Doing something wrong with DiD clone

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spooty

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Hope this is the correct place for a genesis style atty. And sorry for the length.

I got a Griffin from discountvapers and built a mesh and coil with the included materials. I thought I overworked the wick and didnt have an airspace in the center. It still smoked and heated the juice sufficiently as far as I could tell. The vapor was metallic and acrid. It burned my nose and eyes and tasted just awful, no flavor of the juice at all. It was first attempt so I figured I screwed something up along the way.

Ordered some additional mesh from themeshcompany and waited for 32awg wire to come in and try it again. Made a new mesh wrapped around a paperclip so it had sufficient space in the center. Put the torch to it thrice and burned off some juice a couple times so I think its carboned up well enough. Wrapped a coil around it and removed the wick. Heated the coil a few times based on Toddecigreviews' hot spot free method. Wick slides in the coil easily it might be too loose if anything, but Ive heard that thats not necessarily a bad thing. Resistance reads at 2.3ohm on vv gripper and 2.5/2.6 on multi-meter.

The mesh seems to be wicking better than the first time around. Vapor is being produced and no hot spots that I can tell. Voltage doesnt seem to make a difference but vv gripper set at 3.0 and its all the same. Taste is still the same; metallic, acrid and zero flavor. Burns my eyes and nose.

If I take the upper cap off and expose the coil and mesh and fire it, I can smell a hint of the flavor but it is mostly the awfulness. If I put some drops directly on the coil it vapes up nice and smells like I think it should. But once that dries up its back to the same. Is it just not wicking enough maybe?

This was only my second attempt at this so maybe Im still messing up a step. Included some pics if the coil and mesh in situ.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

2.jpg
 

Commie

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From what I can tell based on your pictures and my rather limited experience, your coils are too loose on the wick. They need to be touching but not squeezing the wick.

If they're too loose, you get metallic taste.
If they're too tight, you'll have wicking problems, which is arguably better than metallic taste.

The perfect coil is supposed to touch the wick, but it should still be possible to move the wick in it a bit.

Let me know if this helps, and hopefully others with more experience will chime in :)
 

recidivus

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definitely too loose, you're probably just getting dry hit after dry hit. In my non-scientific opinion, the mesh is not just a wick, but an insulator. If the coils don't touch they'll get too hot, the mesh won't get much of the heat, and thus it won't wick very well (or at all).

Toddecigreviews method (if it's the one I'm thinking of) also involved widening the top of the wick slightly so it touches the coils, but not so wide it scrapes (video I just watched also involved slight screwing of the wick at the fat end, and you'll see all coils touch wick at ~10:00).

I did this trick once and it worked just fine, but I also rolled lightly with cotton since I was worried screwing the wick in would scrape some oxidization off. Personally I prefer the rolling paper method.

Also, you may want to cook the mesh before you roll it, any time I do that there's a LOT of "smoke" that comes off, you may be getting some of that. Just run a torch over it until it changes colour/stop smoking, doesn't take much. Ditto on the kanthal, run a lighter down the length of it before you coil, it'll keep its shape better and any residue from manufaacturing will cook off before it's in the feed. Slight metallic taste is normal at first, but it shouldn't be overpowering and will go away after ~1 fill.
 
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flbutterfly1

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WillyB

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The wraps need to touch so that the liquid from the wick is transferred to the coil (as has been mentioned). The wraps being loose enough to slide the wick around is no big deal, the important thing is to not cut through/scrape the oxidation causing a short. You also didn't mention if the air hole is lined up properly. You should put it right even (next to) the wick.

It's best if you just keep things simple till you get the hang of it.

Zen knows his way around these things. His PVs are quite popular.

It's lined up where he rolls a wick.

The Zenesis 18650 PV - YouTube

You'll note it's just a skinny wick made with a rather small amount of mesh.

Here's a newer one where he wraps a coil.



Almost forgot.

Voltage doesnt seem to make a difference but vv gripper set at 3.0 and its all the same.
That could also be part of the problem, it seems none of these China things can do low voltage. On some tests I've seen even set at 3V they are closer to ~4.3V.
 
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