Hero Hybrid ==> Collection of setups

[Alexander Mundy]

Hello all, I am starting this thread for setups of the Hero Hybrid.

Background:

I have various variable wattage mods and have tried various clearo's, drippers, and a genesis cobra clone.
The Protank with cotton is my choice of clearo's, but I have really been into dripping lately.
I have been trying various wick / coil setups with the drippers and hole sizes and multiple coil / hole combos.
(I was the kid that had my new toy disassembled before we got home to the dismay of my mother)

I recently received a Hero Hybrid and really like the little thing.

Maybe that is just because this is my first mechanical mod?
Maybe it is because I like the odd and unusual?
I don't know but I have a new one on the way so I can have 1 to experiment with and 1 for daily vaping.
Might even get a 3rd because I like rotating flavors!

So I have experimented a little with the Hero and have decided to document my experiences here.
I would also love input from you about what I am doing and how I might be able to improve it.

So far I have totally disassembled it (including pressing out the plastic chamber and removing the plastic tank)
and thoroughly cleaned everything to remove a lingering flavor from the previous user.
I have watched the review by Todd (If you have spare time you should check out his video's, he is hilarious)



I have enlarged the hole from the chamber to the tank.
I have opened up all air holes till I like the draw.

My first coil / wick setup was 2 pieces of 3mm silica splayed apart in tank and wrapped with 32 gauge A1 Kanthal
at 1.4 Ω at battery connection.
This had more throat hit than my drippers and more flavor than my Protanks with cotton wicks.
I did have to invert it every so often or I got the start of a dry hit when vaping frequently.

I was very happy with the set up until I unscrewed the chamber some not realizing I was not unscrewing the battery side.
(I unscrew the battery side to make it easier to change batteries)
When I screwed the chamber back in and put in a fresh battery it vaped even better than before.
What is going on I wondered?
Maybe I was getting used to the battery being low and the fresh battery renewed the vape.
I put the battery I just removed back in and to my frustration it still vaped better than before I unscrewed the chamber/tank.
Whoa, something else is going on but what is it?
I removed the tank and chamber and vaped it with a wet wick without them.
It was similar to the initial vape just more airy, not the improved vape I just had.
Re-installed chamber and tank but the improved vape was still not there.

Why, why, why????? What was different??????
After the improved vape I had to have it back!
Unscrewed the chamber / tank some just like I did with my mistake changing the battery and screwed back in.
Holy cow, improved vape was back!
Once again I thought to myself (maybe out loud at this point) WHAT IS GOING ON?
Then it hit me like a cement truck.
I did not pull the wick pieces down to straighten them out in the chamber like Todd said to do because I did not remove the tank!!!!

Removed the tank and chamber and by this time I had sliced quite a bit of the wick pieces off on the sharp edge of the hole I enlarged.
Re-wicked as before, beveled hole, and tried experiment again with same results.
Removed the tank and chamber again and experimented without them using kind of like a dripper.
I found that with the wick perpendicular with respect to the hole that leads to the drip tip it worked best.
The wick was drooping around the bottom of the coil when I pulled it down and smothering the bottom of the coil with juice.
By this time (1AM) my wife was furious so I abandoned my experiment.

Next day I found that I couldn't get a consistent vape every time I assembled so I needed to figure out how to accomplish that.
Bingo, saw a piece of rolled up mesh for the cobra clone in my vape supply trays and thought I would try making a SS U wick.
I Couldn't get the U wick (more like a needle hole wick because both sides went through center hole) to wick well enough.
Next I cut a smaller piece of the SS wick and wrapped around 1 3mm silica.
No joy.
Wrapped a very short SS piece just long enough for the coil area so the silica would do the change in direction and just a couple of wraps around 2 pieces of 3mm silica.
Better, but it took longer to heat up due to the SS & the coil resistance was higher.
Didn't have any Kanthal except 32ga so I twisted 2 pieces together and wrapped a 4/3 (or is that 3/4?) coil on my frankenstein wick.
It was at this point I decided to take a picture and start a thread if it worked.

