Hi guys. I am new to the forum and very new to coil building. I have a smok alien 220w and just received a geekvape tsunami 24 plus rda after a couple of years on stock bought coils. So I have ordered kanthal a1 24 Ga to build my first coils. But I have also got some geekvape flat clapton kanthal A1 ribbon 26ga*18ga +32ga wire. I am extremely confused by what all this means and how I can work out resistance on steam engine for this for a build. Have watched countless youtube vids and can't seem to find this wire. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My friend has been building coils for his rda for a couple of years and he says just make some, stick it on the mod and see the resistance. This seems to be a bit too simple for me as I would like to grasp ohms law and resistance on the different wires properly. I also have a coilmaster v3 kit with mini 521ohm reader. If anyone cam help me out regarding terminology I.E. 24ga vs 24 awg would also be a massive help. Again sorry for the ignorance!
Hi and welcome.
Those are good questions; I'll take a smack at answering some of them.
* The gauge wire you use for coil building is highly dependent upon the resistance you are trying to make, and the watts you intend to vape. You say nothing about this, but if you'll tell me I try to get you pointed in the right direction and see if 24ga is where you need to be.
* I looked up the wire confusing you. Frankly, I am not completely sure what it is either. Judging by the picture, it is a piece of ribbon wire (rectangular rather than round cross section) spiral wrapped or Claptoned with 32ga wire. I have never before seen wire so called but I think they mean the ribbon is as thick as a piece of 26ga wire (.0159 inches/.4049mm) and the diameter of 18ga wire (.0403 inches/1.6243mm) wide. If so, that's some honkin' big wire! It's going to take a lot of watts to fire it, and it's an open question whether you'll run out of juice or battery first, as a coil built with that will eat both voraciously. It seems to me an odd spec: most ribbon wire I have seen is sized in mm, usually written something like .1 x .8mm. Being "Claptoned" means the small wire (32ga) is wrapped tightly around the ribbon wire in a spiral. This both increases wire size and the wire's ratio of surface area to volume, which helps make more clouds and-- many people think-- increases flavor as well. Unfortunately, Geekvape does not offer a resistance-per-foot standard for this wire so I can't tell you how to wrap it.
*Your friend is correct: it is perfectly OK to use the "Cut and Try" method to determine resistance. Build a coil, mount it in an atty, and measure the resistance.Please use your 521 tab rather than the mod. It's a better ohmmeter than any mod has anyway. Don't be surprised if your 521 and your mod disagree a bit about the resistance. This is common. You are starting out with good gear, BTW. A Geek 521 is the meter I use.
* The acronym AWG stands for "American Wire Gauge." AWG and gague are synonyms.
*Understanding Ohm's law is not the sort of thing we are going to get done in a single post, most likely. Basically, Ohm's law classifies the relationship between Voltage, Current and Resistance. Specifically, it takes 1 volt of potential to push one amp of current across 1 ohm of resistance. Fortunately for you, your Alien mod is a regulated one and Ohm's Law is less important to you than a vaper who uses mechanical mods. The important thing about Ohm's Law for regulated mod user is to not overload your batteries. You don't say what kind of cells you have, but
@Mooch 's Chart will help you if yours are among those he recommends, and if not it will help you pick a good set of batteries. In general, and assuming you have top quality batteries rated at 20Amps-- this is common for vaping batteries-- you can push them to 60 watts per battery on a regulated mod. Your Alien is a two battery mod, so 120 watts is the limit on 20A batteries. If you need more than that, you'll have to spring for some seriously high discharge cells, 25-30 Amps. For starters, practically anything you actually need to know about Ohm's Law can be found on the
Ohm's Law Calculator. Enter any two values, and it will calc the other two.
