Hello! Question for experienced Coil/Wick builders

[Cirrus]

A question for someone who is pretty decent at building coils around stainless steel wicks:


I'm using a Genesis ATA+ and having a heck of a time getting it right. Using 32 gauge Kanthal A1 wire, doing 4, 5, or even 6 coils, and still getting anywhere from 0.8 to 1.5 resistance. Shouldn't it be way higher?


Could it have something to do with a hotspot? The wire directly before the positive pole is glowing red while the others don't. (This is on a wick already, with juice in the wick.) What can I do to keep this from happening? There appear to be no other hot spots.


It's definitely tough to get this stuff working as a newbie. Watched videos and read all day, still not sure how to fix that problem, though. I'm NOT going to give up, though.






Edit: Also, the (*low) resistances I'm getting are SUPER variable. It'll read 1.5 for a few checks, then I'll do a quick burn, and it'll read 0.8. What does this mean?

 

[Lessifer]

I'm not by any means knowledgeable about SS mesh wicks, but I've read a lot about hot spots on the positive post leg and usually it's too much tension on the wire between the post and the wick/coil, it shouldn't be pulling on the wick at all. I'm sure someone with more experience will be along shortly.

 

[Cirrus]

That is certainly a possibility! (The tension part, that is. I'm sure your expertise is up to snuff. )

I look forward to hearing more. Thanks!

 

[Baditude]

Still a student of rebuildables myself (I have two AGA T2).

My advice is to read eHuman's blog on the AGA T. E-Cigarette Forum - eHuman - Blogs

I found Zen's tutorial on the ZAP for Provape to be the most informative on setting up a Genesis-style RBA: Z-ATTY-PRO Rebuildable Atomizers For ProVari - YouTube

Popular e-cig reviewer PBusardo did a lengthly, detailed tutorial on the AGA T: A PBusardo Review - The AGA-T(s) - Part 2 - Assembly & Building Tutorial - YouTube

Hope that helps!

 

[Izan]

I try to make my coils look like this.
Not my coil, not my picture, but I am close.

Good luck
Have fun.
I

 

[Statistic]

I second reading eHumans blog BIG TIME

Follow it to the letter.

Also, when you are working out hotspots you want to do it with a dry wick, juice in the wick keeps the other parts too cool to see uneven heating

 

[Satava]

A 4 or 5 wrap of 32 should be perfect for any VV/VW mod. On the AGA-T+/2 it should come out to about 1.5 or 1.8 ohms.

Are your connection points nice and tight?
Is there a lot of tension on your positive lead? (Top wire of the coil)
How much material did you use for your wick? (I personally use 1.5"x3" rolled solid)
Did you oxidize your wick?
Did you fold over the last 1/4" to have a nice fold edge touching coils instead of a cut edge on the outside of the wick?

If all of those things seem correct, start with a low setting, say 6 watts and a safety pin. Pulse it til it's red hot. If the ohms drop wiggle the top coil a bit. It'll be the most likely place that it's shorting. Just work your way down the coils and slowly bump up the power. On a new wick this process can take up to 5 minutes. The second time you coil it just pull the wick, hit it with some flame to dry it off, and the new coil should be a lot less troublesome as a seasoned wick isn't as prone to shorts.

Best of luck and be sure to read eHuman's blog posted above.

 

[Serial70]

The hot top leg scenario is usually due to a short in the wick or too much tension on the leg the top post (assuming you are using SS mesh). If you make sure the top leg on the coil is not too tight, and you're still getting the hot leg, try lightly moving the coils (with a precision screwdriver or dental pick or any other device you may use) to get rid of hot spots. People suggest (especially with AGA-T+ and AGA-T2) that you lean the top of the wick towards the top post to get rid of the hot leg, however in reality what this is doing is the same as making sure that there is not too much tension on the leg. The difference is that when you lean the wick, it has the potential to impede juice flow, whereas if you leave it straight and simply remove the tension on the coil, it will both flow well and not form a hot spot.

 

[Cirrus]

Awesome advice so far. Thank you! Has anyone had any luck with the drill bit method? Thinking of trying it...

To answer some of the questions, yes, the top leg of my coil is probably tense, headed over to the center (positive) post.

And yeah, I oxidized the wick. Found a few good tutorials, which also helped me to fold over the final flap so it doesn't present a jagged edge.

Would you guys recommend a hollow wick for a VG juice? Or a 'less dense' wick?


Thanks again.

Edit: one issue I'm having is getting the topmost of the 3 'nuts' on the positive post to sit nicely and clamp the top of the coil. I wish it were just a screw... I have to twist it by hand and it's finicky. (Again, using the AGA-T+ here)

 

[gthompson]

With 32 gauge Kanthal I do 4 wraps and get 1.2 or 5 wraps and get 1.5. That's exactly where I want it.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Hot spot, big time. Specifically in the top leg.

Since it looks like you dont yet know the right amount of pressure to wrap your coil with, do the drill bit method.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Heres a reply i posted in Statistics thread earlier when he was having trouble:

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.

 

[Cirrus]

Wow, eHuman's blog posts seem like the perfect resource. Thanks again for that.

(And thank you for the above advice, Kanj, definitely going to use that.)