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** I apologize for the double post. I already flagged the one I posted in the New Members Section to be removed by a mod. I am sorry for the poor forum etiquette. And THANKS to Sonicdsl for merging the posts! **
Maybe this should be in the rba section but I'm posting it here because I see a lot of other people who are new to the site but have been vaping a little while and may be considering taking a step further down the rabbit hole, as I did.
I'd like to explain a bit of what I've been up to and hopefully get some experienced opinions about what can be expected from an RBA, maybe I'm just not an RBA kind of guy :/
I got my AGA-T+ almost a week ago. It took me 4 days to get a coil actually wicking well enough to producing some vapor and not constantly shorting out and dropping ohms below 1.0.
I vaped on that first success for about 2 days then today I was doing some "inspecting" after a refill and noticed my wire had broken mid way through the first bend. It was still vaping and holding at 2.0ohms. I vaped with it for about another hour without any problems while I did some other stuff. Then I decided to go ahead and make up another coil. When I took the wick out I unrolled it and sure enough I saw a path that had been burned through the SS where the coil broke.
So I made up another wick and coil, this time I rolled the wick around a paperclip to make sure it had some vacant space in the middle, I have read this helps relieve vacuum pressure in the tank and helps with wicking. This did not work well. Juice was not coming up the tube fast enough to keep the top wet. I would get that nasty metal hit after about 3-5 puffs and I ended up popping the coil.
I have tried oxidizing, not oxidizing, just oxidizing the top 1/2in. On my last attempt today I oxidized this thing more than any other and did the whole juice burn 3 or 4 times before sliding it in place. The coil looks great (imo), it is 30g wrapped 7/6. It heats evenly from the middle out and ohms at about 1.9, but I can't deny the persistent aftertaste of metal, it is awful.
I REALLY want to use RBA tanks. I like the whole notion of rebuilding the thing when it needs it, being in total control of quality control (LOL for better or worse, right?), and not having to rely on having replacement heads on hand and having to place regular orders for them over the course of a year.
I am hoping to achieve 2 things from using RBAs:
1) Always have plenty of the materials I need to rebuild any of my atomizers as eventually I would like to only use RBAs
2) Achieve VAPING NIRVANA, be able to rebuild atomizers that will produce the best most delicious vapes that can be had.
My questions are these:
Are my expectations too high?
With practice and in good time can I expect to be able to get GREAT vapes from my own rebuilding handywork?
Is an acrid burnt metal taste a trade one has to make for the satisfaction of vaping off their own homemade coil?
Is this acrid taste something inherent to stainless steel wicks that I wouldn't see in ceramic?
Is it reasonable to expect to get as good or better a vape (thick cloud, excellent flavor) from an RBA than I can get from a Vivi Nova right out of the box?
I really want to like RBAs and I know I am capable of learning how to build them well. I'm ok with learning and if it takes me another 2 months of vaping before I am able to achieve what I want from an RBA then so be it.
I am curious at this point though if my expectations are realistic or not.
TYIA
I'd like to explain a bit of what I've been up to and hopefully get some experienced opinions about what can be expected from an RBA, maybe I'm just not an RBA kind of guy :/
I got my AGA-T+ almost a week ago. It took me 4 days to get a coil actually wicking well enough to producing some vapor and not constantly shorting out and dropping ohms below 1.0.
I vaped on that first success for about 2 days then today I was doing some "inspecting" after a refill and noticed my wire had broken mid way through the first bend. It was still vaping and holding at 2.0ohms. I vaped with it for about another hour without any problems while I did some other stuff. Then I decided to go ahead and make up another coil. When I took the wick out I unrolled it and sure enough I saw a path that had been burned through the SS where the coil broke.
So I made up another wick and coil, this time I rolled the wick around a paperclip to make sure it had some vacant space in the middle, I have read this helps relieve vacuum pressure in the tank and helps with wicking. This did not work well. Juice was not coming up the tube fast enough to keep the top wet. I would get that nasty metal hit after about 3-5 puffs and I ended up popping the coil.
I have tried oxidizing, not oxidizing, just oxidizing the top 1/2in. On my last attempt today I oxidized this thing more than any other and did the whole juice burn 3 or 4 times before sliding it in place. The coil looks great (imo), it is 30g wrapped 7/6. It heats evenly from the middle out and ohms at about 1.9, but I can't deny the persistent aftertaste of metal, it is awful.
I REALLY want to use RBA tanks. I like the whole notion of rebuilding the thing when it needs it, being in total control of quality control (LOL for better or worse, right?), and not having to rely on having replacement heads on hand and having to place regular orders for them over the course of a year.
