AGA-T2 hotspots

[GimmieMore]

SO I've been trying to build a soild coil on my AGA-T2. It is fairly new, and so am I (to RBAs).

I used the wick from the last coil I built, which worked but I was drunk and showing it off and poked at it until the wire broke... lol

Not sure what kind of mesh, but I am using 32g Kanthal. 4 wraps, checked ohms (with my Vamo) and gave it a test fire. Blew the section between the top coil and the post almost immediately. Wrapped it again and it is coming in between .8 and 1 depending on how I fiddle with it. But I am still getting that serious hotspot at the top.

I tried shortening the distance. I tried wrapping it both tighter and looser. I put a dent in the wire. Nothing seems to matter.

Help?

 

[Rmcgloth]

Four wraps is a pretty hot coil. Try a 5-6 to be able to cook out the hotspot. I have also done wet burns ( a drop of juice on the wick) to get a little more gunk below the wire for insulation with good success. An m2 washer will help reduce the distance on the top leg by a mm or so, or you can tilt the wick towards the post a bit. In my experience, if the top coil keeps blowing, the second coil is the culprit, blocking the path. Tease it at low voltage until the glow starts moving down.

 

[Lavaca5]

You sound like me - I wrapped that coil every which way I could think of and still had shorts or hot spots. The AGA-T2 is notorious for them. The only thing that finally made them usable for me was putting a Nextel ceramic sleeve over the mesh. I just started using it, so I will spare you the noob misinformation, but there are several threads where you can get all the deets and some tips on using it. It unravels if you look at it wrong, but otherwise it's easy to set up and it COMPLETELY eliminates hot spots. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

 

[Narkotiq]

The only way to avoid that topcoil hotspot is to secure the wire to the negative before wrapping, so that I can control how tight the wire is wrapped and make sure it's even. It sounds like the top coil is wrapped a bit more loose than the next coil down. As someone else said, the next coil down is probably your issue. Nudge the lower coil or start from a very low voltage and work your way up. Make sure there isn't a short that's blowing that top coil. I also don't oxidize my wire before wrapping, I wrap a coil and let it dry burn a few times, fully glowing, to oxidize the wire and burn off impurities. It also helps if the wire coming off the positive post is completely horizontal between the post and the wick.

Hope something in there helps!

 

[gokusnimbus]

very informative genesis tutorial

Genesis Style Coil Rebuild by Vapelyfe - YouTube

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

I have a walkthrough in my blog.

 

[hacklerjason]

had that problem... the problem with the 32g is the wire is super thin and overheats to melting point easily... when i first got my aga t+ i believe it came with a section of 32g, im unsure... but i had purchased 34g kanthal a-1 to rewind it with and believe me that was hella frustrating... it would take me a few minutes to get a coil wrapped and then after ohming i test fire and pop! this went on for many times once in awhile...
i did finally get it working... when i was using 34g i had the setup working great at 3/2 @ 2.2ohms 3.2-3.5v... i have since switched to 30g kanthal a-1 and now wrap 4/3 @ 1.2ohms 3.0-3.5v... it is much easier to set up with 30g as the wire is more forgiving to initially firing under shorted conditions and wont pop when pulse-adjusting the coils... but, im getting some killer tokes out of the aga in the early hours of the morning when just waking up and no way to turn below 3.0v on the PV im using so i may try out a 5/4 @ 1.5ohms 3.0-4.0v... here are some photos... another thing... do yourself the favor and go to your local hobby shop where they sell r/c parts... i had to go there to find the m2 nuts and washers... the stupid thumb nuts that came with the aga are rubbish! if you look in the photos you will see i rebuilt the top of the pin like this (~-------=||[][]||[]) ... "~" about halfway down the pin, "----" the pin itself, "=|" the clear silicone grommet at the center of the top deck, "|" is a washer, "[]" are the nuts... when done correctly it seats well... the double jam nuts lock the pin in place and the two washers sandwich the wire... i wouldve used the spring trick another user had come up with but i like more pressure holding my wire than a pen spring can provide... good contact is a good thing!





EDIT
Forgot to mention an important trick i found somewhere in these threads... kink the leads away from the coil the closest you can to the coil... see the photo for what i mean... if you kink the leads the "hot legs" wont be a problem... when youre setting up the coil, the legs may still glow hot because theres not air or liquid cooling yet... but once you add juice and the top cap you wont get hot legs at the top or bottom leads...

The for sure fix for the two problems.... hot legs = washers on top of center pin and kinks in the leads to the coil... and hot spots = wrap the coil tighter or adjust it tighter...