Hi - New Here

[bombastinator]

Yeah I was very tempted to get a squonker and an rda instead of the Pico + rta. Couldn't really find a squonk mod within my cheap budget that I liked. The Vandy Pulse V3 looked pretty good, but durability of the acrylic(?) panels was a concern. Not aware of any MTL RDAs either but didn't really look too closely. A squonker will probably be one of my next vape purchases. At least I can drip with that Brunhilde RTA in the mean time, should give me an idea how I like it.

They also tend to be large. The squonk bottle is basically one battery. I used to buy dual 18650 squonkers for absurd money (I had one lost vape one that was like $100) but 21700s seem to have enough gumption that you can get away with a single battery. I currently have a pico squeeze 2 and a vandyvape pulseII. Both in 21700.

 

[no|ah]

They also tend to be large. The squonk bottle is basically one battery. I used to buy dual 18650 squonkers for absurd money (I had one lost vape one that was like $100) but 21700s seem to have enough gumption that you can get away with a single battery. I currently have a pico squeeze 2 and a vandyvape pulseII. Both in 21700.

Which of them do you prefer? The Pico Squeeze 2 looks nice, especially for the cost. I could only find it in rainbow but seriously considered getting it and stripping the paint. Dunno if it's discontinued or what.

 

[Daniel Forsyth]

Here's a list of what I bought, if anyone's curious. Probably enough cotton for years, but it sure was cheap. Didn't spend much on Ma's setup, but I figure the important thing is to get her away from smoking.

Looking into nicotine and concentrate at the moment, if anyone has any recommendations. Edit: I think I got DIY supplies sorted out. Probably gonna go with Nicotine Giant or Vapor Lab for small quantity nic, Nicotine River for large quantity. Bull City or Nic River for concentrates.

Any recommendations for Turkish tobacco flavor? I'll vape premixed stuff from local vape shops first, but plan to move to DIY soon after.

@JCinFLA I sent you a PM about those Berserkers.

Very Nice little haul there Mate! That will definitely get going I especially like the tank!!
I did notice that the coils you purchased are 2.5mm ID and the Vapefly shoelace cotton is the one made for 3mm coils. This won't be a problem you will just need to take a little cotton off each wick before wicking.

 

[no|ah]

Very Nice little haul there Mate! That will definitely get going I especially like the tank!!
I did notice that the coils you purchased are 2.5mm ID and the Vapefly shoelace cotton is the one made for 3mm coils. This won't be a problem you will just need to take a little cotton off each wick before wicking.

I knew I was forgetting to check something. Good looking out, I appreciate it. That'll save me some confusion for sure.

 

[Daniel Forsyth]

I knew I was forgetting to check something. Good looking out, I appreciate it. That'll save me some confusion for sure.

If you are looking for a shoelace wick that is 2.5mm I'd recommend Hellvape Shoelace Cotton. I use this myself and it's good stuff!

 

[no|ah]

If you are looking for a shoelace wick that is 2.5mm I'd recommend Hellvape Shoelace Cotton. I use this myself and it's good stuff!

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll keep an eye out for some when I go to buy juice for sure.

 

[bombastinator]

Which of them do you prefer? The Pico Squeeze 2 looks nice, especially for the cost. I could only find it in rainbow but seriously considered getting it and stripping the paint. Dunno if it's discontinued or what.

They both seem pretty good, honestly. The pico squeeze is an older design but it’s a decent design and it is marginally smaller. I got it by ordering from the company. They were almost out and the only color they had left was purple. They might be all gone now. I liked the pico atty on the pulseII most. If you’re doing MTL though for you the pico no contest because it will go down to 1 watt whereas the pulse wont. Right now the pulseii I like more, but the fill thingie looks real fragile and if that breaks it’s worthless. It’s working atm though. Squonks require a hollow 510 on their dripper though. I’ve done that with older RDAs by using a drill, (the last American built RDA got that treatment. A quad coil. It takes so long to wick though that I don’t use it often) but squonk pins are common on a lot of modern RDAs. On the one I drilled out the 510 couldn’t be changed out. Neither are MTL atties though so you’ll be changing it anyway. If the RDA you want (someone mentioned it but I’ve forgotten doesn’t come with a squonk pin it’s probably a bad idea anyway. If you can get one AND there’s a squonk pin for that atty you ordered AND you don’t like the berserker (which is imho unlikely. That thing is mad adjustable) it might be a good mod for you. Or you can just drip the RDA and not worry about it.

Both are kind of fat because they’re aquonks. They look like double battery mods but they’re singles. The squonk bottle take up the rest of the space.

