Mini protank coil rebuild

[shinb0]

Hey guys! Been lurking awhile now, but I've decided to start posting.

So, I recently got ego twists with mini protanks for my sister and I. Been happily vaping analog free, and then I realized that vaping is even more addictive that nicotine!

I wanted to get deeper into vaping as a hobby and I have been reading a lot about it. As I already have the mini protank, I thought why not start by trying to rebuild the coil?

I got some 28 and 30 gauge kanthal, and was about to rebuild the coils when I read that using kanthal alone runs the risk of burning out the rubber insulator at the bottom of the coil head. Has anyone had experience with rebuilding the protank coils? Can I do it with kanthal (it's hard to get NR-R-NR wire where I live, and I don't have the expertise to build my own)?

 

[Burn_notice_fan_NY]

I don't have the greatest experience with this but I have rebuilt the evod coil (I believe it's the same as the Protank II Mini) with Kanthal gauge 30 without a problem. Have yet to rebuild the coil on my Protank II mini

 

[SMP1121]

I rebuild my MPTII coil heads and use Kanthal. They now come with silicone insulators now instead of the rubber so burning them doesn't really happen. At least it hasn't happened to mine yet.

Whatch some you tube videos on rebuilding the mini protanks/evod coils. I don't have the link right now, but use a "coil calculator" to help you determine the number of wraps you need for the wire that you are using.

If you only have Ego twists you really need an ohm meter before you start using the ones you rebuild.

 

[happydave]

if you look around web you can find directions on how to an arc welder for NR-R-NR wires. i
the process of putting the arc welder together can be dangerous and improper usage of the arc welder can be lethal.
you can buy pre-welded wires here $3.25 Pre-made Welded Wires - NR-R-NR (100-Pack) 100-pack - 0.18mm (33 AWG) / 2.2ohm at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

 

[shinb0]

SMP1121: Hmm, that's interesting. I'll have to check if my coils are using the new silicone insulators. I've watched several YouTube videos regarding the topic as well, and I can't wait to try them out. I already got a multimeter to check my resistances too so I don't blow myself up in the process. Thanks!

happydave: Yup I found those premade ones too, I might give those a shot, but where I live, it's hard to get FT packages in if you know what I mean. I might just try though, considering the prices are low. The delivery times would be a pain though.

Either way, I'll give kanthal a try first and see how it goes and hopefully post a few pics here.

 

[happydave]

people have some method of using a micro coil and cotton to rebuild these heads with pretty much 0 risk of a hot leg burning the rubber. i refuse to vape using cotton and silica does not wick well enough for a micro coil to work properly so this is what i do http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...586-kanger-evod-how-re-wick.html#post12594038

 

[SMP1121]

SMP1121: Hmm, that's interesting. I'll have to check if my coils are using the new silicone insulators. I've watched several YouTube videos regarding the topic as well, and I can't wait to try them out. I already got a multimeter to check my resistances too so I don't blow myself up in the process. Thanks!

If it looks white it is silicone...if it is a cream color it is rubber. I've never had a problem and I use 32, 30 and 28 gauge Kanthal. Even if they are rubber, I think it is really only a problem if you are using a low ohm coil and a high voltage setting.

Kidney Puncher sells replacement insulators and they are silicone. 10pk for $2 or $3. It's good to get some because they do tear, become too soft (and the metal pin will push in too far) and fall down the drain, etc.

Glad you have the ohm meter. Just stick with ohms that will work easily with the volts of your ego and you'll be fine.

 

[shinb0]

Can I ask why do you refuse to vape using cotton? I intend to use cotton as my wicking material and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

 

[happydave]

Can I ask why do you refuse to vape using cotton? I intend to use cotton as my wicking material and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

cotton is a complex polysaccharide that when burned will produce toxic fumes. i understand that some people think that if the wick is saturated properly it will never burn and that is just not the case. even if you cant see it or taste it in the vapor. the wick is getting burned a little bit each time.
the process to produce cotton involves some pretty toxic chemicals.

silica or amorphous silica (this is whats used for e-cig wick) is 2 elements (silicon and hydrogen sometimes oxygen) bonded in such a way to produce a random sort of chain of molecules that are easily spun into a fiber. the melting point of amorphous silica is about 1600 Celsius and will never burn even when used in an e-cig because the wire would melt before the silica wick.

dont get me wrong using cotton for wick is probably much better than smoking analogs.

