How much cotton to use for wicking?

[Gummy Bare]

i'm kinda new to cotton. Ive been a silica and ekowool guy for a long time now. I tried cotton yarn in the past, but didnt like it. I picked up the brand everyone in my town seemed to be using and swore by, but even after boiling and drying it i just got a taste i didnt like from it.

I recently got some organic cotton balls and have been really enoying it. The question im wondring it how much it should be placing in the coil? Should the cotton be really tight inside of the coil, or should it be kinda loose inside the coil... like, to the point where it slides or can be pulled back and forward easily. I use it mostly in my kayfun. I wasn't sure how tight/stuffed in there it should be. My though was maybe it expanded after juice was added, or that if it was to tight it would burn easilyer.

Here's a picture of my recent build. I tried to use less cotton on this one than i did in the previouse builds.

How does this look?

Its a 7 wrap of 26g on a 7/64th drill bit.

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[superstardj]

I am fairly new as well (Just got my russian 91% two days ago) but that looks pretty good. I tear off a piece and lightly roll it so you can pull it through the coil fairly easy and so it doesn't bunch up. I leave the cotton longer and then fold both parts of it up then put the housing on and pull the 2 pieces through, then cut them off about even with the top of the piece that screws over the coils. Then you can gently tuck them down towards the juice channels...Working good for me but looks like your on the right track, just leave the cotton a little longer so you can fold both pieces up and put the cylinder over it, cut it and tuck it down...

 

[RaymondK]

Looks good, may be a bit long on both sides.

 

[Froth]

That's a good looking density of the cotton in your pictures, not too thick and not transparently thin. From my personal experiences, with cotton it's always better to error on the side of less cotton than too much. When cotton is too thick or rolled too tightly I get a burnt taste or dry hits from slow wicking.

 

[horton]

Looks good to me. I think there is a little bit of a range of what is OK in terms of density, but you certainly can't jam the cotton in the coil. It certainly is not as quantitative as I have been reading about. What seems to work for me is being able to easily pull the cotton through the coil feeling just a little resistance. If it starts to bunch up at the edges of the coil, then I figure I need to remove some. I've been using some rolled cotton from CVS and I'll pull off a little bit and gently roll it between my fingers before putting it in the coil.

 

[sawtoothscream]

I make it so its slides but isnt loose.

 

[bce22]

Density looks good though your wick is too long. You don't want to jam all of that into the bottom part of the chimney. I think you would be better if you trimmed it some.

Looks great though so far!

 

[Gummy Bare]

Thanks for the info guys. I know its too long, i took the pic before i trimmed it. I got it all set up and ready to go and its actually super hot and not working right. Its only at 0.9ohms, which i have other kayfuns with cotton at the same resistance and they work just fine. So i think it might be just a litte to lose and the coils are heating up red hot since the cotton is to loss inside. But i will definatly start using less than before since i was noticing some burning now and then from the thicker amounts of cotton i was jamming in other ones.

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[Gummy Bare]

I through a thicker stand of cotton in and now its working nice. There's definitaly a fine line between to much and to little cotton. With too little, theres to much room inbetween the cotton and coil so the coil just glows red hot like you were firing it with no wick at all.

Are you guys "rolling" or "twisting" you cotton balls? Or just kinda mooshing it into a strand? I watched some video were the dude was saying not to twist it. Ive just been pulling off a nice bunch in kinda a stright strand, then placing it on the palm of my hand gently rubbing both palms togeter to kinda roll it into a nice even strand.... but not tight and dence. A part of me wants to roll it real tight and dence like yarn or mesh, but i though i rememeber somewhere not to do that either.

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[humpstyles]

I through a thicker stand of cotton in and now its working nice. There's definitaly a fine line between to much and to little cotton. With too little, theres to much room inbetween the cotton and coil so the coil just glows red hot like you were firing it with no wick at all.

Are you guys "rolling" or "twisting" you cotton balls? Or just kinda mooshing it into a strand? I watched some video were the dude was saying not to twist it. Ive just been pulling off a nice bunch in kinda a stright strand, then placing it on the palm of my hand gently rubbing both palms togeter to kinda roll it into a nice even strand.... but not tight and dence. A part of me wants to roll it real tight and dence like yarn or mesh, but i though i rememeber somewhere not to do that either.

