Hey guys, this is my first post to this site. I've followed a lot of threads and you guys are always so helpful to the community with your advice and sharing ideas. I figured I should try to give back the little bit of knowledge I've obtained in my recent endeavors of coil buildings to try to help out like you have for me.
This will be my own tips and tricks for what helped ME build alien Claptons. A slight disclaimer: I am fairly new to the whole vaping scene, once I started building my own coils I was hooked. I am an engineer by trade, I had absolutely no problems with any coil I tried to build until I came across the alien clapton. I've watched every youtube tutorial on it and read every guide, the following is my interpretation on what helped me build them and I hope it can help someone else. This will not be a step-by-step guide, it is assuming you understand the basic concept and just need some tips.
The gear:
Notes:
Here is a coil I just made with 26g kanthal wrapped in 36g nichrome, it's not going to win any awards but with my setup I managed to knock it out in around 13 minutes start to finish and I didn't pull any hair out from frustration:
If you have any of your own tips/tricks to share with me I am always eager to learn new and better ways.
This will be my own tips and tricks for what helped ME build alien Claptons. A slight disclaimer: I am fairly new to the whole vaping scene, once I started building my own coils I was hooked. I am an engineer by trade, I had absolutely no problems with any coil I tried to build until I came across the alien clapton. I've watched every youtube tutorial on it and read every guide, the following is my interpretation on what helped me build them and I hope it can help someone else. This will not be a step-by-step guide, it is assuming you understand the basic concept and just need some tips.
The gear:
- The first thing that made a major difference was getting a micro chuck for my drill. All my drills have fairly large chucks, requiring me to bend the ends of my wire to keep it in place. I picked up a micro chuck from amazon and haven't looked back since. It has 4 jaws instead of 3, so you can keep your wires flat. It also holds from 0" - 1/32", eliminating the need for bending your ends. I picked mine up from amazon. This is what it looks like:
- The second thing that helped was using GOOD swivels. I already had a collection as I fish in my free time, the ones that worked the best for me were the P-Line High Speed Rollers. It's a chain of swivels, and they perform the best of any I tried. I attach them together with some duo-lock snaps. I picked mine up from a local Sportsman Warehouse but you can also find them in most tackle shops or online. This is what they look like:
- Nichrome. Once I started using Nichrome as the de-cored clapton my life became easier. Not only does it look MUCH better (it has smaller gaps and is shiny) it seems quite a bit easier to work with.
- Paperclips. I see a lot of people suggesting using tape to keep your 3 core wires straight, personally I have had the most success with a paperclip or two. I pull the middle tab out slightly and attach it to the core wires on the opposite side for more tension. If you get the right amount of tension on your paperclip you won't need to move it down the wire, it will slide down on its own as you wrap.
Notes:
- By far the biggest factor in making a decent alien that I have noticed is the spacing of the de-cored wire. If you stretch it too far it will bunch up your 3 core wires and you will have to scrap your project. If you don't stretch it enough it won't bunch up the core wires but it will not lay flat on them, it will have an extra angle and make it into a triangle. I have found it is better to under stretch your clapton than over stretch it. You can deal with an under-stretched clapton by either stretching it more or just apply more pressure to the wire as you wrap it around the core (my personal choice).
- Speed of your drill is affected by the quality of your materials and the steadiness of your hand. If all your wires are straight and your de-cored clapton is stretched and spaced evenly, you can go fairly quickly with your drill once you do your initial wraps. This assumes you are holding your de-cored wire with a steady hand without changing the pressure applied and moving it at an even pace down your core wires while you wrap. Personally I have to go a bit quicker than I see in video tutorials because the slower I go the more chance I have at messing up due to impatience.
Here is a coil I just made with 26g kanthal wrapped in 36g nichrome, it's not going to win any awards but with my setup I managed to knock it out in around 13 minutes start to finish and I didn't pull any hair out from frustration:
If you have any of your own tips/tricks to share with me I am always eager to learn new and better ways.
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