I'd strongly urge you to subscribe, read, follow and ask questions in the rayon thread I posted back a few, a lot of those folks have been using it much longer then I have and that's where I learned.
When I first started using rayon it took me about six weeks to get it right so don't give up on it too quick, some are lucky and get it right pretty quickly. You do need to use more then cotton because it will settle and shrink, to little and you'll end up loosing full contact with the coil after breakin. Two rules of thumb, more is better when stuffing the coil and less is better when trimming the tails. I use dual spaced coils in the Steam Crave Aromamizer's, with those I trim the tails down to less then half, sometimes I trim as much as 3/4 off. I could go very thin and still have it feed the coils but then I wouldn't have enough to cover the feed holes and it would leak. The amount of thinning will depend on your build, the design of the atty and how thick or thin your juice is, but a very thin tail will feed the coil just fine even with high vg. I'd try well thinned, if the atty leaks go a little more, like many things it will just take trial and error.
The Sally's rope rayon I'll be sending, I cut a strip, pull it gently width wise to open up the fibers, hold it up to a light and look for an bunched spots or tiny knots, if I can't pull them free I toss it and cut another strip, I have a 500 foot box, tossing some out isn't the end of the world. Once I have a good piece to work with, at one cut end I pinch off enough that looks like it would be about right and gently pull off a length, wet and twist the end to feed through the coil, I start gently pulling it through, then I go by feel. If it's pulling easy with no resistance at all I don't have enough, pull it back out, add a little or pull a new strip, if it feels a tad tight I'll pull on both ends, give a gentle stretch, with tension on both ends pull it back and forth slowly through the coil, if it still feels too tight, pulling hard on the coil, take it out and pull a little off. I want to feel some resistance when I pull it through the coil, not super tight to the point it's distorting the coil but if the coil moves a tiny bit then springs back in place when I let up it's about right. Once wicked I cut the ends long then on one tail pull it gently apart to thin, try to get a clean separation of the fibers down to the coil, best you can, a small sewing needle will help here. Then once I have the tail split, I cut the top of the tail off so the remaining tail is on the bottom side of the coil so when I fold the tail under the coil I'm NOT folding it over the cut ends. This makes a cleaner bend and leaves the cut ends exposed so if I have over stuffed the coil I can use tweezers and pull a few fibers out of the coil at a time until I get a good vape, I don't have to start all over.
If you get it too tight you'll get the "wet t-shirt" taste, described as like sucking on a wet cotton t-shirt, unless it's way overstuffed that will go away as the wick shrinks during break in. My personal rule is, if I get the wet t-shirt taste I know it's going to be a good build, I'd rather get it then not. If it doesn't go away after a bit I can pull a few fibers out because of the way I trimmed it at the top.
Bottom line, you have to invest time to read up, use it and keep with it until you find what works best for your builds and atty, it is different then cotton and well worth the learning curve, in my opinion anyways.
When I first started using rayon it took me about six weeks to get it right so don't give up on it too quick, some are lucky and get it right pretty quickly. You do need to use more then cotton because it will settle and shrink, to little and you'll end up loosing full contact with the coil after breakin. Two rules of thumb, more is better when stuffing the coil and less is better when trimming the tails. I use dual spaced coils in the Steam Crave Aromamizer's, with those I trim the tails down to less then half, sometimes I trim as much as 3/4 off. I could go very thin and still have it feed the coils but then I wouldn't have enough to cover the feed holes and it would leak. The amount of thinning will depend on your build, the design of the atty and how thick or thin your juice is, but a very thin tail will feed the coil just fine even with high vg. I'd try well thinned, if the atty leaks go a little more, like many things it will just take trial and error.
The Sally's rope rayon I'll be sending, I cut a strip, pull it gently width wise to open up the fibers, hold it up to a light and look for an bunched spots or tiny knots, if I can't pull them free I toss it and cut another strip, I have a 500 foot box, tossing some out isn't the end of the world. Once I have a good piece to work with, at one cut end I pinch off enough that looks like it would be about right and gently pull off a length, wet and twist the end to feed through the coil, I start gently pulling it through, then I go by feel. If it's pulling easy with no resistance at all I don't have enough, pull it back out, add a little or pull a new strip, if it feels a tad tight I'll pull on both ends, give a gentle stretch, with tension on both ends pull it back and forth slowly through the coil, if it still feels too tight, pulling hard on the coil, take it out and pull a little off. I want to feel some resistance when I pull it through the coil, not super tight to the point it's distorting the coil but if the coil moves a tiny bit then springs back in place when I let up it's about right. Once wicked I cut the ends long then on one tail pull it gently apart to thin, try to get a clean separation of the fibers down to the coil, best you can, a small sewing needle will help here. Then once I have the tail split, I cut the top of the tail off so the remaining tail is on the bottom side of the coil so when I fold the tail under the coil I'm NOT folding it over the cut ends. This makes a cleaner bend and leaves the cut ends exposed so if I have over stuffed the coil I can use tweezers and pull a few fibers out of the coil at a time until I get a good vape, I don't have to start all over.
If you get it too tight you'll get the "wet t-shirt" taste, described as like sucking on a wet cotton t-shirt, unless it's way overstuffed that will go away as the wick shrinks during break in. My personal rule is, if I get the wet t-shirt taste I know it's going to be a good build, I'd rather get it then not. If it doesn't go away after a bit I can pull a few fibers out because of the way I trimmed it at the top.
Bottom line, you have to invest time to read up, use it and keep with it until you find what works best for your builds and atty, it is different then cotton and well worth the learning curve, in my opinion anyways.
