Built my first coil

[Scoper50]

Picked up an AGA T2 this morning, and I made my first stainless steel wick and coil tonight. My coil isn't great. It looks good visually I think. It has 4 wraps and it ohms out at 1.2 ohms on my provari. All of the wraps are evenly spaced and I'm not getting the e1 error, so there isn't a short. But the coil has hot spots near the ground screw and near the positive post. Two of the center coils take forever to glow red. What can I do to resolve this problem?

Also, I was wondering what voltage you guys would normally run a 1.2-1.5 ohm coil. I've found that my crappy coil tastes burn't at anything over 3 volts. This seems really low to me considering I normally run my cartos at 4.2. Any insight would be appreciated. I'm brand new to the rba thing and I really want to make this work. I'm sick of buying 5 packs of cartos only to have 3 of them be duds

 

[pdib]

I think, when your positive AND negative legs glow, but nothing in the middle, your coils are wrapped way too tight. I've only had this happen when I tried to use a machine screw for a wick! Either your shorting into your wick so bad that it IS the coil, or your wraps are crazy tight (which would cause the shorting too/anyway)

edit: gotta tell you tho, I'm just guessing, cause I've never seen this or heard of this under normal circumstances.

 

[Scoper50]

Thanks for the reply. It's almost 1:30 in the morning here, so I'll take your advice and wrap the coil looser tomorrow. I was under the impression that the coil had to be tight. I didn't wrap it super tight strangling the wick, but it definitely isn't loose either. I'm sure I'll have to wrap this thing 10 times before I get it right. But the more advice I get the better. Anybody else have any ideas?

 

[pdib]

If you can throw up a photo, it would be much easier to help figure it out.

 

[Scoper50]

A photo will be uploaded soon. There has been a new development however. I redid the coil using the same wire. This time I tried to wrap it loosely. Now the provari ohms it out at 2.7 and there are no hot spots when I fire the coil. but nothing glows red either. The tank is full and the wick is saturated with juice. My question is, should the coil glow red at all when it's saturated with juice? Or does it only glow red when it's dry during testing? Every youtube video I've seen shows the coil glowing red before the tank is filled.

 

[pdib]

You're doing great! The coil should NEVER glow red when wet. If some of it were to glow (when wet) that would mean your coils were too loose.

 

[pdib]

The different ohms readings are VERY different tho. But lets not spoil a good thing. BTW when building a new coil, always test it dry, don't add juice until you know all is good. (stainless steel mesh wick assumed)

A dry build wants to glow evenly, yes. You will also notice (if your wick/coil is perfect) that the middle of the coil is brightest and the legs (coil to +/- connection) don't glow at all.

 

[Scoper50]

Apparently I was wrong. I tested it again at a higher voltage, and I still have hot spots at the positive and negative ends of the coil. Oh well. I didn't expect to get this right on the first or second try. I'll try again tomorrow. But I would still like to know what voltage you guys are running these 1.0-1.5ohm coils at.

 

[thxone]

Apparently I was wrong. I tested it again at a higher voltage, and I still have hot spots at the positive and negative ends of the coil. Oh well. I didn't expect to get this right on the first or second try. I'll try again tomorrow. But I would still like to know what voltage you guys are running these 1.0-1.5ohm coils at.

Mine is at 1.3ohm for now... I am not running it in Volt mode... Rather Watts. 9W to be exact, but my wire is too thick so this will change soon when I get my 32awg. I am shooting for 2.0-2.5ohm on the AGA-T2.

 

[Rule62]

Apparently I was wrong. I tested it again at a higher voltage, and I still have hot spots at the positive and negative ends of the coil. Oh well. I didn't expect to get this right on the first or second try. I'll try again tomorrow. But I would still like to know what voltage you guys are running these 1.0-1.5ohm coils at.

Best advice I can give: Don't ever put juice in a tank until your coil is glowing evenly. If you have a hot spot with a dry coil, it will still be there when the wick is wet. You just might not be able to see it. A coil shouldn't glow anywhere when the wick is wet, or there's juice in the tank.
As for voltage and resistance, assuming you have a version2 Provari, it will theoretically work with a coil at around .8Ω. However, it's not an ideal set up, because even at the lowest setting of 2.9 volts, you'll only be vaping at about 10 watts, before the 3.5 amp limit is reached. For optimum performance with a version2 Provari, keep your coils at 1.2Ω or above.

 

[FogHawg]

Maybe the terminal leads are too taunt? I started using a small screwdriver to put a 'kink' in both leads (before tightening down) & haven't had a hot leg since.