 

[no|ah]

They both seem pretty good, honestly. The pico squeeze is an older design but it’s a decent design and it is marginally smaller. I got it by ordering from the company. They were almost out and the only color they had left was purple. They might be all gone now. I liked the pico atty on the pulseII most. If you’re doing MTL though for you the pico no contest because it will go down to 1 watt whereas the pulse wont. Right now the pulseii I like more, but the fill thingie looks real fragile and if that breaks it’s worthless. It’s working atm though. Squonks require a hollow 510 on their dripper though. I’ve done that with older RDAs by using a drill, (the last American built RDA got that treatment. A quad coil. It takes so long to wick though that I don’t use it often) but squonk pins are common on a lot of modern RDAs. On the one I drilled out the 510 couldn’t be changed out. Neither are MTL atties though so you’ll be changing it anyway. If the RDA you want (someone mentioned it but I’ve forgotten doesn’t come with a squonk pin it’s probably a bad idea anyway. If you can get one AND there’s a squonk pin for that atty you ordered AND you don’t like the berserker (which is imho unlikely. That thing is mad adjustable) it might be a good mod for you. Or you can just drip the RDA and not worry about it.

Lots of great info you provided there, thanks for taking the time to share it. I didn't know quad coil RBAs existed.

I'll just drip on the Vapefly Brunhilde. No squonk pin for it, but that's ok. Some day I might have to get a Pico Squeeze 2 and an RDA though, just for the sake of trying it, and it would be cool to mess around with the Arctic Fox firmware.

 

[no|ah]

Hope everyone had a nice time over the holidays.

Looking forward to finally having a puff on a vape. Got the batteries charging at 0.5A. Gonna take quite awhile. Overheard a guy at the vape shop telling a customer not to charge for longer than 1 hour? Ever heard of that? Thought that was bizarre...maybe he was talking about a device with an integrated battery. Did a bunch of reading on batteries/battery safety, Mooch's reviews, etc., but never heard anything like this before.

Anyway, I bought more stuff. Got a great deal, borderline too good to be true, so I jumped on it. Been keeping my head down and working as much as I can to offset the cost, but I've been lurking when I've had a chance.

Between this and the Health Cabin order, I should be pretty much all set for awhile (reluctantly), as far as vape hardware is concerned anyway. Got more Picos, RDAs, and RTAs, including a proper mod and atty (and batteries and a charger) for Ma.

So tonight/tomorrow I'll be giving the attys their initial clean before use with water and a bit of dish soap. Hopefully time to finish sanding my Pico too. Pink wasn't my first choice (or my second...).

 

[Daniel Forsyth]

Hope everyone had a nice time over the holidays.

Looking forward to finally having a puff on a vape. Got the batteries charging at 0.5A. Gonna take quite awhile. Overheard a guy at the vape shop telling a customer not to charge for longer than 1 hour? Ever heard of that? Thought that was bizarre...maybe he was talking about a device with an integrated battery. Did a bunch of reading on batteries/battery safety, Mooch's reviews, etc., but never heard anything like this before.

Anyway, I bought more stuff. Got a great deal, borderline too good to be true, so I jumped on it. Been keeping my head down and working as much as I can to offset the cost, but I've been lurking when I've had a chance.
View attachment 1005986
Between this and the Health Cabin order, I should be pretty much all set for awhile (reluctantly), as far as vape hardware is concerned anyway. Got more Picos, RDAs, and RTAs, including a proper mod and atty (and batteries and a charger) for Ma.

So tonight/tomorrow I'll be giving the attys their initial clean before use with water and a bit of dish soap. Hopefully time to finish sanding my Pico too. Pink wasn't my first choice (or my second...).
View attachment 1005987

Looks like you have a nice little stash of vape gear there Mate! Very Nice
As far as your battery charging is concerned you can most definitely leave your batteries on charge for longer than an hour!! The guy at the vape shop was obviously referring to something else. Just leave the batteries in the charger until they are fully charged the only thing to make sure of is that you don't leave your charger unattended for any decent period of time while charging!

 

[bombastinator]

Hope everyone had a nice time over the holidays.

Looking forward to finally having a puff on a vape. Got the batteries charging at 0.5A. Gonna take quite awhile. Overheard a guy at the vape shop telling a customer not to charge for longer than 1 hour? Ever heard of that? Thought that was bizarre...maybe he was talking about a device with an integrated battery. Did a bunch of reading on batteries/battery safety, Mooch's reviews, etc., but never heard anything like this before.