 

[shinb0]

@happydave Wow, TIL. Thanks for the info. I'll definitely look into silica or ekowool as an alternative then.

 

[SleeZy]

cotton is a complex polysaccharide that when burned will produce toxic fumes. i understand that some people think that if the wick is saturated properly it will never burn and that is just not the case. even if you cant see it or taste it in the vapor. the wick is getting burned a little bit each time.
the process to produce cotton involves some pretty toxic chemicals.

silica or amorphous silica (this is whats used for e-cig wick) is 2 elements (silicon and hydrogen sometimes oxygen) bonded in such a way to produce a random sort of chain of molecules that are easily spun into a fiber. the melting point of amorphous silica is about 1600 Celsius and will never burn even when used in an e-cig because the wire would melt before the silica wick.

dont get me wrong using cotton for wick is probably much better than smoking analogs.

Then again, using silica can get you fibers in your lungs if you've bad luck.
But thanks for that info, i didn't know that.
So i guess 100% boiled organic cotton will apply to that?

 

[happydave]

Then again, using silica can get you fibers in your lungs if you've bad luck.
But thanks for that info, i didn't know that.
So i guess 100% boiled organic cotton will apply to that?

can you show me one example of someone getting silica fibers in there lungs from using an e-cig?

any cotton. "organic" or not. remember all things are organic. organic is a broad term. organically grown, organically processed, it is still cotton and is burning to some degree. strychnine is organic it come from a tree, doesn't mean its safe for human consumption.

even amorphous silica occurs naturally in the stone commonly known as Opal.

 

[SleeZy]

can you show me one example of someone getting silica fibers in there lungs from using an e-cig?

any cotton. "organic" or not. remember all things are organic. organic is a broad term. organically grown, organically processed, it is still cotton and is burning to some degree. strychnine is organic it come from a tree, doesn't mean its safe for human consumption.

even amorphous silica occurs naturally in the stone commonly known as Opal.

Alright, thanks for the info!
No i can't it's just rumors i've heard round. So take it with abit a grain of salt.
I've also read a user here catched a strain of silica in his mouth.
I've read this on several places but there's no known fact or source.
I could try find one...

Quite alot of dicussion about it. However no proof.

https://www.google.se/search?q=sili...la:sv-SE:official&channel=sb&biw=1920&bih=956

 

[happydave]

Alright, thanks for the info!
No i can't it's just rumors i've heard round. So take it with abit a grain of salt.
I've also read a user here catched a strain of silica in his mouth.
I've read this on several places but there's no known fact or source.
I could try find one...

i could see someone getting a bit of silica in there mouth if the e-cig was not used properly or not put together well. inhaling it however?!?! is another story and highly doubt this could happen. people here the word Silica and they think its like crystalline Silica dust. and jump to all sorts of conclusions. Amorphous silica wick is not crystalline and is not a dust so it would be pretty hard to inhale it especially if its wet at all.

 

[SleeZy]

i could see someone getting a bit of silica in there mouth if the e-cig was not used properly or not put together well. inhaling it however?!?! is another story and highly doubt this could happen. people here the word Silica and they think its like crystalline Silica dust. and jump to all sorts of conclusions. Amorphous silica wick is not crystalline and is not a dust so it would be pretty hard to inhale it especially if its wet at all.

True true.
However i do notice small strains when i've dryburned my coils (orginal pt2)
Looks like small dusty straws, i'm not sure how to explain it in english...
I'll just make sure i pinch them off and then prime the wicks before i put it all together again.