Joy, Joy, Joy it wicks well enough I do not have to do the exaggerated tilt (this thing vapes tilted quite a bit anyway unless you bend your head down).
It has even better flavor than the silica alone and wow, I didn't know what a throat hit was until then!
Been vaping with it for a day and a half now and still going strong.

Things I would like to try next:
I noticed by accident that when I cover an air hole with my finger it gives a different vape depending on which air hole so some experimentation is in order.
Ribbon wire coil? Going to order some.
Really miss variable voltage as the vape does slowly get less and I change out the battery at about 3.6V but no room for a Crown or Kick.
If the battery compartment was longer, so would the chamber / tank side need to be for it to be as rock stable as it is sitting on a table and less battery life would not be good.
Maybe just plain regulation at 3.6V with a lower resistance coil?
I think I might be able to fit an LM style regulator in the top part but it will be difficult.
There is a very slight leak of juice between the tank and the chamber but I saw on another forum that an O-ring will correct that.
Juice builds up between the bottom of the cup the drip tip goes in and the bottom of the drip tip from condensation which is kind of annoying.
My wife doesn't like it much because the way you hold it reminds her of someone doing illicit things we cant talk about here.
Maybe make a custom hybrid in the form factor of 99% of the mods out there?
That would take away the odd and unusual visual effect which I like.

Maybe I am just overjoyed at the mediocre as I do not have any of the expensive atty's out there.
I do have a Kayfun clone aka Dream BT804 Tank prewicked with xc-116 by another member with experience with Kayfun & Dream on the way.
That should be a valid comparison of what is considered good.

Suggestions to improve mine or share your setup of the Hero?

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Not the best juice for vapor production, but great throat hit!

Now if I can just figure out how not to look stupid!

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Well, did a little experimenting with the air holes.
As would be expected the 2 that line up best with the side of the wick give the best vape.
I temporarily plugged the other 2 with toothpick and enlarged the 2 that line up with the wick.
This is better than having all 4 open to about the same draw as just the 2.
Now the battery is in the low 3.5V range instead of the mid 3.6V range when I feel I need to change it.

It has created a small annoyance however.
After a dozen or so vapes the holes gurgle from juice condensate in them.
I have to wrap a tissue around them and blow the juice out of them to stop the gurgle.
1 collects more than the other, don't know for sure, but it could be the one that is on the side facing down.

It has .23Ω resistance from battery to coil.
Does this sound normal for a mechanical mod?

Also checked coil & wick & ran water over them without removing for a quick clean.
Here is the coil firing dry:

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Received the new unadulterated Hero today.
Thought I would try it out of the box set up with a factory wick as the instructions show.
It came with 2 sets of coil/wick with 5 pieces of 1mm silica each and 1.8Ω coil.
Instructions say to wrap the unused wick around the coil?
Picture shows that and with 4 pieces sticking out each side.
Did it that way just to see what that would do.
What a pitiful disappointment that was!
No wonder these are not very popular.

Unwrapped the wick from around the coil and tried again.
A little better, but still way lacking.
Took 2 turns off the coil to bring it down to 1.2Ω.
Mildly better, but started to get a hint of dry hit after 3 vapes.
Tilting took care of that, but was still no where near the other Hero.

The draw was tight as just 1 hole was drilled and quite small.
Also it was lined up facing 1 of the wick sides of the coil.
What were they thinking?
Drilled out 1 hole facing the side of the coil and plugged the original.
Much better, but still not there.
Drilled out a hole in the opposite side and it improved again.

Coiled a 1Ω coil on the original wicks and got a mild dry hit first time.
Put a piece of mesh on the original wicks and tried again.
First vape was great, but the second was so bad it made me gag!
Obviously the 5 1mm wicks cannot even hope to keep up.
Going to have to go to the larger wick like I did with the other Hero.