Anyway, I bought more stuff. Got a great deal, borderline too good to be true, so I jumped on it. Been keeping my head down and working as much as I can to offset the cost, but I've been lurking when I've had a chance.
View attachment 1005986
Between this and the Health Cabin order, I should be pretty much all set for awhile (reluctantly), as far as vape hardware is concerned anyway. Got more Picos, RDAs, and RTAs, including a proper mod and atty (and batteries and a charger) for Ma.

So tonight/tomorrow I'll be giving the attys their initial clean before use with water and a bit of dish soap. Hopefully time to finish sanding my Pico too. Pink wasn't my first choice (or my second...).
View attachment 1005987

Re: the one hour thing. This can be true of extremely cheap chargers. I wouldn’t buy chargers from this guy. I have an xtar dragon (which for these purposes is too much charger) myself which I got so I could verify counterfeits. It’s no longe as important (though it could be again) but it’s also a decent charger. Wall wart chargers will often only charge one type of battery safely, but don’t have the circuits to know if the wrong kind of battery is put in a charger. Mine does so it simply won’t charge any batteries chemistries it can’t do safely. (It won’t do LiPo for instance. They just sit there) He has or had one or more chargers that won’t do that. A decent charger will identify and not overcharge any batteries put in it. This means a lot of cheapo wall wart chargers aren’t super safe. Nitecore is one brand I remember as being decent. They originally did scuba-diving stuff, (so not the cheapest) and they got into batteries because of dive lights. There are others. Some companies may sell both decent and not decent stuff. Read reviews of particular models, don’t just go by brand.

 

[bombastinator]

Stuff sometimes has leftovers from machining: metal bits or oil. It’s usually done at the factory but sometimes it’s not. Especially clones. Not the worst idea to clean them.

 

[no|ah]

Looks like you have a nice little stash of vape gear there Mate! Very Nice
As far as your battery charging is concerned you can most definitely leave your batteries on charge for longer than an hour!! The guy at the vape shop was obviously referring to something else. Just leave the batteries in the charger until they are fully charged the only thing to make sure of is that you don't leave your charger unattended for any decent period of time while charging!

Thanks! I appreciate the clarification. Between that guy and all the battery warning articles, they had me a bit paranoid I think

Re: the one hour thing. This can be true of extremely cheap chargers. I wouldn’t buy chargers from this guy. I have an xtar dragon (which for these purposes is too much charger) myself which I got so I could verify counterfeits. It’s no longe as important (though it could be again) but it’s also a decent charger. Wall wart chargers will often only charge one type of battery safely, but don’t have the circuits to know if the wrong kind of battery is put in a charger. Mine does so it simply won’t charge any batteries chemistries it can’t do safely. (It won’t do LiPo for instance. They just sit there) He has or had one or more chargers that won’t do that. A decent charger will identify and not overcharge any batteries put in it. This means a lot of cheapo wall wart chargers aren’t super safe. Nitecore is one brand I remember as being decent. They originally did scuba-diving stuff, (so not the cheapest) and they got into batteries because of dive lights. There are others. Some companies may sell both decent and not decent stuff. Read reviews of particular models, don’t just go by brand.

Thanks those are good points. Maybe he has some cheap chargers he's trying to offload, not sure. Or maybe he was talking about an ultra cheap disposable?

I wound up with a Nitecore UM2 and an Xtar FC2 I think, and made sure to get high amp UL listed charging bricks (or whatever you call them), so hopefully no issues.

Stuff sometimes has leftovers from machining: metal bits or oil. It’s usually done at the factory but sometimes it’s not. Especially clones. Not the worst idea to clean them.

Read some complaints about one of these attys being full of machine oil residue, yet other people say they're immaculate...so who knows. figured I may as well give them a quick clean.

 

[no|ah]

Just finished my first ever build for myself, with my own DIY coil.

The coils included with the Berserker RDA were labeled as 0.7 ohm but read ~0.5, so I made my own with unlabeled wire that came with my Lemo Drop RTAs (24ga kanthal according to a reviewer).

Honestly I was jonesing for a smoke, so I just winged it. First it read at 0.7 ohms, but kept going up, landing at 1.1 ohms.

Whatever the ohms, it throws out good clouds and great flavor at ~13-15w. Taste is far better than the Lemo Drop build I put together for Ma (also 1 ohm). But with her 18mg vs my 6mg, I can't really hit hers as hard, so that may be coming into play.

I automatically direct lung it for some reason, and seem to prefer it so far, which is surprising to me, but I also literally just started.

Thought I'd share. Very happy with this RDA so far.

