Augvape Merlin RTA build with silica?

[trentenmarschel]

I am getting a new Merlin RTA sometime soon, and I wanted to know if anyone has ever used silica wick with this tank. If so, how well does it work? I have a lot of bulk silica wick on hand and I would like to use it before I switch to cotton. I may be over thinking this, but I was also conjuring up this crazy thought last night. I have a cheap RTA that uses a mesh wick. Is it possible to use silica wick but then wrap a small amount of 500 mesh around the silica wick that sits in the middle of the coil? My thinking is that the silica would wick the juice up and it would sit in the mesh like a mini tank. If I were to take a heavy draw, the mesh would provide enough juice to avoid a dry hit. Then the silica would continue to replenish the mesh. Again this was just another thought on a wick setup.

If silica doesn't work well with this particular RTA, how would I go about using cotton? Do I just buy a bunch of cotton balls and use them?

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Eskie]

Cotton balls are one way. I use Japanese organic cotton which comes in sheets/pads. It's pretty cheap and is used for makeup so it's not just a specialty vape cotton. As it's a pad, I pull off the heavier cotton from the front and back of the pad, then use the light fluffy stuff from the middle. If you take a look through the Merlin thread you'll see a bunch of photos of cotton wicking, as well as the ever helpful YouTube demos.

I hope someone does come along with some silica experience to help you out. At worst, you try the silica and either get it to work (good) or not (you tried). At least Japanese cotton pads are really cheap and you can easily find them on Amazon.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Cotton balls are one way. I use Japanese organic cotton which comes in sheets/pads. It's pretty cheap and is used for makeup so it's not just a specialty vape cotton. As it's a pad, I pull off the heavier cotton from the front and back of the pad, then use the light fluffy stuff from the middle. If you take a look through the Merlin thread you'll see a bunch of photos of cotton wicking, as well as the ever helpful YouTube demos.

I hope someone does come along with some silica experience to help you out. At worst, you try the silica and either get it to work (good) or not (you tried). At least Japanese cotton pads are really cheap and you can easily find them on Amazon.

Thanks, I will definitely try the cotton if I can't get the silica to work. I really want to try the silica mesh combo. I just did a little research and it seems I am not the first to think of this. There are a few videos of people wrapping mesh around the silica for their wick setup. I would think that would give the coil enough reserve of juice from the mesh while the silica wicks more juice.

But yea, I hope someone has some experience using silica with this. I have always used silica with my kayfun 3.1 from the day I got it, and I have not had any serious issues. At first I was using too much silica so it was flooding, I learned to cut down to just 2 strands of 3mm wick and I cut one strand at both ends of the coil so it is only 2 strands in the coil and one on the ends.

 

[Eskie]

You'll get it worked out. Might take a bit, or could be perfect from build 1. Given the amount of silica you have on hand, and the fact you like it, it would be silly to not try.

 

[nelsonm64]

hmmm, I have some German silica left over from back in the day before the cotton revolution. the German stuff is quite fluffy and just might wick good enough. I'll be back

 

[trentenmarschel]

I got it yesterday, and I decided today that I would build a coil on it. I am working on it now, but my first big issue is that the Hex key that they provided to loosen the screws is too small. I was able to loosen the screws on one post, but the key just turns in the screws on the other side. So now I have to dig through my toolbox to try and find one that will work. So my first impressions for a very beautiful and good looking RTA are not that great when they provide a Hex wrench that is too small.

 

[trentenmarschel]

If anyone has had this issue, and found a quick workaround way to get those screws out, I would very much love to hear it. I was unable to find anything that was the right fit. I had some torx screw driver bits, and I have used those in the past to get a hex screw out of things. The only problem was I had a T4, T5, T8, and several more larger bits. The T8 was too big, and the T5 was just slightly too small. I don't have a dang T6 bit which seems to be my kind of luck.

I am now going to attempt to heat up the post with the stuck screws with a soldering iron and hopefully it will expand the metal enough to either break the screws loose, or expand the screw enough that I can use a larger bit and get a tight fit.

This is going to be fun.

If you look close at some of these pictures, you can tell that the screw on the top is bigger than the one on the bottom. Also the top screw is sitting at an angle which is probably not a good thing. I don't know why they don't just barely screw them in when they ship these things out rather than tighten them down.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Still working on the dang thing. I hope this company is quick with returns. When I ordered it I even put a comment that it was my first time ordering with them and that I hoped everything would work great. I guess I jinxed myself with that.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Well for anyone who has this problem in the future, I was able to get them to break loose. I didn't want to break anything using the solder iron, so I kept increasing the amount of time I let the tip of the iron sit on the post with the stuck screws. I think I let it set on the post about 8 minutes from the time I plugged it in. Then I used a rag (coil deck is very hot at this point) to grab it and I had a screwdriver with a Torx T5 bit in. I angled the bit into the screw and cocked it sideways against the inside wall of the screw and pushed down while turning and I was able to hear a snap as it broke loose. Same thing with the other screw.

