How do you reliably center your coils on a 3 post design?

[MrNobody]

I picked up the Derringer on Saturday and have yet to get a decent build on it. 4 post and RTAs I can center like a champ but the derringer has been kicking my .... I've seen in some youtube videos (rt/others) to bend the leads at a 90° angle with needle nose pliers but I've been getting less than desirable results. I have also tried centering them once they are set, but most of the time they don't move and just end up with bent leads and a messed up coil. I have done a few builds where the coils aren't center and it makes it very difficult to wick efficiently. I'm mostly doing twisted 26g, parallel and single 24g coils and 22g, all dual coild configuration. Thanks.

 

[Froth]

I don't bother centering mine since I use large 3mm ID coils, The derringer has a smaller deck area than a lot of other designs so for the wick what I do is on the side which has basically no room(closest to the outer barrel) just cut the wick off almost flush with the end of the coil, leaving only 1/4" of wick hanging out and leave it alone, then take the side which has tons of room for the wick and leave about 1" of wick out of the coil, then tuck it underneath. Done correctly it is a very efficient wick method for the derringer.

Edit: Here's a picture I took off one of my Instagram accounts, this is how I wick mine and it stands up to use at over 100W with no issues or dry hits at all.

 

[Signmaker]

90 degree bends with the coil on the mandrel is the way to go. Whichever leg is going to be my positive, I bend it back flat against the coil, then make a 90 degree bend away from the coil, centered on the width of the coil. The negative leg you can flex to make a more curved offset to the negative post. The idea is to let the negative leg flex as you tighten, so that the coil and positive leg stay centered on the positive post.

 

[MrNobody]

I don't bother centering mine since I use large 3mm ID coils, The derringer has a smaller deck area than a lot of other designs so for the wick what I do is on the side which has basically no room(closest to the outer barrel) just cut the wick off almost flush with the end of the coil, leaving only 1/4" of wick hanging out and leave it alone, then take the side which has tons of room for the wick and leave about 1" of wick out of the coil, then tuck it underneath. Done correctly it is a very efficient wick method for the derringer.

Edit: Here's a picture I took off one of my Instagram accounts, this is how I wick mine and it stands up to use at over 100W with no issues or dry hits at all.

It looks like the coils are touching the outer ring there, won''t that cause a short? I've always been under the impression anything touching the coils other than the posts is a bad thing. Also thanks for the tip on wicking, been one of the things that was driving me mad when I was doing a non centered build.

 

[Froth]

They're quite close but not touching at all, not much room in there for supersubohm builds