For the people having a hard time building decent hitting coils

[LEDBETTER122]

I watched numerous "How to's" on how to wrap a coil, and for some reason when I made it (Exactly like the video), the vapor production was never up to my standards.

Mind I was very irritated yesterday, remaking coils one after another to get the "Perfect coil". What I was doing is putting a needle through a 2.5mm wick and doing a 5 wrap (About 2.2 ohm) and installing the Coil/Wick. I tried many different ways of wrapping the coils (Spaced out, Close together etc.), and still no luck.

Getting to the point, I had big paper clips that were 1.03mm in Diameter (The needle I was using was .55mm both measured with calipers), and I decided to "Give it a try". Mind it was a little difficult fitting the paperclip into the wick (without completely destroying the wick), but I finally got it in and did a 5 wrap and assembled.

This solved the problem for me!! I guess when the paper clip was removed after assembly it provided "More room" lets say for the silica to wick properly.

I know too some people this is "Well known", but I had the hardest time (and Frustrating time I might add) figuring out what worked best for me (I'm new to vaping If you cant tell) and I wanted to share it with people who might be having the same problem.

**Note: I have a Kanger mini protank 2, not that I think it matters, I’m pretty sure it will work for any rebuild.
**Note: I cut the paperclip into a point before inserting into wick.

Also I might add I didnt put another piece of wick ontop of the wick I built (I'm also using 70/30 base)

 

[danny4x4]

Yep. We each have our own ways to wrap the coils. What seems easy to one, may actually be a pain in the posterior region to another.

Maybe you can have a try at micro coils and cotton. Easy to coil and great performance. And like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going and going. I mean, my longest lasting coil would be about 4 months. Decided to recoil only because I wanted to try a new way of setting it up. It was still going strong.

 

[LEDBETTER122]

You right about "What seems easy to one, may actually be a pain in the posterior region to another.", because I can't for the life of me wrap a Micro coil (and assemble it anyways), and you said they were easy. Haha

 

[E_DeCastro]

sorry didn't read your whole post (kinda long) how big is your air hole? I can get great throat hit with 0mg but 80/20 pg/vg with the proper coil and air hole.

 

[LEDBETTER122]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "Air hole". So im just going to use some common sense and assume your mean the holes that give the atomizer a "Tight drag" or an "Airy drag". The Kanger protank has a very "Airy" draw, but If you mean the mouth piece as an "Air hole" it is roughly 6mm in diameter (Measured with calipers)

 

[E_DeCastro]

oh this is a protank? I thought it was a rebuildable dripper. You might have more help in the clearomizer forum. I ditched all my protanks, they would never give me a hit like my drippers can.

sorry for the confusion. I guess I should have read the whole post. lol

 

[Vicshalls]

i cant for the life of me wrap a coil around silica. it seems to break down on me. I got to using the drill bit and inserting cotton after it was done and i am now good to go. Just got some 28 g yesterday and tried that out. think i will order some 30 now and give that a try since i know how my 32 works for me. I think 28 is just a little too big and 32 is a little to small. we shall see.

 

[Thrasher]

you dont even need to stick the clip in the wick just hold the two together works fine

 

[volume control]

I thread the cotton right through the coil, but yes you definitely have to make sure there is plenty of flow. Id prefer a small bit of leakage to a dry hit, so I try to stick to the thinner side

 

[danny4x4]

Vicshalls, you might try folding a piece of 32awg into half and twisting it while you wait for your 30awg to arrive. It will lower your resistance and thickens the wire.

 

[dutch onsea]

led, watch riptrippers video on wrapping nano microcoils on your protank. This is easy, EVERYBODY can do this. Try it and never look back

 

[LEDBETTER122]

@Thrasher

I took your advice and held the paperclip and wick together instead of inserting the paperclip into the wick. Although it was more tedious, during the coil wrapping itself, the end resulted in a tighter wrapped coil and it hits much better (Better than it did) than when I put the paperclip into the wick.

Slowly, but surely I will find "The perfect coil" (For me anyways)

 

[Myrany]

Led

I have been putting microcoils with rolled cotton wick in EVOD heads. Takes a little practice but it is an astoundingly good vape. DO watch some videos on micro coils. Rip Tripper has a good one specific to protanks.

