Introduction to Vaping | God of Steam
This is a great place to answer any questions/concerns you have over anything vaping, check out the articles and click and read the links, they do a great job of breaking down things like batteries and safety in an easy to understand way.
Ohm's Law Calculator
This is a good place to get your ohms law calculations for when it comes time to start building.
As far as your order, I think you have a great start. As was already mentioned, the choice of which mech is largely what appeals to you, they are all essentially battery tubes.
I'd recommend the smoktec omnimeter for your ohm meter because it also tests voltage and you can plug both your atty and mech in at the same time to read voltage drop.
Wire, I'd suggest picking up a couple different gauges of Kanthal and playing around with builds. I picked up 28,30,and 32 my first time 'round, off amazon. got 100 feet in each spool at about 5 or 6 dollars a piece, I won't be having to buy anymore for a long long time (although I do want to try some 24 and 26). I find myself going to 28 gauge most often, 32 is so tiny I find I need to twist it to build what I want, 28 is good to go more often than not.
Wick, I'd suggest going to your local drug store and looking for the Maxim Hygiene Organic Cotton Balls. This is a popular choice among vapers because it is organic and doesn't have bleach or detergents/dyes in it, and it doesn't need to be boiled before use. Cotton is also very easy to work, it wicks well and holds tremendous flavor. Just pay attention to the fact it will burn in the coil if it is not wicked, so if you are dripping with it check it every now and then and re-apply juice as needed. A quick note on the burning, it really becomes a non-factor, as you will notice a dryer hit well before it gets dry to the point of burning.
Batteries are something you need to pay special attention to and not cheap out on. A common recommendation here on ECF is avoid anything with "fire" in its name, ie. trustfire batteries and other brands as such. When building a mech you want to leave a decent buffer between the power you are drawing from the battery (in amps) and the batteries max amp output. A lot of vapers choose high amp output batteries because it makes this easier and gives larger safety buffers. I did a lot of reading up and looking at battery tests before I made my decisions and this is where I decided to go for 18650, 18500 and 18350:
I use sony VTC5's for my 18650 batteries because of the 30 amp limit and they test extremely well, I can build super low ohm coils if I want and not have to worry much.
I use the Purple Efest 18500 batteries because they test extremely well, in some variances even better then the popular front running AW batteries. The purple batteries have a higher amp limit (15a) and thus allow for lower ohm builds with a larger safety buffer.
I use the Purple Efest 18350 batteries for the same reasons as mentioned above for their bigger 18500 siblings. The 18350 amp limit is 10.5, I can safely (rule of thumb is a 30% buffer between draw and max output) build a .6 Ohm coil and use it on a mech in 18350 with these and have a buffer over 30%, which is impressive if you ask me. One could go even lower if they wanted to push envelops, but I enjoy my mech and my hands/face.
Don't forget a few basic tools to help with your build, tweezers for adjusting and tightening coils, clippers (or snippers or scissors) a few small drill bits to wrap coils around (or you can get a coil jig like KK Vapetec's), some small screwdrivers for - and + posts of your RDAs and fill port/ air flow screws on your tank, paper towels or microfiber clothes for cleaning up juice messes systems, a torch if you prefer to treat your coil before putting in on the RDA (I just heat with my mod and tweeze from there, I find it easier). Another member mentioned two things I hadn't though of before that would likely make things a lot easier when building, a good sized area of white rug/carpet to work over and easily see dropped bits such as coils, screws, etc, as well as magnifying eyewear so you aren't straining your eyes in your build.
I'm very excited for you! Let us know how it all goes.
One last thing! There are a great many online vendors for vaping supplies and hardware, but I have yet to find a place that offers everything I need at the best price available, if you want the best prices for whatever you are buying be prepared to order from multiple sites. Its worth it in my opinion (not only for you, but its good for the community as well, spread the wealth!)
Best of luck!
