I know there are tons of videos, all of which seem to contradict the other.
I have ss mesh here. I have 325, 400, 500. I use Boba's Bounty Juice (thick).
I have kanthal wire. I have 32ga, 28ga, I have nichrome.
I have done perhaps 1 good wick and coil set-up and am about to give up. I wanted to ask the pros a couple questions.
First of all, I am using the iHybrid and have the ZAP and a dozen (or more knock-offs).
What I need is advice and a shopping list!
Now for my questions:
1. What mesh should I use?
2. Oxidation, I have tried oxidizing before rolling, after rolling, and both. What is the best bet?
3. How thick should it be? In other words, should I roll it tight enough to eliminate any hole? Should it have a small (paperclip) hole in it?
4. What wire should I use?
5. How many wraps?
6. What is a good torch to use? I am currently using a small, handheld Benzomatic.
Thanks in advance for any help, I want to get this down so I can use the $500 in mods and enjoy it as much as others seem to.
I got into Gennies last Dec and have been obsessing about them ever since. I'm no expert but let me give this a shot:
1. I've seen people say these use #200 all the way up to #625. In my experience, I get the best results with #500. If thats not available, then #400. Seems like both work well regardless of the ratio of PG/VG. FWIW, I normally use 80VG as well as Boba's. No problems on either type of mesh
2. When I first got into Gennies 4 months ago, the standard procedure was to torch and quench 3 times, then do juice burns 3 times. Today, a lot of folks swear by unoxidized mesh. Recently, there's been talk that an overoxidized wick could cause some harmful health effects. I do notice people seem to be torching less than before (or at least talking about it more). What I do is torch lightly (one pass on both sides, with added attention to the edges) then roll and wrap. lately, I've been moving towards unoxidized wicks. No real difference in the end result that I can tell.
3. Some people like a hole in the center, some people like them rolled solid. Hollow wicks run the risk of not wicking enough juice and causing hot spots. Densely rolled wicks run the risk of being a heat sink, making the build unresponsive and cooking the juice. You want a wick that can keep up with the heat the coil without drying up. Its really about choosing a certain gauge and wrap for your coil and finding what kind of wick works well with it. On my iHys, I use 28 gauge Kanthal 4/5 wrap on a 7/64" drill bit (same with my ZAP before the thing broke). This comes out to a little under 1 ohm. And for that, a 60mm long piece of mesh works pretty well for me. I'm OCD about this, but it's helped me tremendously when I noted all these stats down as I'm trying them out. Gives me a better idea of how to improve the build next time
4. I've only ever used Kanthal. Generally, the lower the gauge, the more surface area the wire covers and presumably the better the vape. However, you run the risk of having your resistance too low, if that matters to you. If you go the super low resistance route, you would do well to check around ECF for posts on battery safety. My favorite wire right now is 28 gauge as I feel it gives better flavor and vapor. I will use 30 gauge when the wick hole is so small (as in the Bliss or Mini DID) that I can't get my resistance up to around the 0.9-1.2 ohm level (or higher) without having too many wraps. So far, 5/6 wraps is probably the most I want to put on any wick.
5. Depends on the wire gauge and the resistance you want. The more wraps, the higher the ohms. But the lower the ohms, the more clouds. Really depends on how many ohms you're wanting to hit. See #3 and 4. Also be aware that lower gauge wire has a tendency to be more unresponsive ie you hit the button and it doesn't glow as quickly as higher gauge wire. That threw me for a while and made me think there was something wrong with my build/atty until I realized what was happening
6. Not sure the torch has anything to do with the quality of the build. I've seen posts with people using torches from $7 to upwards of $40. Many folks also just use the burner on their stove. i think the trick is having a blue flame and using that to torch the mesh. Of course, if you decide to go unoxidized, you can take the torch off your list
I sure hope I didn't confuse you with all this. But like everyone says, keep trying and experimenting. It really is a lot of time and effort in the beginning but once you get it down, you will be able to do the whole thing in 10 min. Or less.