My Build - The eGo Octopus Mini

[happydave]

1100 MAH eGo USB pass-through

smok Tech Octopus Mini

Air hole drilled out to 2.5 MM

.32 twisted kanthal

2 strands of 2 mm Silica wick.
3/4 wrap
1.5 ohm coil
4.2 volts on a fully charged eGo USB pass-through.
11 watts

so for any one wondering what twisted kanthal is and why i use it... you take a drill, pliers, kanthal and a paper clip and twist the kanthal so that it forms a twisted pair of wires the twist needs to be tight it should feel like a row of tiny beads when you run your fingers across the twisted kanthal. the reason why i use this is because it drops about .25 ohms per inch (using .32 kanthal) and increases surface area tremendously. the more wire you have in contact with the wick the more vapor will be made (as long as you have enough power to heat the wire)..

ok so here is a run down on how i do this. this is a great setup for novice builders.

this is part of a paper clip i cut with wire cutters.
chuck it in the drill.. can be tricky but you must make sure its straight in the drill.
now take the pliers and double your kanthal over and clamp the ends of the of the wire in the pliers and put the loop though the paper clip hook in the drill. PUT ON SAFETY GOGGLES. run the drill until it the wire snaps, it will snap at one of the ends.. does not matter.
after that, torch the wire (well holding one end of it with the pliers) with a butane torch go up and down the length of the wire once or twice. this will reduce the spring tension built up in the wire and make it easier to wrap your coil
now double your wick over and place a length of wire normal (not twisted) parallel with the strands of the wick. this will provide a rigid area for you to wrap your coil on. i use a 3/4 warp, (looks like 3 wraps from the bottom and 4 wraps from the top.) after you wrap your coil gently pull out the normal wire. you want to compress the wick a bit when your wrapping the coil but not so much that it constricts the flow of juice into the coil area.

put the coil leads through the post holes. pull the leads snug, but not super tight and bend the wire around the post. this will hold tension, then run the screws down on the wires. check it for shorts and ohms with your DVOM. dry fire it and make sure all the coils glow evenly. i use a pin to push and pull the coils if they need spacing. after that just trim off the extra bits of wire and wick. add some juice and put your finger over the air hole and suck as hard as you can on the drip tip. this will create a vacuum and pull any air bubbles out of the wick, allowing juice to take the place of the air pockets in the wick. and thats it, happy vapes everyone!

 

[happydave]

i almost forgot! you want a few millimeter gap between the bottom of the coil and the top of the RDA base. this allows for air to flow around the entire coil and produces a much better vape. also i run at least %90 VG e-liquid in this setup. preferably more like %95 VG.

 

[Myrany]

I do similar build but I use 2 pieces of silica and wrap around them. In my full size octopus it lets me easily drip 12-14 drops without any leaking. Heck I do a similar build in my IGO-L

 

[happydave]

I do similar build but I use 2 pieces of silica and wrap around them. In my full size octopus it lets me easily drip 12-14 drops without any leaking. Heck I do a similar build in my IGO-L

yeah! its 2 strands of silica what size are you using? i find that 2 stands of 2 mm works the best for this rig but have been messing around with 2 strands of 3 mm recently with moderate success.

this holds about 8 drops when it starts producing dry hits. to prime it i use about 15 drops and do the thing where i hold my finger over the air hole and hold vacuum on the chamber for a few seconds. doing that a few times really gets the wick saturated.

 

[Myrany]

I think what I have is 2.5 mm its the super cheap stuff from fasttech.

I meant 2 strands then folded so you will have 4 tails not 2.

I think my next mini build though I am going to try a microcoil + cotton wick in it just to see how it goes. I actually like the micro + cotton in my RM2 on my REO.

 

[riseabovethestorm]

I'm so incredibly jealous. Great job!

 

[happydave]

i could never get behind cotton... because of its chemical composition, but hey do what you want! its probably still better for you than analogs. if you take a piece of scotch tape you can roll the end of the silica up in the tape. when you do it you want to roll it tightly then use that compressed / taped end of the wick to thread it into the micro coil. just cut off the part with the tape after your done.

 

[happydave]

I'm so incredibly jealous. Great job!

thank you! its relatively cheap and it works fantastic $30 for the hardware. silica and wire can vary widely in price. i get about 50 decent drags off a fully charged ego USB pass-through with this setup. as for battery life span, i use only real JoyeTech eGo USB PT batteries for this, my oldest ego USB pass-through is about a year old and still going strong even though i only use it with the 1.5 ohm coil shown here.

 

[UncleChuck]

i could never get behind cotton... because of its chemical composition, but hey do what you want! its probably still better for you than analogs.

It's probably better for you than silica or mesh... If you are burning cotton wicks you're doing something wrong. Don't blame the cotton.

 

[IMFire3605]

I think what I have is 2.5 mm its the super cheap stuff from fasttech.

I meant 2 strands then folded so you will have 4 tails not 2.

I think my next mini build though I am going to try a microcoil + cotton wick in it just to see how it goes. I actually like the micro + cotton in my RM2 on my REO.

