Mesh.... someone help me out!!!

[nemoishouse]

Got a Steam Turbine and tried to build with some 500 mesh. Didn't turn out so great. Was reading .4 ohms and the coils just lit up and a small poof of fire so I blew it out and removed it from the mod. This was my first attempt at using mesh and someone warned me about hot spots. Followed a few videos online closely but got this result. It was on a Nemsis with a 18650 Efest battery. 3/4 wrap with 29 gauge Kanthal. Tips??? Help?? Lol


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

Which method are you using for the mesh? Did you oxidize with a blow torch or are you relying on the coils themselves to oxidize by pulsing it until just the area where the coils touch are oxidized?

Normally what I do is use the flame method of oxidizing. It's always been more than enough for me. To do this, you basically roll the wick as you normally would and then drip PG on to the wick while it's held in a helper (or pair of pliers) and then light it on fire and wait until the PG burns off. I do this 3-4 times and call it good.

Once the wick cools down, I'll wrap the coil directly on the wick instead of positioning it and trying to wrap it on the atty. I get a tighter / better wrap using this method as I don't like loose coils.

Once the coils are in place and I check the resistance, I pulse the coils for 1-2 seconds to see if there are any hot spots. If only the the top and bottom light up, I make sure the center wraps are where they need to be using a needle or screwdriver and continue pulsing until I have a nice even glow.

Took about 5-6 minutes total to get it working and I was using a Nemesis as well .

 

[nemoishouse]

So this method you're talking about you light the mesh after it's rolled? Sorry mesh is all new to me...well all this is honestly. I build coils and attys all the time but really want to get the steam turbine down. I torched the mesh before and after I rolled it. Think maybe I didn't torch it enough?? Thanks for the response


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[scrutineer]

To add to Tactical's excellent advice above, two things to lessen the chance you'll pop a coil:

When you start pulsing to check and work out the coil's hotspots, don't use a fresh battery - instead use one that is putting out 3.4 to 3.7 volts.

Also, at first, don't press the fire button for long - 1 to 1.5 seconds is enough to start. As the glow starts to spread to the center of the coil, slowly increase the fire time to 1.5 to 2.5 seconds.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

I take a needle and roll it across the mesh like you would scissors to ribbon to get it to curl up; this makes rolling the wick easier and keeps it uniform throughout the process. Once the wick is pretty tight, I place the wick in a pair of pliers or a metal clip and drop about 5-8 drops of PG on the wick and let it absorb.

Once the PG is absorbed by the wick, I take a Bic lighter and light one end of it. It'll catch fire, burn off the PG and help the oxidation. I'll repeat this 2-3 more times, maybe 4-5 depending on how thick the wick is.

Once the wick cools down from the burning/oxidation process, I'll wrap the coil directly on the wick. You just need to keep in mind, you are wrapping metal on metal, so until it's oxidized, it can and probably will short if you fire too long. You only want to pulse it for 1-2 seconds; enough to see where the coils are lighting up the most.

Generally, at first, the top and bottom coils are going to light up and that's referred to as a hot spot, which is what we need to work out. To work out the hot spots, you adjust the coils that aren't lighting up. Make sure they're not too close / touching each other, make sure they are actually touching the wick and then continue to pulse.'


You don't want to actually fire the coils as much as you would to vape until you have all of the coils lighting up evenly. Anything less and the potential for a short will still be there.

So this method you're talking about you light the mesh after it's rolled? Sorry mesh is all new to me...well all this is honestly. I build coils and attys all the time but really want to get the steam turbine down. I torched the mesh before and after I rolled it. Think maybe I didn't torch it enough?? Thanks for the response


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

To add to the above, I concur. You really don't want to build a mesh coil on a freshly charged battery as 4.2v may cause too much heat to build where existing hot spots will be and that'll cause the coil to snap, which means you have to wrap the coil again. The mesh will still be good to use, of course, but it can be a pain.

With a battery that's 3.7/3.8 you're not pushing as much voltage and will likely have an easier time working out the hot spots. Once you're entirely comfortable with building mesh, building on a 4.2v charge won't be an issue because you'll know how to get things positioned quick enough to where it won't be an issue.


That said, pulsing is the name of the game and working out hot spots can be a pain.



