Curing the Burnt Vivi Taste- A vivi nova rebuild photo tutorial

[j4mmin42]

I've somewhat perfected the vivi rebuild over the course of a few days, and here is what I've come up with. Enjoy!!

[h=3]The Vivi Nova Story Part II- Rebuilding In-Depth[/h]

 

[anavidfan]

thank you for the link. I was at my wits end. I was ready to chuck them and put them in the classifieds. Funny because my very first build was great. No problems great taste, all the rest were god awful, horrible electrical taste. Burned wick etc. I did exactly like the typical builds, made sure no wires were touching, and made sure none were touching the side of cup etc. But I did one like in the tutorial you linked and it worked. Thanks so much. I also used cotton for the wick. BTW I bought some cotton candle wick on amazon like someone else recommded but I noticed that it was Amazon.com: Cotton Square Braid Candle Wick - #1/0: Arts, Crafts & Sewing
I notice its very tightly wound is this the right type of wick? The ones in the videos look looser.

 

[j4mmin42]

The coil that I built for the tutorial isn't all that tight- there was enough room to adjust the wicks to one side or the other if I needed to. There is a balance between getting the coils as close as possible to the wick, without wrapping too tightly as to damage the silica. The closer the coils are to the wick, the more saturated the coils will get. If you wrap too tightly with cotton, however, I suspect you may run into a problem with burning the wick- although I have not tried cotton wicks yet...

Anyway, thanks so much, glad I could help!

 

[Kemosabe]

excellent tutorial. thanks.

also, glad to see you are back on the nova train in full force, jammin.

 

[j4mmin42]

excellent tutorial. thanks.

also, glad to see you are back on the nova train in full force, jammin.

I have grown to accept the Nova for everything that it is- in the right hands, it can be a very capable little device, and the build-quality is higher than most of the rest of what we see coming out of China these days.

Lately, it has been taken out of my rotation and replaced by two DUD's and a phoenix clone with a vertical coil SS setup- but I'm going to attempt a SS Vivi Nova rebuild this weekend- and I'll post the results (if it works, of course)...

Glad I get the thumbs up from ya- you're definitely one of more active Vivi proponents here, it means quite a lot

 

[Kemosabe]

right on, jammin. any time. im psyched to see your results on the ss wick. id really like to get that going as well but i have not researched it yet. i know you need to burn the SS, but im betting theres more to it than that.

oh, if you are looking for a inexpensive torch to burn the ss, harbor freight has one that stands up on its own so you can work with both hands. and its inexpensive too, like nine bucks.

 

[j4mmin42]

There are so many tutorials out already on oxidizing your stainless mesh, but I've had so much success with my method (which is just a bit different than most people), that I might do two separate posts- one on proper oxidation without destroying your mesh, and another on the Vivi SS build. We shall see.

 

[anavidfan]

There are so many tutorials out already on oxidizing your stainless mesh, but I've had so much success with my method (which is just a bit different than most people), that I might do two separate posts- one on proper oxidation without destroying your mesh, and another on the Vivi SS build. We shall see.

looking forward to those tutorials. Thanks

 

[Kemosabe]

i just made my first coil
it was a little time consuming but im sure i'll speed up in no time.
my first wrapping attempt was a success! im so psyched.
i used 32awg kenthal and 3mm silica wick. i ended up with a 1.9ohm coil.
i also have 36awg so i'll try that next.
the 3mm seemed just a bit fat, i may get 2.5mm or just go right for the mesh next time.
i ran a lighter over the wick and also the wire before wrapping.
i twisted the legs but i didnt twist them high enough, i ended up clipping off the entire twist on both sides. oh well i guess i'll get better at that or maybe i'll just get some NR wire.

 

[j4mmin42]

It takes some practice getting the length of the leads right- someone had commented that mine looked too short in the photos, but in reality, they were both almost the perfect length. I find it's easier to make them too long than too short...

Pure silver NR wire is a bit expensive- but people seem to like the builds they've done with it.

 

[Kemosabe]

i think i saw silver nr for 4/meter

 

[j4mmin42]

That's not too bad, considering how much of the stuff we would use- but if you extrapolate that to a 100 ft spool and compare it to the price of Kanthal of the same length, it's like 8 times more expensive (my roll of kanthal was $10- the roll of NR would be $82).

 

[Kemosabe]

woah. yeah thats rough. its definitely noticeable on the small scale too though. the kenthal i got was 1.25/meter while silver was 4. im gonna try it out. im also gonna try ss mesh i think. do you think the mesh beats out bamboo, cotton and the others like cheesecloth and gauze? im even thinking of doing the ss + silica combo.