I use a 8/7 wrap vertical micro+cotton over the standard deck hole on my Full Octupus though I also have 2 - 1/16th air holes in the upper part of the cap getting ready to drill another hole opposite the standard bottom hole in the top cap, another hole down into the base and into the side parallel to the standard holes to run it in a dual coil, but at 1.7ohm presently in single coil she vapes like a champ on my Natural and my SVD.

 

[WarHawk-AVG]

Genius on the wire wrap tool..I just caught the wires in the chuck teeth (was not easy!) with that method it can be a one man operation and make twisting coils a snap!

EXCELLENT!

 

[DrillRX]

1100 MAH eGo USB pass-through

Smok Tech Octopus Mini

Air hole drilled out to 2.5 MM

.32 twisted kanthal

2 strands of 2 mm Silica wick.
3/4 wrap
1.5 ohm coil
4.2 volts on a fully charged eGo USB pass-through.
11 watts

so for any one wondering what twisted kanthal is and why i use it... you take a drill, pliers, kanthal and a paper clip and twist the kanthal so that it forms a twisted pair of wires the twist needs to be tight it should feel like a row of tiny beads when you run your fingers across the twisted kanthal. the reason why i use this is because it drops about .25 ohms per inch (using .32 kanthal) and increases surface area tremendously. the more wire you have in contact with the wick the more vapor will be made (as long as you have enough power to heat the wire)..

ok so here is a run down on how i do this. this is a great setup for novice builders.

this is part of a paper clip i cut with wire cutters.
View attachment 279089 chuck it in the drill.. can be tricky but you must make sure its straight in the drill.
View attachment 279090 now take the pliers and double your kanthal over and clamp the ends of the of the wire in the pliers and put the loop though the paper clip hook in the drill. PUT ON SAFETY GOGGLES. run the drill until it the wire snaps, it will snap at one of the ends.. does not matter.
after that, torch the wire (well holding one end of it with the pliers) with a butane torch go up and down the length of the wire once or twice. this will reduce the spring tension built up in the wire and make it easier to wrap your coil
View attachment 279091 now double your wick over and place a length of wire normal (not twisted) parallel with the strands of the wick. this will provide a rigid area for you to wrap your coil on. i use a 3/4 warp, (looks like 3 wraps from the bottom and 4 wraps from the top.) after you wrap your coil gently pull out the normal wire. you want to compress the wick a bit when your wrapping the coil but not so much that it constricts the flow of juice into the coil area.
View attachment 279094
put the coil leads through the post holes. pull the leads snug, but not super tight and bend the wire around the post. this will hold tension, then run the screws down on the wires. check it for shorts and ohms with your DVOM. dry fire it and make sure all the coils glow evenly. i use a pin to push and pull the coils if they need spacing. after that just trim off the extra bits of wire and wick. add some juice and put your finger over the air hole and suck as hard as you can on the drip tip. this will create a vacuum and pull any air bubbles out of the wick, allowing juice to take the place of the air pockets in the wick. and thats it, happy vapes everyone!

I use the same method of twisted 32 gauge but after I twist it once I double it over and twist it again for 4 32 gauge twisted wire. Makes a wicked vertical twisted coil. A 3/16, 4-5 wrap will make around 1.2 ohms.

 

[happydave]

so i experienced much confusion today as i just got in a new roll of kanthal.. turns out what i used for this build is 34 AWG kanthal. Not 32 as i previously described. it should not make much of a difference however.

 

[nicetucu]

Insane clouds buddy, just insane. Sounds like a kids party going on in the background. Hopefully nobody phoned the fire department lol.

I'm starting to get to the point of stepping up my game, getting tired of the same old vape these days. Step it up or quit. Just looks so fiddly and quite the learning curve.

 

[happydave]

Insane clouds buddy, just insane. Sounds like a kids party going on in the background. Hopefully nobody phoned the fire department lol.

I'm starting to get to the point of stepping up my game, getting tired of the same old vape these days. Step it up or quit. Just looks so fiddly and quite the learning curve.

it was filmed on Halloween night kids are running through the street yelling..

 

[happydave]

for me this a hobby, i like the challenge and my years of Direct Current electrical engineering come in handy.

 

[Myrany]

for me this a hobby, i like the challenge and my years of Direct Current electrical engineering come in handy.

I have no such experience. I am just an old lady that used to be a math/science teacher. I learned to do my own coils out of shear fear of what the FDA might do to us. I continue to do my own coils because it is just a better vape to my taste.

When you first start it seems complicated and fiddly but it really isn't all that bad. Watch a few videos on you tube and you will quickly realize that there are just a couple of basic principals that carry over to most devices.

 

[dedi]

following.................

 

[thereklis1]

After reading some of this...I've just scratched the surface. However, it's fun as hell tinkering with different setups!

 

[RollDanTide]

I have no such experience. I am just an old lady that used to be a math/science teacher. I learned to do my own coils out of shear fear of what the FDA might do to us. I continue to do my own coils because it is just a better vape to my taste.

When you first start it seems complicated and fiddly but it really isn't all that bad. Watch a few videos on you tube and you will quickly realize that there are just a couple of basic principals that carry over to most devices.

Yeah, I'm sort of in that boat of seeing this is complicated and what-not. Can you recommend a really good YouTube tutorial that helped you?