Different Cottons for different wicks

[eHuman]

I am just in the beginning stage of experimenting with cotton. My only experience was using:
I boiled it and blotted as much water out as I could and stuffed some under a SS wick (and wrapped it around it) in my IGO-L to bridge the gap between it and the drip well:
Not knowing that I should have waited for it to dry out, I loaded it up with juice ans waited 5 minutes to start vaping. Baring the fact that I was testing a new cappuccino flavor batch, it vapes pretty darn well. I just wish that I used a juice who's flavor I am familiar with for an apples to apples comparison.

That being said, I am not down for waiting 24-72 hours for and RBA set up to prime. I currently ony have 1 AGA-T+ and 1 IGO-L until the co-op brings me 2 more each, and my Chalice I comes in, so I got to thinking...

I plan to go out today and pick up some cheese cloth and some cotton yarn mentioned earlier in this post from Walmart.
I will boil, dry and prep a half dozen wicks from each and place them in a small Tupperware container with enough PG/VG no nic juice to cover them, and snap the lid on.

Then when I need them, I can pull one out squeeze out as much juice from it as is practical and close up the container for later use.
My theory is that I should have wicks ready for immediate use, we will see how it goes...

P.S. You can get the containers made by Glad, Ziplock, and other manufacturers in just about any grocery, container or 99¢ store.

 

[xMackx]

Let us know how the pre woaking goes, I'd be interested in seeing the results. I have thought about it before as well, it would work very well for vivi novas because you could just rebuild the head and soak but others I imagine would be tricky. I'm down for any type of experimentation, best way to learn.

 

[Thucydides]

Just stopped by Safaro with my wife to get some eye shadow for our daughter. They have free rounds at the makeup sampling sections. Cheaper than the dollar store.

 

[MaDeuce]

I used some surplus cotton filled gauze pads I had left over from my latest injury (still accident prone after all these years). I boiled them on Saturday evening and let them air dry overnight. So yesterday I started fiddling around with them and various gauges of kanthal wire. I was looking to make a cotton wick for my new Bulli Smoker A1 because lately I've been noticing that my silica seems to be corrupting the taste of my liquids. So I cut a piece about 1" by .25" and rolled it between my hands and loosely wrapped 0.15 wire around the wick using a tooth pick as my foundation. After some experimenting, I found that 3 wraps gave me a 2.0-2.2 ohm coil. I dripped some juice on the finished product and let the cotton soak it up and expand. After hooking it up to my A1 I took a few LIGHT experimental pulls and boy, did it taste like crap, but I was patient and I let the wick soak up some more juice from the cartridge. After my 4th or 5th pull it was totally tasty. Nice fluffy vapor and the taste of my juice was like tasting it for the first time. The VR coffee flavor was smooth and buttery. So now I'm going to the local hobby store to buy some raw untreated candle wick and see how that works. I am now a cotton convert.

 

[xMackx]

I used some surplus cotton filled gauze pads I had left over from my latest injury (still accident prone after all these years). I boiled them on Saturday evening and let them air dry overnight. So yesterday I started fiddling around with them and various gauges of kanthal wire. I was looking to make a cotton wick for my new Bulli Smoker A1 because lately I've been noticing that my silica seems to be corrupting the taste of my liquids. So I cut a piece about 1" by .25" and rolled it between my hands and loosely wrapped 0.15 wire around the wick using a tooth pick as my foundation. After some experimenting, I found that 3 wraps gave me a 2.0-2.2 ohm coil. I dripped some juice on the finished product and let the cotton soak it up and expand. After hooking it up to my A1 I took a few LIGHT experimental pulls and boy, did it taste like crap, but I was patient and I let the wick soak up some more juice from the cartridge. After my 4th or 5th pull it was totally tasty. Nice fluffy vapor and the taste of my juice was like tasting it for the first time. The VR coffee flavor was smooth and buttery. So now I'm going to the local hobby store to buy some raw untreated candle wick and see how that works. I am now a cotton convert.

Glad to hear your success. The candle wick is tightly weaved so it will be quite a bit different than the gauze, just let it soak for a few hours.

 

[MaDeuce]

Glad to hear your success. The candle wick is tightly weaved so it will be quite a bit different than the gauze, just let it soak for a few hours.

Roger that, and thanks.

 

[MaDeuce]

Candle wick is working. Cotton rocks.

 

[xMackx]

Rebuilt an extra atty head, saturated in juice and stuck it in a tupper ware container (for vivi nova). So after a week of vaping when it's time to change wick and coil I'll stick this atty in and will have fully expanded/absorbed.

 

[xMackx]

Since I noticed that thinner resistant wires seem less likely to burn cotton and now I have a nr wire to rw welder, I ordered up some 36 awg kanthal for some experimenting.

 

[veganvap]

my hemp hasn't been mailed yet, and all my stock silica coils were shot and the silica burt, so I ended up boiling some 100% cotton q-tips and it works better than silica. It takes long to soak in between hits, but I could of compacted the cotton less. I wrapped the coil loosly around the cotton to allow for expansion. I think hemp' s supposed to wick quicker between hits, but cotton gives the juiciest hit, so I'll probably do a combo of the organic zero-addative hemp twine I linked elsewhere and the zero addative raw cotton cig filters I linked here because I'm getting them anyway to roll my own organic US-source vegan zero addative tobacco.

