How the heck did I do that?

[Tookiedoo]

I just got a package in today from the classifieds. Great seller, Greatov. I bought an AGA-T and a Phoenix from him to give this rba thing a whirl. Never built a wick before. Could be fun. Anyway, within about 30 minutes I had a silica wick in the Phoenix and a mesh wick in the AGA. Both are working great! Holy crap, first try! I expected to at least have to fiddle around with the mesh for a while until I got the hang of it. The only think I can think now is. "Great. Got it right off the bat. Now the next one will be a major PITA!"

On a side note, I'm not getting much vapor from the mesh. Great flavor, great TH, just not much of a plume. Any suggestions?

 

[samwest]

You must have a great set of peepers! I'd need a huge magnifier, lights and a jewelers loupe to do another.

 

[Thrasher]

lol dont worry beginners luck will wear off and get ya, my first few coils and wire went without a hitch and i thought man why does everyone say this is so hard? a month later got another one and took almost 2 days of playing ..

 

[Ictinike]

Yep.. beware cause once you start to up your game like golf and try to do a coil the best it will frustrate ya, lol

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk HD

 

[dwcraig1]

With my first ones (many) I got good vapor but not much flavor, go figure.
with mesh

 

[spraintz]

The vapor problem might be air hole placement, more air means more vapor. make sure yer air hole is lined up and shooting directly at yer wick


My best suggestion to try and get the best blend of vapor, TH and flavor is to buy a whole bunch of mesh(a 12'" x 12" sheet is a bunch) and a whole bunch of wire (maybe even a couple of different gauges) and spend a week making different wicks..........play with thicknesses, diameters, tightness, looseness, "tube", solid....so on and so on. Also experiment with more wraps and less wraps of coils and maybe different gauges of wire with different voltages(if you have a vv device). make a bunch of em, don't worry so much about wasting materials or messing up......I mean hey...you can always rebuild and start over....stay positive and have fun with it

beginners luck with ss mesh RBA's will wear off(happens/happened to the best of us), by dedicating a full weekend or week to experimentation 2 very great things will come out of it:

1. you will eventually find the perfect setup for YOUR specific tastes and needs. there are no "set in stone" rules for RBA's everybody is a lil different and ya need to find what works for you.

2. consistency and repeatablity. the more you build wicks/coils you will start to develop a process that is comfortable to you and give you the ability to rebuild a coil/wick very easy and quickly AND that's to you needs every time.

Sounds like yer off to a great start, keep it up!!! and as always, if ya need an answer, search.....if ya can't find it...ask There are a ton of great RBA-ers on here and just about any problem is solvable....

 

[Tookiedoo]

Thanks for the encouragement/warning! The guy I bought them from was gracious enough to send a few supplies to get me started, so that's what I was using. I'll definitely be ordering several sizes of mesh and wire to play with until I find my sweet spot.

 

[spraintz]

only other warning I'll say is be careful......RBA's can be addictive and hazardous to yer bank accounts......

in about 6 months went from this:

to this:

kool RBA's have a weird habit of showing up at my door....

 

[Steelvap3]

Haha sweet!!

Yea, I had to make atleast 6 mesh wicks to settle to the 1 I like.
Totally oxidised, partially oxidised, petar-k, Plain soot (PITA).

Now that I have a wick, I just use my mesh to gaze outside on a sunny day!! Pretty different effects for diffrnt #. Too lazy to make another test wick