BSD's vertical hollow core Micro Coil build for ARO, Evod, and Protank heads.

[Yail Bloor]

My track record with this build hasn't been great so far. Don't get me wrong, when it works, it REALLY works. It's the 'when' that seems to be my issue here. I have done this build 3 times now, twice on a Protank head, once on a VapeOnly BCC head -so far I'm 1 for 3, with the success on the second Protank head. When it doesn't work it's either flooded and gurgly, or dry and not wicking well.

I'm getting a little frustrated, if only because I was able to make it work once, and damn well at that. Had it not worked from the beginning I wouldn't be bothered, but clearly I am doing something wrong here. Any chance of troubleshooting tips from the pros?

 

[M_DuBb716]

OK after a few months of building micros on my Protank with cotton, I gave this a try last night.. I think I packed in too much cotton, because I wasn't getting much vapor, and actually got a few burnt/dry hits. First time I've ever had a burnt hit with cotton!

Anyways, I'm going to try re-wicking it now, with slightly less cotton. It's about 10-12 wraps of 30g Kanthal on a 1/16" bit, coming in around 2.1-2.2Ω.. I'm not exactly sure how many wraps, because I think 1 or 2 may have come un-done while installing the coil - I tried to pinch them back together with my fingernails.

..... Hopefully I can get this working properly, because I love the regular horizantal micro on the PT!! The coil comes right the the top of the wick opening, and I can see right through it so it is lined up perfectly. Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[M_DuBb716]

^^ Just re-wicked the coil. tried to use less cotton this time and pack it looser, but it's hard to tell how much gets in the PT head - I can tell I need to get a good feel for it.

But if this one doesn't vape good, I'm going to have to go back and build a traditional Horizantal Microcoil for my protank

 

[M_DuBb716]

Can't get it right.. Very little vapor and a slight burnt-rubber taste.. Maybe the coil I built is too close to the rubber grommet?? I know it's a decent microcoil, by looking at the test fire - glows very evenly from the inside out. I tried pulling some of the cotton off the top and it began flooding/leaking. Could it be, that the negative leg at the top is pushing against the coil, causing my issues?

I'll take all the cotton out, dry burn, and try re-packing it one more time. I'm using 100% organic cotton, and don't pack any in until the end. I try to pack it differently this time.

1 last attempy.. I need a good vape and I really wanted to try this out!!

 

[M_DuBb716]

Ugh I really wanted to try this build, but think I'm gonna have to give it up.. I can't get it to give me a good vape!! The coil is perfectly centered (and well-built), airflow seems the same as before on my PT1. I'm getting hardly any vapor!! I take a tiny bit of the cotton out and it just leaks/gurgles a bit.. I don't think the coil is too close to the bottom, and it still reaches near the top of the wick-slots

Hardly any vapor. And it doesn't crackle & pop unless I chain vape it a few times in a row, than comes a burnt/dry hit. I'm doing something wrong!
Back to the horizantal micro for now, until I have more time to figure this one out

 

[M_DuBb716]

Don't want to give up on this yet!!

Rough night at the workbench. Had to meditate a bit to find my mojo. Had to redo three of em! WTH.

Here's the deal with the cotton pack. Once the initial ring of cotton around the bottom part of the coil is in place, finish with strands that start from one side of the coil, then the other, and out through the wick holes. What this does is maintains a relatively loose pack over most of the coil while still getting enough cotton in the juice holes to control the flow. Oh, and leave enough space between the coil and the negative leg so you can work a little cotton between the two with a needle. YMMV depending on juice viscosity and draw of your particular device and mod. Have to be prepared for a little trial and error here.

Hope the pic below illustrates what I'm trying to describe. Once primed and the stem placed, the tails are trimmed close.

So let me get this right, since I think I'm having a problem with packing my cotton too tight.. So 1st, you pack a small tight ring of cotton, up to the bottom of the microcoil, correct?
.... The next part is where I think I'm having trouble. Do you make cotton strands, long enough to reach both sides of the wick slots? Or do you make a strand that is just long enough to reach 1 wick-slot (and the side of the coil)??

I think I still must be packing too much cotton inside my protank head. And I didn't try packing the tight ring up to the bottom of the coil yet - I'll try that this time? And than 1 loose strand, on each side of the coil, long enough to reach both wick slots?
... By the way, it's a 2.1ohm coil, about 11 wraps of 30g Kanthal. Hopefully I get it this time, wish me luck!!

 

[M_DuBb716]

Ok - with my last re-wicking, I got it to give me a little vapor and I can actually taste my juice now, but nowhere near as good in performance to my regular Horizantal Microcoils on my protank. I'm going to start from scratch and build an entire new coil and see if I can at least match my horizantal results. If it lasts longer without re-wicking, this will all be worth it.

Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated!! I figured somebody would reply to me by now, since I've literally been working on this build pretty much non-stop since last night!

