eVic and AGA-T2

[Nocturin]

I built my first coil and wick tonight on my aga-t2. It worked amazing for about 10 minutes until she popped at the positive post. My next coil only seem to light up between the positive post and coil now. Feeling a bit discouraged now. Not sure what to even do at this point with it.

I have the same issue with mine. The washer trick above is supposed to help with that on all genesis-style attys, so you could try that too.

I found the trick (with both normal wire 28-34ga and .5x.1mm kanthal and nichrome ribbon) was to get that top coil as close to the top post as possible. I've got maybe a .2mm gap between the SS wick and the positive post. If I had a macro lens I'd show you. If I don't get it as close as possible, it becomes a hot positive lead (glowing redhot) and will pop if held too long, unlike the normal "coil glow".

The washer mod might be great with ribbon wire, actually. I wonder what kind of washers I'd need.

 

[Hello World]

I built my first coil and wick tonight on my aga-t2. It worked amazing for about 10 minutes until she popped at the positive post. My next coil only seem to light up between the positive post and coil now. Feeling a bit discouraged now. Not sure what to even do at this point with it.

Get some 30ga Kanthal wire. Beside the fact you'll get far more vape by volume, it's pretty difficult to pop that wire, and has never happened to me, and I have popped just about everything else. The reason is obviously a short, but when the wire pops it doesn't give you any time to investigate and make adjustments. So go with 30ga ... you can't go wrong. And by the time you are all set up with 30ga and everything is working wonderfully, you're gonna get the itch to try 28ga for even more voluminous vapes, so order a pack of that wire too to save yourself some future shipping costs. The stuff is dirt cheap. But when you first start out with Genny RBAs, work with 30ga. ... 32ga isn't hard to short out and break the wire.

 

[TheBoom]

Get some 30ga Kanthal wire. Beside the fact you'll get far more vape by volume, it's pretty difficult to pop that wire, and has never happened to me, and I have popped just about everything else. The reason is obviously a short, but when the wire pops it doesn't give you any time to investigate and make adjustments. So go with 30ga ... you can't go wrong. And by the time you are all set up with 30ga and everything is working wonderfully, you're gonna get the itch to try 28ga for even more voluminous vapes, so order a pack of that wire too to save yourself some future shipping costs. The stuff is dirt cheap. But when you first start out with Genny RBAs, work with 30ga. ... 32ga isn't hard to short out and break the wire.

Been having the same problem with mine. I use 32ga and its fine with anything below 15 watts. But I've been trying to take my vape experience to the next level with ~30 watts vapes. Got the draw tube mech mod jus for that but every single time the coil pops without fail. On my eVic it's just fine but once it's fires on my draw tube it goes pop.

 

[eHuman]

I have the same issue with mine. The washer trick above is supposed to help with that on all genesis-style attys, so you could try that too.

I found the trick (with both normal wire 28-34ga and .5x.1mm kanthal and nichrome ribbon) was to get that top coil as close to the top post as possible. I've got maybe a .2mm gap between the SS wick and the positive post. If I had a macro lens I'd show you. If I don't get it as close as possible, it becomes a hot positive lead (glowing redhot) and will pop if held too long, unlike the normal "coil glow".

The washer mod might be great with ribbon wire, actually. I wonder what kind of washers I'd need.

That works, but it is a ban aid that hides the real problem, a short.

Read my blog, you may be able to discern what you are doing different than me.

 

[boshans]

I was just wondering....do you have to wrap the coil under the first washer on the aga's, or can you wrap in under the second washer so it is more horizontal? I would assume it doesn't matter which washer you put it under to tighten it...but I could be wrong.

 

[Hello World]

I have never found any reason to install any washers onto the AGA-T2.

Yeah, washers do not fix shorts between the mesh and the coil as the result of improper wrapping/rolling and/or inadequate oxidization.

Been having the same problem with mine. I use 32ga and its fine with anything below 15 watts. But I've been trying to take my vape experience to the next level with ~30 watts vapes.

That kind of power can also pop 30ga Kanthal. 28ga would be more suitable for those applications.

 

[Nocturin]

I have never found any reason to install any washers onto the AGA-T2.

Yeah, washers do not fix shorts between the mesh and the coil as the result of improper wrapping/rolling and/or inadequate oxidization.


That kind of power can also pop 30ga Kanthal. 28ga would be more suitable for those applications.

That works, but it is a ban aid that hides the real problem, a short.

Read my blog, you may be able to discern what you are doing different than me.

I still have not been able to get rid of the top hot positive lead. I read your blog, oxidized both wick and coil very well.

This is where I have issues

" I make sure that when the nut is tight, the wick is still vertical and the wire leading to the center post does not have excess pressure pulling on the wick and causing the coil to bite into the wick."

No matter what I do, I cannot "relieve" tension on that top coil, and nor can a twist the wick around in the coil. Every time I bring tighten the top nut, it always creates extra tension.

I'm going to attempt to rebuild the coil, the wick is operating correctly and is quite clean.

Man I need some more SS.

If this is any help I'm using it on a mech mod, the natural.

 

[Hello World]

Exactly how and what are you doing to oxidize the mesh?

 

[Nocturin]

Exactly how and what are you doing to oxidize the mesh?

Two things, heating it to orange-redish with my blowtorch, then afterwards i "juice burn" 4-5 times.

I played with it a bunch more last night using my kanthal ribbon wire. I pre-heated the wire through the juice-burn's flame to see if I could get some of the "springiness" out.

It seems to be working right now, I'll upload some photos. The 2nd coil lights up before the top coil, and will a little fiddling I was able to get most of them going (4/5 wrap) except the bottom.

What I did differently this coil was with the bottom and top connections, following the "s" that eHuman used in his blog. The bottom leg I twisted flat right after the wire let the wick, and the top leg I left verticle and wrapped it around the positive post by about 270 degrees. There was slight tension, as I tightened the positive nut down

I used a silica/SS hybrid because I didn't have enough SS to make a solid wick that occupied most of the wicking port.

I have a few pictures that I will edit in a little while.

 

[eHuman]

Good:
Try wrapping your top coil counterclockwise. I do it clockwise, but that always tightens it, though I am able to get around the issue. I used counterclockwise until I figured out how to keep even tension going clockwise.

Better:
What I do now is pull the wick slightly away from the center post and tighten the top nut. If done properly, any amount of tension created by tightening the nut just stands the wick up straight, it doesn't bite into the wick.

The test:
After you are connected, can you spin the wick in place easily? If not the coil is too tight around the wick. One way or another you have to relieve the tension.

 

[Nocturin]

Good:
Try wrapping your top coil counterclockwise. I do it clockwise, but that always tightens it, though I am able to get around the issue. I used counterclockwise until I figured out how to keep even tension going clockwise.

Better:
What I do now is pull the wick slightly away from the center post and tighten the top nut. If done properly, any amount of tension created by tightening the nut just stands the wick up straight, it doesn't bite into the wick.

The test:
After you are connected, can you spin the wick in place easily? If not the coil is too tight around the wick. One way or another you have to relieve the tension.

Wrapped clockwise, but I didn't pull the wick away. That would probably solve the tension issues, and not being able to "spin" the wick because it's slightly off kilter. I'm not going to mess with the coil till I get home and have the time because it's working well(not great) right now.

I can't get the tension right to spin the coil though, it's either too lose or too tight, so it might just be practice. If I attempt to spin the wick it distorts the coil. Might have something to do with the slight tilt on the wick too.