The downside to cotton is you cannot dry burn with the cotton in there. I just yank out the Cotton. Then dry burn the coil clean. Then insert fresh cotton. My coils last me weeks. One is pushing 8 weeks now. I just replace the cotton when I need to dry burn or want to change flavors.

 

[Thrasher]

@Thrasher

I took your advice and held the paperclip and wick together instead of inserting the paperclip into the wick. Although it was more tedious, during the coil wrapping itself, the end resulted in a tighter wrapped coil and it hits much better (Better than it did) than when I put the paperclip into the wick.

Slowly, but surely I will find "The perfect coil" (For me anyways)

comes down to tension, as in how hard your wrapping as well just have to learn not to wrap or pull so tight, a few times and it gets easy
for me its just getting that first wrap, then straighten it back out a little and continue'



these are just quickies for my drippers. now a days i can get several wraps really close, i think my taifun is 7 wraps of 28g.

 

[Conchord George]

My hardest problem is actually seeing any of this stuff. You don't really get a feel for tiny these screws and decks and coils actually are online. I have a Kayfun and iGO W in my drawer laughing at me as we speak. I've had minor success in the past with Genesis types but I guess I'm easily frustrated and always end up back at carto tanks.

 

[Technohydra]

My secret weapon? ....ing thumbtacks, the kind with the plastic grip. I hold the trailing end of the wire with my thumb against the plastic. I then take the leading wire and hold it away from the tack fairly hard, and wrap the micro on the pin portion. I have noticed that when doing this, the hand that is doing the wrapping tend to hold a length of wire away from the pin, and the wire that is trailing off after my fingers is tensioned almost 90 degrees away from the wire that is going on to the pin. this has 2 effects; it both makes it easier to get an almost perfect microcoil wrapped without a torch, and it seems to redirect the wire tension so the coil doesn't want to spring apart. Instead, I get the effect of having to wrap an extra 3/4 turn, because the wire will snap back when you let go, and the extra 3/4 wrap that you made will pull back to being almost perfectly lined up with the trailing lead. Do between 5 and 8 wraps, more if you can fit them / want them.

Straighten up your leads, install in the head. Use a paper clip or (preferable) a smallish sewing needle to stabilize and adjust the coil position. Do a super-fast pulse (so you don't cook the rubber insulator), apply a light squeeze with a tweezer to the coil to remove the gaps, thread an appropriate amount of rolled cotton ball fluff to wick, trim, fill, prime, wait a few minutes, blow thunderheads. Cotton works so damned well in microcoils and Protanks that it basically invalidates silica for me. As with all things, YMMV, but that is the formula for me. I have also found that micro and nano coils seem to be much more realistic with 28ga than 32, because you spread the heat out over a larger area. And no matter how robust your wicking material is, with 32ga wire, you will be concentrating so much heat in such a small wicking area that eventually you will hit a point where the wick either can't keep up with the heat generation or can't resist said heat, and will begin to burn up.

As a side note, if you want more vapor, you may want to check into having those 3 airflow holes drilled out on the 510 connection, or having the airhole in the center pin drilled out. Only about another 32nd of an inch, as the juice flow in the Protank requires negative air pressure created by you drawing on the device, but that little addition could be a second option for you if wicking and coiling can't achieve your goals.

Another thought would be to buy the cheapest IGO-L or Trident clone you can and practice rebuilding on it. The open space and comparative ease of rebuilding compared to a Kanger head will make it easier for you to practice rebuilding and trying out new configurations before you bust out a blood vessel trying to get something perfect in a tiny little space that requires a lot of precision. That's worth $10-15 to me.

 

[LEDBETTER122]

@Technohydra

Hoooooolllllly --it Man!!!! (Pardon my French), I read your post about the thumb tack trick, and I got a "I have to try it" mindset. Man I did and I MADE MY FIRST (SUCCESFUL) MICROCOIL!!!

I used a piece of Q-Tip for the cotton, since I’m at work an I don’t have to much at my disposal. This thing hits like a freight train, I'm happier than a pervert at chucky cheese right now.

Oh yeah, Yes is the answer to your question...............I do bring my coil building supplies to work...............

