I just got my first mod a 18650 sigelei chi-u with a thob atty. Ive been wrapping 24gu kenthol at a 5/6. I've been tearing it apart and rebuilding it every four days or so. I dont think it really needs it more then i just want to. How often should i be rebuilding it and what are the signs that it needs to be?
How often to rebuild coils?
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I haven't killed a coil yet. I get bored, and then end up tearing it out and building a new one. Or, if I have a nice coil set-up going, I get bored and grab a different atty and throw a build on it. So many different coil builds, so few decks to build on...
Not sure what you are using for wick, but a coil will last a long time as indicated by Frocket above. The wick is different. If you are using cotton you can pull the old wick from the coil and insert a new piece without changing the coil. An old gunky cotton wick will definitely have an effect on your vape. If you are using silica wick you can go much longer than cotton, after a rinse and dry burn.
...and I see that I didn't completely answer your question. I can get weeks out of cotton because I am using a lot of different mods with different juices during the course of a day. If you are only using one mod with the same dripper you can probably go several days befor you change the wick, using the same coil, and much longer on silica wick.
Longest I've gone has been about a month and a half. I'll dry burn and re-wick as needed, probably about once a week. I do find that the coils degrade a bit (kanthal a1) over time so I generally change the coil when I notice decreased vapor production and a dry burn doesn't solve it. I know guys that are tearing down and rebuilding daily so really it is all about personal preference in my opinion
My micro coils last for about two months. I build them at 1.3ohms in my KFLs and dry burn and replace my cotton yarn wicks every few days / full tanks. Over time the resistance of my coils slowly goes up and when they hit 1.5ohms I replace and rebuild them. I make about a dozen coils at a time and stash them away so putting now a new coil doesn't take long at all.
How on earth are some of you getting that kind of longevity out of your micro coils? If I get 2 weeks I consider myself lucky.
Over time gunk collects on the coils and degrades performance. After a few tanks I'll take apart my RBA, pull out the wick, and give it a good washing. Then I'll dry it all off and put the atomizer base on a PV and fire it to get the coils glowing and burn off all of the crud. This is a dry burn.
I have a dual 22ga Nichrome 80 setup that has been going for 64 days and that is my longest so far. For me, I find that my Kanthal coils will brown and "rust" after about a month but with Nichrome 80 which has no iron at all I never see the coils go brown, just dry burn and re-wick.
What gauge are you using?
To the OP, that depends on how often you are dry burning.
I used to use 30g on my Kayfun. Id get at least a couple months out of it.
How do you guys rewick without deforming the coil? Every time I try to pull a gunked cotton wick, my coil decompress, spiralling gets uneven diameters and I end up rebuilding.
You have to be very careful and pull gently. I use tweezers and pull a few pieces at a time. They usually come out fairly easily. If the coils pull a part a little just heat them up and squeeze them back together with tweezers.
I cut the wick close on one side of the coil, then pull each piece out. It's more to stop juice squeezing out onto the deck and making a mess, but it should stop any deforming of the coil.
I've only had a couple of coils go bad, but that's been when I've been too forceful when adjusting them. A few coils I've changed due to them having been gunked up too badly. Mostly I change coils when I'm bored and feel like building a new one. I have about 1/8 mile of kanthal (of various gauges) and it has to be used up 
In TOTAL agreement with rsimpson- especially concerning kanthol becoming less efficient over time.
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