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I normally unravel the cotton ball, yank off a "strand" of it, then tear it down a little to estimate the thickness of it. I snip off the loose straggler cotton fibers on one end, then roll/twist up only the very end and thread it through. So to answer your question, I don't roll them at all, I just kinda compress it so it is a uniform thickness.

 

[yotogi]

I normally unravel the cotton ball, yank off a "strand" of it, then tear it down a little to estimate the thickness of it. I snip off the loose straggler cotton fibers on one end, then roll/twist up only the very end and thread it through. So to answer your question, I don't roll them at all, I just kinda compress it so it is a uniform thickness.

I do this as well with good results. I guess I am a "moosher".

 

[logun]

I make one side a bit thicker so when I stick my cotton wick in a coil I have some difference of thickness to play with for my liking.

 

[Joshleeman]

I've learned its better to sorta pinch/bunch it, like your rolling a ...cigarette. Just started using cotton too and have had issues with burning but once I stopped stacking 350's it works perfect and definitely tastes better than silica IMO. Everything Ive read/heard does indeed say less is more but of course you want enough to have full contact with the ID of your coils.

 

[Gummy Bare]

Nice, thanks guys. I guess im a moosher or buncher myself.... i do like to do a quick roll between on palms though just to make the cotton a fairly even thickness throughout. But i do so with little to no presure as to not compact the cotton down.

I've been wanting to roll the hell out of it one of these days so its nice and conpact and see how it performs. It not swell up a bunch after it gets wet with juice. Or it might just not wick well at all.... not really sure.

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[SLIPPY_EEL]

yeah it will probably choke itself fi you compact to much.... like others... I like the spike on the end of a bit of loose cotton method for getting fast suction from the cotton and the roll it up like a rollup cig.... I think the key is experience of knowing how much cotton to start with and making sure you can pull it each way through the coil without snagging... and also the suggestion of making it kind of cone shape is a good way because aswell as having a kind of adjustable wick you can also just put the wick through 3/4 the way and get a dif version....
the real test for me though was when I was messing about with a 13wrap, 26g kanthal , 1mm id on a cotton cloud, when I got bored of it I decided to do the spike method on the cotton through the wick but would always get inconsistencies and at times the cotton would just burn in the middle.....
i then went onto the lightly rolled method & never got a dry hit and it always wicked super fast...

what i do is put my thumb and next two fingers together and you get a little triangle gap and use this to help you lightly roll cotton.. yeah, like a cig

 

[Gummy Bare]

Intresting. The cotton balls for the most part have been working out really good for me. Every once and a wile i'll make a build that will taste burnt about a 4th of a tank (with a kayfun) in though.

Maybe on those ones my cotton is to tight. If its to loose i can tell right away because i get nothing but super super hot hits. almost like a hot spot/leg on a bad genesis build.

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[Flt Simulation]

I gave up on cotton balls and started using cotton yarn ... seems to last longer than cotton balls

(still needs to be trimmed a little shorter)

 

[horton]

The yarn may work better for me because it is relatively consistent in diameter. I've run into some little problems using cotton balls or batts not getting uniform density along the wick length. Each wick is a little different and that has started to bother me. I'd much rather know I'm using the same thing each time. Really need to pick up a ball of this yarn and give it a try and see if it will do me right.

 

[TheAmazingDave]

I make mine as tight as possible without choking it through the coil. A good test is wetting one side of the cotton. If it flows through to the other dry side, it's usually perfect. If it doesn't, I'll get burnt hits and burn up the cotton inside the coil in an hour or two.

 

[Gummy Bare]

I gave up on cotton balls and started using cotton yarn ... seems to last longer than cotton balls

(still needs to be trimmed a little shorter)

what kinda yarn are you using? I picked up some peaches & cream from walmart which a lot of people in my town use. But i was getting a bad taste from it so i gave up. Maybe i had it to tight. The peaches & cream is white, despite the name of it.

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