Epic fail on my first real RTA...

[Mant1k0re]

Took to RTA with the rba atty that came with my subtank mini, loved it, decided to get serious about it.

I got a Billow V2 that arrived today and I spent about 4 hours trying to make it work, it was a pretty disheartening experience. I've been using Kanthal A1 26g with about 7 wraps each for a result at about .4 ohms when I finally managed to mount my coils properly, which was an ordeal in itself - the screws on the posts are tiny and their quality is really bad.

No matter what I do, I can't get the coils to heat properly. I've tested them at 30w on an IStick TC40w and it takes something like 2 seconds for them to get red, and there's always one that takes longer than the other to really glow. Carefully pressing them with tweezers made it a little bit better, but it's still not good enough to go to the wicking stage.

I realize this was probably a bad choice for a newbie like me, I misread the description and thought it was a single coil system, which is what I was after...

Should I get a different type of wire, or should I just give up on the Billow for now and look for something easier to learn the ropes...?

And in this case, what would be a good choice? As I said I'd like a single coil setup with bigger screws maybe, something not too hard to build.

Thanks for any advice I can get from more experienced users...

 

[VictorC]

Gently brush the coil with the flat screwdriver before/after pulsing @ 15 W. This should make it glow even, from inside out. Then bring wattage up to ~ 22 W, check again, wick it and you good to go.

 

[TheotherSteveS]

do you have any lighter guage wire, say 28 or something. If so, try 6/5 wrap coils, should bring you in at 0.5 ohmsverall a reasonable heat flux at 30-35w and, importantly, a lot less coil mass. So your istick should cope better with that build. Getting them balanced takes a bit of practise but just try to make sure the leg length is the same when they are mounted on the deck! Your resistance of 0.4 is spot on so you are doing pretty good already! Hang in there and when you nail it, you are pretty much set for anything an rta can throw at you let us know how it goes!! If you want to build big duals/claptons etc you might need to get a beefier mod to drive them comfortably . Nothing crazy but something that will easily do 60w should give enough headroom for standard builds. Plenty of good, well-priced options around these days. Regardless, you can get a good vape with the kit you have and you are well on the way by the sounds of it.

 

[Mant1k0re]

Alright, I'll get myself some more options Kanthal-wise and give it another go during the week-end. And get myself a kick-... screwdriver too, because those blue ones that come with the atties are just not cutting it -.-

So I'm guessing 30w is not enough power for my mod to heat all this metal and that's why it takes longer for the coils to glow, right? That makes a lot of sense, come to think of it.

Thanks for the advice both.

 

[VictorC]

Patience is the key. My first successful build took hours and meters of wire/cotton wasted, now it's matter of a few minutes. You'll be fine

 

[TheotherSteveS]

Alright, I'll get myself some more options Kanthal-wise and give it another go during the week-end. And get myself a kick-... screwdriver too, because those blue ones that come with the atties are just not cutting it -.-

Thanks for the advice both.

Mate, the pervasive little blue screwdriver is, by and large, an abomination. I have a bag full and no idea what to do with them! Right tools for the job indeed help!!

 

[MMW]

Any chance that you can snap a pic?

 

[zoiDman]

Alright, I'll get myself some more options Kanthal-wise and give it another go during the week-end. And get myself a kick-... screwdriver too, because those blue ones that come with the atties are just not cutting it -.-

So I'm guessing 30w is not enough power for my mod to heat all this metal and that's why it takes longer for the coils to glow, right? That makes a lot of sense, come to think of it.

Thanks for the advice both.

Here a little Trick for those Blue Screwdrivers. Drag the Point of the screwdriver across a Nail File or a Piece of Sandpaper a couple of times. The point of Many/Most of them is Too Pointy. So they don't engage very well in Atty Screws.

BTW, +1 on using 28ga. I think it is a Good Gauge to start with when a person is New to Coil Building.

 

[rice721]

yea the billow v2 post screws are sub par quality, UD post screws are nice and thick.

Anyway on topic...sometimes I find that if no matter what I do the 2 coils won't burn from inside out at the same time, is that my post screws aren't tightened enough...maybe try that.

Practice makes perfect.

My first good attempt took about 45 minutes...after a couple days I can build a simple dual coil kanthal in 1/3 the time...I've later found that the coil building/mounting itself isn't the tricky part...its more of the wicking since each RTA has its own unique character..

 

[Mant1k0re]

Hey guys, thanks for your advice again, it helped a lot. Here's the build I made tonight:

Now it's not the most brilliant work of art there is obviously but it looks pretty decent from where I stand. It still has the same issues it had yesterday though with coils not heating evenly and pretty slow, but I went ahead and wicked it with rayon and I'm now vaping it at 35w. It's definitely not the atty I was looking for, I'm a mouth-to-lung hit type of guy and it's clearly not built for that. The flavor's okay, and wicking it wasn't too hard - even though it was my first attempt at using rayon.

I think I'm going to get myself one of those new geekvape griffin, they can be set up as single coil and apparently they have a tight pull so I should be right at home with it. Now I just need to find someone to give this new Billow to...

At any rates, I'm happy I managed to make it work somehow.

 

[Jdurand]

Those coils look great, don't give up on the Billow, it's really a premier tank. I fought and fought to get my building skills to where they are, and it was stated here correctly above, wicking is the real challenge. Yes, you could use a few more watts to power that particular build, but not much. Maybe an IPV D3, only a few bucks more than an istick and you get 85 watts and temp control.