DIY & Repair: Local Resources

[trintek]

i figured i would work up a thread on where to get just about anything for diy and repair work. add anything you think will help

Cartridge wick material: polyester fiber or batting
Michaels: pillow, quilting, or stuffed animal section
Hobby Lobby: pillow, quilting, or stuffed animal section
Walmart: craft section
Aquarium supply stores (bulk filter material for biological filters)

Flavorings: lorann or bickfords
Bickfords:
I haven't found a local supplier of bickfords yet, but will be checking restaurant supply chains soon
lorann:
walmart in the craft / wedding section

Glycerin: usp grade
walmart: in the pharma section
walmart: in the craft / wedding section
cvs or walgreens
heb: in the pharma section

Propylene Glycol: usp grade
tractor supply: dionne keotosis treatment gallon size
many local feed stores: ask for keotosis treatment for cattle, check label

Propylene Glycol / Glycerin / Purified Water Mix: not on the forum that i know of
Club and Stage Supply Stores: fog juice, check ingredients, get unscented

LED: indicator light
RadioShack: surface mount 3.0-3.6 volt
Electronic surplus stores: same rules as ratshack

5 volt power supply: charger or passthrough
Dollar Store: cell phone charger

Switches:
Momentary:
Radioshack
Altex Electronics
electrotex
any electronics store that sells components
Pressure:
No local supplier found

Housings:
Most craft and R/C model stores carry thin wall tubing in stainless, brass, copper, bronze, and aluminum

welp, there's a start at least, what am i missing?


http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=nw0200

 

[Nicfits]

Trintek,
Have you tried that polyester batting in your carts? Does it burn or melt?
Be careful with poly, it can give off some nasty gases when burned.

Is it polyester that is used in the carts?
I do know that the wicking material used in the atomizers is a glass silica. AKA Kevlar. Just google firewick, Kevlar doesn't burn and can withstand temps up to 650 degrees. I know you can buy firewick online in sheets or ropes. I have not yet found a local dealer that sells it yet. If anyone has run across someone who sells Kevlar rope or firewick material please let me know. I am interested in making my own atomizers. The wire used in the atomizers is Nichrome. And from what I have gathered a winding of about 3.3 to 4 ohms works best. There are charts at online nichrome dealers that will help you to do your calculations.
Does anyone know where to get a fine mesh stainless steel wool? This I need to find.

 

[trintek]

the portion in the carts is polyfiber (as far as i can tell). the atomizer wick is kevlar (aromatic polyamide not glass silica) or silica glass fiber depending on manufacturer. the cart batting once dried and pressed displays the same characteristics as pressed polyfiber fill.

as far as kevlar goes, i am a member at home of poi, you can see me firebreathe in san antonio on occasion

i used to sell kevlar wick in 1", 1.5", 2" tape spools, kevlar rope, kevlar thread, and a few other various things. at this point, i believe basspro shops carry the kevlar thread, as far as wick goes, best bet would probably be brothers of the flame in san antonio, or any local fire performance group. (i was an independant, did shows with brothers of flame and sons of ares)

nichrome wire for the coils is nominally .01mm, it is available from mcmaster-carr link is here: McMaster-Carr

something similar to the wool originally used as an atomizer wick is located here Porous Metal Media from Applied Porous Technologies, Inc.

but i like the idea for fine stainless mesh, here's a decent supplier, but once again, not local. Rhodes American Stainless Steel Wool - Available in Fine, Medium and Coarse Reels

 

[butterbean03]

Hey trintek,

Great post. Thanks!

Don

 

[trintek]

was trying to rem, it just hit me, adam rice out of austin tx sells kevlar wicks and such, he used to make the wicks for brothers of the flame. i believe his email addy is adamrice at 8stars dot org

 

[Jim Davis]

This is a good start. In the near future, I'd like to take it a step further. I'm planning to let all this great information build up, and then I'll start putting it on a Microsoft Excel. form. Eventually, I'll have an extensive information file that I can e-mail to the group members. We can all have a file for reference instead of searching through thousands of posts.

When I get enough information, I'll let everyone know. As updates come along, I'll e-mail the new file, and you all can overwrite your existing file.
Right now, I'm collecting information on interchangeable e-cig parts.

Cheers;
jd

 

[Lika]

I second the great thread comment

If we could just come up with an alternative to vaporizers (atomizers) used in the devices we get from China we'd be all set for some fairly easy home builds. I know there is info on the main forums for this kind of thing. Everything has been discussed and or tried from model car glow plugs to ultrasonic crystals. Still no viable resolutions yet that I've seen.

