edit: agree with Dsmooch...If your stone stays wet is should cut like a hot knife in cold butter. Keep your wheel clean. Rinse that slurry off and cut at a low speed.
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edit: agree with Dsmooch...If your stone stays wet is should cut like a hot knife in cold butter. Keep your wheel clean. Rinse that slurry off and cut at a low speed.
i read that, but also read it binds and heats up if wet, so i did it dry. got one end off. gonna wait and get diamond discs. making one wick is gonna tear through my whole disc batch
Just a general observation. I notice from time to time I need to tweak the bottom coil loop to the negative post because it will become too hot. What I think happens is that the lower part of the coil is washed constantly by liquid and buildup between the wick and coil will be washed away. if there is any gap at all it will be come a problem spot. I leave a little bit of an end on the kanthal near the negative post and when this happens, I loosen the screw, pull it tight again, tighten the screw and it works beautifully once more. Any one else notice this area causing occasional problems?
Although I havent cut the fish stix I would do it the same way we cut stone at work and that is to have flowing water on it, maybe for the final shaping I might do it dry but for cutting the main bits out I would imagine the discs would ware down to the point you could see it as your cutting through.
when I get my fish stix (the white ones) I am trying a method and that is using a drill press and the 8mm hole saw I have, it works with stone bench tops and leaves around a 5mm rod, but have no idea if it will leave anything at all with porous ceramic, from some peoples experience it leaves nothing but dust, Im thinking the fact they said dust indicates a dry cut and therefore I have a chance with flowing water. "shrugs shoulders" Im not a stone mason so dont quote me on any of this.....
The hole saw I have is an expensive hole saw not the eBay types, so with a little luck it may work out well.... I know one thing for sure, these holesaws will burn out and wont make it through an inch of marble without water flowing, but with water they can grind through 30 bench tops 2 inches thick....
Again I am thinking out loud guys, many here have heaps more knowledge than I have from simply just reading these forums and listening to the guys at work explaining things to me.
Regards
Elias
Hmmm? Well I just re-did 2 1/8" wicks with EWH method. Both were a 5/4 wrap. Both installed in ZAPs. One Ω's @ 1.8, the other at 2.0 - I don't get it, thought they'd both come out the same. I too was wondering if the amount of heat applied to the wire, might have 'stretched' it can changed the resistance minimally.
edit: my previous 5/4 wrap was also 1.8Ω, so that's what I expected on both of these.
g you made me flip out with ur avatar switch... felt like some subliminal injection 
I made a 6/7 wrap on 1/8 wick with my "spare" parts. That is, a broken wick and a mini DID clone that is a little bit leaky. But it makes lots of vapor as I leave it pressed without getting too hot... that is the best part of ribbon you can enjoy higher temps without the coil getting hot and burning the juice and giving you a nasty hit. It's a 90/10 PG juice so the vapor would be lots more with a higher VG juice.
mines not hollow. got a platic ring in the center, and then the plastic ring is filled with something. the stone itself is hollow, but filled with stuffperfect, the core is hollow...wetting the stone helps... good luck
lol! i was cutting bone dry, at my black and decker's highest speed. the discs were litterally melting.
Heat is not your friend here. The water keeps the bit cool. The slurry from the wet cut will also dull your disc. So you need to get rid of it. Dip the wick in water or rinse off...Another tip...as you start you cut, let the spin of the wheel dig into the stone, it doesnt need much push pressure. So when you are cutting the wheel should be spinning up on the side you are cutting towards, not into the stone on that side.
i do think that it is possible when hot wrapping to change the wires diameter, making the resistance higher, but i wouldnt have thought that it would of been that much of a difference. but then again there is a big difference in resistance between lets say a 4 wrap of 30 vs a 4 wrap of 32, so a .02 change might be feasable. do the 2 different wicks fill the wick holes the same? or do you think one wick could be thinner then the other? my money is on the stretching thing
i havent tried making the fish stixs yet, but i am a marble, stone, and tile contractor. when cutting any stone water is a must . with porcelain or ceramic you can cut dry or wet. from what i see the fish sticks look more like a stone then ceramic, and therefore i would definatly cut them wet.
I think DSmooch had the same issue; it is hollow, the plastic cap just has a nub that goes into the hole maybe 1/8 or 1/4 inch.
place a wrap or 3 of sewing thread under the top cap o-ring......AHH, a nice snug fit.
Definitely cut that stuff down wet. The end caps are only plastic but have kind of a "nubbin" that goes into the empty center a little ways. You can pick out whatever is left with a small screwdriver. That is, if it's the TopFin ceramics we have been using. That packaging looks a bit different than what I have seen. Stone looks similar.
actually both my 1/8 and 3/32 set ups perform really well, its just that the 3/32 wick performs a little better. all of my gennys have the same airhole for these results, so maybe it is possible that only the 1/8 wicks needs a larger airhole, dont know. but i do have a top cap for my ac-9 that does have a larger airhole, so i can check to see if it makes a difference.
Here's my story so far with the fishwick. I am using stock Aga-T's - one is the original and the other the Aga-T+. I haven't drilled the wick hole on either of them. Without a doubt, as stated several times in your previous posts, having some wiggle room between the wick and the wick hole makes a big difference in flavor for some reason. The vapor production is similar either way for me. As I make my own wicks, I generally would grind until the wick slid easily into the wick hole. These look to come out around 3/32 or maybe just a slight bit bigger.
One of my initial wicks (3 weeks or so in use now) has always worked flawlessly with great flavor (30g 5/4 hand wrap 1.5 ohm), but I was struggling to duplicate it with my other aga setup - same wire, both hand and EHW wraps etc. I was grinding the wick until it slid easily in, but couldn't duplicate the flavor from the initial setup. After reading through all of your posts, the light finally came on - I need to reduce the diameter of the wicks further. Went to work on the bench grinder and reduced it until it could really wiggle around in the wick hole, and BAM, the flavor started to shine through. Eyeballing against a ruler the best I can, it looks to be just under 3/32. With a 5/4 EHW wrap of 30g, its coming in at 1.3 ohms. Morale of the story for me is to make sure there is plently of wiggle room or flavor is lost.
One of my initial wicks (3 weeks or so in use now) has always worked flawlessly with great flavor (30g 5/4 hand wrap 1.5 ohm), but I was struggling to duplicate it with my other aga setup - same wire, both hand and EHW wraps etc. I was grinding the wick until it slid easily in, but couldn't duplicate the flavor from the initial setup. After reading through all of your posts, the light finally came on - I need to reduce the diameter of the wicks further. Went to work on the bench grinder and reduced it until it could really wiggle around in the wick hole, and BAM, the flavor started to shine through. Eyeballing against a ruler the best I can, it looks to be just under 3/32. With a 5/4 EHW wrap of 30g, its coming in at 1.3 ohms. Morale of the story for me is to make sure there is plently of wiggle room or flavor is lost.
Yes, this was also my diagnosis some time ago. I firmly believe the juice needs to be able to freely climb around the outside of the wick for it to work properly. The DID has provided a perfect platform so far for the 1/8" wick. Maybe the airhole could be a tad bigger for bigger clouds but the draw pressure feels great to me.
Thinking out loud here....this makes sense. The ceramic has a greater ability to absorb juice as compared to solid SS wicks, which have a great capillary effect. If the juice level is too far from the coils, the capillary rise effect is not great enough to support the absorption of the the ceramic and drys out. If the juice is close to the coils and has a bit of room in the wick hole, it can take advantage of the greater absorption effect. For SS this is helpful too but not to the same extent. 
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