I am hoping to achieve 2 things from using RBAs:
1) Always have plenty of the materials I need to rebuild any of my atomizers as eventually I would like to only use RBAs
2) Achieve VAPING NIRVANA, be able to rebuild atomizers that will produce the best most delicious vapes that can be had.
My questions are these:
Are my expectations too high?
With practice and in good time can I expect to be able to get GREAT vapes from my own rebuilding handywork?
Is an acrid burnt metal taste a trade one has to make for the satisfaction of vaping off their own homemade coil?
Is this acrid taste something inherent to stainless steel wicks that I wouldn't see in ceramic?
Is it reasonable to expect to get as good or better a vape (thick cloud, excellent flavor) from an RBA than I can get from a Vivi Nova right out of the box?
I really want to like RBAs and I know I am capable of learning how to build them well. I'm ok with learning and if it takes me another 2 months of vaping before I am able to achieve what I want from an RBA then so be it.
I am curious at this point though if my expectations are realistic or not.
TYIA
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First, to answer your questions:
- no your expectations are not too high. A well setup RBA provides vape quality on par with dripping, and far superior to pretty much anything else.
- yes with practice you ll finally know what the hype is all about
- the burnt metal taste is a sign you set it up wrong. Specifically, you have a huge hotspot, which i will explain below.
- it is not an inherent problem.
- Novas are not even on the same level as a well setup AGA-T+
The problem you are experiencing comes from hot spot: the heat, instead of being distributed evenly throughout your coil, is super concentrated in one spot; in your case, it is the spot where the coil broke and wick burnt through: the super concentrated heat is too much for them to handle.
Hotspots come from a badly wrapped coil: most likely, in your case, one or more wraps of your coil is biting into the wick way too much. Because of this pressure, the current gets grounded by the wick instead of the negative screw. Hotspots also create the jump in resistance, more specifically it makes resistance drop drastically as you already saw.
The method i used as a newbie to RBAs for my AGA-T+ is this: cut off the tip of a standard q-tip, then stick it in your wick hole. Now capture your wire at the negative screw really tightly, and wrap the rest snugly onto the qtip body, however many wraps you desire, then capture it onto the positive post. Fiddle with the coil to get the wraps nicely and evenly spaced. Now gently twist the qtip out and you have a perfect coil.
Wash your mesh thoroughly with warm water, let dry, then very lightlt torch it (with a bic lighter, if you dont have a torch) to clean it of machine oil and the likes. Roll a tight, solid wick (no center hole) with #400 mesh or better, the size thick enough to snugly fit into the coil you just wrapped (i like to use 70mm wide 45mm tall piece of mesh, rolled across width). Oxidize the end where it touches the coil. Voila. Stick it in there, dry burn and check for hotspots, poke the coil around if there are any. Remember to let the coil cool before each dry burn to get accurate results. Once you get the coil to glow from the center out and glow evenly, you are done.
- no your expectations are not too high. A well setup RBA provides vape quality on par with dripping, and far superior to pretty much anything else.
- yes with practice you ll finally know what the hype is all about
- the burnt metal taste is a sign you set it up wrong. Specifically, you have a huge hotspot, which i will explain below.
- it is not an inherent problem.
- Novas are not even on the same level as a well setup AGA-T+
The problem you are experiencing comes from hot spot: the heat, instead of being distributed evenly throughout your coil, is super concentrated in one spot; in your case, it is the spot where the coil broke and wick burnt through: the super concentrated heat is too much for them to handle.
Hotspots come from a badly wrapped coil: most likely, in your case, one or more wraps of your coil is biting into the wick way too much. Because of this pressure, the current gets grounded by the wick instead of the negative screw. Hotspots also create the jump in resistance, more specifically it makes resistance drop drastically as you already saw.
The method i used as a newbie to RBAs for my AGA-T+ is this: cut off the tip of a standard q-tip, then stick it in your wick hole. Now capture your wire at the negative screw really tightly, and wrap the rest snugly onto the qtip body, however many wraps you desire, then capture it onto the positive post. Fiddle with the coil to get the wraps nicely and evenly spaced. Now gently twist the qtip out and you have a perfect coil.
