First coil! How she look?

[chinacatsunflower-]

Hey guys! Received my coil stuff today, took it all out and made my first coil, how does she look?

It's a dual coil 26ga 7/6 wrap with a 3mm ID, reading 0.51 ohms but fluctuates between 0.48-0.54, always comes back to 0.51 though. On my RX200 she reads exactly 0.50 ohms.

The only problem I am having is that on the right coil it's not glowing red hot 100% from the center of the coil as the other is, it's starting slightly to the left, one wrap over from the center when compared to the other.

 

[kbeam418]

Looks fine to me, Just brush the coils and squeeze them with pliers to get them even.

 

[chinacatsunflower-]

Looks fine to me, Just brush the coils and squeeze them with pliers to get them even.

Ahh! I see, I remade them because I simply couldn't get the right one to glow from the middle. After checking the ohms of the new ones, I fired them, pressed with my pliers and boom. They were golden, thanks

What do you mean by brush though?

 

[rgerber]

Good job! The more you build them...the better they get. Have fun....

 

[Jdurand]

And now for wicking! Great Job, my first coils didn't look like that.

 

[Izan]

Looking good!

Confirm that the coils DO NOT short with the top cap in place before you wick them. ( Lefty looks a bit close to the edge)

Cheers
I

 

[chinacatsunflower-]

Looking good!

Confirm that the coils DO NOT short with the top cap in place before you wick them. ( Lefty looks a bit close to the edge)

Cheers
I

Ahh, so put the cap on and test with the ohm meter? I had thought they weren't looking centered enough, that's another reason I remade them. Thanks for the advice!

I sadly have only 5ml of juice left, been waiting 5 days for my DIY shipment... everything has been sent besides the package from Nude Nicotine, they're taking forever, so I can't wick as of yet.

I was just giving it a go for now, I'm already getting better at it though

 

[edyle]

Ahh, so put the cap on and test with the ohm meter? I had thought they weren't looking centered enough, that's another reason I remade them. Thanks for the advice!

I sadly have only 5ml of juice left, been waiting 5 days for my DIY shipment... everything has been sent besides the package from Nude Nicotine, they're taking forever, so I can't wick as of yet.

I was just giving it a go for now, I'm already getting better at it though

You can always get some pharmacy grade glycerin and add 5 to 10% water to use for test vape purposes.
That's what I use as my base liquid; at home I might add 1 drop of eliquid to my dripper occasionally, meanwhile adding 10 to 20 drops of my base liquid, but when I go out to work, all I carry is just the base liquid.

 

[TVC70]

What do you mean by brush though?

If you watch many of the build videos on youtube, you'll see people lightly "brushing" or "strumming" the coils with the tips of their tweezers; in other words, lightly scraping the coils from side to side. Think of each wrap of coil as being like a guitar string and your tweezers being like the pick. I do this on occasion when my coils aren't heating evenly, and it works. I'm not sure why it works (what does this actually DO to the coil?), but it does.

 

[kbeam418]

If you are having trouble, (doesn't look like it) the coil master kit is awesome. I could never build before I got it. Now I can build dual coil temp control with no issues. Wicking (for me) is more difficult. Have fun!

 

[chinacatsunflower-]

If you are having trouble, (doesn't look like it) the coil master kit is awesome. I could never build before I got it. Now I can build dual coil temp control with no issues. Wicking (for me) is more difficult. Have fun!

That's what I have, the coil master v2 kit. It's great, the tools are fantastic. For $35? It was an absolute steal.

Only problem is I don't have a torch and so when I use the coil jig to wrap, it's springy and hard to make the legs straight.

I made a few extra coils yesterday for practice, they all came out pretty well and I'm getting a good feel for it I think. I'm a bit worried on the wicking, because leakage is a pain, but I've watched a lot of videos and am confident I can do it with patience.

 

[chinacatsunflower-]

If you watch many of the build videos on youtube, you'll see people lightly "brushing" or "strumming" the coils with the tips of their tweezers; in other words, lightly scraping the coils from side to side. Think of each wrap of coil as being like a guitar string and your tweezers being like the pick. I do this on occasion when my coils aren't heating evenly, and it works. I'm not sure why it works (what does this actually DO to the coil?), but it does.

Thanks for clearing that up! I'll be sure to try it when next I have an issue with the heating

 

[kbeam418]

That's what I have, the coil master v2 kit. It's great, the tools are fantastic. For $35? It was an absolute steal.

Only problem is I don't have a torch and so when I use the coil jig to wrap, it's springy and hard to make the legs straight.

I made a few extra coils yesterday for practice, they all came out pretty well and I'm getting a good feel for it I think. I'm a bit worried on the wicking, because leakage is a pain, but I've watched a lot of videos and am confident I can do it with patience.

Just make two extra wraps so you can take the bad leads out, (usually the first two) pbusardo does that. If you build spaced coils you don't have to worry about hot spots

 

[4lph4num3r1c]

Good job. Looks much better than my first build.

 

[chinacatsunflower-]

If you are having trouble, (doesn't look like it) the coil master kit is awesome. I could never build before I got it. Now I can build dual coil temp control with no issues. Wicking (for me) is more difficult. Have fun!

I'm sadly having issues with the wicking now. Made a perfect 0.50 dual coil first go in several minutes and then spent three hours dealing with wicking to no avail.

The first time I obviously used too little cotton, so I upped it by 2x and then had the same problems. No leaking, spillage, just dry hits, and semi-burnt cotton.

What have you found to be the best method of wicking? I'm using Geisha cotton on the Griffin RTA, went through 5 sheets just about. I've watched a few videos, but I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Perhaps these people are using a smaller ID and I require more cotton? Or I'm not fluffing it enough, not really sure to be honest; at a complete lost with it.

All advice would be extremely helpful for any who sees this, as I won't be able to research for a good 18+ hours, but I will be able to check forums on occasion.

 

[WharfRat1976]

I'm sadly having issues with the wicking now. Made a perfect 0.50 dual coil first go in several minutes and then spent three hours dealing with wicking to no avail.

The first time I obviously used too little cotton, so I upped it by 2x and then had the same problems. No leaking, spillage, just dry hits, and semi-burnt cotton.

What have you found to be the best method of wicking? I'm using Geisha cotton on the Griffin RTA, went through 5 sheets just about. I've watched a few videos, but I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Perhaps these people are using a smaller ID and I require more cotton? Or I'm not fluffing it enough, not really sure to be honest; at a complete lost with it.

All advice would be extremely helpful for any who sees this, as I won't be able to research for a good 18+ hours, but I will be able to check forums on occasion.

Check out Rip Trippers video on pancake wicking here:

I have not tried it yet but it looks really good for wicking tanks.

I have many tanks and cannot wait to try it. Let us know.

Have you checked the Griffin thread in the RTA subforum?

 

[Falconeer]

Your first coils look a lot better than mine did - my first single was more like a corkscrew than a neat micro coil but at least it worked. Wicking can be more difficult imho than coil building - I tend to cut a strip of cotton wool about twice the size of my coils in width, tease it and then gently roll it aiming to get it to the point where it goes through the coil with only a little resistance. For a dripper I tend to use more cotton, for a squonker a little less but that's just me. Once you get the first wick right, somehow you'll find the rest easy and will be able to wick on auto pilot.

 

[rgerber]

While that's a nice looking coil.....after a closer look I am pretty sure "she" is a he.