You're doing it wrong.
Actually I think it's all some form of "
black magic"--I can try to build a fibre wick and coil exactly like a tutorial, following along and comparing every single step of the way, even
through the "testing to make sure it's right" process and have it match up exactly--until that first
actual fire and poof, instant char. And I've seen plenty of cases where people actually build mesh wicks for other people who can't seem to get it right and even those "tested and guaranteed to be good" wicks don't work for the person who can't get mesh to work--but they work perfectly fine when sent back to the person who built them.
Some things work for some people and don't for others. I have no problem vaping on a fibre wick built by someone else, but I've actually had a mesh wick that I'd been using for two weeks stop working as soon as I let someone else try it only to have it work perfectly fine again within two puffs of getting it back...
Black magic...