I rebuilt a triton coil

[chesty]

This is the first time I've rebuilt a clearomiser coil, but it worked, I'm tickled pink.
Step 1. watch rip trippers mini pro tank micro coil video on youtube.
Step 2. copy and fudge where needed.

It wasn't fresh in my memory, the rip trippers mini PT rebuild, but I had a go, and it worked. I will re watch again now that I've done it and see what I can improve on. It's fiddly, but the results are really good.

I used 28g kanthal, and about 10 wraps around a drill bit that fit in the slot of the head. in metric it was 1.5mm, in yankie measurements, I have no idea.
Just find a bit that fits in the slot. My multimetre isn't very accurate, but it read 3.5 ohms, and it reads a dead short at 0.5 ohms, so lets say 3 ohms. I'll try 7 wraps next time, aiming for 2.2 to 2.5 ohms

Some fine point tweezers are handy to have, you can either use tweezers to pull the centre pin out, or use a small drill bit and push it out from the other end.
The insulating grommet (I love that word), fits in a slot inside the cylinder, and it's easier to use tweezers to pull it out, rather than try and push it out with a drill bit.

The insulating grommet (love it) was a little melted on my used coil, so it obviously had some hot legs. yuck.

I tried to feed 1mm ekowool in the coil, but gave up quickly and used cotton wool instead. I used the ekowool as a flavour wick.

The most important thing is, it vapes really well. no leaks, no dry hits, great flavour. a little cool at 3 ohms, but my next one will be better.

 

[chesty]

i replaced the 3 ohm coil with a 2 ohm one, so much better.
This time instead of using cotton, I made a 2mm micro coil (the first was a 1.5mm) and threaded a 1mm ekowool wick through it.
added another 1mm ekowool wick for the flavour wick and it vapes like a champ.
it was 6/7 wraps of 32 gauge kanthal wire.
I can hit it the full 7 seconds (or whatever the time out is on the battery) with no burnt flavour.
as the spanish rip trippers likes to say, enfermo como tetas.

 

[BigBen2k]

Any idea what the original wire gauge is?

There's 6-7 wraps on a standard 2.2 - 2.4 coil, so I'm guessing you got it spot on.

 

[CafeDigitalDiva]

i replaced the 3 ohm coil with a 2 ohm one, so much better.
This time instead of using cotton, I made a 2mm micro coil (the first was a 1.5mm) and threaded a 1mm ekowool wick through it.
added another 1mm ekowool wick for the flavour wick and it vapes like a champ.
it was 6/7 wraps of 32 gauge kanthal wire.
I can hit it the full 7 seconds (or whatever the time out is on the battery) with no burnt flavour.
as the spanish rip trippers likes to say, enfermo como tetas.

HAHAHA!!!! Wtg Chesty! Good thing my High School Spanish kicked in, lololol. Building supplies FINALLY came today, and my husband is coiling everything in SIGHT! I must say, it is AWESOME! We should be able to save some money as well. I also like the word 'grommet'. Maybe I'll put it on my personalized license plate!

 

[BigBen2k]

Chesty, check out this old post:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/halo/487197-other-wicks-wth-coils-2.html#post11223808

I have 2mm ekowool, but I haven't tried threading it with teflon yet.

 

[CafeDigitalDiva]

Chesty, check out this old post:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/halo/487197-other-wicks-wth-coils-2.html#post11223808

I have 2mm ekowool, but I haven't tried threading it with teflon yet.

Hey BigBen, what do you think about this stuff? 'XC-116.

 

[jefsview]

Hey BigBen, what do you think about this stuff? 'XC-116.

XC-116 is fantastic... in a dripper.

That's all I know, since I only won 3 inches of it, and it's a tad expensive. But the flavor is superb. A bit better than then Ekowool, but not by much. It rinses cleanly either under water or with a torch, and dries quickly. Nice and firm.

 

[chesty]

i don't know ben, I've only seen a burnt out halo coil, and it's pretty gnarly by that stage. I'm not the best at cleaning them.
the only way I can tell I'm using 28 or 32 gauge wire is the label on the spool. I thought I used 32 gauge in the first build too, but it says 28 in the post. I don't know, doesn't matter now.

Awesome Diva, get in there and recoil. watch some rip trippers videos on a (mini) protank rebuild.

I tells you, making the micro coil is easy, takes a minute, assembling it is a little trickier, it takes experience which when making your first one, you don't have. so you learns the hard way.

 

[chesty]

Chesty, check out this old post:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/halo/487197-other-wicks-wth-coils-2.html#post11223808

I have 2mm ekowool, but I haven't tried threading it with teflon yet.

cool, thanks ben.
when you cut the ekowool, it unravels and expands, I'll try some tape next time.

 

[chesty]

XC-116 is fantastic... in a dripper.

That's all I know, since I only won 3 inches of it, and it's a tad expensive. But the flavor is superb. A bit better than then Ekowool, but not by much. It rinses cleanly either under water or with a torch, and dries quickly. Nice and firm.

I'd never heard of XC-116, so I googled, the first hit was $7/foot, that's cheap considering how long I'm guessing it would last. since you can wash and torch to clean.

