Help with Russian build?

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FearTX

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Cob, I HIGHLY recommend the earlier suggestions, you do not have to suffer through the entire video for Rip Trippers just the first little but where he builds the more common Kayfun build. PBusardo's vid is good as well, a bit more in depth on the technical and longer.

The wick tails just need to lay on the deck as pictured above. It really helps to wet them with juice and stick them in place before you put the chimney on. Whe you take a hit on the atty the vacuum created will pull a little bit of juice through those channels onto the deck. The wick soaks it up from there. If you block those channels, no vacuum. If you do not have the tails sitting on the deck, no wicking.

from 1 minute to 11 minutes is the build you are going for. 1/16 is a bit too small imo, you need to go for 5/64.

Chimney Micro Coil Build In A Kayfun Lite - YouTube

My sweet spot is between 1.5 and 2 ohms. Nice thick flavor with a cooler vape. You have a lot of distance between you and the coil, it will cool off before it gets to you :)
 

Harley0227

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You need to be sure to saturate your wick before you think about firing or anything. Also, with the Provari, if you check ohms or battery, the device will fire a short duration to put a load and give an accurate reading. Always check ohms on a new build with NO WICK!!!! And, before you wrap it and fill it, saturate the wick, that is sooooo important, otherwise you'll burn up a cotton wick in the first 2 seconds.
 

Cob24

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Can someone please tell me the reason behind an adjustable 510 connector? It's nothing but a headache to me. I've been going for about 7 hours on this thing! Now the 510 connector is acting all finicky and keeps shooting op at me because the connection isn't happening. When I adjust it the hole coil do hickey goes super lose. Why!!!! I'm going to bed. I live to battle another day. Shoulda know better to buy anything named Russian. I swear it's laughing at me saying "silly hillbilly American" (yes I know it's made in China)
 

Jazzman

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It wicked but I got no flavor other than burnt cotton

Are you sure you're dripping juice all over the cotton before you put it back together and filling the tank? After wetting the cotton and coil fire the mod with the deck open and make sure the coil is not glowing. If it's properly juiced and the coil build is good the coil will not glow, just good smelling vapor will be produced. If you have any hot spots glowing on the coil at that point you have something wrong with the build.

Probably obvious, but just checking.
 

Cob24

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It most definitely does have an adjustable 510 pin.

Nothing is obvious at this point. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to see red on the coils after it had juice.

Right now I think my biggest headache is bing produced by plastic insulators.

I fired it at least 6 times before loading wick. I checked ohms without wick. Now I've moved to the silica hoping it was the cotton. The first few times I was not priming the cotton so now I have a reason to revisit the cotton tomorrow.

I currently have it built at 1.6 ohms (if I can keep the connection going) with silica. It tastes burnt and bad but I'm starting to get a little bit of flavor in there. Pretty sure I'll be rebuilding it tomorrow as well as ordering a lot of kanthal. I went through 3' tonight and nothing but failure. I'm defeated! I'm going to bed where I will undoubtedly not be able to sleep because I will obsess over this. If anyone has had issues with there connection how did you fix it? So that the piece will just stay still? Mine is in constant motion at this point!
 

sunnata

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Harley0227

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To help with winding coils, I made this..... 20140122_142619.jpg It was an allen wrench that I use for my RC cars and trucks. i drilled a 1/16 hole to place one end of my wire in, then I just hold my wire in one hand using my fingers to guide it while I twist the handle in the direction Im winding. Works perfect for me. For the 510 pin, try taking an insulator out of a protank head(the small insulator at the bottom of the coil) and slip it over your screwed in pin, that should help hold it in place.
 

Ozwald

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Ok, glad to see you've got the too much wick thing figured out - do it just like the diagram that Train posted. After that's done, the chamber is made in 2 pieces for a reason. Put just the straight walled cylinder on. Then drip juice all over the wick - 5-8 drops should be plenty enough to make sure it's thoroughly soaked. Then put the tapered top piece on. Don't fire the cotton at all before that - once you burn it, even slightly, you'll never get rid of that burnt taste.

