First time coil question

[Zombo]

I built my first coil last night (fun!). I have a Lemo, and used 28g Kanthal. I was shooting for 1.9ohms, and according to Coil Toy, I needed 14 wraps. For some unknown reason, that sounded like too many wraps, so I did 10 instead.

On my ohms checker, it read 2.2. Ok, fine, but when I put it on my P3 I got an error message that my ohms were too high. When I put it back on my ohms checker, it read 4.4! WTH?

Then I did another, but used only 6 wraps and I got 1.2ohms. I kept it and I'm happy to say it's vaping great.

Why did I get such inconsistency? The first coil looked fine (for a first-timer, anyway).

And for my second coil, is 1.2ohms the proper target for 6 wraps of 28g K?

 

[Cool-breeze]

Sounds like the coil was loose to me. When that happens check to see its secure and look for places the coil could be touching anything. Easy way to check is I will leave the coil tails on while checking and lightly flick those. If the post is tight that won't matter, if it's loose my ohms will change.

 

[edyle]

When you screw the coil down, you should fire it and dryburn it, and then screw it down again; the temperature causes expansion and you might find the screws are no longer tight after the coil gets hot.

 

[super_X_drifter]

28 ga wire is not ideal for builds above 1 ohm.

My preference is to pick a wire to reach my target resistance in a specific range of winds around a the 2nd smallest rod from the artistic wire coil gizmo. It's about 1.6 mm (just a hair larger than 1/16") This is the perfect size micro coil. I also want to tension wind the coils so that they are contact micro coils (where all the wraps touch each other and wound under the correct application of a consistent amount of tension)

Lets say For example, I like 1.4 ohm coils and I want 8 or 10 winds using the rod. I know that 29 ga will put me at around 1.4 ohms with 10 winds. If I were to use an exact 1/16" drill bit it would put me around 1.2ish.

28 ga would prolly be in the neighborhood of 1 ohm using the same rod with 10 wraps. Just going on memory with 28 because all i use is 29. It's heat up time, particularly in dual coil applications is noticeably quicker than 28.

I don't like 30 ga cause it's much flimsy / springier than 29.

I don't like 28 and below because it takes longer to heat up and cool down.

But that's how I select a wire size. I want 10 winds max. If I'm building for a variable Voltage mod, I know that I have to increase the resistance for the mod to fire thru the full range of the chips capacity. In this case I will use 12 or more winds but never 28 ga. Just too much wire mass for the mod to fire effectively. I should qualify that I no longer use VV mods. Only mechs.

I also look at cool down. The longer something takes to heat up, the longer it takes to cool down. Longer cool down is why I believe many people have problems with excessive gunking on their coils.

The rage seems to be thick wire, Yep, it seems that wire thickness is somehow linked to how rugged an individual believes they are perceived to be, but ideally one should pick the wire that is best suited to their target resistance in the optimum number of winds around the optimum size rod.

That is efficient vaporization and rapid cool down resulting in less juice waste, less gunking and a more hassle free consistent vape.