My wife is politely wanting me to call it quits for now so further enhancement of the new Hero must wait.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Set up a coil / wick setup like the 1 that worked best for the used Hero.
2-3mm silica with a short piece of SS mesh wrapped tight around the coil area with a 3/4 2-32ga twisted coil meticulously hot wrapped.
Drilled out 2 air holes to 1/16 and plugged 2 like the used one.
I did booboo and drilled out the hole between the chamber and the tank larger than before.
I can see the gaps around the wicks before I splay them but not after.
Hopefully this will not cause an inadvertent leak as the used one has not leaked yet and I do pocket it.
BTW, the little pocket within the right side pocket on a pair of jeans is perfect for one of these.
Keeps it handy and easily removable.

The used Hero must have a hot spring as the new Hero's spring is much softer with smaller wire and chrome looking instead of brass / copper colored.
Put the hot spring in the new one and tested it.
The new one is vaping like a champ and miles ahead of out of the box.

Then I thought I would put the original spring in to test and didn't see a difference.
Checked the new Hero with the stock spring and has a .26Ω resistance and .23Ω with the hot spring.
Only .03Ω difference confirms my seat of the pants observation.

Did a little further testing with the air holes on the used one.
Enlarged them to 3/32 to allow a 3/32 .014 wall tube to be inserted.
Cut 2 short pieces of tube and pushed in until wick contact and pulled out a little.
No difference in vape was noticeable.
Pulled them part way back and tested with same results.
It is pretty close in the chamber already so the air must be flowing straight to the coil well.
Tried it with the larger holes and no tubing and found it wasn't really much more airy but it did have a slight reduction in vapor.
Made 2 very short bushings of 3/32 tubing to bring the air holes back to close to 1/16 each.
(Main restriction is the small hole going to the drip tip area so it is not as airy as you would think with 2-1/16 holes)
Vape was back to the best either Hero has had and they are on par with each other.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

I received a Dream BT804 (Kayfun sort of copy) along with the new Hero.
It was wicked with xc-116 and a .9Ω coil by another member with experience with Kayfun & Dream.
(Thanks, that was $10 well spent for the Dream)
BTW, the Hero is a backwards Dream!
The air just goes the opposite direction.
Makes sense since they are both made by Beauticig.

(Pic of Dream coil holder from web)

(Pic of 1 of my Hero's)

My Zmax & Vamo & Evic all didn't want to fire the Dream.
Darn, I don't have a mechanical to test it on with that .9Ω coil!
Evic will do 1Ω and I did find a way to make the Evic fire it.
Put it on and get the atomizer short message.
While still holding the button in screw it out until the no atomizer message.
Still holding the button in screw it back in and 50% of the time it will fire.
Must be just on the edge of its range.

Vape was good, but not on par with the modified Hero's.

Thought maybe this was to do with the Evic's current limitations.
So I recoiled it to 1.8Ω which would allow the Zmax and Vamo to fire it up to 15 Watts.

Vapor was better than almost all of the stuff I have, but still not on par with the modified Hero's.
About the same vapor as my drippers with dual SS mesh wicks or cotton U wick at 1.2Ω, but not as much taste or throat hit.

Don't know exactly what direction experimentation will go from this point.
After the modified Hero's performance I would throw away MT3's & CE4's etc. if I still had them, Protank's & Vivi Nova's are now a meh, Vision Eternity is so so, the Dream BT804 is pretty darn good but muted flavor & throat hit, and my modified drippers are really darn good.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Just a short post to share something I found works well to thread the wicks through the chamber hole.


Take a plastic straw and slit it length wise most of the way.

Curl it together and stick through the chamber hole from the tank side.

Pull the curl apart and put the wicks inside the slit end of the straw.

Curl it back together from the chamber end manipulating the wicks until they are fully inside the curled up straw.

Pull the chamber over the straw with wicks inside until the straw is clear of the chamber hole.

Works super well.
Works super quick.
Extremely cheap.
Doesn't cut any of the wick strands.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Did a few more tests and thought I would share the results.

Get the out cause this is long winded.

These photos may help in following along

Found out that my previous measurements of resistance were faulty.
I was measuring with the top cap off.
The bottom plate carries the current back from the atty B- to the battery case.
The atty base makes contact to the bottom plate only by pressure from the top cap through the atty base insulator.

