Genesis style noob has questions about wicking.

[DrMagick]

I'm about to order a smoktech RSST, and am not really sure what to get for wicking.

The SS mesh available come in 3 different sizes: #325, #400 & #500
Whats the difference and how will it affect performance in the mod.

What about ceramic wicks, what are they good for?

Is there any suggestions for wicking 100% VG juice? Or will I have to dilute my juice with PG?

I hope someone can help with my questions so I can order the correct wicking supplies the first time around.

Thanks
Kev

 

[G2matt]

If you're going to go down the SS mesh route go for #400. I use a high VG juice and found the#400 to be most suitable, and it's also useful should you decide to put other juices in. The mesh sizes help on the type of draw you get to juice viscosity. i.e the #325 for thick juice the #500 for thin.
The ceramic wicks are good for fruit flavours imo they help to keep the flavour high. I then use 0.2mm kanthal wire with about 4 wraps to give a resistance of about 1.8 ohm.

 

[DrMagick]

What gauge is 0.2mm?
I have 30 gauge Kanthal A1

Just got my RSST and mech mod along with some new 18650 batteries and some 325# ss mesh. My juice are like 98% VG and I prefer them nice and thick.

Keen to get started but no blowtorch or anything to oxidise mesh. Gonna go buy one shortly

I am following PBusardos vid on the RSST. Any other advice for me?

Should I drill the airhole out? And if so, what size?

 

[adamfoul]

.02mm is 32g. In the UK we use mm but it seems most other places use awg, so I keep this site bookmarked for when I get confused.
Give it a go before you decide to drill it out. Dunno about what size if you do, the only one I've bored out is my Phoenix dripper, and I just went at that with a corkscrew, taking a hit now and then until I'd got a nice draw.

 

[DrMagick]

Awesome thanks!!!
Built my first coil. But resistance seems to change between 0.9ohm to 1.5ohm. Especially when I adjust the Kanthal.
Tried to pulse but my Vamo doesn't fire under 1.5ohm lol.
Have checked the resistance with both my Vamo and a multimeter so it's not a faulty reading. What could be the cause??

Here's a photo of it on the mech I ordered for it.
I love the way it looks

 

[DrMagick]

What am I doing wrong
Low vapor, tastes harsh and burnt like smoke. Taste absolutely nothing like it should. Bah!
Spent $150 today and still can't get it smh

Help guys

 

[DrMagick]

Gives me an asthma attack which exits usually don't

 

[tattooed]

Its hard for me to tell from the pics but from what I can see it looks like your top coils are getting hot and not the lower ones. Pull the juice out of the tank and do some pulsing and move those coils around with a screwdriver or something metal until they all glow evenly. The RSST should start glowing from the middle coils out.

 

[adamfoul]

Yeah sound like hot spots. I've recently got a genesis style atomizer, and am having trouble getting rid of a hot leg connecting to the positive post. I did manage to sort it earlier, using a mesh/ cotton hybrid, but got so excited when I was pulsing it, I dry burned it, ended up destroying the cotton! Off to work now so I'm trying again when I get back later.

 

[G2matt]

I hope you're getting on alright with the build. Following PBusardos vid is a good place to start. If you're getting ohm reading fluctuations then make sure all the wires are secured tightly, and the burnt taste is definitely hot spots. As tattooed says play around with the wires until they all glow evenly. The first time of building these can be areal pain in the a#*! but persevere and when it does come right you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Personally the first time I did mesh I rebuilt it 3-4 times and then suddenly it clicked.
Good luck

 

[DrMagick]

What causes a hot spot? Coil to tight or too loose???

 

[DrMagick]

Thanks guys. After giving up on the chalice rba, then now this, I was ready to give up thinking I just can't do it. But after the last few posts, I found this vid which should help noobs wrap coils and get them right
http://youtu.be/N9fdQfc8nuk

Ill watch when I get home and try again.

Cheers
Kev

 

[DrMagick]

Good vid. I never understood the whole pulsing tapping coils before.

How many ohms would you guys recommend for a mechanical mod with a 18650 aw imr 2000mah?

And how many wraps would that be with 30ga wire??

Gonna try again soon

 

[OperationMove]

Definitely want to get it firing good and even first before you add any juice. I made this mistake when I first got into gennys and I had the same problem you did. I've heard 100% VG should be broken down a little with water to make it crawl up the wick right, otherwise most 100% VG users seem to have issues with gennys.

As for a recommendation for ohms, that is subjective and varies from person to person. I use a 1.2 ohm coil on my mechs and that works great for me, but that is 28 guage kanthal 4/5 wrap. If I was using 30 guage I'd probably aim for more like 1.5-1.8ish, but IDK how many wraps that would be... likely 4-5, resistance depends on coil spacing, width of wick, and amount of wraps, so it could be more or less.

Oh, and if you have legit AW IMRs you should be safe to expirement, I even use these on sub ohm builds.

 

[DrMagick]

Okay guys. I now feel armed with all the knowledge I need to get it working but have run into a new problem

I pulled her all apart, gave her a quick rinse and dry and put her back together and rebuilt her.

The RSST keeps reading at zero ohms resistance and I can't see why? No loose wires touching anything it shouldn't. I've rebuilt it twice and gotten this result. The only thing I have done differently is to wrap the Kanthal around the negative screw to keep it steady so I don't get fluctuations.

Also the first time I forgot to blowtorch the ss mesh wick, and used the same piece of ss on the 2nd build.

Any ideas? Could there be some water/moisture in the device I may have missed causing a short? Lol I really can't see why I'm getting that reading.

Getting zero on my vv/vw Vamo. On my multimeter it sometimes reads 0.2 for a second then drops to zero and stays there.

Please help, I feel like I'm so close but yet so far lol

And btw, a BIG cheers and thanks to everyone helping me out on this thread You guys are all awesome!!!

 

[DrMagick]

Both are photos of the 2nd attempt which still reads zero ohms. Any ideas??

 

[DrMagick]

Also, on the 2nd rebuild which also failed I blowtorched the Kanthal wire as well as the ss mesh. And after blowtorching them I dumked them in a glass of water to quench as i've seen others do in the videos on youtube.

Just wanna put all the clues in so hopefully someone can tell me why it's shorting.

P.s I'm operating under the influence, lol, so it may be something totally obvious i've overlooked
I wasn't planning working on it at the time i had those drinks. But now i feel i know how to get the coils heating evenly, i am keen to try lol

 

[Mark C.]

It's hard for me to tell what's wrong exactly, but if you very carefully take the wick out of the coil (gently twisting the wick and pulling it out works for me) and then test the ohms you will know if it's a short caused by the wick, if it is the wick then it's just not oxidized enough most likely

Ps. Make sure you twist the wick so that it will not loosen when you go to take the wick out

 

[DrMagick]

OK thanks, I will try right now

 

[DrMagick]

Nope, still zero resistance.

I got a new piece of kanthal and tried running just a short length between the positive and negative terminals still zero! What could it be?

There was a second where it did give a 0.8 reading, though the positive wire wasnt even secure yet and was making contact with the post or springs, and not the screw terminals head. I did try to recreate it by holding the wire against the post but could not!!

...?!? lol

Could it be from me washing it????