Id give you 1,000,000 likes right now if I could

 

[Technohydra]

Grats on the coil, glad it worked out for you. I have a bad habit of having wick, and no wire, or wire and no object to wrap on, leaving my charger at work and having to break into the building on weekends, etc, so I kinda stumbled on this. Thumbtacks are everywhere, almost every business has 10,000 of them, and no one thinks anything of you having one. Pretty much I needed a coil one day at work, but my wrapping rod was at home...so I gave it a shot, and it's been my way to go since then.

Basic coil building kit for me (vaping in a Trident, with a Protank on the side): Have 2 cotton balls, 2 feet of wire, 2 thumbtacks, a piece of wire or sewing pin (for coil adjusting), a pait of small metal tweezers, a nail clipper (both for wick and wire snipping) and a pair of scissors (for heavier cutting).

90% of this you should always be able to lay your hands on at almost all times. Most of it is common office stuff, and no one would think anything of it being on your person or in a drawer. 2 cotton balls is between 20-35 wicks for this coil size. A Q-tip will get you between 2 and 8 wicks, if done right. I would remove the old wick every 24-48 hours, or as soon as you get that 'wick' taste (you'll know right away what I mean) or if you get 3 draws in a row that have any hint of smokiness to them (your cotton is burning). Take a tine piece of scrap cotton and make a point with it, and push it in the coil as far as it will go; this will remove 95% of the old juice in the coil; remove and discard. Roll up a new wick and insert; if you need to guide it in, use a scrap of your resistance wire to poke it through. Make sure that the wick looks like it fills the coil mostly, but slides back and forth without moving the coil. If the wick is too large or starts bunching up on you, pull it back a 1/16 of an inch and twist the wick end in opposite directions while gently pulling; it'll shrink down. Trim up, add 1 drop of juice right into the coil (if desired, helps prevent a dry burn on the first pull), reassemble, vape on.

If you use this coil setup for a while, you will get the hang of wrapping the small stuff, and can graduate to nanocoils (use a straightened paper clip or a 20ga syringe needle, but the same idea as the tack) or any of the other advanced builds. You might even get up to trying a diamond coil in the PT heads, but this is a pretty advanced process in that little cup. All I can really say is if you plan to use micro or nanocoils often, order a 100' roll of 28ga Kanthal from Lightning Vapes ($7.50). That allows you to spread the heat out on those tiny wicks instead of blasting it all right on the center, which causes your wick to burn up in hours, rather than a day or two. 28ga is more forgiving on the resistance as well. Anything else I can do for you, let me know, but I'm just super happy that you have a working build now. Makes all the difference when your equipment is working how you want it to.

 

[John_]

There are tons of ways to build coils, you have to experiment until you find one that works for you. One way somebody builds a coil may work but it may not work for you.

I cut off an 8 inch piece of 28 gauge kanthal, torch it, cut it in half, wrap each piece tightly around a 14 gauge needle, pinch each coil with tweezers, torch it again, put each coil in the RDA, clip off extra kanthal, dry fire a few times with a battery that's charged to around 3.7 volts and tweak the coils until they glow evenly, set the device down and let it cool, grab some cotton and roll it, cut it in half, thread each piece through each coil, clip off the extra cotton, tuck the wicks in, saturate the wicks, fire it to make sure it's working, put the RDA cap on, it's ready to vape.

For me, the measure of a good RBA is how annoying it is for you to rebuild it. If you never want to rebuild a coil on an RBA, it's not the RBA for you. Now there is some measure of skill in this, if you don't have much practice building coils you may not want to rebuild coils at all.

 

[Technohydra]

@John,

Totally true man. I would never use a 14ga wrapping surface, and you may never use a 20ga, but we both get happy on them, and that's the whole point. I hate to see people think that someone out there has to have all the answers to vaping, because it just doesn't work that way. EVERYTHING is subjective, and if someone want to build coils around a 2" pipe while being suspended from a bungee cord around the ankles from the wing of an F-22 Raptor flying at above Mach, wick it with hemp ship cabling and power it with a car battery, but it works for them and is part of their ADV setup, then it's the right way to do it and the best setup in the world. Cause there are as many best setups as there are vapers, and that's part of what makes our subculture so damned interesting.