All Factory Hero Hybrid components were used.

Here is what I found for voltage drop at various points with a pair of vise grips holding pressure on the atty base and battery case to the bottom plate.
(Voltage measurements at atty pins with the top plate on was the same with the vise grip set up so the rest of the measurements should be correct)

Coil was 1.20Ω at atty pins.
Battery was AW 18350 that had been cycled about 20 times.
Unloaded battery voltage was 4.07V at the start of testing.
Unloaded battery voltage was 4.05V at the end of testing.
Loaded battery voltage was 3.87V at the start of testing.
Loaded battery voltage was 3.85V at the end of testing.
Measured atty pins voltage was 3.67V at the start of testing.
Measured atty pins voltage was 3.65V at the end of testing.
Calculated current was 3.06A the start of testing.
Calculated current was 3.04A the end of testing.

The battery accounted for .2V loss from internal resistance which is half of the total losses in the circuit. (Not including coil of course)
This AW18350 has a calculated .066Ω internal resistance at this current draw.
I had expected a lower internal resistance than this.

B- of battery to atty - pin was .07V giving that path .023Ω.
B+ of battery to atty + pin was .13V giving that path .043Ω.
B+ of battery to cross bar that carries current from switch to atty + pin was .11V.
This gives the switch & battery "+ pin" the largest resistance of the B+ path at .036Ω.
(Couldn't physically get to the top of the battery "+ pin" at the base of the switch for measurement there)
This leaves .02V for the rest of the B+ circuit from battery top to atty pin for .0066Ω.

A quick test with solder wick from between battery B- to bottom plate reduced the B- circuit drop from .07V to .02V
A quick test with solder wick from battery B+ to plate between the atty and the switch reduced B+ circuit drop from .13V to .01V
This gave a combined reduction from .2V loss to .02V.
Voltage at atty pins came up from 3.65V to 3.83V.
Calculated current came up from 3.04A to 3.19A.
Calculated wattage at coil came up from 11W to 12.2W.

While this doesn't sound like a big improvement, I did a vape test and it was noticeably stronger.
Just on the verge of dry hit after a couple of vapes, so if I can remove the largest voltage drops then I will need to look at more wicking ability.
Obviously the largest drop to tackle is the switch & battery "+ pin" then the B- circuit.

To do list:
Make a battery "+ pin" out of copper. (Not to hard to do)
Make a switch base of copper. (A little more challenging)
Replace the switch spring (carries the current) with one with a better alloy.
Replace the battery spring (Simple)
Remove chrome from brass at contact points. (Will have to research this)

To think about list:
Figure out how to make atty base to battery case connection not dependent on pressure between plates from center screw. (Don't have a clue at this point)
Figure out how to keep condensation from collecting at the air holes in the side of the chamber which is quite annoying.

Future list:
Will get several sizes of Kanthal ribbon day after tomorrow (according to USPS) so coil experiments will be in the future.
Received 24" X 24" mesh so much of experimenting can be done.
I have an "out of the box" idea for the mesh I haven't seen tried on anything but will share later after experimenting.
Cotton will also be experimented with as the best flavor and throat hit I have found so far for my drippers is cotton with a couple wraps of mesh at coil area.
(Still using mesh over silica for Hero's)
My drippers are feeling lonely but will get some attention when PG, VG, 60 Nic, and DIY flavors get here next week.

Well, enough rambling for now.
If you read through this I am sure you must either have a Hero or by now be thinking

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Received several spools of Kanthal today.
0.6mm X 0.07mm ribbon.
0.5mm X 0.1mm ribbon.
28ga.
30ga.
And of course I still have 32ga.

Thought I would try the 0.6mm X 0.07mm ribbon.
I have not used ribbon before and learned a few things.

I started with 2 pieces of 3mm silica and unraveled them so at the coil area my wick would be round instead of elliptical. (See note at end)
Cut a small piece of 400 mesh and oxidized it.

The mesh was harder to roll tight on the multiple unraveled wick pieces than 2 pieces of 3mm.
I cut a few small sub strands rolling the mesh on the wick so I pulled them out.