Edit: The fused clapton Vandy Vape provided IS ~0.7 ohms. I put it in a Lemo Drop RTA and it's very nice.

Seems like it's an issue with the Pico, albeit not a serious one; resistance climbs for a few minutes after installing the coil before landing on the actual resistance.

 

[bombastinator]

I got a couple coil jigs which can save you maybe an inch of wire, but I find I prefer to use a Philips screw driver shaft. Thing looks OK. Not great, but OK. One of the advantages of not using a jig is you can build them as big as will fit in your atty. I’ve been using knitting needles lately with thick wire. the secret for me for good flavor is max surface area so big loops. As big as I can go without shorting. Wire is a commodity product too, so CHEEEEAAAP. It’s a handy skill to have.

 

[no|ah]

I got a couple coil jigs which can save you maybe an inch of wire, but I find I prefer to use a Philips screw driver shaft. Thing looks OK. Not great, but OK. One of the advantages of not using a jig is you can build them as big as will fit in your atty. the secret for me for good flavor is surface area so big loops. As big as I can go without shorting. Wire is a commodity product too, so CHEEEEAAAP. It’s a handy skill to have.

I'll have to try using a screwdriver. The coiling tool I used is tiny and kind of hard to work with.

My thoughts as well. Decent, should work ok. Just threw it together.

I'll try that, thanks for the suggestion. The build deck is kind of cramped with 3mm, I doubt I can go up to 5mm, but maybe I can push it to 3.5-4mm. Hmm...unless I build above the posts, but that would be farther away from the airflow.

Bought some 30ga SS316L, hopefully it will arrive later this week. Crazy cheap, so I'll be able to practice.

 

[bombastinator]

30ga is thin for me. I usually do 24ga. Or even 22. I found the thicker the wire is the longer the coil lasts (though the bigger it has to be because thick wire conducts better) so lately I’ve been putting on the thickest stuff I think will bend well. I’ve done big big single coils with a #8 (I think) knitting needle and super thin wire to imitate mesh stuff. Worked really well but the things were only good for one wick because the wire was so thin. Pull the wick and it bent all out of shape. I should mention I DONT DO MECHS with this. You control mechs with the coil ohms so just throwing crud at the wall is bad.

 

[no|ah]

30ga is thin for me. I usually do 24ga. Or even 22. I found the thicker the wire is the longer the coil lasts (though the bigger it has to be because thick wire conducts better) so lately I’ve been putting on the thickest stuff I think will bend well. I’ve done big big single coils with a #8 (I think) knitting needle and super thin wire to imitate mesh stuff. Worked really well but the things were only good for one wick because the wire was so thin. Pull the wick and it bent all out of shape. I should mention I DONT DO MECHS with this. You control mechs with the coil ohms so just throwing crud at the wall is bad.

Never thought of how gauge could effect coil life, that's very interesting.

Would you try placing the coil above the posts farther away from the air inlet to allow for a bigger ID coil?

I don't really understand the appeal of mechs, if I'm totally honest. Maybe it's the simplicity. I'd be very nervous of shorting it out, for sure.

 

[bombastinator]

The thickest wire can last a year or more..
Looking at that deck you’re probably as big around as you can go. At that point I might put it above rather than between the screws. (If there’s room in the cap) or go oval. Things don’t absolutely have to be round either, though the farther out of round you go the more problems you can have. Square doesn’t work well at all. I’ve got some really old attys that have small close together screws so I generally build above on those. If you’ve go a lot of height you could do two coils with that thing one above the other. Wouldn’t work on a tank, but that’s an RDA. Dripping could get complex though. Both wicks would have to be wet. I like mine jelly wet myself. Might have more of a problem with a more dry wick.

 

[no|ah]

Looking at that deck you’re probably as big around as you can go. At that point I might put it above rather than between the screws. (If there’s room in the cap) or go oval. Things don’t absolutely have to be round either, though the farther out of round you go the more problems you can have. Square doesn’t work well at all. I’ve got some really old attys that have small close together screws so I generally build above on those. If you’ve go a lot of height you could do two coils with that thing one above the other. Wouldn’t work on a tank, but that’s an RDA. Dripping could get complex though. Both wicks would have to be wet. I like mine jelly wet myself. Might have more of a problem with a more dry wick.

1 year for a coil is pretty amazing. I'll have to get some thicker wire to mess around with. I like the idea of getting a nice coil done and having it last a long time.

I think there's room in the cap. I'll give that a shot in the near future.

I see what you mean. The wells are pretty deep, so wicking could get finicky for sure, very good point.

I appreciate all the help.