the cap off.

My opinion is the grommet version was a setback in quality in an attempt to cover poor engineering ability. Youde makes the best Chinese RBAs in my opinion and they gave themselves a black eye in the vaping community with this decision.

Next coming out from Youde is the AGI which is a tank and a dripper. It looks very nice, I love the look of the cap. What I don't like about it is they use a center post from the IGO-L design. A very small post for a tank/genny style RBA. Time will tell on that, but I think it will sell for the novelty factor, but functionally it will loose it's charm very quickly. By way of looks, we already have people looking into the possibility of just buying the caps to put on our AGA-T2s, the look is very appealing.

Just thought I would share my thoughts with my PI vaping community.

 

[ericska]

I know it makes no sense, but I have knowledge of the changes to add for your consideration.
When the AGA-T came out with the o-ring cap and no knurling they called it the AGA-T+. The AGA-T+ came with the plastic tank. At the very same time they came out with the AGA-T2 which was identical to the AGA-T+ except it came with the glass tank option. (So + was o-ring cap and plastic tank, 2 was o-ring cap and glass tank both introduced at the same time)

The AGA-T2/+ was a very good RBA, the best of the line to date. Youde had a problem with their machine breaking glass tanks during assembly, it would apply too much pressure while "placing" the tank, and as a result ended up with much broken glass piling up needing recycling. They could not "teach" their software/hardware to place tanks with no breaking. So they changed the AGA-T design not because there was a engineering/design problem with the AGA-T+/2, but because they could not build AGA-T assembly machines that was capable of doing what they needed/intended.

They redesigned the tank to receive a silicon grommet so it would cushion the pressure during insertion by the assembly machine. Changing the tank design to accept grommets instead of o-rings required changing the top and bottom cap milling profile. They then release this new RBA as the "AGA-T2". No name change, they did not notify vendors or customers of this design change. It upset very many people for various reasons, one of which is the ability to drill out the wick hole that you so thoroughly detailed above. Another problem is that after market colored glass tanks for the AGA-T2 that vendors shelves were full of no longer fit this newly changed tank. Owners pre purchased tanks for their incoming AGA-T2s only to find great disappointment upon opening up the box..

I was in the beginning stages of a co-op that included AGA-T2s and IGO-Ls when I came by this information and with it the co-op leader was able to negotiate a special production run of the original AGA-T2 design, but also with 1/8" wick holes. (in reality we got 3mm holes but it was better). We got the last of the "good version" to my knowledge, hopefully enough people will complain that they will revert back to the superior design permanently.

So in reality there is no naming convention difference of the o-ring AGA-T2 and the gommet AGA-T2 (grommet AGA-t+ where never offered, only glass tank at that point in production change). Unless the manufacturer has come out after the fact to change or settle the naming conventions that I am not aware of, you can't know which T2 you have by name alone, you have to pop the cap off.

My opinion is the grommet version was a setback in quality in an attempt to cover poor engineering ability. Youde makes the best Chinese RBAs in my opinion and they gave themselves a black eye in the vaping community with this decision.

Next coming out from Youde is the AGI which is a tank and a dripper. It looks very nice, I love the look of the cap. What I don't like about it is they use a center post from the IGO-L design. A very small post for a tank/genny style RBA. Time will tell on that, but I think it will sell for the novelty factor, but functionally it will loose it's charm very quickly. By way of looks, we already have people looking into the possibility of just buying the caps to put on our AGA-T2s, the look is very appealing.

Just thought I would share my thoughts with my PI vaping community.

I see... So they changed the orange o-ring just because of their assembling problem with AGA-T2 which was glass tank version. That was really bad idea they even milled the groove wider for new silicone grommet(I called it seal is it ok? )... that left no space for larger wick hole. Lucky I bought mine earlier.

I also found that their Pyrex glass tanks' diameter were not of uniform size. Some 20mm and some 19.65mm... And I end up have to stick the 0.2mm thickness Teflon tape so it'll fits center in T+...



Yeah, I also like the look of AGI's cap too. Now I'm thinking of machine one like that to replace my AGA-T+... Hey, why not make a changeable airhole size on the cap?

 

[weisner]

Anybody knows of an rba smaller than the aga-t but not as small as the igo-l?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Drunker tanks is a good beginner. I have two.

 

[Aizerson]

alright mine with a white silicon meaning i cant bore it to 1/8.. or can i? Will d mini rotary tool works if i want to do my own fishstone wick..? just need to get a diamond cutting wheel right..? what size? and will the mini drill able to drill out the wick hole on the aga

 

[ericska]

alright mine with a white silicon meaning i cant bore it to 1/8.. or can i?

Already shown on post #244 & #246. Edit: If you don't mind the wick touching the silicone grommet.

Will d mini rotary tool works if i want to do my own fishstone wick..? just need to get a diamond cutting wheel right..? what size?

Please go to http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/malaysia-forum/384046-alamak-omg-all-hail-porous-ceramic-wick.html, off topic here.

and will the mini drill able to drill out the wick hole on the aga

AGA is made of rigid 304 stainless steel, unless your mini drill is as powerful as bench drill press.
Or you can use diamond file like this one:

 

[Aizerson]

alright thank you..

 

[ericska]

alright thank you..

No problemo.

 

[cr0nz3r0]

This is mine:

AGA-T+ with custom top cap on Roller SS, besides Orion hybrid mod. 0.8 ohm using 28 AWG (0.3mm) kanthal

 

[ericska]

This is mine:

AGA-T+ with custom top cap on Roller SS, besides Orion hybrid mod. 0.8 ohm using 28 AWG (0.3mm) kanthal

Very nice! Just ordered some 316 stainless steel rod(25mm) from Melaka. I'm going to machine my own cap too!

 

[Thestaar]

Hi!

can someone help me with this, the kanthal snaps everytime, it snaps between the centerpost and the coil, even at 3 watts it snaps so I cant really do anything. It is heating up so quickly there and glowing red.

Thx!

 

[ericska]

Hi!

can someone help me with this, the kanthal snaps everytime, it snaps between the centerpost and the coil, even at 3 watts it snaps so I cant really do anything. It is heating up so quickly there and glowing red.

Thx!

You might have shorted between your coil and wick.(You use ss mesh?) Otherwise try the method in my post #183. Hope I'm helping.

 

[Thestaar]

You might have shorted between your coil and wick.(You use ss mesh?) Otherwise try the method in my post #183. Hope I'm helping.

Yes I use ss mesh.

Yes I tried that and it doesnt work better, I tried to minimise the distance between coil and centerpost but it snaps faster if I do that.

What gauge is recommended for the kanthal?

 

[vapir]

Yes I use ss mesh.

Yes I tried that and it doesnt work better, I tried to minimise the distance between coil and centerpost but it snaps faster if I do that.

What gauge is recommended for the kanthal?

I recommend Kanthal Ribbon 0.1 x 0.4 for SS mesh (that's what I'm using). The flatness of the ribbon tends to reduce the number of hotspots.

I also suspect you may be over tightening your coil at the top. This used to happen to me a lot when I was first starting out, until I started using the Petar K method. You only want the SS mesh to touch the coil, and not have the coil bite into the mesh, which causes shorts and hotspots. The ideal setup is when you can gently twist the mesh and 'unscrew' it from the coil.

Ericska's method on post #183 also helps when I still get stubborn hotspots but that's fairly rare now.

 

[preq2003]

you may use twisted kanthal. you can google how to make it. me too have that problem before but never since, even no hotspot, no need to bend the wick.