deciding to step my game up

[Jfresh859]

soo, ive decided that cartos are nice, but the thought of self coil wrapping, stainless steel and ceramic mesh wicks and stuff..
wow, it sounds both economical and confusing.

I recieved good word that Phoenix Dripping Rebuildable Atomizer is a good start for me.
Im assuming this has no wick, just the coil business.
so heres what i know,
i cant kanthal wire, because I like 3.0 boge carto tanks, 36? gauge wire is what im looking at.
BUT, for this thing, its a dripping atty, so low resistance, right? (never used drip so ignorant as of now on the subject tbh)
I guess i just drop a drop when the flavor starts to mellow..
anyways, as this has no wick, just the kanthal? wire, it made sense that this was both an easy journey and more economical than starting off with a RB tank atty system (looking at the cobra Cobra Atomizer but also want to start with something cheaper, the cobra is nice though )
so for 2.0ohm, i should use 32 gauge, make the coil with a toothpick or something, pop it in. now before i fire it up, it has to be tested for ohms, i believe. If my future ecig, the lavatube 4.0 (young june) can read the ohms without firing, is this ok to use for testing my ohms on the newly built atty before firing? could this damage my circuitry or battery in any way? seen some people fire up untested attys on older lavatubes and frying the whole thing, but mine has the "read ohms" feature, so thats ok, right?

ok now for some purchase questions.
where can i get the following?
kanthal wire (highest quality or best pricing)
stainless steel mesh wicks (don't need pre oxidized but would buy it if the price was pretty similar)
ceramic wicks

also what are some of yalls favorites as far as RB dripping attys, RB tank systems (no silica or cotton etc. wick systems please)
like i said, I want the cobra, its got a nice wide working space for my sausage fingers, has a center post that holds the wire, which is convenient, and its glass and med. grade titanium.
But just because I also want to go ahead and retire and somehow never have money issues, at 24, doesn't mean its gunna fly, lol.
what are some cheaper options to get me started. No junk though, I understand for quality anything, you gotta pay a little more. But cobras 150pricetag is outta my current zone, as I just bought a washer dryer for the me and the lady, so cash is officially tight for a min.

sorry for the super long rant, just worked all yesterday through this morning, just got outta work, so again, forgive me if this is all jumbled and spacey.
I saw this 2cent button so I clicked it...

 

[Jfresh859]

actually, cotton wicks dont seem so bad. stainless steel has that chomium issue...

 

[Cjax]

ok, a lot of questions there so I'll try to help. First off, all atties use a wick. None use just a coil. You wrap a coil around the wick, be it mesh, cotton, ceramic, or a host of other options. That being said, the Phoenix rda you linked is fine for a starter except for the fact that it's super tiny, making building on it a little harder, but the small chamber helps with enriching the flavor so it's a trade-off. others like an igo-l or igo-w are bigger so there's more room to work in. A good site for a crap-ton of good cheap gear is fasttech.biz but there is a bunch of just plain junk there too, so you have to kind of know what to look for. If you've never used a genesis style tank i'd start out with something like an aga-t2 or rsst before I jumped into a Cobra to see if I liked using that style of atty.

I get my wire from TEMCo.com Cheap and free shipping. I use mostly cotton wicks, I use 100% cheesecloth from walmart. Just cut off a big piece and boil it for about 20 minutes, then keep it in a ziplock and cut off a piece every couple days to change the wick. It's a real easy process, when it gets gunky just dry-burn it off, rinse the coil, and thread a new wick. Cotton won't last more than 3 days for me (my juice tends to gunk up pretty fast), But a coil wil last me at least a month or so.

Hope this helps

 

[Jazzi Mike]

I buy wire from Temco on eBay 25-100 ft will be under $10 including shipping, actually it's usually only $5. I know you said you didn't want to use a silica tank, but the Kayfun Lite is an awesome tank that is pretty easy to set up. Even though it is made to be set up with silica, you get an awesome flavor out of it.

Look up some Ekowool. It is an awesome wicking material. RDAs are probably best to learn on. One of the toughest parts is simply getting the Kanthal around the wick. Once you have that down, it gets much easier to do.

Your Lavatube will be fine to check your resistance. I use my Vamo most of the time.

 

[Jfresh859]

is silica just as clean as pure cotton?
can you use hemp wick? i gotta bunch of hemp rope wick stuff here..

 

[MiamiMom63]

I've had the best luck with cotton roll wicks and 32 gauge kanthal and the coil I made on my Vivi nova tank last night is reading 1.9 ohms and tastes great to me. Vivi's are cheap to rebuild. The Igo-l dripping atomizers are nice also and real cheap but stainless steel. I make cotton wicks on them also and they can hold about 20 drops of juice which lasts awhile. I do have an RSST but haven't quite gotten the rebuild of those with SS mesh yet. But so far I'm still loving my cotton from CVS, which is super cheap, and I got 100 feet of 32 gauge kanthal wire for about $8 with free shipping. Just google 32 gauge kanthal and the first couple links are usually good to buy it from. I'm on a Vape budget this year and its nice not to have to keep ordering supplies. I also make my own juice cheap.

 

[Statistic]

It doesn't get any better than a cotton stuffed micro coiled RM2 on a REO, imo. I do still have a few tube mods with drippers for various purposes.

If you're wanting to get started and be budget conscious I would suggest dripping for sure. IMO the IGO attys are great and very cheap. The IGO-W has drilled posts making it easy to mount your coils. It is set up for dual coils which I think are novel but unnecessary to get a great vape, you can get the IGO-W with a single air hole in the cap and run single coil in it.

You'll need to learn about resistance and how to measure it.

