I was going to post this in one of the kayfun/russian threads, but couldn't choose which one to put it in.
mods, feel free to move or merge this as you see fit.
OK, so when I first got my russian, I got it setup great the first time.
I seem to remember following pbusardos method and it worked great.
My following setups didn't work so well, because I kept reverting to my "less is more" train of thought that I have been using for other tanks/drippers when using cotton.
I had wicking issues AND flooding as well.
I got to the point that I dreaded rebuilding it.
Once I had a good setup, it seemed like the next one sucked.
I was using organic cotton, and sterile cotton setups.
I have found that my better setups were not always, but mostly with the sterile cotton.
So, I finally honed in on a setup that has been bombproof for several rebuilds now, and wanted to share it for anybody that has had problems like I was having.
I am not an expert by any means, but have gone through a decent amount of trial and error to get this working perfect every time.
My focus here is the wick, not the coil. But if you're wondering, I am using 27ga kanthal wrapped on a 1.7mm post. Hovering around .99ohm at the moment.
I have been using this coil for about 2-3 weeks and it's still going strong.
I am using CVS sterile cotton, which has a tendency to pull apart if you use too much.
I have found the perfect amount is when it starts to bunch up a hair on one side of the coil, but not break. It creates a small shoulder on one side of the coil, as you can see in the pic.
I trim the cotton so it is about the width of the base of the atty, as seen above. The picture makes it look bigger than that, but it is about 22mm wide.
Next up I soak the wick, but not to the point where it is dripping.
You need the juice to "glue" the wick to the sides of the deck.
Bend the ends in like shown in the pictures below.
The wick should flow smoothly out of the coil and take a nice S bend to lay near the juice well.
One concern is that when you screw the lower part of the chimney on, the wick will get caught in the threads, which is what would happen if you just bent the ends in and didn't push the wick against the sides of the deck.
You can see in the below pics that the wick takes up more space than the threaded portion that the chimney screws onto.
The second pic below shows that there is better clearance after pushing the wick against the sides of the deck.
Before shaping wick against deck sides.......
After............
In the above pic, the picture doesn't really do justice.
In person, you want to be able to see the threaded portion of the deck clearing the wick where it sticks out.
After you screw the chimney on, the wick may get tugged a bit to one side.
Get in there and pull the wick back to where it was previously.
I use a dental pick.
I also make sure I am not compressing the wick too much.
I want the wick covering the juice channels, but definitely not stuffed into the holes.
I don't put the ends of the wick on the juice channels.
The ends of the wick lay against the very far edge, where the chimney and the deck meet.
This setup has worked amazing, and totally goes against my normal "less is more" approach.
It never floods.
It wicks so well, that I almost always see bubbles rise up after a couple pulls, if not every pull.
One of my suspicions of people having wicking problems is due to the style of "draw" people take.
If you take massive lung hits, I think you are less likely to have wicking problems.....but may possibly be more prone to flooding issues.
On the other side of the spectrum, if you are like me, and usually do light "mouth to lung" inhales, you may not be creating enough suction for the juice to wick properly.
Anyways, that's all I've got.
I hope somebody finds it helpful.
mods, feel free to move or merge this as you see fit.
OK, so when I first got my russian, I got it setup great the first time.
I seem to remember following pbusardos method and it worked great.
My following setups didn't work so well, because I kept reverting to my "less is more" train of thought that I have been using for other tanks/drippers when using cotton.
I had wicking issues AND flooding as well.
I got to the point that I dreaded rebuilding it.
Once I had a good setup, it seemed like the next one sucked.
I was using organic cotton, and sterile cotton setups.
I have found that my better setups were not always, but mostly with the sterile cotton.
So, I finally honed in on a setup that has been bombproof for several rebuilds now, and wanted to share it for anybody that has had problems like I was having.
I am not an expert by any means, but have gone through a decent amount of trial and error to get this working perfect every time.
My focus here is the wick, not the coil. But if you're wondering, I am using 27ga kanthal wrapped on a 1.7mm post. Hovering around .99ohm at the moment.
I have been using this coil for about 2-3 weeks and it's still going strong.
I am using CVS sterile cotton, which has a tendency to pull apart if you use too much.
I have found the perfect amount is when it starts to bunch up a hair on one side of the coil, but not break. It creates a small shoulder on one side of the coil, as you can see in the pic.
I trim the cotton so it is about the width of the base of the atty, as seen above. The picture makes it look bigger than that, but it is about 22mm wide.
Next up I soak the wick, but not to the point where it is dripping.
You need the juice to "glue" the wick to the sides of the deck.
Bend the ends in like shown in the pictures below.
The wick should flow smoothly out of the coil and take a nice S bend to lay near the juice well.
One concern is that when you screw the lower part of the chimney on, the wick will get caught in the threads, which is what would happen if you just bent the ends in and didn't push the wick against the sides of the deck.
You can see in the below pics that the wick takes up more space than the threaded portion that the chimney screws onto.
The second pic below shows that there is better clearance after pushing the wick against the sides of the deck.
Before shaping wick against deck sides.......
After............
In the above pic, the picture doesn't really do justice.
In person, you want to be able to see the threaded portion of the deck clearing the wick where it sticks out.
After you screw the chimney on, the wick may get tugged a bit to one side.
Get in there and pull the wick back to where it was previously.
I use a dental pick.
I also make sure I am not compressing the wick too much.
I want the wick covering the juice channels, but definitely not stuffed into the holes.
I don't put the ends of the wick on the juice channels.
The ends of the wick lay against the very far edge, where the chimney and the deck meet.
This setup has worked amazing, and totally goes against my normal "less is more" approach.
It never floods.
It wicks so well, that I almost always see bubbles rise up after a couple pulls, if not every pull.
One of my suspicions of people having wicking problems is due to the style of "draw" people take.
If you take massive lung hits, I think you are less likely to have wicking problems.....but may possibly be more prone to flooding issues.
On the other side of the spectrum, if you are like me, and usually do light "mouth to lung" inhales, you may not be creating enough suction for the juice to wick properly.
Anyways, that's all I've got.
I hope somebody finds it helpful.