Now you got me thinking about using cotton, wanted to give it a go because i've heard so much about it.
Well i'll prolly try it. But if it can be toxic i'm unsure. :-/

 

[happydave]

True true.
However i do notice small strains when i've dryburned my coils (orginal pt2)
Looks like small dusty straws, i'm not sure how to explain it in english...
I'll just make sure i pinch them off and then prime the wicks before i put it all together again.

Now you got me thinking about using cotton, wanted to give it a go because i've heard so much about it.
Well i'll prolly try it. But if it can be toxic i'm unsure. :-/

i have tried cotton lots of time, im still alive... whatever keeps you off the analogs.

 

[coalyard]

cotton is a complex polysaccharide that when burned will produce toxic fumes. i understand that some people think that if the wick is saturated properly it will never burn and that is just not the case. even if you cant see it or taste it in the vapor. the wick is getting burned a little bit each time.
the process to produce cotton involves some pretty toxic chemicals.

silica or amorphous silica (this is whats used for e-cig wick) is 2 elements (silicon and hydrogen sometimes oxygen) bonded in such a way to produce a random sort of chain of molecules that are easily spun into a fiber. the melting point of amorphous silica is about 1600 Celsius and will never burn even when used in an e-cig because the wire would melt before the silica wick.

dont get me wrong using cotton for wick is probably much better than smoking analogs.

Your source please? Which toxic chemicals are used to produce cotton? Organic cotton? Enquiring minds want to know...

 

[Dogeggs]

I've rebuilt lots of mini protank heads, 30 gauge micro coils work a treat, remember to keep them on whatever you wrapped them on until you have secured them in place else they will get 'wonky', and be fairly generous with your wick to help prevent flooding.

 

[happydave]

Your source please? Which toxic chemicals are used to produce cotton? Organic cotton? Enquiring minds want to know...

check this out Project Cotton - Chemical Composition of Cotton Fibers

also cotton starts decomposing at prolonged temps around 150C. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton#Fiber_properties
an e-cig could could certainly hit that sort of temp, i know this because the boiling point of VG is 290 C (well above 150 C) and we vape VG all the time.
Glycerol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

as far as "organic cotton" i cant really find much info about how its processed. sure it could be organically grown but none of that really matters if they can soak it in hexane and chloroform and still call it organic on the label... cotton is processed to remove a lot of the wax and other unwanted stuff, not sure what chemicals or process they use for "organic cotton". more information on this subject would be great.

this thread is off the rails, if you want to talk more about this with me please start a new thread and send me a link in a PM or just PM me thanks...

 

[shinb0]

I finally built my first micro coil, so here's the update! Do let leave some feedback on what's good or bad so I can improve on it. Please pardon the poor images, I only had my iPhone to work with.

So I disassembled my coil head, and it seems like I got the rubber grommet instead of the silicone one. Hopefully the leads don't get hot enough to burn the rubber. Man, that stock coil looks like crap

Hand wound 30AWG Kanthal around some screwdriver of unknown diameter. I'm guessing either 1/16" or 5/64". Total of around 9 wraps. It was not easy to keep it extremely tight and close as you can see.

Heated the coil up with a torch a for about 10s while compressing them lightly. Resulted in a much tighter coil, nice!

Here's the thing assembled into my eGo-C twist. I forgot to take a picture measuring the resistance, but it came up to ~2.1 ohms. Will probably try 1 less coil next time round.

Test fire!!! Thanks to my lovely gf for holding it steady while I snap a picture. To be honest it took a little longer to heat up than I had expected (I had watched Rip Tripper's video, that thing heated up fast). But it produced a nice even glow that started from the middle!

Unfortunately, I did not have any ekowool with me at this time, so I built it with sterile cotton instead. I was too excited at this point in time and forgot to take further pictures. But this thing performs much better than the stock coil for sure. It has more vapor and flavor, and a warmer vape (although I personally like a cool vape too). I'm not sure if it's the best I can get from a mini protank II, but this is my first build, and definitely won't be the last! Let me know what you guys think!