I've been researching online for over a week on how to rebuild protank coils while I wait for my replacement ones to come in...
On black friday I noticed an e-cig shop (esvapes) that I have drove past easily thousands of times and never noticed it was there, so I had test some new flavors out while I was there, and black friday prices 3.70 out the door for 10ml bottles, score!
Anyway, while I was browsing their shelves I noticed they had some kanthal wire (28 gauge) which I haven't been able to find locally, so I picked some up on a whim. After some more research, it turns out 28 gauge probably wasn't the best selection in retrospect, but whatever I already have it now I'll make it work. I'm sitting here bored on saturday so I decided to take the plunge and just try it out.
Already had the old one pulled apart, so I just cut probably 6 inches of wire to wrap my coil. Grabbed a 1/16" screwdriver bit, and started wrapping. Every wrap I push it close as I can to the last one. Get about 8 wraps done and try to test fit it, pretty big and it might touch the sides. I put it back on the drill bit, carefully unwrapped one wind and straightened out the wire, then got the needle nose pliers and scrunched the coil together as much as I could.
Test fit again, looks good, so I put it all back together using the good coil I have left as a reference, screw it into the base, and grab the multimeter. Testing the resistance, looks like about 1.0-1.1, pretty low but I read it tends to rise once you get some juice on it and break it in a bit. Before I put in the cotton I do a dry burn just to test that it works. Coil's glowing real nice, everything is looking good so far! I'm excited! I thought this was going to be way harder!
So now I take some cotton and put it in the middle of the coil, looks good, get out some juice and wet it down a little, take a little bit more and put it on top as a flavor wick, wet that down the same way too. Put the top on, screwed it into the tank, and let it sit for a minute. Took a hit -- WOAH! This is nothing like the old coil!
I'm definitely getting way more vapor production and everything works so I take off the tank, put it on the multimeter again. Now that I've got it all together it's up to 1.3-1.4, getting closer to the target, so I put it back together and hit it a few more times. Kind of a weird flavor at first, but it's going away the longer I let it sit and take a few hits at a time. The resistance is now up to 1.4-1.5, which is almost perfect
I'm assuming it's normal for there to be some weird flavor at first, but does this go away with time? It's going away the longer it's been but there's still some strange burning flavor. I took off the top flavor wick and thought it was burning, but rinsing it with water gets it perfectly white again, so not sure what's actually happening here.
Can't wait to try some other wick material next, hemp or bamboo. I've seen people getting aunt lydia's bamboo crochet thread and some other brands for hemp at michaels or joanns and boil it and it works fine.
On black friday I noticed an e-cig shop (esvapes) that I have drove past easily thousands of times and never noticed it was there, so I had test some new flavors out while I was there, and black friday prices 3.70 out the door for 10ml bottles, score!
Anyway, while I was browsing their shelves I noticed they had some kanthal wire (28 gauge) which I haven't been able to find locally, so I picked some up on a whim. After some more research, it turns out 28 gauge probably wasn't the best selection in retrospect, but whatever I already have it now I'll make it work. I'm sitting here bored on saturday so I decided to take the plunge and just try it out.
Already had the old one pulled apart, so I just cut probably 6 inches of wire to wrap my coil. Grabbed a 1/16" screwdriver bit, and started wrapping. Every wrap I push it close as I can to the last one. Get about 8 wraps done and try to test fit it, pretty big and it might touch the sides. I put it back on the drill bit, carefully unwrapped one wind and straightened out the wire, then got the needle nose pliers and scrunched the coil together as much as I could.
Test fit again, looks good, so I put it all back together using the good coil I have left as a reference, screw it into the base, and grab the multimeter. Testing the resistance, looks like about 1.0-1.1, pretty low but I read it tends to rise once you get some juice on it and break it in a bit. Before I put in the cotton I do a dry burn just to test that it works. Coil's glowing real nice, everything is looking good so far! I'm excited! I thought this was going to be way harder!
So now I take some cotton and put it in the middle of the coil, looks good, get out some juice and wet it down a little, take a little bit more and put it on top as a flavor wick, wet that down the same way too. Put the top on, screwed it into the tank, and let it sit for a minute. Took a hit -- WOAH! This is nothing like the old coil!
I'm definitely getting way more vapor production and everything works so I take off the tank, put it on the multimeter again. Now that I've got it all together it's up to 1.3-1.4, getting closer to the target, so I put it back together and hit it a few more times. Kind of a weird flavor at first, but it's going away the longer I let it sit and take a few hits at a time. The resistance is now up to 1.4-1.5, which is almost perfect
I'm assuming it's normal for there to be some weird flavor at first, but does this go away with time? It's going away the longer it's been but there's still some strange burning flavor. I took off the top flavor wick and thought it was burning, but rinsing it with water gets it perfectly white again, so not sure what's actually happening here.
Can't wait to try some other wick material next, hemp or bamboo. I've seen people getting aunt lydia's bamboo crochet thread and some other brands for hemp at michaels or joanns and boil it and it works fine.
