Just built my 1st MICRO-COIL!!!

[Hidden Dragon]

Ok, so I tried my hand at rebuilding my Protank after plenty of practice on my RDAs. I used 30 gauge Kanthal A-1 , 1/16th drill bit & 2mm cotton wick. Came out to 1.7 ohms (I believe it is a 8/7 or 7/6 wrap, but don't quote me ). I can honestly say I'm loving the way this thing is producing vapor and flavor now over the stock coil.

 

[ScottM]

M_Dub,

That is a nice looking coil.

As a comparison, what is the best non-Microcoil wick that you have made for the Protank? What diameter silica, how many wraps, and what is the resistance and voltage?

I came really close on several occasions to grab a Protank, but my frustration level with my last device led me down a different path. With the top coil I could get tremendous vapor, but never could get the flavor where I wanted. If you can wrap coils like that, you may want to look into NR wire for the legs. From what I calculated, at least 1/5 of the Wattage was going to the legs on my set-up, and not to the coil / wick. That may be lower with the second coil that you made.

Glad that it is working for you.

 

[JeremyR]

Bbud you are right, sorry, that diameter does make it a micro coil. You just need the overwick. I'm use a larger diameter with the touching coils. You could say a variation of the micro coil. I just don't like the overwick sometimes. You can also use nubs of cotton just in the juice channel if you have issue with over wick.

One thing with protank that will help your feed if you get dry hits or not enough flavor, is to unscrew the base to get bubbles rising you should have regular bubbles rising In The tank every few hits to indicate juice is feeding correctly.

 

[BigLebowski]

You can always make longer legs, fold them in half and twist them. This will help with singing the grommet and loosing some power.

 

[E_DeCastro]

i will be trying this tonight. I usually just use 7 turns but if I can get 10 turns and touching, I hope to stay in the 2.5ohm range with 32g.

 

[JeremyR]

Part of the thing with micro coils or touching coils, is you get faster heat up.. and the performance at higher ohms is similar to a lower ohm coil. I have a 3.1 that performs better than a standard 2.5. (W/32) So don't disregard if the ohms are higher than you want.. Try it out first.

 

[BigLebowski]

I have been using microcoils for awhile and I have really liked the feel of 29g kanthal vs. 30/32, the instant heating of the lower ohms is where I have been enjoying my vape and the thicker wire increases the life of the coil.

 

[M_DuBb716]

Thanks again everyone who's replied, glad this thread could help some of you here also!

M_Dub,

That is a nice looking coil.

As a comparison, what is the best non-Microcoil wick that you have made for the Protank? What diameter silica, how many wraps, and what is the resistance and voltage?

Hey ScottM, I only started rebulding myself a few days ago.. I was super interested in the microcoil, so I only built a few 'regular' protank coils for practice before my MC's, so they weren't the best quality. I mentioned earlier in this thread, what I used for each attempt and what the resistance for each one ended up being..

My very first attempts were with 0.14 Nichrome wire, I built 3 and they were horrible quality - 1st was 4.0Ω (too high to use on my eVic), 2nd was 0.8Ω (too low), and my 3rd was 3.4Ω (high, but usable. didn't work good, tasted weird) was using 32gauge Kanthal for the regular coils.
... Than the next day I grabbed some 30 and 32g Kanthal, and built a few regular coils with the 32g - got 2 or 3 of them around 1.9-2.6Ω, but don't think I ever used them, since I was so excited to try the Microcoil!! I was using about 3.5mm of Silica for them, and I think they were around 5 or 6 wraps.


I can't believe how good my 2nd MC is working, I think I'm finally reaching vape heaven!! The cotton is working great for wick. It burns through my juice so quick!! The coil heats up so quickly and evenly, that I'm getting a great hit each time. And I'm vaping less because of the huge thick hits, which is good! And I can turn my wattage up high 7-8.5watts, could never go this high with stock coils..

 

[M_DuBb716]

Btw, what should I be aiming for, when using 30g Kanthal, cotton wick, and a 1/16th drill bit to wrap? 1.8Ω, 2.3Ω @ 10 wraps??
.. My 2nd MC (from the pic) has been showing a lower resistance after I vaped it for a bit, it started at 2.1 now it's showing 1.9Ω.