Out of curiosity I tried wrapping without hot wrapping but the ribbon was way to loose.
I found that the ribbon was much harder to hot wrap than 32ga or 32ga twisted was.
But I persevered and ended up hot wrapping from the middle then turning and wrapping the other way.

Final result was a good tight 4/3 (3/4? I don't know which way is proper) wrap.

I learned that there is no way the pins will hold this ribbon without additional thickness.
It took 2 additional pieces of ribbon per side for the pins to hold it.
I also learned that Todd is not the only one to use profanity at the small pins as I searched for them in shag carpet.
Here is the installed wick / coil.

This came out to 1.53Ω at atty pins.
I still had the 32ga twisted 4/3 that came to 1.20Ω at atty pins in the other Hero so I compared.
Taste was actually a hair better (maybe new wick did that), but throat hit was reduced quite a bit and vapor reduced a little.
Also the vapor was visually different.
Almost as much vapor, but it seemed almost like it was smaller vapor droplets on the micro scale?

I decided to back the coil off to a 3/2 for more current.
I learned that it was nigh on impossible to keep the tight wrap after I messed with it.
While pulling on the mesh with the coil hot from pulsing it there was a small poof and a quick micro flash fire at the coil which was quite unexpected.
After much consternation I managed to get a halfway decent wrap with pulsing the coil and keeping the mesh taught.

This came out to 1.06Ω at atty pins.
Less resistance than I hoped for, but I gave it a shot.
On the verge of a dry hit with a fresh battery and can't chain vape it.
No evidence of dry hit taste after the battery normalized to 3.8V.
Even after the battery is normalized to 3.8V the vape was not as good as the 32ga twisted 4/3 wrap.
Vapor production is about the same as the 4/3 ribbon wrap.
Throat hit is a little better than the 4/3 ribbon wrap but hot as good as the 32 ga twisted 4/3 wrap.
Taste is down from either the 4/3 ribbon wrap or the 32 ga twisted 4/3 wrap.
Curiously enough the vapor is still visually different from the 32ga twisted 4/3 wrap.
The only plus I found was that with either ribbon wrap the coil instantly heated up whereas the 32ga twisted 4/3 wrap takes about 1/2 second to get to full steam.

In hindsight I shouldn't have unraveled the silica as that reduced the coil diameter and changed the shape introducing an unaccounted for variable.
Now I will have to repeat without unraveling the silica to confirm the results didn't have anything to do with the unraveling.
Bad, bad, bad mad scientist.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Tried the 0.6mm X 0.07mm ribbon with elliptical mesh / silica like twisted 32ga is on.
Both 4/3 & 3/2 were a bust with the same results as cylindrical mesh / silica in last post.
Also put 32ga twisted 4/3 on the same wick I used in the 0.6mm X 0.07mm ribbon test and it is a great vape with no discernible difference from the elliptical set up.

Elliptical vs cylindrical does not seem to make a difference so the last experiment was valid.

 

[Mark Todd]

What an amazing thread, outstanding work mate, really, outstanding

 

[Fury83]

^^^^^^

Seconded, I don't have one of these but we need more of these types of threads on here. Great job

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Thanks. I am documenting this experimenting so I can review and others can learn from what works for me & what fails.

Couldn't get to sleep very well last night so I put my mind to the following question:
What difference is there from the single 32ga, twisted 32ga, and the .6mm X .07mm ribbon and why does the twisted 32ga work so much better?
A few things come to my mind.
Resistance of course which I will test with single 28ga and single 30ga later.
But also the physical differences.
The ribbon has very little surface area that is in contact with liquid that is also not covered by the ribbon.
The single has about the same surface area as the ribbon with regards to the previous statement and performed about the same.
The twisted 32ga. has much more surface area in contact with liquid because it will wick it up to some degree.
And the thought ran across my mind, what the heck am I going to do with all this ribbon I have if it doesn't work for what I want?