 

[JeremyR]

What ohm and wraps are your horizontal micros? You need 3mm of wicking in the channels. Try a light core wrap of cotton like I do in the Vcore thread, very thin and loosely wrapped. wet it to hold it in position. You 'may' have better luck with that method. For your wick you want to lightly roll the cotton into a wick of 1.5 mm. About the size of your coil should be good. Use one on each side all the way across but stack them in the channels. Use a needle to fluff the cotton to conform lightly to the coil.

Give that a try hope it helps.

 

[M_DuBb716]

Thanks Jeremy.. Well I got it vapable.. Still need to find the balance between dry hits and leaking, I found I only need a very small amount of cotton to cover all that room.

For my horizantals, I usually wrap 30g on a 1/16" bit, I think 10 wraps gets me 1.9ohm or something

 

[M_DuBb716]

Oh and I built a slightly smaller coil this time, probably around 1.4-1.5mm, slightly smaller than 1/16"
.. I think this one was 11wraps (of 30g), that I wrapped on a paper clip that was slightly smaller than my 1/16" drill bit. It's coming in around 1.6ohm on my eVic, which is a little lower res than I'd like.

Flavor is pretty good, and vapor is okay if I prime it after every few drags, but my horizantals give me more vapor for sure. I wrapped 1 small piece of cotton around the entire coil, than a tiny strand at each wick-slot to stop leaking/gurgling that occurred - still leaking slightly tho into my 510 post.

I might give it 1 more try tonight. I tried the smaller coil this time because I read here that it would work better with the Vertical.

Any more tips, advice, suggestions from anyone?? Would be much appreciated!

 

[M_DuBb716]

And by the way, at first I didn't think it was working at all because I'm hearing a sizzling/frying sound, but NO crackling/popping!! But than I noticed I was getting some vapor & decent flavor from this most recent build - but nowhere near where I know it should be yet. And I'm still getting a MOSTLY dry and gurgly hits

I should be hearing crackling & popping on every vape, correct? Not just a frying/sizzling sound?
... Maybe on my next try, I should try like 13 wraps of 30g on the (1.4ish mm?) paperclip, to get a higher resistance than 1.6ohms AND a longer coil??

- ProTank 1 btw, I have the PT2 but haven't tried vertical on it yet

 

[Ta2ooz]

Oh and I built a slightly smaller coil this time, probably around 1.4-1.5mm, slightly smaller than 1/16"
.. I think this one was 11wraps (of 30g), that I wrapped on a paper clip that was slightly smaller than my 1/16" drill bit. It's coming in around 1.6ohm on my eVic, which is a little lower res than I'd like.

Flavor is pretty good, and vapor is okay if I prime it after every few drags, but my horizantals give me more vapor for sure. I wrapped 1 small piece of cotton around the entire coil, than a tiny strand at each wick-slot to stop leaking/gurgling that occurred - still leaking slightly tho into my 510 post.

I might give it 1 more try tonight. I tried the smaller coil this time because I read here that it would work better with the Vertical.

Any more tips, advice, suggestions from anyone?? Would be much appreciated!

I am using 14 wraps of 28 and it is coming in around 1.7, sounds like the cotton isn't tight enough, shouldn't gurgle. As for primer puffs I find that works best, I usually take a primer to make sure the coils are hot enough, it takes time to heat them even at 12+ watts. Hope that helps.

 

[bstedh]

And by the way, at first I didn't think it was working at all because I'm hearing a sizzling/frying sound, but NO crackling/popping!! But than I noticed I was getting some vapor & decent flavor from this most recent build - but nowhere near where I know it should be yet. And I'm still getting a MOSTLY dry and gurgly hits

I should be hearing crackling & popping on every vape, correct? Not just a frying/sizzling sound?
... Maybe on my next try, I should try like 13 wraps of 30g on the (1.4ish mm?) paperclip, to get a higher resistance than 1.6ohms AND a longer coil??

- ProTank 1 btw, I have the PT2 but haven't tried vertical on it yet

My guess is that your dry hit is actually a flooded hit. Too much juice in the coil will cause poor vapor. Try packing just a little more cotton in there.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[millertime660]

I'm also struggling with my pro tank 2. This is my first attempt at rebuilding it and I'm having terrible airflow / flooding issues. This is a buddies pro tank so I am not too familiar with it. I'll keep trying.

 

[JeremyR]

If its flooding you need more wick in the channels. This will slow the flow, too much though and you get dry hits. Its a fine balance.

 

[millertime660]

I think it's flooding because of the airflow issue. The draw is so tight I think it's pulling juice up through the mouthpiece... Might be something to do with the insulator.

 

[Big Screen D]

Sorry for not being around to answer questions and to try and help troubleshoot some of the build problems as of late. Been swamped with some family issues.

Here is an alternative build, perhaps better described as a modification to the original which I've been testing for a few days now. Simply put, works great. Definite improvement.

The tricky part of this build has primarily been getting the right amount of wicking material. Too little, and the coil will flood. Too much, and the coil can run dry, and you're smoking the wick material be it cotton or hemp.

So keeping in mind what we're doing here is essentially replicating a carto, albeit a much improved version, it occurred to me that perhaps better consistency would be realized by adjusting the size of the "punch" if you will, rather than the filler density. Simply put, the juice holes of the head are simply too large, and rather than try to close the holes with filler, lets just make them smaller and use less filler.