 

[BigLebowski]

The coil will change slightly as it is breaking in, annealing helps with this process. After a few tries you will start to see a pattern of where your coils should end up, lots of variables. At night I have stopped vaping my RDA's about an hour and a half before I go to bed or else I will be up all night. My next juice order will have some 6mg juice. . . my favorite shows are on at night and it sucks not being able to watch/vape.

 

[M_DuBb716]

Same here BigLebowski, I like staying up at night watching shows. Love the BigLebowski too haha

 

[M_DuBb716]

BTW.. This microcoil on my Protank - I think I've finally reached vape heaven!! Every time I take a drag, I get a huge thick cloud of flavorful vapor, I can only vape for it for a couple seconds!! Never a dry hit, works great the whole way through the tank. Soo much great vapor from all that coil, I love how I can here it sizzling and frying up my juice. Vape-Nirvana

Now I just need to find more flavors I love.. A Good toasted marshmallow (sometimes with some cotton candy mixed in) has always been my favorite, but my local juice vendor's flavors haven't tasted the same lately. Less flavor.. Just tried MBV - pretty good.. Think I'm gonna try Boba's Bounty very soon

 

[M_DuBb716]

The resistance of my 2nd MC is jumping around again, now it's 2.9 (from 1.9/2.1ohm).. It even showed 4.2ohm or something for a minute

 

[BigLebowski]

The resistance of my 2nd MC is jumping around again, now it's 2.9 (from 1.9/2.1ohm).. It even showed 4.2ohm or something for a minute

Sounds like it might still be touching something metal. When you put the coil in the protank, make sure you leave the drill bit in the coil while you do the legs, it will keep it spaced away from the metal.

 

[M_DuBb716]

Yeah I found that out the hard way, when I used the drill bit to build. Thanks!

 

[Butters78]

Sounds like it might still be touching something metal. When you put the coil in the protank, make sure you leave the drill bit in the coil while you do the legs, it will keep it spaced away from the metal.

That's what i do. It makes it really easy to install and makes a nice guide when you replace the cotton. The coil will be perfectly lined with the sluts.

 

[BigLebowski]

That's what i do. It makes it really easy to install and makes a nice guide when you replace the cotton. The coil will be perfectly lined with the sluts.

You have to be lined up with the sluts.

 

[Butters78]

You have to be lined up with the sluts.

Lmao, I meant slots of course.

 

[M_DuBb716]

be perfectly lined with the sluts.

You heard it first. From EricH! Lol, great advice to live by..
Anyways, yeah Eric I remember you mentioned earlier in the thread, that you keep the 1/16th drill bit inside the coil throughout the whole process until you install the cotton. I did this on my regular rebuilds (with a paperclip) before, but I'll remember to do it from now on with the micrcoils/drill bit.

... I just now took out the old cotton (wow that stuff was dark and gunked up quick lol) from my "good" microcoil, so I could rinse off the coil and fill up my protank with a new flavor. I dry burned the coil (before putting new cotton in it) a few times in pulses to burn off any junk, but didn't rinse it again after.. is this ok?? While it was still a little warm, I put the drill bit back inside it and used tweezers to make sure the coil was in the middle.. And pinched the coils a bit closer (again), taking BigL's advice.

Wow that was easy! Slid the new cotton through, and my protanks been soaking up new juice for about 15min.. About to fire it up!! I'll let you know if the ohms change again, but when I checked while dry-burning the coil, my eVic said 2.2ohm (down from 2.4). Thanks again guys!

 

[M_DuBb716]

And I'm wondering if maybe I should use the regular Protank top-post on top of my protank coil now that I'm getting soo much vapor from the microcoil.. I usually put the eVod top post on-top of my protank coil (tried using complete evod-coils in my protank - leaked), to give me a little tighter of a drag/less airy.
.. But maybe with the microcoil, the eVod-post is restricting the amount of vapor I could get from the MC/Protank?