Ithaka clone troubles

[m00nshake]

For some reason, the wires going to the positive connection are constantly breaking. They've heated up to the point of melting the o-ring. I think it has something to do with tightening down the atomizer into the base as sometimes when I feel it heating up too fast in the bottom button of my PV, I loosen the atomizer from the base a bit and it seems to fire better. However, no matter what I do, it keeps breaking those wires. I don't know what to do. I've tried everything I can think of and tried searching for an answer here. I'm using ready-made razor res-no res wires at 1.5 ohms per wire. I don't think it's the clone itself as it worked properly with the coils it came with, as I tested it on a Provari, but I wanted sub-ohm so when I set it up myself, I started running into issues. Sometimes it works perfectly for a few hours and then it snaps. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't seem to embed images today with Photobucket so I've included the direct link. Thanks again.

~m00n

 

[grindle]

Are the ready-made wires the ones with long NR legs?

The NR wire should stop where the coil stops on the wick.

It it isn't the coil burning through it I can only imagine you need a tighter O-ring to stop the short from occurring, or stop over-tightening. One or t'other.

 

[m00nshake]

Are the ready-made wires the ones with long NR legs?

The NR wire should stop where the coil stops on the wick.

This might be my problem. I followed the Dual Highlander setup by Bishopheals on Youtube, where he makes an extra wrap with the non-res wire to take away tension. I'm not blaming him, maybe it's something I'm doing wrong. But it's on that side that I'm wrapping the non-res wire one time and that's the side that's going to the positive post that I'm having trouble with. Can you elaborate on "The NR wire should stop where the coil stops on the wick."? Thanks for your help.

~m00n

 

[grindle]

No, bishopheal's way is fine (though I don't like the idea of an NR wrap so close to the rest of the coils).
I was thinking maybe you had ready-mades with short NR legs which would mean the wire you take down to the positive pin would actually be resistive wire once you'd wrapped the NR bit around the post.
Resistive wire would burn through that O-ring, NR wire would never ever burn through the O-ring.
All the heat is in the resistive wire, the NR wire would be whatever the ambient temperature of your atty is (i.e. not hot).

 

[BardicDruid]

This vid is the best one I've seen on the Ithaka style rebuildables: REVIEW OF THE ITHAKA REPAIRABLE ATOMISER - YouTube

 

[m00nshake]

It is the non resistant wire that is snapping. I can see it glowing red on the side of the atty where it goes down the channel. The ready made wire has a piece of razor wire in the center and then the legs which are supposed to be non resistance wire.

 

[m00nshake]

This vid is the best one I've seen on the Ithaka style rebuildables: REVIEW OF THE ITHAKA REPAIRABLE ATOMISER - YouTube

This video is exactly what I needed to see. Following it fixed my problem. I should have realized Bishopheal's video was more for people already familiar with the Ithaka, and although he was fairly comprehensive, there were some bits that were made clearer in the video you linked. I thank you very much for that. Now if I can only find an o-ring to replace the one that's half melted off, I'll be golden.

 

[dw'struth]

So...what was the problem, exactly? Thanks

 

[m00nshake]

The problem is that the Ithaka came assembled, but it wasn't assembled properly. The center pin was not tightened enough to the ceramic housing, and when I screwed the ceramic housing assembly and basic feeding system into the base, the center pin would loosen, causing shorts.

I watched this video carefully, disassembled the entire Ithaka, re-assembled it, making sure to align the center pin and tightening the post snug with tweezers, as dwcraig1 suggested on the Hercules thread and is described exactly in the video, and it worked without any short or issues.