So I had a hair brained idea!
What if I twisted the ribbon like a miniature spiral?
I did not anneal it first which seemed to work really well:

Tried a 4/3 hot wrapped which came out to 2.0Ω:

The 4/3 worked surprisingly well for that high of a resistance!
Great taste, decent throat hit, and very good vapor.
Not as well as the twisted 32ga, but it did have less power going through it.

So I wrapped a 3/2 which came out to 1.5Ω:
(In my excitement I almost forgot to take a picture before I buttoned it up)

Well, that didn't work very well!
On the verge of dry hit every time and poop for vapor.
Opened back up and found the problem was a major hot spot.
Apparently I had scrapped off some of the oxidization assembling and only 1 wrap was working now.
Pulsed and diddled with the coil and it is working much better!
It is almost on par with the twisted 32ga, but I am going to let it break in tonight and see it it will get better.

Got to go to a 4th party now, but I will of course report back.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Well the single .6mm X .07mm ribbon twisted 3/2 ribbon did not improve and had sporadic dry hits.

Thought I would try the twisted ribbon directly on the silica.
Didn't work well.

Tried mesh over that coil to keep the wick droop off the coil.
The worst of anything I have tried yet.

So back to thinking.

The 4/3 twisted worked better than the 3/2 twisted so what was the difference?
Well the resistance was higher on the 4/3, but the 3/2 twisted ribbon was higher than the 4/3 twisted 32ga.
Because of this I don't believe that the single .6mm X .07mm twisted ribbon can be made to work as well as the twisted 32ga.

But why did the 4/3 twisted ribbon work so well with it's relatively high resistance?
If the 32ga twisted had the resistance of the 4/3 twisted ribbon I think the ribbon would win so why?
Well here is what I came up with:
The 4/3 twisted ribbon had more surface area covered with liquid than either the 4/3 32ga or the 3/2 twisted ribbon.
Maybe it just needs less resistance but not a reduced surface area like the 3/2 twisted ribbon had.

Insert hair brained idea.

Double up the .6mm X .07mm ribbon and then twist it for 1/2 the resistance.
I did anneal it with a lighter before twisting this time.
Twisted up real nice using the hobby hand drill & vice grips like in the previous post.

Cant do macro photography, so I scanned it and single twisted at 1200 X 1200 so I could see the surfaces:

Installed a 4/3 of the twisted .6mm X .07mm doubled up ribbon @ 1.0Ω hot wrapped over 400 oxidized mesh over 2 X 3mm silica:

Shazam!

Better than anything yet.
And on the same wick / mesh I have been using for twisted experiments.
Instant vaporization and not a hint of dry hit even chain vaping.
Great flavor, throat hit, and vapor.
There is an added sound that is different from anything I have tried.
Reminds me of tig welding or maybe a neon sign arcing.

Made a new wick for the other Hero I use for comparison with changes.
2-3mm silica but I unfurled in the middle of both and let them twirl themselves back together into 1 at the coil area.
Oxidized a new piece of 400 mesh and wrapped around silica.
Hot wrapped the twisted 2 X ( 0.6mm X 0.07mm Kanthal ribbon ) and had just enough left for a 5/4.

The 5/4 came out @ 1.0Ω at the atty pins the same as the 4/3 on the other.
I realized then that twisting the silica proper had made a smaller coil form.
This setup did not perform as well and did not have that "tig" sound.

I twisted 2 X (0.5mm X 0.1mm ribbon Kanthal) this time.

Decided to try 3-3mm silica under 400 mesh since this was going to have a little lower resistance per inch.
Did not unfurl silica until after the 4/3 coil was hot wrapped on.
The coil came out to 0.9Ω:

Better than the twisted 32ga and almost on par with the twisted 2 X ( 0.6mm X 0.07mm Kanthal ribbon ) if it holds as it is but not quite.
There is not any "tig" sound with this one.
Twisting is a more even than the other one and the magic must be in the uneven twists.
Vapor might be coming out of the little pockets on the other coil.
Will experiment with different types of twist and dissimilar ribbon / round wire twists later.

BTW, with any of the twisted ribbon you have to flatten the coil leads with pliers to get the pins in the atty base.