@ 16:33 into the video, you'll the method I'm talking about when I say burn the PG. This is Phil Busardo's video. I'd watch it from 16:33 on to get a really good idea on how to build a working coil and how to work out hot spots. He does a great job and while I don't use a torch at all, I fully recommend his video(s) as a starting point to get the hand of building better mesh wicks.


A PBusardo Review - The AGA-T(s) - Part 2 - Assembly & Building Tutorial - YouTube

 

[SissySpike]

another tip is fold the out side edge just a little like a 1mm fold and make sure the out side edge is inside of your roll. some times a lose strand of mesh can cause you shorts.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

Using just the flame method of oxidizing, this is what my wicks normally look like, just to give you an idea.

 

[nemoishouse]

This may be a stupid question but is the wick supposed to be hollow???


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[nemoishouse]

I've watched almost every Busardo video except that one. Very informative


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

This may be a stupid question but is the wick supposed to be hollow???


"House music is a feeling..."

You can go either way. You can roll the wick on a needle, thus the center will be hollow, or you can roll it up tight. The one pictured above was rolled on a needle (16 guage), but you can't tell because of how I trimmed it. I never really bothered re-rounding the top because it's not much of a concern .

 

[nemoishouse]

My coils look good and are firing even with no hot spots. I did the method you said yet I'm still not getting any vape. It starts off really good then it stops and the coil just lights up. I'm stumped


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[SissySpike]

Just keep at it I took me a couple of weeks I was so frustrated at one point I swore genys were a sham and people were saying they were good cause they did not want to admit they wasted their money;-) But they were pretty new back then. Only a couple of atomizers were available and none for under a buck fifty.

 

[nemoishouse]

Oh ill get it eventually I'd just rather you pros tell me what I'm doing wrong lol


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Thrasher]

too many times we watch videos and it seems like man how do they do that so easily..
so sometimes it helps to watch someone setting up the exact device we own going through the same problems we face and how they work them out.

this video has helped several on here get excellent results with the turbine. have fun

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

My coils look good and are firing even with no hot spots. I did the method you said yet I'm still not getting any vape. It starts off really good then it stops and the coil just lights up. I'm stumped


"House music is a feeling..."

Once the coil & wick is setup, are you priming the wick with some liquid? Also, are you clipping the end of wick that you push down into the liquid? Most slice the wick at an angle so that the base of the wick has more surface area to wick the liquid up.

Basically, you'd cut a portion of the wick at a slant, something like this (sorry, no picture on-hand - but you should be able to get the idea - I don't rebuild them often as they last quite a while)

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With Genesis style atty's, you also have to tilt a bit. While the mesh should be able to wick liquid on it's own, sometimes it needs a little bit to get it moving. Turning it to the side for 2-3 seconds and then back into the position you vape will help. Having the extra surface area like above also helps too as it exposes more of the inner parts of the wick to liquid.

 

[nemoishouse]

It just seems the wick isn't getting to the coil or juice rather. I broke down the old dual coil build and re did the new wick like you said. Wrapped it nice with no hotspots and still no juice seems to be getting to the coil. It just lights up nice and bright lol


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

If absolutely no juice is getting through, you may have rolled it too tight. Mesh wicks do take a bit of getting used to, but there is also a hybrid build you can try to force juice through.

If you roll a wick with cotton in the center, that should help draw juice everywhere. I've only done a few with cotton in the center and I tend to like them a little better.

 

[nemoishouse]

Interesting. Could one use all cotton? I tend to use cotton on everything else I build and a guy at my local B&M was building a similar atty with cotton and wondered if I could with this one. It is getting more vape now though but a very metal taste. I appreciate your responses by the way


"House music is a feeling..."

 

[Myrany]

I have actually done a genny build with cotton yarn.

I take the atty apart and thread a double strand of cotton yarn up to the deck from underneath in the tank leaving a long tail of cotton in the tank.

Put it back together.

Wrap my coil on the cotton and lock it down.

Fill the tank and prime the coil with a few drops.

Good to go.
The cotton tails wick the juice up into the coil nicely. If you do happen to burn the cotton at the coil it is easy to just pull up a bit on the yarn so fresh cotton is under the coil and cut off the toasted part.