Wash your mesh thoroughly with warm water, let dry, then very lightlt torch it (with a bic lighter, if you dont have a torch) to clean it of machine oil and the likes. Roll a tight, solid wick (no center hole) with #400 mesh or better, the size thick enough to snugly fit into the coil you just wrapped (i like to use 70mm wide 45mm tall piece of mesh, rolled across width). Oxidize the end where it touches the coil. Voila. Stick it in there, dry burn and check for hotspots, poke the coil around if there are any. Remember to let the coil cool before each dry burn to get accurate results. Once you get the coil to glow from the center out and glow evenly, you are done.
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Sounds like the wick is not drawing up the liquid fast enough, i have a AGA T2 not that much different from yours. Have you removed the fill screw and try it. What AWG wire are you using? I started with 32 AWG and with the fill screw in it worked great, I just swicthed to 28 AWG wire and i kept getting the same taste you are. I found that the coil works so good that the wick could not keep up with the coil( burnt metal vapor taste). So i removed the fill screw and now i can choke my self to death with all the vapor and great flavor coming out of it.
I won't comment on whether it's inherent or not as opinion on that may vary, but you won't get that from ceramic wicks. It's a far better vape esp. with the newer FC 2000s wicks.
Thank you all.
I am using 30g wire at 7/6 wraps. I am washing the 500 mesh. I have not cleaned the unit between lously coils, only once right after I got it and again this afternoon before my several failed attempts.
I did not remove one of the fill hole screws and I do not intend to. I understand the logic but if I have to be sure to stand my PV upright every time I set it down the convenience factor would PLUMMET, which would give the clearo/carto tanks a serious advantage over using RBAs. Plus I have no doubt I would end up losing the screw. Thank you for the suggestion though, I know a lot of people have removed that screw to alleviate the vacuum effect.
I am ecstatic to hear my expectations aren't too high, I really want to get good at building these buggers
I do have 100' of 32ga on the way but sadly I'm down to a 4"x4" patch of 400 SS mesh, any ideas where I might find some local? I mean a store chain that might carry it, I'm not expecting anyone to actually know much about the city I live in
Home Depot and RadioShack do not carry it and despite being the 16th largest city in the whole USA there is not one "real" e-cig shop in all of Louisville KY
I am using 30g wire at 7/6 wraps. I am washing the 500 mesh. I have not cleaned the unit between lously coils, only once right after I got it and again this afternoon before my several failed attempts.
I did not remove one of the fill hole screws and I do not intend to. I understand the logic but if I have to be sure to stand my PV upright every time I set it down the convenience factor would PLUMMET, which would give the clearo/carto tanks a serious advantage over using RBAs. Plus I have no doubt I would end up losing the screw. Thank you for the suggestion though, I know a lot of people have removed that screw to alleviate the vacuum effect.
I am ecstatic to hear my expectations aren't too high, I really want to get good at building these buggers
I do have 100' of 32ga on the way but sadly I'm down to a 4"x4" patch of 400 SS mesh, any ideas where I might find some local? I mean a store chain that might carry it, I'm not expecting anyone to actually know much about the city I live in
Home Depot and RadioShack do not carry it and despite being the 16th largest city in the whole USA there is not one "real" e-cig shop in all of Louisville KY
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Tha seems to be the consensus on SS mesh. I am down to the 400 so it'll have to do for now, I'll be ordering a larger quantity of 500 as soon as I can find it, along with some ceramic.. it really seems like ceramic would be a no-brainer.
Gosh, seriously you all, thank you for the replies. I am really looking forward to practicing this until I am able to blow these Novas out of the water (vapor, lol)
Agree with all the above. Quick note on the dry burns, keep them to 2 or 3 seconds per pulse. I have seen people doing 10 second or more dry burns and burning through their mesh, creating hot spots on an otherwise good coil and wick.
Thank you all.
I am using 30g wire at 7/6 wraps. I am washing the 500 mesh. I have not cleaned the unit between lously coils, only once right after I got it and again this afternoon before my several failed attempts.
I did not remove one of the fill hole screws and I do not intend to. I understand the logic but if I have to be sure to stand my PV upright every time I set it down the convenience factor would PLUMMET, which would give the clearo/carto tanks a serious advantage over using RBAs. Plus I have no doubt I would end up losing the screw. Thank you for the suggestion though, I know a lot of people have removed that screw to alleviate the vacuum effect.