You can't start with a dry wick, fill up the tank & rely on the wick to soak up juice from the tank. It'll keep up as you vape, but it's not meant to immediately suck up all that juice starting dry.

Also, you can prevent wasting juice by holding the tank upside down with the drip tip over an empty bottle. Slowly unscrew the base & the juice will pour right out the drip tip into the bottle. You'll lose a little, but less than a mL.
 

Cob24

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Ok, glad to see you've got the too much wick thing figured out - do it just like the diagram that Train posted. After that's done, the chamber is made in 2 pieces for a reason. Put just the straight walled cylinder on. Then drip juice all over the wick - 5-8 drops should be plenty enough to make sure it's thoroughly soaked. Then put the tapered top piece on. Don't fire the cotton at all before that - once you burn it, even slightly, you'll never get rid of that burnt taste.

You can't start with a dry wick, fill up the tank & rely on the wick to soak up juice from the tank. It'll keep up as you vape, but it's not meant to immediately suck up all that juice starting dry.

Also, you can prevent wasting juice by holding the tank upside down with the drip tip over an empty bottle. Slowly unscrew the base & the juice will pour right out the drip tip into the bottle. You'll lose a little, but less than a mL.

Once I switched to silica I put the chamber on there and used the little screwdriver to push the wick down to the grooves. Then I used the bottle to brush that wick full of juice. Still burnt. I did watch a couple of videos and didn't remember anyone priming theirs but I did remember some of them saying it tasted funny at first so I kept trying. Needless to say burnt tastes don't go away. I will restart tonight. I really hope I get it, I only have enough kanthal for one more attempt. Gonna order more but is hate to pay b&m prices in the mean time.
 

Ozwald

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Once I switched to silica I put the chamber on there and used the little screwdriver to push the wick down to the grooves. Then I used the bottle to brush that wick full of juice. Still burnt. I did watch a couple of videos and didn't remember anyone priming theirs but I did remember some of them saying it tasted funny at first so I kept trying. Needless to say burnt tastes don't go away. I will restart tonight. I really hope I get it, I only have enough kanthal for one more attempt. Gonna order more but is hate to pay b&m prices in the mean time.

Never messed around with the silica so I can't help you there. I did put up a blog post after a few people were talking on another thread about rewicking. There's a bunch of pics there - you might find some of the info handy.

If you've only got one more chance to get it right, I would:

Take it all apart, throw away the coil/wick.
Clean everything. No need to soak, but get out the Dawn & wash it.
Make your coil, wick it with some cotton. Ask your wife for help.
Prime the crap out of it.
Make a sandwich. Ask your wife for... :facepalm: nevermind, skip that step. Or not. I love me a good sandwich.
Assemble, fill & vape it.
Be proud & pretend you knew what you were doing the entire time.
 

Harley0227

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@harley- how did you use the protank insulator to keep that center post right?

If you have a PT2 head laying around, remove the very bottom pin that would contact your pin on the Provari, then remove the small silicon insuator from inside the bottom of the head. Take that round insulator and put it over the screw in center pin of the Russian. It would have to be around the non threaded portion close to the screwdriver slot. It may be a tight fit, and you may have to trim just a hair off of the insulator, but once in, it will serve to keep your screw in place from moving around or loosening up. I will confirm on Monday when my R91 comes in, as I will be doing this after seeing some of the pin issues.
 

Zbeast08

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I'm having a hard time understanding the "pin" issue or my Russian 91 just doesn't have the issue. The pin is able to be screwed in and out even with my fingernail as it is easy to adjust for different mods but once you turn it in or out to make connection, it stays in that position unless I am not fully understanding the issue.
I am a noob as well and I have found it easier to thread your coil, pull the tails up while screwing on the next section, then cut the wick tails just slightly above the tube, then stock the tails down onto the deck, prime the wicks/well, finish assembly, fill the tank and start at low voltage and begin vaping!! I was actually way over thinking the wick placement issue and found that once you stick the wicks down onto the deck and laying next to the stack....no issues!! I hope this helps but take a deep breath and relax....when it happens, it will be so worth it!!

I also read every damn post in the kayfun lite thread and it was very helpful as well but that's alot of reading!!
 
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