Then there's another caveat and that's getting nic extract. To even think about doing that at home is dangerous if not deadly, IMO. But there are those working on it. The problem is extracting it without killing yourself because theres currently no inexpensive way to measure (at home) exactly how much nic we'd be putting in our vaping solutions.

Sorry, I know that may have been a bit OT but with a possible ban looming over our heads i can't help but think along the lines of making everything from scratch including juice from scratch.

 

[trintek]

ok, so lets cover those two basics

vaporizer replacements.

standard: nichrome coil, cheap, replaceable, but current atomizer designs do not allow easy replacement or rebuild

one thing that is popping up and is a good idea imo is the electric lighters, tech is the same, all it requires is a wick to be dripworthy. cheap, disposable, at the same time it's an open design and easy to hack.

ultrasonic vaporizer for water/mist cold fog gens, doesnt work, liquid is too viscous.

halogen lightbulb: cheap, works, requires warm up time

pcb heater: tried it, produces minimal vapor before blowing the traces on the board and contaminating the liquid

quartz lamp: have not found one small enough yet

ceramic point heater: have not found a supplier of a small one that will work on batteries yet

fog machine: works well, takes forever to clog, and you can cheech and chong your entire house... haven't found a handheld one with the same tech, the handheld ones basically use our current vapor tech

in the works:

braided, spun, or spiraled micro coils of nichrome

micro heater of nichrome or similar bonded to mica or similar easy to clean substrate

nichrome coil encapsulated in platinum or titanium bell housing (not discussed on forum).. theoretically as easy to clean as the bonded substrate method, would require the wick to encapsulate the bell.... should be easy to mod/rebuild by replacing main vaporizing wick

nic extraction:
super critical co2 extraction works well, but is not easily done at home

the one i am working on is a two part method based on "other" alkaloid extraction. butane method to extract the tar and other nasty stuff, then will try to follow up with a water or alcohol nic extraction. the major stumbling point in nic extraction seems to be that we extract everything (as evidenced by my pot o black tar stuff sitting about 1 meter from me)

there are other chem methods to extract the nicotine, but i will need to talk to one of the people i know that does alkaloid extractions to figure something out that is kitchen / diy worthy

my current projects are the extra high strength nic juice for diy crowd, and a universal ps and housing for vaporizers. i figure the less it looks like a cig, the less hell i will get for it later, plus i can always market mine to alternative shops if there is a ban since it really will be a portable microvaporizer..

 

[butterbean03]

Hey Trintek,

The only thing I didn't see on your list unless I missed it was Unflavored 36mg Nic in 100 ml bottles or larger. I am having to get it overseas now. Otherwise, great post.

 

[trintek]

until one of gets a storefront up, i don't know of any texas based suppliers of the 36mg unflavored. even when i get in the 48mg it will be in a very limited quantity for now. i may double up on my order, but i would really rather test it first, so not sure if i want to double up just yet and run the risk of having a large batch of bad product.

on the flip side of that coin, if i put one drop on my atomizer, vape, and cough up a lung... i will probably wish i had doubled up on the order

 

[testerjtester]

Trintek, great thread, thanks for posting! Jim, I like your idea as well, I think it would help keep the information well-organized.

Trintek,
Have you tried that polyester batting in your carts? Does it burn or melt?

I just bought some polyfill from Michaels this weekend, it was in the yarn area along the wall. I stuffed two carts using this material, and they are completely unvapable to me, there is a definite burnt plastic kind of a fume/taste/vibe that I don't get when I swap carts.

There were two kinds that I saw in that section, I cheaped out and bought the Soft Touch Poly-fil Supreme in an 8-oz. bag for about $3 instead of another bigger one for a couple of dollars more. The one I bought described itself as 100% Polyester fiberfill, but the other said something like premium polyester fiberfill.

Don't know if there could actually be a difference between the two brands or not, but I don't think I'll be able to use this stuff, and will need to try to find something else... I have a bunch of carts for my Pilot/M401 that either don't have enough stuffing in them, or that have had the stuffing over-compressed somehow so that they don't fill up the whole inner cart so they don't seem to wick liquid properly.

Would appreciate any specific recommendations from anyone that has found something that doesn't have this burnt plastic effect...

 

[trintek]

i have tried it, actually i am using the same as you at the moment, for me it lasted for 10 or so cart refills before i pulled it out, tossed it, replaced it. i have two methods for replacing it:

1: for smoking everywhere, rn4081, and other similar minis including the health e-cigs, etc. pop out the cartridge inside of the mouthpiece, dig out the filler, wash the mouthpiece and the insert. grab a chunk of poly fill and roll it between your fingers until you have a relatively compact piece about a little bigger in diameter than your cartridge and about 3/4 the length, fill the cartridge half full with liquid, then insert the polyfill and push it down far enough that it lines up with the top of the cart, finish filling with e-liquid. when you insert it into the atomizer, it should push the fiber further down and maintain contact without an issue, thereby giving you your wicking plus a small reservoir on the bottom of just the liquid.

