First coil builds by a n00b

[LowLander]

I started vaping a month ago and stopped with analogs. A few days ago my Davide started to taste differently. Having watched a bunch of vids on youtube, I decided it was time to re-coil and re-wick.

The supplies for that arrived yesterday. Some 1.5mm Kanthal and 2mm (German) Wolf silica. Wrapped a 4/5 coil around a nail, wicked it and installed it. It tested out at 2 ohm and glowed nice and evenly. Didn't look that great, but I was happy that my 1st ever coil worked at all. Finished the rebuild and started vaping it.

Lost of flavor, but...rubber. Took a few more draws. Still rubber. I decided to let it sit for a while. After about 1 hour: still that prevalent rubber taste. I decided to redo it.

My next 2 coils were looking nicer. The 2nd however glowed at first, but after a few dry burns stopped glowing. The 3rd somehow snapped.

The 4th showed no issues so I assembled everything again and took a vape. Still a bit rubbery, but much less.

These 1st steps get me to these questions:
- Any explanation for the rubbery taste?
- What may have caused my 3rd coil to snap? It broke when I dry-burned it.

 

[Harlen Sponaugle]

I don't know what made it do that but I fire my wick and coil before I use them

 

[jhev]

Pre burn wire and wick to remove any residuals and as for the snapped coil pulse very carefully when u dry burn I popped a couple when I first stated pushing to much voltage thru for to long

 

[LowLander]

I wasn't aware that silica needed pre-burning. I'll try that, thanks.

 

[Enoch777]

Not sure how 2mm wick compares to the nail you're using to wrap, but you don't want your coil to be too tight or too lose. Both are an issue and effect performance/taste.

Another option is to slide a heftier sewing needle beneath your wick and wrap the coil around the wick/needle, then pull the needle out when you're satisfied.

 

[Lucky1127]

What type of device are you rebuilding

 

[OlDogNewTricks]

One more thing that you might want to look at is the rubber bottom part. I have heard that it is possible to melt that part if the build lets the leading and trailing wires get hot.

 

[Bill's Magic Vapor]

Check the entire head assembly again. Rubber is not a flavor that we find too often and sounds like grommet damage, or something. Also, silica is okay, but cotton is much better flavor, just don't dry burn it. Another thing, make sure those wicks are fully saturated before taking a draw. Silica won't burn, but it will carbonize and caramelize, both killing the flavor and vape.

My first four builds did not work at all, so you're ahead of me. Then I went, I think, 10 for 12, and never looked back. Also, kanthal is better than nichrome, flavor wise, imho. I don't know what 1.5mm kanthal is. Mine come is gauges, like 32 gauge, and 1.5 mm doesn't correspond to anything familiar to me. Rebuilding is a practice makes perfect kind of thing. I've been rebuilding for four months only now, and it's much easier, and I can rebuild pretty much anything now (genny, ithaka, kayfun, clearos, drippers, double or single coils, x-coils, resistance/non-resistance wire, mesh, cable, ekowool, etc. If you're popping coils, you're running too much current through there, or using the wrong gauge wire, or something is off. Maybe you're just dry burning it for too long. Also, some wick material needs to be boiled before use. I'm really picky about my wick material and prefer organic cotton balls cleaned in hydrogen peroxide as my current favorite for "silica" builds. I don't boil it, though it is recommended by some.

Another thing that took me a long time to realize is that my coils really didn't provide a better flavor than my cartos, so, at first, I thought they were over-rated. I kept at it, experimenting with different materials and different resistances until I found that RBA coils actually do provide a significantly better flavor and vapor. I did drop my resistances to 1.3 - 1.5 Ohms and with the best cotton I could find, found a significantly improved flavor/vapor/TH. It's like my juice came back to life. So, recommend you keep up the good fight, experiment, and you will likely find the vape you're looking for. Best of luck, power up and vape on!

 

[LowLander]

Woa, thanks for chiming in all!

@Enoch777: the nail I currently use is also 2mm. The silica doesn't seem either tight or loose in it, but being inexperienced at this point it's hard to tell whether it's 'right'. I'll experiment ;-)

@OlDogNewTricks: I checked all rubber parts when I rebuilt. No scorching visible.

@Bill's Magic Vapor: The Davide's core only has 2 rubber parts. I left the top one out the second time. Can't do without the bottom one as it seperates the pos from the neg. Tbh, I'm not sure what gauge the wire is. I'm in The Netherlands and the wire says 1.5mm. I'll Google and see if there's a conversion possible.

I've read up about using cotton, I'll definetely check that out. Can't boil some now, the wife is cooking ;-)

Thanks again for the advise all, I'm glad to see experience being shared in such a friendly manner! May thou vapes be wondrous!



@Lucky1127: I currently use a 1100Mah Ego style battery and a Davide (same cores as a Protank). I've got a mech mod and a Hercules on the way. (And some premade NR-R-NR wire. I expect enough challenges with the Hercules so I'll skip building my own wires for now)

 

[LowLander]

Did another rebuild, snapped another few wires along the way. Used a 1.5mm nail this time. Was still pretty easy to wick. Considering how tiny the stuff is that we're working with here I expected more of a challenge.

This time I Pre-torched the wire and the silica. Current setup (again a 2Ohm coil) produces more vapor than stock. Flavor has improved, TH seems slightly less. I'll try a cotton wick next. I'll try cotton next. I found the huge thread about microcoils, probably gonna try that as well.

 

[LowLander]

Well, I got some vapemail today. The Hercules arrived . I've cleaned it even tho it didn't seem necessary. Will start rebuilding it soon.