Can someone explain gauge vs ohms vs wraps in simple terms?

[JuniorNA]

In other words. I know the amount of wraps can determine the ohms - but does the higher gauge (34-36) wire require more wraps than say 32 gauge to keep the ohms low ?

Or is the lower the number gauge and lower the coils means lower the ohms ?

So let's say I wanted 2.0 ohm and 2.5 ohm and I'm using 32 gauge

Does that mean 5 wraps for 2.0 ohm and 6 wraps for 2.5 ohms ? As in more coil - means higher resistance ?

The higher gauge number means thinner wire right ? So that means it would take more wraps of 34 gauge to achieve the same amount of ohms with 32 gauge ?

Once I understand the logic I'll be much more comfortable with the amount of coils needed

Thanks !


Connected via T-A-Talk

 

[dhomes]

Junior, a higher gauge has MORE resistance per unit length than a lower one.

It's actually not the wraps, it's the length of wire that you use between the negative and positive connections. So even for the same gauge If you have a thick wick (say, 2.5 mm) and you make 3 or 4 wraps, then the resistance will be higher than on a thinner wick (say 1.5 mm) with the same 4 wraps for the same wire (you are using a longer wire to get from point A to B for the 2.5 mm wick).

yes, the higher the gauge the thinner it's and the most resistance it has.

May seem counter-intuitive, but I grabbed it by thinking about it in water flow terms:

- for a given flow rate (say, X gallons per second), a thicker pipe will develop LESS internal pressure than a thinner one. that pressure is your 'resistance' in electrical terms.

there is a sticky in the rba forum with the diameters and resistance per inch each gauge will give you.

Hope that helps a bit.

From your post:

The higher gauge number means thinner wire right ? So that means it would take more wraps of 34 gauge to achieve the same amount of ohms with 32 gauge ?

No, the other way, it would take LESS wire (or wraps as you put it) than 32.

This is made of but for simplicity:
say a 32 give you 1 ohm per inch (I know it's not the actual value, I'm illustrating)
a 34 will give you, say, 2 ohm per inch

to get a 3 ohm atty you would need to wrap 3 inches of gauge 32, but only 1.5 inches of gauge 34

hope that helps a bit

 

[KillTheNoise]

Funny, I was thinking about posting this exact question when I got home if I couldn't find an answer through the search.

 

[JuniorNA]

Dhomes if there was a button on here to automatically send u a lifetime supply of the eliquid of your choosing. Id hit it - but since no such button exists - the thought still counts right ?

That was by far the most helpful post I've read on eft to day - and I've been here 3 gears and vaping for 4 .

Now let me ask you a very straight forward question based on my experience. I just bought an entry level vision eternity just to see how ill like RBAs and so far I love it but I've read that it can achieve even more greatness when using a different wick. Etc

What do you suggest for someone like myself (not a new to vaping but a newb to rebuildables) in terms of Gauge wire ?

I've been reading up on wicks like cotton and silica but why do some people go with 34-32-36 gauge ? Is it due to the less /more length they'll need to achieve the ohms they want ?


One last silly question. Since the ohm are based on difference.

The let's say I am using a 3mm thick wick - based on your explanation whether I use 4-5-10 coils will not change the ohms because no matter how many coils I use the length of wire will always be exactly the same correct ?

I guess the only way to change the ohms would be to use less coils and cut the excess left over wire which would make the distance shorter since I used less coil ? And since the shorter the wire / the less resistance - am I On the right track ?




Connected via T-A-Talk

 

[Faylool]

Saving to re read because omg WHY am I so dim witted about such things? I get while I'm reading it and then it goes away! I've always been like this on some things. I'm not ......ed. I'm maybe lazy. Im a really good artist I have been told by teachers a true relative artist. Much worthless talent. I don't even want to be an artist! Gawd! Eh. Haven't vaped enough today busy doing manual labor at age 60 because I have worthless talent I don't care about. IMHO couldn't I be more like my dad? He scored genius rating on his math testing and worked for the space program as a troubleshooter for scientific applications and in charge of important computers involved in space travel. So just let me rant because it really boggles my mind how I am so freaking dang dumb. Sorry

 

[dhomes]

0junior, actually, if you use more coils you get into a different problem,

First off, each coil should have more or less the same resistance. Otherwise they won't heat up as evenly as they should.

Secondly, what ohms you want depends on the device you have (how many volts it can provide to the Atty / cart yo / whatever) and your personal preference. I myself use both Phoenix's and Genesis s style rba.

For the phoenixes I use 32 kanthal (which is a safe place for you to start, 34 or 36 on 3 mm wick may give you too many ohms, unless you have a device providing 5 to 6 volts you may find your vape to be on the weak side)

Now, all this is for a single coil.

Let's expand on the water flow analogy, you have a certain flow rate, moving from tank A (your negative) to tank B (positive). You start with a very thin 2 in pipe (kanthal 36). So it develops high pressure (resistance)

But wait, so what if I move the same 100 gallons per seconds between the tanks by adding a second pipe? If the two pipes are identical then you cut the flow in each by half and the pressure by half (not quite right but close for illustration purposes).

Those pipes are your coils, you can add three, fourth five, etc and for each you are dividing the load each has to carry, developing less pressure. THIS THE PARALLEL problem, and its actually the same for pipes and circuits:

The inverse of the resistance in a parallel circuit equals the sum of the inverses of each resistance

If you Google it you will see the proper equation, but basically take the individual ohm of each coil, inverse each (1/x on most calcs), add, invert the total.that's your total resistance.