There's a lot to take in and seems overwhelming at first but it's really not that hard to learn once you start getting your hands on some hardware. If you're ever in Louisville I'd be happy to catch up with you and show you some stuff in person, might help demystify some of the things that seem confusing at first.

 

[Jfresh859]

the igo is decently priced.
whats the chance ill mess my 4.0 LT with this?
if i just read the ohms, and it says 2.0 (or close to it) its fine right?
If it uses a wick of some sort, can the wick be replaced with another type?
for instance, the igo says to use fibreglass or sillica wicks.
could i use cotton, or something else similar?
what are the dangers of heating up silica and fibreglass? I know cotton isnt too bad even if it burns, hemp would be cleaner id imagine.

 

[Jfresh859]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/joyetech-eroll-mini/409966-hemp-wicks-2.html

this guy said it worked after bleaching, boiling, alcohol, boil again..
guess i know what im gunna use...

 

[Cjax]

imho, as far as cloth-type wicks, nothing is cleaner tasting than cotton. I like ekowool because the wicks will last a few weeks vs. a few days, but they just don't taste as good. I have a bit of hemp but I've never tried it. I'd assume though it probly come closer being organic.

 

[Socalvapster]

Just go with the IGO-W which has 3 posts for more coiling setup options. I just got the Trident clone from fasttek and it's great. I've been using 30g Kanthol with 3mm Eckowool. I just ordered 100ft spool of 28g annealed Kanthol from Temco.

 

[st0nedpenguin]

If this is your first rebuildable AND first dripper, buy some silica.

There's nothing like some noxious chemical throat rape from dry cotton while you're getting used to keeping a coil wet.

 

[Jfresh859]

imho, as far as cloth-type wicks, nothing is cleaner tasting than cotton. I like ekowool because the wicks will last a few weeks vs. a few days, but they just don't taste as good. I have a bit of hemp but I've never tried it. I'd assume though it probly come closer being organic.

where do you get your wicks from? the cotton ones?

 

[Jfresh859]

If this is your first rebuildable AND first dripper, buy some silica.

There's nothing like some noxious chemical throat rape from dry cotton while you're getting used to keeping a coil wet.

Im familiar with keeping wicks wet, just not dripping, I feel like Id prefer to keep it as "natural" as possible

 

[Jfresh859]

AGA-T2 RBA Tank Kit

this^^

Drunker Rebuildable Tank

than^

or something like this?
http://www.cloudsofvapor.com/store/127-new-at-cov/1699-aga-t2-genesis-rebuildable-atomizer.html

honestly the agat is what im looking for, that looks pretty sweet...
can that be used with cotton?

 

[Cjax]

where do you get your wicks from? the cotton ones?

I got it from Walmart, but they should have it at any grocery store I would think. 100% cotton cheesecloth. Just cut about a 1 foot square, boil for about 20 minutes, and dry it out. You could use a blow dryer to do it faster. Unfold the cheesecloth until you have only 1 layer and cut about a 1.5 inch square. Then hold it "diamond shaped" and roll it into a wick. I do it this way because I make my coils by wrapping the wire around a small drill bit or jeweler's screwdriver, install the empty coil, then thread the wick through. Leaving the corner of the square at the top gives you a nice "point" after you roll it to thread the coil once the it is installed in the atty.

I hope I explained that well enough

Edit: I do this for drippers mostly, if I were to use a genesis tank like the AGA it would go much differently, since the set-up vertical.

 

[Jfresh859]

I got it from Walmart, but they should have it at any grocery store I would think. 100% cotton cheesecloth. Just cut about a 1 foot square, boil for about 20 minutes, and dry it out. You could use a blow dryer to do it faster. Unfold the cheesecloth until you have only 1 layer and cut about a 1.5 inch square. Then hold it "diamond shaped" and roll it into a wick. I do it this way because I make my coils by wrapping the wire around a small drill bit or jeweler's screwdriver, install the empty coil, then thread the wick through. Leaving the corner of the square at the top gives you a nice "point" after you roll it to thread the coil once the it is installed in the atty.



I hope I explained that well enough

Edit: I do this for drippers mostly, if I were to use a genesis tank like the AGA it would go much differently, since the set-up vertical.

that was explained as well as I think it could have been. this whole system is somewhat hands on, but thats what I like about it. I like to fiddle...

 

[Jazzi Mike]

You can use what ever wick you want in a genesis (like the AGA T) or any RDA/RBA. If you like the way the AGA T is set up, you really should look at the Smoktech RSST. IMHO, they are more newbie friendly. It is easier to attach the coil to the positive and negative posts, while having an insulated wick hole. This will not matter much if you are not using SS mesh to set it up, but still it has a much better system of attaching the coil to the positive post.

In general, most genesis style atomizers are meant to be set up with stainless steel mesh. However, you can pretty much set it up with any wick that you can shove in there and wrap a coil around.

 

[MiamiMom63]

Here's a video I did on a cotton rebuild of a Vivi nova...Rebuilding Vivi Nova Head Part One - YouTube is part one and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XESvr8icrr0is part two. It's the only videos I've done just for some friends of mine. I get mine from CVS and it's a big box for just over $5 that will last for maybe a couple years? Lol. I did boil it for 10 mins and changed the water and boiled it another ten minutes. Then let it dry out real good. The flavors are great on it but I do have to warn you that they are juice guzzlers and wick so well that I go through alot of juice. I've never had one dry burn on me because as long as its working properly, they are so darn absorbent.

edit...this coil rebuild is so easy because you can use the same coil on something like an Igo-l dripping atomizer also, which I do also and it works good.