Thanks all for your trials & errors, researching, etc.

 

[MaDeuce]

I did a cotton candle wick coil and wick set-up on my Bulli Smoker AT-2M last night (not an easy chore with man-fingers) and was rewarded with the best performance since I received the atomizer. I am truly a cotton convert now. I will never use silica again. I'm going to try and pack a carto with cotton next, I love my tanks but if I fail then I may have to give them up. It's RBA's, dripping and cotton for me from now on. No more poly filler or silica for me.

Update: I did it!! It works!!! The poly filler comes right out after a minute of fiddling and pulling (minds out of the gutter fellas). Boiled cotton balls pulled into strands and rolled. I find that pieces about .75 of an inch work fine. More updates to follow regarding performance, but so far so good.

 

[JD1]

.......Update: I did it!! It works!!! The poly filler comes right out after a minute of fiddling and pulling (minds out of the gutter fellas). Boiled cotton balls pulled into strands and rolled. I find that pieces about .75 of an inch work fine. More updates to follow regarding performance, but so far so good.

I was under the impression that most cartos had a cotton 'diaper' around the coil area, and polyfil outside of that.

Anyways, I'm glad to hear you got it working for you.

 

[MaDeuce]

I was under the impression that most cartos had a cotton 'diaper' around the coil area, and polyfil outside of that.

Anyways, I'm glad to hear you got it working for you.

Correctomundo, but I wanted to try cotton as the filler and it works really. For some reason the flavor seems to be richer and more pronounced, maybe it's just mental or maybe the heat from the coil does something to the poly fill that corrupts the flavor of the juice, but whatever it is, I'm liking it so far.

 

[JD1]

....... but whatever it is, I'm liking it so far.

And that's the main thing. That might also prove to be more consistant. I've read some threads about the boge cartos having the polyfil packed way too tight (boge gate lol).

 

[adeline]

Rebuilt and/or rewicked 4 of 5 RBAs last night! (only one more in the mail.. should be a fun one!)

A8 got cotton yarn
Drunker got cotton yarn
IGO-L got cotton rounds
Killer 705 got cotton yarn, with a little fluff of sera wool under the cup -- I have no idea what it's made of, but it doesn't touch the coil. In addition to fantastic wicking ability, it keeps runback from getting into my carto tank. It's my attempt to mimick the carto-type filling without putting scary wicks on my coil.

And my A7 looked pristine so I didn't rewick. I think there's cotton yarn in that one, but to be honest I can't remember. Rest assured, it's cotton.

I have the Dream BT804 in the mail (AKA the Kayfun clone). I'm thinking it gets here today or tomorrow (likely tomorrow). That will get cotton too.. Probably the yarn since it requires a longer wick.

I LOVE the cotton yarn. There are actually 3 threads of stronger cotton threading through the yarn that makes it strong and helps to keep the swirly shape. Once you remove those 3 threads, it becomes much more like cotton balls. Gotta be careful that you don't pull it apart. It's so wonderful.

For the Drunker and the A8, I separate the strand in half for the proper thickness. It swells and wicks like a champ.

 

[JD1]

............Killer 705 got cotton yarn, with a little fluff of sera wool under the cup -- I have no idea what it's made of, but it doesn't touch the coil. In addition to fantastic wicking ability, it keeps runback from getting into my carto tank. It's my attempt to mimick the carto-type filling without putting scary wicks on my coil...........

I think it's probably polyester. As you say, it doesn't matter, but if you want to satisfy your curiosity, you might be able to identify it with a burn test. Polyester vs. Cotton in burning test - YouTube

 

[adeline]

I think it's probably polyester. As you say, it doesn't matter, but if you want to satisfy your curiosity, you might be able to identify it with a burn test. Polyester vs. Cotton in burning test - YouTube

Eh, it doesn't bother me too much. Like I said, it's not touching my coil.. So it's not like I'm burning or inhaling it.

 

[JD1]

Rebuilt and/or rewicked 4 of 5 RBAs last night! (only one more in the mail.. should be a fun one!)

A8 got cotton yarn ........

The Triton A8 looks interesting. I don't like the idea of threading in the plastic though. But anyways, how does it vape?

 

[adeline]

The Triton A8 looks interesting. I don't like the idea of threading in the plastic though. But anyways, how does it vape?

Well it was going really well until I lost a teeny piece of it. Empiremods sent me a new piece free of charge. So it's been out of commission for a couple days. Once I get it going again I'll try to do a full review.

PS, on the threads.. It doesn't thread as far as I can see. I can't get the tank to come off from the body!! I keep reading that it fully comes apart, but I can't figure out how or where! I'm sure it's the bottom, since there's an o-ring. The top of the tank, as far as I can tell, does not unscrew from the body. The bottom cap must come off somehow though.

Zero leaking so far with the tank.

 

[xMackx]

Well I just took apart and rinsed/cleaned my vivi mini nova with hot water, dried and screwed on the atty head I built earlier this week that was soaking in my tupper ware container. As I suspected, first pull tasted clean as can be. There was no break in period at all. I think I will try this method for VN's from now on since I have an extra head for each of the 2. It must have been soaking for 4-5 days, so it definitely had fully expanded, absorbed.