SEEK and Ye SHALL FIND!
Every time I read an atty thread, it boggles my mind to see how many gyrations people go through to figure out what is wrong with their attys and how to fix them. They boil them, dip them in unobtanium, and wonder if sacrificing poor Fido will cure their precious attys (or cartomizer for that matter). They look for arcane scripts written in invisible ink to tell them the resistance which can only be seen by the light of Jupiter is in conjunction with Venus.
I have torn apart and rebuilt every atty except the 3 and 4 series and various cartomizers as a survival skill in case we end up with a ban. I am not a survivalist by nature but I will not go back to tobacco after finding a way to break a 40 year habit. On April 20, it will be one year. The atty is about the only thing in an ecig that I cannot cobble together from products on the open market. I am ordering some A2's from Germany which are easy to rebuild. Normal attys are a royal PITA to rebuild, and not really cost effective for me. They range in price from $3 to $12, depending on source and type.
Other than the markings on an atty there is no way to tell what resistance it has by visual inspection. The only thing that differentiates a LR from a SR from a HR is the number of windings of the coil or the gage/type of wire used. For instance 36 gage Nichrome has a resistance of 2.25 ohms/inch. 1.5" gives you 3.5 ohms. The wire is wrapped around a wick. Add or subtract the length of wire to change the resistance.
Here is a link that show you what the inside of an atty looks like. It is meant for people wanting to rebuild an atty which I am not proposing that you do. They are really really tiny, and rebuilding is not for the faint of heart. Just peek at it to get a visual image of atty construction. Cartos are very different, especially the new style clearomizers, etc.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...your-510-atomizer-step-step-801-901s-too.html
More importantly,here is a link that I found that tells you how to use a multimeter. IT IS REALLY EASY and will save you tons of time. You can pick one up on ebay for the price of an atty.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/reos-mods/167982-how-use-multimeter-vid.html