Also, these are more sensitive to voltage drop than the twisted 32ga was.
I am changing the AW 18350's between 3.65V and 3.7V.
Need to get rid of some of that resistance (especially the switch) that I found.
Went by the hardware store and found that the battery + pin that is also part of the switch is M4 X .05 instead of the more common .07.
Was going to make a couple out of copper, but that will have to wait for now.
My die set does not have it and it appears to be a specialty item.
To get one at any decent cost is going to require ordering one online.

Well I have a nic headache now so will report more latter.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Tried a quick dirty solder wick B- jumper and a switch spring jumper.

Didn't help very much and the switch was inconsistent.
Cleaned & sanded the switch battery post and button base with 600 grit.
Both of which are stainless by the way.
This had minimal effect also.

I wondered what twisting the Kanthal ribbon while it was heated would look like.

First I did the single like before with the vise grips hanging but with a torch blowing sideways toward the ribbon.
It was twirled instead of folded like doing it without heating but was inconsistent because of the inconsistent heat.
It twisted in to in the middle as you can see.
I did the ribbon / 32ga the same, but horizontal instead of vertical and kept the pulling pressure light.
The ribbon folded around the 32ga.
For the double I used a variable power supply hooked to the vise grips on one end and a copper "brush" against the hand drill shaft.
I did horizontal like the ribbon / 32 ga. but it came out extremely even and twirled instead of folded.
I will try that ribbon / 32ga. and ribbon double later as I am very satisfied with the folded twisted double at this point and didn't have the time.

I was having wicking issues with the 2 X 3mm Silica.
Found that I had apparently severed about 1/4 of the strands at the edge of the mesh during making it.
Decided to just snip the wicks, pull out, clean coil & mesh with water & dry burning, and insert cotton.

Cotton is what I used in Protanks and what I prefer with mesh over it in my drippers.
Speaking of drippers, I am going to have to try the double twisted in one of them!
The cotton is from 100% organic cotton balls that I unroll.
Then I boil them in water to remove the sizing.
After the first boil you can see the sizing floating on the water.
Keep them under water and add more water while letting it overflow and the sizing will flow out.
If you lift them out of the water before that the sizing will get back in the cotton.
I repeat 2 more times because I am .....
Thread the cotton through the mesh rotating back and forth while pushing and pulling then trim to size after installed through the chamber.

So far it is incredible.
I had almost forgot how the silica will taint the taste.
Clean sparkling taste with the cotton.
So far no wicking issues as I suspected would be the case because cotton is so much more absorbent than silica.
Of course I do know I will have to change the cotton more often because the heat does get to it, but it is cheap.
And if you cut it at one end of the mesh, run water over what is left, you can extract most of it.
What is left goes away with a few dry burns.

Right now I don't know how much more I can improve the coil wick.
It is very easy to get a nic headache with the amount of vapor production.
I would like to get rid of some of that lost power I found so the batteries would last a little longer.
I am getting about 1/2 of the vaping time on a battery now compared with the stock Hero coil / wicks.
But the improvement is beyond what I had initially hoped for.

The annoying collection of juice condensation below the drip tip and at the air holes still needs addressed, but I am at a loss on how to stop that.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

I tried the 0.5mm X 0.1mm ribbon hot twisted with 1-32ga 4/3 @ 1.2Ω over 400 mesh over cotton.
Decent, but not up to snuff with the 4/3 of the twisted .6mm X .07mm doubled up ribbon @ 1.0Ω hot wrapped over 400 mesh over cotton.

I hot twisted 1-0.6mm X 0.07mm ribbon with 2-32ga for a little lower resistance.
A 4/3 over 400 mesh over cotton came to 1.0Ω.

I don't know how it came out so even with each piece of 32ga alternating twists!

This performs as well as the 4/3 of the twisted .6mm X .07mm doubled up ribbon @ 1.0Ω hot wrapped over 400 mesh over cotton.