 

[BigBen2k]

I can't speak about xc-116, but it looks like it would be awfully clean! I just don't know how fast it would gunk up. Thanks for pointing it out though; I've heard of it, but never seen it, until now.

 

[BigBen2k]

Here's Rip Mini Protank micro coil build:

This guy's not too tech savvy, but he knows how to put an RBA coil together. Lots of useful tips here.

I'm not a fan of using cotton; it's just not durable. RBAs may be easy to rebuild, but these Triton coils are a fair bit more work, so silica/Ekowool is a minimum, IMO.

I really have a problem with his idea of keeping the coils tight; it seems like the coil would short out on itself, leaving a variable resistance (then again, nichrome tends to expand when hot, so maybe it tightens up the coil). In another vid, he's using the wick outside the coil, not inside, like we do; we need that gap for the vapor to escape.

Tricky...

I've used small gauge nichrome before, for a prototype controlled heater. Fun stuff.

 

[chesty]

the thing with traditional coils is the coils can't touch, if they do you get hotspots. the freaky thing about micro coils is the coils must touch, you squeeze them together and torch them so they stay touching. Don't ask me how it works, but it works, and if you look at the video where he's doing a dry burn https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xrvwOf13U-s#t=374 (6:14), the coil heats from the centre first then spreads out to the edges, no hot legs with micro coils.

From what I've read, because the coils touching is a higher resistance joint than the centre of the wire, most of the current goes the long way around through the centre of the wire rather than jumping coils and taking the shortest path, ie the long path is lower resistance than the short path.

There's no need to dry burn, and dry burning can melt the grommet (hey Diva) and give a burnt rubber taste.

I make the coil, then thread my ekowool wick through the coil, then assemble the head, using the ekowool to position the coil in the perfect spot. the first coil I made I use a drill bit instead of the ekowool to position the coil, then removed the drill bit, but then I had trouble threading the ekowool through, so now I thread the ekowool while the coil is outside the head.

I think you're right about avoiding cotton for heads.

micro bobinas están enfermos como tetas

 

[CafeDigitalDiva]

Here's Rip Mini Protank micro coil build:

This guy's not too tech savvy, but he knows how to put an RBA coil together. Lots of useful tips here.

I'm not a fan of using cotton; it's just not durable. RBAs may be easy to rebuild, but these Triton coils are a fair bit more work, so silica/Ekowool is a minimum, IMO.

I really have a problem with his idea of keeping the coils tight; it seems like the coil would short out on itself, leaving a variable resistance (then again, nichrome tends to expand when hot, so maybe it tightens up the coil). In another vid, he's using the wick outside the coil, not inside, like we do; we need that gap for the vapor to escape.

Tricky...

I've used small gauge nichrome before, for a prototype controlled heater. Fun stuff.

Yeah, this is the one we watched....over and over and over lol, mainly bcuz Rip is using the same set up there that we have. It works JUST like in the vid! We primarily use 50/50 blends, and it was INCREDIBLE.

 

[CafeDigitalDiva]

There's no need to dry burn, and dry burning can melt the grommet (hey Diva) and give a burnt rubber taste.

I think you're right about avoiding cotton for heads.

micro bobinas están enfermos como tetas

LOL! Hey Chesty, I took your advice, and even wrapped a few myself!

 

[chesty]

nice work diva. hits like a steam train doesn't it?
there's so much lingo for this hobby.

 

[CafeDigitalDiva]

nice work diva. hits like a steam train doesn't it?
there's so much lingo for this hobby.

You said it chesty. i wasn't expecting that, but was like.... WHOOAAAA!!!!

 

[JohnnyDill]

I am looking forward to trying this. Not to save money, {it's probably not worth the hassle} but just to see if I CAN. I have heard that the stock Triton coils are 30 guage wire but not sure if this is fact. There is a vid on YouTube of a guy that wraps the wire around a size 4-40 machine screw! This way, the coil spacing is perfectly round and evenly spaced. His name on here is dam718 and his video is titled"

"machine screw coil wrap for Vivi Nova / KangerT3"...... Seems like clever thinking here!

 

[chesty]

thanks johnny, dam718 is very watchable. there must be a lot of dam's on here if we're up to 718

My next coil I'm going to try and stuff cotton into the hollow ekowool, or maybe try normal silica like a standard head comes with.
I'm finding after a few tanks of coil clogging liquid, the ekowool gets clogged, and the vape becomes a little airy and dry. It's easy to fix, just slide the ekowool a little through the coil so it sits on fresh ekowool, or even better, wash the wicks. But my feeling is the factory wicks last a little longer before needing washing, so there is room for improvement.

Perhaps the micro coil will always be quicker to clog, though, because it sits on a smaller surface area of wick than a more spaced out coil like the 4/40 and factory coils.

The bad news is I wrecked a factory coil by trying to slide/screw the wick out, it just wouldn't budge, the good news is I get to rebuild it now

 

[JohnnyDill]

I have been told that Tritons use 2mm wick but again, I am not 100% positive about that......