good coil + wick, still a little metally taste, and smell! any tips ?

[Robber]

Hi new to building coils and wicks,
my 3rd coil and wick now came out quite good:

500 ss mesh, thick coil, oxidized
32 awg kanthal coil.

the wick works good, no need to tilt
the coil looks good aswell, nice equal glow, no hotspots
and when juiced the coil doesn't glow at all and stays wet

the taste is becoming good, a slight noticable metal taste,
when i take top off and smell the vapor it is a lot more metally smelling..

after one tank i dry-burned the coil, took of the wick and coil off and gave the whole think a burn/glow on
the stove and set it up again, dry burn..looking good, added juice

the metal smell is less but it is still there,

what causes this ? is this the wick or the wire ?
will it go away after a while ? how can i improve ?

regards!
Rob

 

[Robber]

ok i juice-burned the wick a couple of times..
getting better!

 

[Baditude]

Just as some e-liquid flavors need some time to steep or "set up", I was told when I first got into rebuildables that the wick and coil combination also needs some setup time. Give it some time to "mature" and you will note improved taste and flavor. This should occur by your second tankfull of juice.

Also, I've found from experience that the ss mesh does not need to be overly oxidized via flame.

I'm assuming that you checked your coil's resistance and it is in an acceptable range. You didn't mention what yours was.

 

[Robber]

thank you

it's about 2.5 ohms, i like the idea of more coils so that's what i wanted to try first
as i run it on a VV mod it's good at 4.5-5 volts. but my rba, the AGI, has a spring in it i want to fix,
as this adds about .6 ohms to the setup.

i feel the juice burn helped in improving the taste,

next coil i'm going to try less oxidation, and maybe a twisted or double wire nichrome
love to build and experiment, makes the whole vape more of a craft thing to enjoy

 

[bilbobaggins30]

It might not hurt to torch the steel mesh before use. It helps oxidate it, and might get rid of that nasty taste!

 

[Robber]

cool thanx..i now did a wash/oxidation and vg-burn before rolling the wick.
after rolling some light oxidation and about 5 vg burns..
this thing taste good from the start

new coil is also pretty sweet: 1.8ohm twisted nichrome

 

[bilbobaggins30]

It also helps to to adjust your coils with a blunt needle tip (on a syringe) to get it to evenly glow. Tricks I learned from watching Zen demonstrate the Z-Atty-Pro. Phil Busuardo also recommended torching the stainless steel mesh to oxidize it, and that helps burn off some harmful oils.

 

[kaboomwoom]

Try washing the mesh with dish washing soap and water before oxidizing. This helped me. If you want for use the same wick, try boiling it.

 

[Robber]

thanx, i like to use a small pair of tweezers to adjust the coil, easy to pull the coils together or space them out

 

[Big Screen D]

cool thanx..i now did a wash/oxidation and vg-burn before rolling the wick.
after rolling some light oxidation and about 5 vg burns..
this thing taste good from the start

new coil is also pretty sweet: 1.8ohm twisted nichrome
View attachment 208840

Dude, you have quite a gap between the wick and coil clearly visible on the back/left side. The coil needs to be lightly touching the wick all the way around. You'll always have an off/metallic taste otherwise.

 

[Robber]

true..i didn't see it before

but truth is this one is already a lot better..my problems were really wick related

 

[Robber]

i think i'll use my camera for building coils..these close ups don't lie

 

[Robber]

just wanted to sort of end this post now about 8 wicks and coils later i managed to get a perfect setup, which tastes and wicks great from the start, with as little oxidation/juice burning as possible and is going strong without maintenance for a few days day,

most of the problems i had were either the coil being to tight or to loose.
if you are new to rba's don't settle for less, keep practising

as this is a post in the new members forum: here are some of my problems / experiences, hope these are usefull

- when you tighten your positive post, the tightening might pull on your coil, choking the wick at the top.
keep a little extra space on the top wire of your coil so when it tightens your coil is still straight.
i do not build my coil on the rebuildable now. just on the wick and fix the top post first..this way i can unroll the whole wick&coil a bit when the top lead is too tight. after this i fix the bottom screw.

- you should have no spaces between the wick and the coil, but you should be able to move/twist your wick up and down without too much trouble, on the other hand it should not fall through, not too loose, not too tight is the key.

- on my rba (the agi-hybrid) the top-cap is quite low..I had a lot of problems when i made a good setup,
i put the top cap on and put in my driptip..now the drip-tip pushed in my wick a little, offsetting my build.
its good to have your wick stick out a bit the coil for wicking and preventing a dry or oxidising of the top of the wick, but keep an eye out for the height of your wick, the height of your top cap and how far your driptip goes into the top. this is one that took me a while to discover.

here are some helpfull posts:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ly-opportunities-hone-your-skills-part-1.html
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ly-opportunities-hone-your-skills-part-2.html

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-unoxidized-hot-spot-free-cleanable-coil.html