 

[j4mmin42]

I honestly can't answer that completely, because I've never done anything but silica and SS. It easily beats the silica in every category. The rest of the materials you mentioned burn fairly easily, so I wouldn't be putting them in my devices- but hey, why not try them out if you're willing to take the risk? The only reason I'm not going to is because I'm so happy with the SS- and you KNOW how picky I am when it comes to vapey things, so if I like the SS, it must be pretty ... good. LOL

 

[williebb123]

i just started with the ss mesh/coils on the nova my problem is getting enough ohms , they work fine but they start at .9ohm-1.2ohm and ive done 4 and 5 wraps with 32 A-1 kanthal ,my provari is a v2 so it will work while my sweety has av1 it dosent work i have to use it for about a day it will get up to 1.3ohm, my other problem is age...my freakin eyes ... you should see me with my drugstore specs looking under not 1 but 2 magnafying glasses its quite a spectacle haha..cheers to gettin old

 

[Kemosabe]

I honestly can't answer that completely, because I've never done anything but silica and SS. It easily beats the silica in every category. The rest of the materials you mentioned burn fairly easily, so I wouldn't be putting them in my devices- but hey, why not try them out if you're willing to take the risk? The only reason I'm not going to is because I'm so happy with the SS- and you KNOW how picky I am when it comes to vapey things, so if I like the SS, it must be pretty ... good. LOL

yes, i sure do know your picky- thats why i value your opinion. i like keeping things relatively simple, but i still do like to explore my options. i think SS would work well for me. perparing the wick looks like a PITA but if the performance is that much better, im willing to give it a go. and i plan too. 325 or 400? is that the tightness of the mesh weave?

 

[Kemosabe]

maybe try higher than 32 for more ohms. 35 awg will give you roughly twice as many ohms per inch than 32. one inch of 35 is 2.3ohms, while 1 inch of 32awg is 1.2ohms.

i just started with the ss mesh/coils on the nova my problem is getting enough ohms , they work fine but they start at .9ohm-1.2ohm and ive done 4 and 5 wraps with 32 A-1 kanthal ,my provari is a v2 so it will work while my sweety has av1 it dosent work i have to use it for about a day it will get up to 1.3ohm, my other problem is age...my freakin eyes ... you should see me with my drugstore specs looking under not 1 but 2 magnafying glasses its quite a spectacle haha..cheers to gettin old

 

[lrage]

Can anyone point me to a place to buy the wire and the wick. This looks pretty easy and I just watched a video as well.

Basically wrap the wire around the wicks, shove it down inside so both wires are sticking out, one wire goes under the silicone gasket, one goes over it, insert the center rod thinggy, trim the both wires flush.

Since we're trimming excess wire why wouldn't I just cut it a bit longer to be safe if I wasn't as concerned about the few wasted pennies?

Bending the wires at the bottom lowers the resistance on that piece right? So it's just a way to keep the wire cooler so no need for an exact science on that one? The video I watched of the rebuild didn't even do that part.

 

[j4mmin42]

Can anyone point me to a place to buy the wire and the wick. This looks pretty easy and I just watched a video as well.

Basically wrap the wire around the wicks, shove it down inside so both wires are sticking out, one wire goes under the silicone gasket, one goes over it, insert the center rod thinggy, trim the both wires flush.

Since we're trimming excess wire why wouldn't I just cut it a bit longer to be safe if I wasn't as concerned about the few wasted pennies?

Bending the wires at the bottom lowers the resistance on that piece right? So it's just a way to keep the wire cooler so no need for an exact science on that one? The video I watched of the rebuild didn't even do that part.

I buy on ebay. I got 100ft of kanthal and 2oft of silica wick for $25 shipped.

...yeah the method you describe is accurate. You do end up making it just a bit longer than you actually need so you have extra- but you still want to estimate your total length used to determine the resistance. As for doubling up the leads- yes, it cools down the leads where they are doubled. The reason myself and some other advocate it is because there is the possibility of the leads heating up since they are made out of Resistance wire, and melting the silicone grommet; Theoretically, it could cause a short, but that's never happened in my case...I just get burnt taste if I don't add that step when building. This can be an exact science, or you can just use guesses like other people, or anything in between- some people don't measure anything and get lucky every time, but the more accurate your numbers are, the easier it will be in the long run to achieve a good coil consistently. If you ever switch to a true rebuildable, it's easy to just use a long piece of wire from the spool, do a certain number of wraps, and know that you have a certain resistance based on that.

 

[lrage]

It's not important that the two wires I send down the middle aren't touching the sides is it? I know the wrapped part you don't want to touch the sides, but seems like the two wires down the middle are going to touch regardless of what I do, and in fact are bent against it. So it obviously has to touch, right?

OK, how do these look?
Kanthal A-1 Wire, 32 Gauge .0080 Resistance heating wire | eBay

3mm silica wick | eBay

Looks like basically what you got. Thanks, really appreciate the insight and help.