Using cotton I cannot hot wrap the coil with the cotton in place.
I did however figure out a much simpler way to make the coil / mesh than before.
Wrap 3 layers of 0.26 inch wide oxidized mesh tight over a 0.115 inch steel form.
Clip 2 small office clips at each end of the mesh.
Wrap the coil cold over the mesh tightly.
While holding onto the coil remove from the form.
Torch till red hot while holding on to the coil leads about 2 inches from mesh.
Quench in water and the whole thing retains its shape with the coils tight on the mesh.
Cut excess wire off and install on atty pins.
Check for hot spots.
Insert cotton.


Unfortunately I am now down to 1 Hero.
The shaft on the hollow threaded end of the Cup below the drip tip that takes the B+ to the atty pin sheared on it.

I do not think I can weld and grind this as small as it is especially with it being hollow and have it hold.
I emailed the factory, but chances are slim I will get a reply from China little lone be able to get the part.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Well I have been a busy boy and haven't had time to update.
(I can hear some of you are cheering about that)

Factory was not any help for the broken part. Duh!
Since my birthday is tomorrow, my wife said to go ahead and order a new one.
(Plus she let me get a Magneto sans logo)
I bought a Hero from VaporBeast and I included a note about my broken Hero.
Got a phone call from Tim very shortly after I submitted my order.
He said he used them and to help me out he would send me a used one.
Asked him how much and he said it was to help out a fellow vapor and no extra charge.
Holy cow, you can't beat that.
Called me the next day I think it was and said it didn't get in the order with the new one but it was coming.
Great guy, I can't say enough good things about him.

I have tried a few new combinations of twisted wire.

Tried 3 X 0.5mm X 0.1mm cold twisted which was not a winner.
A lot of the surface area is trapped between the outer 2 pieces.

So far the best working combination is 0.6mm X .07mm cold twisted then 3 of those hot twisted in the opposite direction for 5.6 Ω/ft.
Lots of exposed surface area in that combination.

I am still using the mesh on form / wrap coil / remove form / torch / quench / add cotton technique from my previous post.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Found out I was wrong about the threaded battery pin that goes from the battery B+ to the bottom of the switch. It is not SS, but is in fact plated brass. Same with the switch cup and drip cup.

Sanded both ends of the pin, top of the battery tube, switch contact area, contact area to the brass crossover for the switch cup & drip tip cup on one Hero. Have not taken voltage readings yet, but it does hit a little harder not much. I have the feeling the switch spring is a large part of the voltage drop.

Still using the 0.6mm X .07mm cold twisted then 3 of those hot twisted in the opposite direction. 3/2 on 1 to 2 wraps of 400 mesh on a .115 inch metal form etc. as before gives .8Ω and a wonderful vape. I have all 3 working Heros set up this way, a Dream, and an IGO L. I do have to be careful that I don't cut one of the three strands when I push the little pins in or it gives a hot spot at that point.

The only drawbacks to the current setup are I go through a lot of juice, it takes a lot of ribbon (about 6 foot of ribbon makes enough for 4 or 5 coils with end wastage), and I tried one of my lonely Protanks and went meh.

Getting my long awaited Vaporwerks Stratus 22 & Dripper Monday according to USPS. Will see how a Gennie works with the magic twisted ribbon if there is enough room between the hole and center post for it.

Thinking of getting rid of Evic, Vamo, and Zmax at this point.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

I needed to re-wick & mesh my "Key Lime" Hero tonight so I thought I would try something a little different.
I wrapped a very thin layer of cotton over my Frankenstein wire and didn't use the mesh then pulled cotton through that.
Dismal failure unless you want tons of flavor and hardly any vapor or throat hit.
Also takes about 4 or 5 seconds to boil off enough liquid with a .8 ohm coil to do that.
Don't have time to re-do it probably for the next few days.
No Key Lime in the rotation until I do.

 

[Worzel]

What would be a good replacement for the pins if they were all lost? Beauticig should think of selling those separately. It is funny how you said you lost a pin in shag carpeting, my "workshop" is my master bedroom sink/ vanity. I always drop my kanthal on the floor and have to search through strands of hair to find it. No fun.