Ok, I have been playing with it all day ( I am a total NOOB at ss & coiling) and I think it's working good now. Here's what I did and the order in which I did it:
1.) Been said a million times but I'll repeat it; You MUST OXIDIZE THE WICK! It looks like it's already been done for you but, just do it anyways because it hasn't been done adequately even if it looks like it has (and it does look oxidized) but, it's not.
2.) 4 coils MAX seems to be the key (at least for me). At the top of the coil, make sure the wire hangs off the left side of the wick and on the right side of the ss wick at the bottom. Insert the coil/wick assembly at this point and connect the negative FIRST. I seem to be getting the best result from running the wire to the OUTSIDE/FRONT of the negative post & tightening it down. If that doesn't make sense here's another way of saying it: make sure the negative wire is NOT run between the positive & negative (backside of negative post)...run it/tighten it down to the outside of the neg post.
3.) Now, you are ready to clamp/screw down the wire to the positive post. Remember, I said that the coil/wire coming off the wick going to the positive post should be hanging off to the LEFT side of SS mesh wick. Firmly, but w/out creating too much tension, drag wire across and around positive post and hold the tension as you spin the "clamp" screw/nut down. You should end up with only a
slight bend at the top of the SS Mesh wick towards the Positive post but you DO NOT want it to touch the post!
4.) Now, you should be ready to do a test/dry fire. spin it on to a PV and fire it up for a few seconds. In my case, the whole coil glowed red evenly with no individual hot spots. If you do get hot spots (meaning only sections of the coil get red but other sections don't.) then as others here have said, gently move the coils around/even the spacing out etc. and try dry firing again. If all is cool, proceed to step 5.
5.) Take some juice and load up only the wick/coil where you can see it and fire it again. If all looks good with vape and coils, (at this point no glow while the juice is still being vaporized) then load up the tank through the fill hole and leave the screw off.
6.) Take notice of which side the coil is on and mark it with your thumb on the side of the tank as you screw on the top cover/cap. You want to line up the breather hole on the side the wick is on, (the reason for using your thumb to mark) trying to line it up right behind the wick.
ETA: I have since gone and drilled/reemed out the breather hole with a 1/16" drill bit and there's no longer a need for lining up breather hole on the cap (at least not for me) allowing a little more air in fixed this and gave a HUGE column of vapor!
7.) Start Tokin' Baby!!!
I know I wrote this like it was the "Authoritative" Instructional manual on how to do this but, again; I AM A NOOB to all of this!
These are just the steps I took after making and failing with oh...about 6, maybe 8 coil builds!!!
If anyone more experienced at all of this stuff see's where I'm leading someone astray in any of my steps, PLEASE pipe up and say something!
Again, I'm just passing on what worked for ME. I hope it proves fruitful for everyone else!