That's why you want to play with coils that have the same resistance or very close one to the next.

But i don't see a reason to go above a dual coil. You are new to rba so take it easy on yourself, perfect how to make a solid, single coild , hotspot free coil and you can go from there.

One of my face vapes is phoenix with SS Mesh and 32 kanthal, a single 2/3 wrap giving 1 to 1.2 ohms at 3.3 v, that hits fast and hard.

Also, a lot of what you can do depends on the device driving it. Don't use unprotected devices when you are just starting out.

My 2 cents

P.d.: hehehe some lifetime supply of bobas bounty would be charming indeed. Heck, Even a 100 mil bottle would put a smile on my face

 

[JuniorNA]

Dhomes before I read your entire post I Want to correct my error. Everytime I said coil - I really meant the amount of wraps around the wick. I shouldn't have used the term coil - I meant wraps around the wick itself. Using the same length wire from a to b will give me the same ohms no matter how many wraps right ? The fact is the more wraps means the longer the wire to the connectors which means more resistance - I think ?

Ok I'll continue reading ur post now. Sorry for the confusion


Connected via T-A-Talk

 

[dhomes]

oh yeah, using the same length of wire the actual number of wrap do not matter. Also, anything you leave 'hanging' after the negative & positive posts do not influence the resistance since there is not flow in there (but trim them anyway, otherwise when you put a metallic cap on top if the hanging element touches you do get flow)

don't overkill yourself with the number of wraps, try 3/4 32 kanthal to start with. down the road play with higher & lower gauge wires and more or less wraps.

what you DO want to do is to have as much as an even pitch between wraps, that will heat the element the best and give ou the best flavor.

just in case, the pitch is just the space between a point in the wrap and its equivalent point in the next wrap.

 

[JuniorNA]

Perfect thank you very much. Also to answer your previous question I'm using a new provari. And an l-rider 4.0 with the rba- so I was looking for 2.5 ohm at 4.5-5v ,

Thanks for the guidance !!


Connected via T-A-Talk

 

[dhomes]

anytime Junior,

yeah on a provari you can play as much as you want, I have shorted my RBAs many time on top on mine and it doesn't blink.

p.d.: when you get better at coiling, try some 1.5 ~ 1.7 coils @ 3.8 ~ 4.2 (depends on juice). Hits faster at the same wattage AND your batteries last longer between charges.

The provari has 3.5 amp limit, thats Voltage / Resistance just in case you want to start pushing it.

 

[JuniorNA]

thanks DHomes, i'll be doing some testing today. I've been reading tons of posts about Nichrome vs. Kanthal. Thing is i have 100 feet of Nichrome 60 32 guage, and i'd like to use some of that up and test before i buy some kanthal (even though it's not even expensive).

some people say nichrome gives lesser taste vs. Kanthal - i dont know, others have said nichrome is better for vapor production and how it evenly burns the juice. etc. It's all craziness

I guess i'll try with the nichrome since i have it, and some cotton (read a few posts on that also), and i also have some wire mesh from a juice vendor as well so i'l just play around.

 

[dhomes]

That's part of the junior, finding out what you like and experimenting
If nichrome taste good for you and give you the vapor you like go for it

I used kanthal from day and I'm happy with it

What you MAY want to give a shot at is a better RBA, a vision eternity seems too tight to play with. You can get some really good ones for less than 20 bucks

 

[JuniorNA]

Yeah I noticed that you don't have much room to play with on the vision - I finally was able to make a nice coil of 3 wraps around cotton but it came out to 2.9 ohms- so that means if I wanted a lesser ohms I'd have to do less wraps right ? But 2 wraps doesn't sound right . The longer wraps means longer wire means higher resistance. So I'm not sure how I got 2.9 ohm on 3 wraps. I was using 32g nichrome. I tried cotton ball wick and it was horribleness- tasted horrible so maybe I did something wrong or I need to buy cotton yarn.

 

[dhomes]

Junior not familiar with nichrome. You may want to heat your wire prior to wrapping them. Just use a torch, stove or lighter and bring move it evenly throughout its length making sure each portion gets red hot for a second or two. The horrible flavor you mention are most likely manufacturing oils / chemicals left there.

As to 2.9 ohms. Yeah that's high for 32 gauge 3 wrap coil. Again, not familiar with nichrome but I never get more than 2 ohms (and that's pushing it, its normally 1.6 to 1.8) on kanthal 32 w/ 3 wraps. I don't use cotton either, how thick of a wick are you using?

 

[JuniorNA]

The coil I used was actually the one that came as spare with the RBa eternity and It was already wound up. I'm assuming it was already pre burnt but I did it anyway before I posted that to you. The Nichrome is almost used as much as kanthal so let's say for all intents and purposes it's the same thing.

The wick was maybe 1.5 mm thick? I rolled the cotton into maybe the size of a tooth pick? But even with a thin wick. That's still less wire-less resistance ? So I don't understand.

The coil I used was already wound on a silica sick so I just took it off that and put it around the cotton. - maybe it was the cotton wick ? Maybe I'll to back to silica but I've heard so many good things about cotton balls and cotton yarn .

I didn't boil the cotton or anything - so maybe that what is what I tasted? I didn't taste oils It just tasted bad.

Maybe it was thicker gauge than 32 ? Thinner gauge means less resistance right ? It didn't say the gauge type on the bag I just read on the reviews that it was 32 gauge


Connected via T-A-Talk