Getting Big Performance from smaller wick holes and wicks.

[ethebull]

I was pursuing the idea of stainless steel wire rope for wicks, first posted by shortyjacobs in his http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/375999-wire-rope-wick.html thread. I bought some 3mm 7 by 19 stranded rope and tested two different coil arrangements. The 3mm diameter was only going to be useful for large rba's. Even a 1/8" wick hole was too confined.

I have 3 AGA-S's which are quite small. Here's what happened next. -

Original post http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ems/375999-wire-rope-wick-11.html#post9162607 Quoted below

Got a new twist, or should I say un-twist, on this SS rope idea. I wanted to set-up one of my UD AGA-S atomizers. They have a pretty small body and wick hole. Way too small to drill for my 3.0mm 7x19 rope. So I thought I'd untwist a few of the strands for a smaller bundle.

I cut a length for the height I needed and undid the 7 bundles. One of them was starting to unravel, but I only needed a few. I looked at the unraveled pile of 19 micro strands and decided to unravel a second. I washed them and then wrapped them in a 3/4" mesh roll.

What you see below is the result. It's about 30 loose strands, bundled, wrapped, and torched. I then did a twisted 32g coil that ended up at about 1.1ohms. This set-up is working Very well.

I think the vertical orientation of the strands leads to easy wickablility. What ever it is, it is easy to execute and works just fine and dandy.

Before this was assembled into the tank, I trimmed the protruding wire strands by about half from what is shown above.

Many consider small diameter wick holes and wicks undesirable and problematic. Loose vertical strands inside the wick seems to be a great solution so far.

Give this a try guys. Let us know how it goes!

Thanks to sj and the others in the wire rope thread.

 

[ethebull]

Here's a quick breakdown of what's in there



400 or 500 SS Mesh

3.0mm SS 7x19 wire rope

3 of the 7 strands separated

2 strands separated into a pile of fine threads


The rope and 3 bundled strands are to show what you start with. I wasn't counting, but I used about 30 loose threads or so . After a wash, rinse and dry, I nestled them into the mesh and rolled a metal doobie.

Not much else to explain, but if you have questions, LMK

 

[Bmays]

I've never ran the whoopin big wicks before but I too have great success with the smaller wick / smaller holed devices. Seems to heat up fast and always keeps up with my vaping....And I have that sucker in my hand all the time.

 

[ethebull]

Rolling the loose strands is much the same as rolling loose tobacco or another smoke-able substance, only this "rolling paper" won't tear! I gathered the cleaned tiny wires up in a jumbled random fashion and tapped them at their ends to a uniform length with no strays poking out.

I did two rolls with the mesh, first to establish a rolled shaping "memory", followed by an unrolling and trim to length, then a final roll. I totally lucked out on how much thread and mesh to use. It seems perfect on this first go.

Been honking on this non-stop all day, and it is the best set up I have ever vaped to date, big or small.

 

[ethebull]

Quite a few looks on this. Anyone planning to try it out?

 

[gdeal]

Quite a few looks on this. Anyone planning to try it out?

I have some materials coming in the mail. After I roll my "metal doobie", I'll post results.

 

[vapdivrr]

I have some materials coming in the mail. After I roll my "metal doobie", I'll post results.

doobie? isn't that short for Doberman pincer? lol. love doobies, great dogs

 

[Thrasher]

doobie? isn't that short for Doberman pincer? lol. love doobies, great dogs

lol.......... just lol.

 

[ethebull]

I have some materials coming in the mail. After I roll my "metal doobie", I'll post results.

Ha! If I could change the thread title to "Rolling a Metal Doobie" I would!

 

[ethebull]

Vaped about 8ml on this wick so far, and it is still excellent. Fast and easy to make, dirt cheap, and consistently great wicking.

I'll be setting up 2 or 3 more of my RBA's with this this week.

BTW, this is the SS cable I bought - 5Meter Length SS316 OD 3mm 7 19 Stainless Steel Wire Rope | eBay which is enough to make over 400 of these wicks.

 

[gdeal]

Slight twist on the concept: Here is the short version walk-through.

I used 316L SS thread as the core. I formed a loop on a paper clip to size the thread for the core of the length of wick.



Rolled my metal doobie with the thread and the coiled with a standard hand wrap on a Chid (30g for 1.4ohms):



Cleaned it up a bit and oxidize on a mechanical with a pulse technique:



First burn with ejuice:



One of the fastest SS wicks I have had to date (much faster than SS mesh). This one is a keeper.

SS thread material available here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10118

 

[Satava]

Slight twist on the concept: Here is the short version walk-through.

I used 316L SS thread as the core. I formed a loop on a paper clip to size the thread for the core of the length of wick.



Rolled my metal doobie with the thread and the coiled with a standard hand wrap on a Chid (30g for 1.4ohms):



Cleaned it up a bit and oxidize on a mechanical with a pulse technique:



First burn with ejuice:



One of the fastest SS wicks I have had to date (much faster than SS mesh). This one is a keeper.

SS thread material available here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10118

Awesome wick! How much of the thread did you end up using? What size wick hole? How much mesh?

 

[gdeal]

Awesome wick! How much of the thread did you end up using? What size wick hole? How much mesh?

About three feet of thread, (~20 wraps at 1.5 inches per wrap). Its a Chid, I believe the hole is 2.5mm. I used 15mm width of mesh. There is a little bit of space between wick and wick hole as well, so its really is a small wick for a small wick hole.

 

[jasl90]

Where did you get the 316L wire? What size/gauge is it?

 

[Satava]

Where did you get the 316L wire? What size/gauge is it?

The thread was bought from the link at the bottom of the pictures post by gdeal.

 

[jasl90]

Thanks. Leave it to me to miss the obvious.

 

[ethebull]

Slight twist on the concept: Here is the short version walk-through.

I used 316L SS thread as the core. I formed a loop on a paper clip to size the thread for the core of the length of wick.




Rolled my metal doobie with the thread and the coiled with a standard hand wrap on a Chid (30g for 1.4ohms):



Cleaned it up a bit and oxidize on a mechanical with a pulse technique:



First burn with ejuice:



One of the fastest SS wicks I have had to date (much faster than SS mesh). This one is a keeper.

SS thread material available here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10118

Very cool. Been away since Friday, so just seeing this now.

Seems like a bundle of vertical strands inside a roll of mesh is a recipe for a great wick. I don't think it will matter a whole lot what size the strands are. Great wicks, fast, easy and cheap.

 

[ethebull]

I have a few of these running now in regular rotation. Vaped at least 15 tanks worth and I'm very pleased with the performance.

Compared to 100% mesh they are faster wicking, always staying wet. They fire up as fast as a solid mesh, and faster than SS rope.

 

[chadsmo]

Fancy, I may need to try this. Man all these people that make SS products must love the genesis crowd lol. I do wonder how much SS mesh production bumped when genesis attys hit the scene.

 

[Youssefa]

Hello all. I was looking through the threads on night and found this thread and another thread that was started by someone that was going to apply a revolutionary coating to the steel calbe and ss mesh that isa high temp, hydrophillic, and non conductive.

ANYONE know what I am talking about, can't find it again.