I am ecstatic to hear my expectations aren't too high, I really want to get good at building these buggers
I do have 100' of 32ga on the way but sadly I'm down to a 4"x4" patch of 400 SS mesh, any ideas where I might find some local? I mean a store chain that might carry it, I'm not expecting anyone to actually know much about the city I live in
Home Depot and RadioShack do not carry it and despite being the 16th largest city in the whole USA there is not one "real" e-cig shop in all of Louisville KY
If you won't remove the fill screw, then you will have to stick with hollow wicks or a wick that is loose in the wick hole. A tight solid wick will vacuum lock the tank if the fill screw is installed. Also look at that wick where the wire burnt in half, you probably burned through the mesh there. You probably won't be able to see it visually, but if you heat the wick with a torch it will be apparent, it's easier to see when the wick is glowing.
Guilty as charged. I know I destroyed one that seemed to be burning even by cracking the watts up to max and watching the wick glow. I thought I was helping it break in or season or something but it was immediately apparent that was a mistake, lol.
Yeah I'm pretty set on leaving the hole plugged :/ I don't want this to be an at-home only thing nor do I want to be worrying about leaks and keeping it upright always everywhere.
The burnt spot... lol. I didn't have to torch it at all, the scorch was huge and easy to see. Just a nasty series of holes along the top edge after I unrolled it. Although I get your point, I may have burned other less severe spots, hence the importance of NOT burning it for long periods of time until I KNOW I'm down to zero hot spots.
Well i hate to tell you this even if you leave the fill screw in it will still leak if you leave it on its side thru the wick so you having nothing to loose to try and see if that solves your problem. Just my 2 cents.
I had already tried wrapping the coil around the wick, and around a drill bit, trying to wrap a perfect coil. The Q-tip was perfect! It is just about the exact diameter of the wick hole on the AGA-T+. So I wrapped up a coil, 30g 6/5 came out at 1.7ohms. Then wrapped up a 50mm x 70mm wick. I actually did have some 500 left. I creased about 1.5mm of the edge. Made it glow with my torch, burned off some juice, then dropped it in.
No hot spots but terrible performance. I could get a decent hit of flavor at 5w but a terrible weak hit. Anything over that and I had a burnt metal taste either immediately or on second puff. I was very discouraged And I did try going without the full hole screw for about 20-30 min.
Then I remembered pdib posting that the tighter the coils are the quicker they get hot as they are heating each other. So I tightened up the coils and was getting bigger clouds of vapor at 5-6w but still a terrible taste.
So I puffed on a carto tank for while, having given up for the night. But of course that won't do... 1am on a work night is no time to give up!! Lol.
So I looked at my AGA and said "you son of a beach, I'm not going to bed a failure tonight!"
I pulled out the wick and burned another 3-4ml of juice on it, then torched the top 1/2in and tip of the bottom where it may touch the base inside the tank. I slid the wick back down through the coil and was ready to tweak the coil to perfection.
Turns out i didn't have to tweak it at all all the wick needed was a little more carbon on the surface and maybe repositioning. I'm now vaping away, puff after puff at 7w, coil is still holding at 1.7ohms. At 8+ watts the wick dries out pretty quick. This isn't vaping nirvana yet but it's an encouraging step forward
No hot spots but terrible performance. I could get a decent hit of flavor at 5w but a terrible weak hit. Anything over that and I had a burnt metal taste either immediately or on second puff. I was very discouraged
And I did try going without the full hole screw for about 20-30 min.Then I remembered pdib posting that the tighter the coils are the quicker they get hot as they are heating each other. So I tightened up the coils and was getting bigger clouds of vapor at 5-6w but still a terrible taste.
So I puffed on a carto tank for while, having given up for the night. But of course that won't do... 1am on a work night is no time to give up!! Lol.
So I looked at my AGA and said "you son of a beach, I'm not going to bed a failure tonight!"
I pulled out the wick and burned another 3-4ml of juice on it, then torched the top 1/2in and tip of the bottom where it may touch the base inside the tank. I slid the wick back down through the coil and was ready to tweak the coil to perfection.
Turns out i didn't have to tweak it at all
all the wick needed was a little more carbon on the surface and maybe repositioning. I'm now vaping away, puff after puff at 7w, coil is still holding at 1.7ohms. At 8+ watts the wick dries out pretty quick. This isn't vaping nirvana yet but it's an encouraging step forward
I'm pretty sure vaping nirvana is kinda this way a bit ---> http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...stems/379380-fc-2000-porous-ceramic-wick.htmlThis isn't vaping nirvana yet but it's an encouraging step forward
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Hey, now. Loose coils cause burnt metallic taste! They also mislead diagnosis toward wicking issues, when wicking is not the source of the problem
+1. I've also had resistance wire cause a metallic taste from manufacturing residues if I don't run a lighter over it to clean it before wrapping the wick.
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