 

[pdib]

Maybe the terminal leads are too taunt? I started using a small screwdriver to put a 'kink' in both leads (before tightening down) & haven't had a hot leg since.

Great idea!

 

[FogHawg]

Great idea!

I wish I could say I came up w/it, but I got it from one of the gazzillion videos I've watched about this stuff.

 

[Firestorm]

I'm still a beginner with RBAs using my AGA-T2s and IGO-Ls, so please take any of my advice for what it's worth.

I went to a local hardware store and bought small washers that I replaced with the center nut on the positive post. If I hold the washers in place around my wire when I tighten the top nut I feel that it doesn't pull the wick towards the top post (which is a common cause of hot spots) and it reduces the length of wire to the wick that helps reduce hot spots on the top leg of the wire.

I second the previous advice about getting a good coil running with no hot spots before putting in the juice. If I have a coil running perfectly I often find the next day that the taste is not optimal and that I likely have a hot spot and I remove the juice with a syringe from the fill hole and fiddle with the coils to get it running before putting the juice back in. This is essential as you will likely not see a hot spot with the juice in (and if you do, it's really bad).

With an empty tank and low voltage you want to get the coils glowing and turning red from the center outward - this is what you're shooting for. You will likely encounter hot spots at the ends and you need to fiddle with the coils at the hot spots and just after the hot spot (where you'd like to see the coil glow). Sometimes you may find a hot spot at the top of the coil because the bottom coil is too tight around the wick. I'm still learning how to diagnose hot spots so sometimes I try to fiddle with different parts of the coil that are not glowing. Obviously I'm shooting for a coil with uniform spacing, but sometimes I have to fiddle with the wire on different sides of the wick. I use a thick sewing needle with a dull point as my fiddling tool.

When it's up and running it's really something. I definitely get a different taste from a disposable atomizer. With my RBAs and my favorite juices the flavor seems a little deeper and pronounced. My favorite waffle juice tastes a bit smokier and sophisticated and is a nice change up from my regular cartomizer use.

 

[Joe944]

Just got my first coil working on my new cobra/dingo setup that I got this week. The learning curve is a bit steeper than I thought, but after failing miserably for quite a few hours I think I understand how to build one properly. I still don't understand all the reasons for the hot spots, but when I built this coil I had removed the wick completely and the coil was perfect on its own, so I knew the placement of the wick was key.

RonsPlc in irc was very helpful and recommended to twist the wick so that the lip of the edge would catch and the wick would expand ever so slightly to fill up the gaps between the wick and the coil. I've got an excellent coil with very good flavor, vapor and throat hit now.

 

[Scoper50]

Just a short update. I threw away the coil I made last night and started over. This one was much better, but still a failure. I wrapped a 5/4 coil and every wrap was glowing evenly except for the one at the bottom. The bottom wrap wouldn't glow at all. I also had a huge hot spot on the positive leg. Nothing I did fixed it. I was pulsing it while poking at it with a pick and nothing seemed to make a difference. I did drip some juice on the coil and vaped it, and it wasn't terrible, but I know that it's not right if I'm seeing hot legs.

I screwed with this thing for a good 45 minutes, and I gave up for tonight. I'll probably try again tomorrow from scratch. I do have another question however. Does the length of the positive leg make a difference? I have been trying to wrap the coil so the mesh wick sits as vertical as possible. If the wire is so tight that it's pulling the wick towards the center post, I'm assuming that would automatically cause a hot leg. Is my assumption correct?

 

[FogHawg]

It has been my experience that a wire pulled too tight to either post may cause a hot leg. But the + lead seems especially prone to it. Did you try putting a 'kick' in the leads?

 

[MMarie]

I've had really good results following eHuman's blog. If all else fails, I'd be happy to meet you someplace in Uptown to help (just as long as you're buying the drinks).

 

[donnah]

the coil on my DID is reading 1.2ohms. I'm vaping it at 3.5v right now but I've gone up to as high as 3.9 today which is 12.6 watts and 3.25amps.. right under the Provari's 3.5 amp ceiling. The vape is so good that I don't see how it can be much better.. which is making me wonder why I just ordered a mech mod to try out the slr vaping

 

[pdib]

the coil on my DID is reading 1.2ohms. I'm vaping it at 3.5v right now but I've gone up to as high as 3.9 today which is 12.6 watts and 3.25amps.. right under the Provari's 3.5 amp ceiling. The vape is so good that I don't see how it can be much better.. which is making me wonder why I just ordered a mech mod to try out the slr vaping

I can give you four good reasons why; 28g Kanthal, 28g Nichrome, 26g Kanthal & 26g Nichrome
It'll be fun, new, and you're gonna love it!