Summary of the above information = Heat the damn thing up. Heat is your friend.

 

[Eskie]

That's weird. didn't run into that on either of the two I have. Hope you get it wicked and running well.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Okay finally got a coil built and put together.

The verdict: It seems to work great with silica. I am using some MOD Fuel juice with 0 nic to test it out and it is great. Good clean vape. Overall its a win. Can't wait to get a new mod next to use it with.

 

[Eskie]

Looks good. And it wicks well? I've been playing with my tanks a lot this week, and I keep coming back to the Merlin as my favorite for all around balance and performance. Others I have are really good, but if I have 4 mods on the table all with different tanks, I always seem to go for the Merlin first.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Looks good. And it wicks well? I've been playing with my tanks a lot this week, and I keep coming back to the Merlin as my favorite for all around balance and performance. Others I have are really good, but if I have 4 mods on the table all with different tanks, I always seem to go for the Merlin first.

Yea, it seems to wick pretty good. I had it on my Lavatube. The coil tested at around 1.5-2 ohm, and I was able to get a lot of vapor at the max of 15w. and the wick was able to keep up. The same CAN'T be said for my kayfun clone. I would most definitely get a dry hit if I tried that with the kayfun clone. I think it has to do with the much bigger juice flow holes in the Merlin compared to the very tiny channels with the kayfun.

 

[Eskie]

Glad you got it working and your silica wicks well. Strange about the grub screw problem you had but at least it's solved.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Glad you got it working and your silica wicks well. Strange about the grub screw problem you had but at least it's solved.

Thanks. While I already have this thread posted, and you seem to know quite a bit about the Merlin Tank, I have a quick question. Like stated above I just filled it with 0 nic juice to test it out. I only have one mod at this time (My very worn out Lavatube V2.5). So What is the easiest way to empty the tank and fill it with a different juice (one with nicotine)?

Right now when I switch tanks between the Merlin and the Kayfun 3.1 clone, I have to get something small to pull the center pin up on the top of the Lavatube. The Merlin tank seems to push the pin down too far. Not the Merlin RTA fault it is the Lavatube because I have tried different tanks on the Lavatube that all seem to push that pin down. This is one of the reasons I am looking to get another mod.

 

[Eskie]

I don't switch flavors often, usually just vaping them down, a quick rinse, and rewicking if it's a way different flavor. But if the flavors are close and I've recently rewicked, or I'm not in the mood to it again, I've used a syringe with a blunt tip needle to pull out whatever is in there, returning it to the original bottle if it's a fair amount and I don't want to waste it, and refill with the new. As long as I close the juice control first, I can do it sitting on my mod without worrying about leakage (yup, learned that the hard way too).

 

[trentenmarschel]

I don't switch flavors often, usually just vaping them down, a quick rinse, and rewicking if it's a way different flavor. But if the flavors are close and I've recently rewicked, or I'm not in the mood to it again, I've used a syringe with a blunt tip needle to pull out whatever is in there, returning it to the original bottle if it's a fair amount and I don't want to waste it, and refill with the new. As long as I close the juice control first, I can do it sitting on my mod without worrying about leakage (yup, learned that the hard way too).

Okay Thanks. I know the flavors might be mixed for a day, but I really like that coil I build and don't want to have to clean it and rebuild it again. This tank looks like it is much easier to clean and deal with than the kayfun. It is my new favorite tank.

 

[Eskie]

I don't even think it would take a day. With cotton I'd say within 10 puffs I'm not tasting the previous. Granted, they're typically tobacco type flavors so I can get away with that. I expect if I went from Pina Colada to Blueberry muffin, that wouldn't be the case. Not sure how silica does for those types of changes.

And yes, it's an easy tank to build and maintain, which is pretty good as I'm new to the whole RTA thing, and expect if I didn't find it all that hard, it should be a cake walk for anyone used to RTAs. Glad it worked out!

 

[trentenmarschel]

I don't even think it would take a day. With cotton I'd say within 10 puffs I'm not tasting the previous. Granted, they're typically tobacco type flavors so I can get away with that. I expect if I went from Pina Colada to Blueberry muffin, that wouldn't be the case. Not sure how silica does for those types of changes.

And yes, it's an easy tank to build and maintain, which is pretty good as I'm new to the whole RTA thing, and expect if I didn't find it all that hard, it should be a cake walk for anyone used to RTAs. Glad it worked out!

Lol, I don't use tobacco flavors. I tested it with some Javelin Mod Fuel (Max VG) that I got from a friend of mine. It is 0 Nic. But I am going to switch it to some 24Mg Caramel Macchiato liquid from DFW.

 

[MMW]

@trentenmarschel, come over to our Merlin thread. ...
Merlin by Augvape and Roxy