The benefit being a more consistent build, and little to no filler taste due MUCH less use of filler.

First pic is of a Pro Tank head to be rebuilt, and the silicone cap from an old CE4 AKA Stardust clearo. The CE4 cap is trimmed down and used in place of the Pro Tank silicone cap, but longer so that it covers all but a small portion of the juice passages.

Here is more or less what the new cap looks like. The openings are actually a little smaller when the cap is fully pressed down. I built this one for 100% VG Boba's Bounty, so the hole is slightly larger than others I have made for some of my less viscous 50/50 blends, but only slightly. There is now NO wick protruding into the now small holes, and the filler is very wispy behind it. Somewhat more dense lower and around the coil, but very, very loose at the openings. In fact, before priming, I can see light through the head.

Now the opening, and/or how much filler is behind the openings may need to be adjusted depending your juice viscosity, and how your mod and atty draw is. Generally a tighter draw will tend to pull in more juice, airier draw somewhat less. The one in the pic goes in a ProTank V1 on a Provari.

Here is an alternative method if you don't have a CE4 in your junk pile. I know you have a junk pile. See the silicone ring here is covering the bottom portion of the juice holes. I have to do it this way in this DIY atty for my Billet Box, but the same principle applies to Pro Tanks, EVODs, etc.

Now for the coil. Remember, this has to be a micro coil. A spaced wrap simply will not work.

I highly recommend a 12 wrap, 30ga Kanthal 2ohm coil on a 18ga, or 3/64ths bit for VV PV's. The draw is perfect (for me, YMMV), and gives the best flavor IMO. Really a good balance.

There are some differences here with the coil as well. Note the grommets top ledge has been snipped off. This gets it away from the coil, because the coil now is right up against the positive pin. No, you will not burn the grommet. Really, you won't. So long as you use the 18ga ID coil, and your micro coil is built properly so that the legs are not glowing hot.

The coil is placed this way for two reasons. One, the coil now needs to be lower relative to the wick holes, and two, this gives a more consistent air flow because there now is no filler or accumulated juice to impede air thru the coil. Straight shot right thru the center of the coil. Tremendously reduces the dreaded gurgle factor.

Side view

So if you have some that are working great for ya, give this a try anyway. I find this to be even better. If you have had trouble getting the original version to work well, fret no more. This flat out works.

Vape on. Mrs. BSD is upstairs;-)

 

[kgs-wy]

Hey there, everyone. Been incredibly busy with RL, so I haven't had much of a chance to do more than read and like a few posts. At any rate, I found myself a Protank 3 -- yes, the dual coil -- and enjoyed it for about a week before both coils were givin' that oh-so-hateful burnt flavor. So tomorrow, I'm going to make myself a vertical in one of 'em, just to see how different it is in one of those as opposed to a regular Protank head. Based on the one I took apart tonight, I'm thinking it'd be relatively easy to get a rather long coil, so it could be potentially possible to get a dual vertical in there, though I think I'll leave that to more experienced builders/modders... Something about the PT3 atomizer head, though, tells me that it might end up givin' a better vape than a regular one, even if I stick to a 'fairly short' 1.8 Ω - 2 Ω coil. The wicking area seems to be slightly larger (though the top cap tends to go down pretty far down the wall of the head's atomizer chamber), and that might give the vapor of a single coil more time to disperse into the incoming air. The height difference should also give a slightly better chance of avoiding spatter from the coil itself.

Now I just have to find out if I'm right!

At any rate, keep on vaping, everyone!

-Laters...!
kgs-wy

 

[millertime660]

Hey there, everyone. Been incredibly busy with RL, so I haven't had much of a chance to do more than read and like a few posts. At any rate, I found myself a Protank 3 -- yes, the dual coil -- and enjoyed it for about a week before both coils were givin' that oh-so-hateful burnt flavor. So tomorrow, I'm going to make myself a vertical in one of 'em, just to see how different it is in one of those as opposed to a regular Protank head. Based on the one I took apart tonight, I'm thinking it'd be relatively easy to get a rather long coil, so it could be potentially possible to get a dual vertical in there, though I think I'll leave that to more experienced builders/modders... Something about the PT3 atomizer head, though, tells me that it might end up givin' a better vape than a regular one, even if I stick to a 'fairly short' 1.8 Ω - 2 Ω coil. The wicking area seems to be slightly larger (though the top cap tends to go down pretty far down the wall of the head's atomizer chamber), and that might give the vapor of a single coil more time to disperse into the incoming air. The height difference should also give a slightly better chance of avoiding spatter from the coil itself.

Now I just have to find out if I'm right!

At any rate, keep on vaping, everyone!

-Laters...!
kgs-wy

Thats cool.... let us know how it works out. Just finally finished my first successful vert coil in a protank head, actually, it was my first PT head rebuild.

I was having some flooding issues at first and then it stopped... working great now!

 

[RedVixen81]

Is there a video out there showing this build.. its hard for me to understand in pictures and words