2: for 901 and similar cart designs (conjoined mouthpiece / cart) method is similar, but make sure the piece fills the entire cart and isn't too tightly compressed.

i have done some experiments using small pieces of kevlar rope and they show a lot of promise, something like 50 refills or so before it starts to get a slightly burnt taste.

when you do the refills are you priming the atomizer before adding the cart? that is also one thing i do everytime as i dont refill my cart until vapor production goes down a bit or the atomizer heats up more than normal. i prime mine with 1 drop on the coil and 2 on the bridge, if you have an enclosed atomizer (no view of coil) 3 drops on the bridge and let it sit for 5 minutes or so to wick all the way to the coil.

 

[trintek]

i finally experienced the problem you described. i repacked a cart with fresh material, refilled it with a pg/vg 20mg nic solution, and in 1 night i burned the wadding and melted part of the cart insert... i tried it again with the straight pg 36mg solution and no issues.

am starting to wonder if it is vaping at a higher temp with the vg/pg mix than with straight pg? or if it is running dry and i am just not catching it in time.

for now, when using the mix, i have started dripping only without the wadding or insert in the mouthpiece.

 

[Nicfits]

Here is a link to a company that sells Nichrome in all sizes. It also lists all the specs needed to make your calculations also your ohms per foot and approximate temps at a given amperage.

Nichrome 60 (NiCr) Resistance Wire

Comment: This is not a local supplier, but a good source none the less.

 

[lewnworx]

I am currently trying the trick somebody posted today about using a tiny straw in the with the poly. (I got a 16oz bag at wall mart for $3). It seems to be working really well thus far. I used a coffee stirrer straw, and cut both ends at an angle (I did the top end to keep the straw away from the atomizer end).

I'd tried the tea bag thing, but it didn't work too well, maybe I rolled it too tight or something.

 

[gropeforluna]

For any DIY liquid folks, I was able to find Wilton glycerine at Michael's in the cake decorating aisle. Also, if you're in Dallas, Cake Carousel (75 and Arapaho) has a ton of LorAnn flavorings in their candy area, and they also carry Wilton.

 

[Kat]

Petland and Petsmart sell Fluval poly filters for fish tanks, which works pretty well for restuffing carts. I've tried the stuff from Wally World without much success.

Also, I'm on day three of my deconstructed-tea-bag-in-the-901-cart experiment: so far, so good. In order for it to work, you need a lot less bag than you might think-- or than I might think, anyway. And it's far too easy to overfill, despite the fact that it holds a lot more than I expected.

 

[testerjtester]

when you do the refills are you priming the atomizer before adding the cart? that is also one thing i do everytime as i dont refill my cart until vapor production goes down a bit or the atomizer heats up more than normal. i prime mine with 1 drop on the coil and 2 on the bridge, if you have an enclosed atomizer (no view of coil) 3 drops on the bridge and let it sit for 5 minutes or so to wick all the way to the coil.

Yep, I do add 2-3 drops onto the atomizer with every refill, one thing I've learned on this forum is to keep that bad boy nice and moist.

What's weird is that with that fill, I was getting the funky taste right away with a freshly filled cartridge. Will try it again with my relatively new 510, and also got the tip to try Fluval Poly pads, which apparently are fish tank filter material that can be had at PetSmart and I'm hoping will cut down on the stray fibers that are sometimes sticking to my atomizer bridges from time to time.

 

[trintek]

well, i definitely get the stray fibers occasionally, but this is the first time i had one melt right away. i switched back to the straight pg for two carts i did a day or two ago, and once again its fine, did the pg/vg mix in one cart and same issue, instant melt.

i will try out the aquarium filters as well and see how it works, still looking for my kevlar rope to see how well it may work.

 

[Nicfits]

I picked up some powdered Citric Acid from Mountain Rose herbs along with four ounces of menthol crystals. I haven't used any of the acid in a mix yet, but I did put a couple of hefty tablespoons worth in a pot of water/vinegar bath to boil clean some attys with. 5 minute boil and they vape and look like new.

I now have enough menthol crystals for two lifetimes. 4 ounces for $10
and 1lb. of powdered citirc acid was $3.50
Mountain Rose Herbs | Bulk organic herbs, spices & essential oils