My first coil!!

[knock]

Congratulations. I really jealous since I'm not having any luck.

Been trying to get a coil to work for about 4 weeks now. Not one worked more than a few seconds. Something keeps happening to the coil after I get it working and it gets off or hot spots and dies. The one I tried today was working good (cigarette paper method). I added liquid to the tank and no wicking what so ever. I checked it and it went straight to a hot spot and the wire melted at the hotspot. it was at a hot spot the the wire melted. I've tried the Peter K and many other methods multiple times (at least 2 dozen tries). Every time I tried the Peter K method it all worked right until I added liquid to the tank. Then the coil was no longer heating evenly.

I'll keep at it a few more times but it is not looking promising for me.

Don't throw in the towel just yet. If your coil is melting, it is due to a short. When you are doing the Peter K method, do you check the resistance of your coil before you insert your wick? Try doing this and then checking your resistance after adding your wick, it should be the same as it was prior to the wick insertion.

Next, make sure that all the coils are making contact with the wick, make sure not to over tighten the coil when tightening your center post. Since you said your wicks aren't working, I suggest looking at how dense your wick is and what mesh you are using. Dense rolled 500 mesh seems to work well.

 

[on3fifth]

Don't throw in the towel just yet. If your coil is melting, it is due to a short. When you are doing the Peter K method, do you check the resistance of your coil before you insert your wick? Try doing this and then checking your resistance after adding your wick, it should be the same as it was prior to the wick insertion.

Next, make sure that all the coils are making contact with the wick, make sure not to over tighten the coil when tightening your center post. Since you said your wicks aren't working, I suggest looking at how dense your wick is and what mesh you are using. Dense rolled 500 mesh seems to work well.

I do want to try 500 mesh. Everyone says it wicks 100% vg better.

 

[new kid]

Don't throw in the towel just yet. If your coil is melting, it is due to a short. When you are doing the Peter K method, do you check the resistance of your coil before you insert your wick? Try doing this and then checking your resistance after adding your wick, it should be the same as it was prior to the wick insertion.

I haven't given up yet. You are right the wire is melting on me. At one moment the coils all glow great. The next I have a hot spot at the top and it shorts in just a second or two. I'm not even sure how that happens. Seams it should have to move, maybe it slips due to tension release when the wire heats. It happens in a flash of time.

Next, make sure that all the coils are making contact with the wick, make sure not to over tighten the coil when tightening your center post. Since you said your wicks aren't working, I suggest looking at how dense your wick is and what mesh you are using. Dense rolled 500 mesh seems to work well.

This is one that I have problems with. I have never, not once, been able to get the wire to make good contact with the mesh. I have tried 325, 400, and 500 mesh. Same results with them all. Once I make the coil and slip in the wick the wire is mostly not making contact. I cannot figure out how to fix that.

I have one I did today and it worked for a little bit. Still trying to tweak it and get it to wick. This one is sorta working (finally). I put it up after working on it for 2 hours.

 

[knock]

This is one that I have problems with. I have never, not once, been able to get the wire to make good contact with the mesh. I have tried 325, 400, and 500 mesh. Same results with them all. Once I make the coil and slip in the wick the wire is mostly not making contact. I cannot figure out how to fix that.

This one takes a bit of practice. Once you have your coil setup and your wick rolled, make sure when you are inserting it you are doing adjustments to fitment. You can loosen your rolled on the wick by rolling "away" from the roll and tighten it by rolling it "into" the roll. Make sure of two things when doing this, make the fitment so that it is touching all coils AND make sure to keep them symmetrical.

Keeping both of these in mind, its simpler for me if I have a thinker dense wick. I roll it tight keeping a small center hole, so when I do insert it it does expand a bit which causes the wick to come in contact with the coil. I also turn the wick "away" from the roll while inserting it which also helps it come in contact with the coil when I do have fitment issues. The thicker walled wicks are easier for me to keep symmetrical and really wicks well.

I try to post a picture when I can.

 

[dlsw]

Yeah I just went for it soon as it got here. Now I have done my second coil and got around 1.9 ohms. I wanted to redo it to use a better mesh and get more practice I guess.

I got everything I need from okcvapes.com pretty cheap. I can't lie tho the shipping took a sec BUT I do think it was because of the snowy times.

Oh and here is a picture of the 2nd one I made it has some frays on it but it's still fine.

Thats with 32AWG and 400 SS mesh.

NICE!!! I finally got one to work after 4 tries!!! I'm coming in at 1.1 ohms with 28 wire and 4 wraps, 400 mesh, and the same RBA as you. I really like okcvapes as they have everything all in one place. Now, I'm inspired to wrap a second coil. Did you empty your tank and make a new wick?

 

[on3fifth]

NICE!!! I finally got one to work after 4 tries!!! I'm coming in at 1.1 ohms with 28 wire and 4 wraps, 400 mesh, and the same RBA as you. I really like okcvapes as they have everything all in one place. Now, I'm inspired to wrap a second coil. Did you empty your tank and make a new wick?

Yeah i did so i could dry burn and test the ohms. Otherwise i would not see dry spots as well. I do have some 28 im going to try after this one goes out. It is still vaping very well btw.

 

[BlkWolfMidnight]

Ok, I can relate folks to the inability to build a coil on SS Mesh,
Tried the Peter K method, no luck...
Tried Zen method...no luck....
Didn't bother with the rest, sat down and looked the issue over...You need 2 things to do it right, something to tension the coil on and something to provide backbone to a spongey wick. Eurka, the answer is in the wick itself.

So I shove that paperclip down in to the center, it should fit tight which would expand the wick a bit (if it dose not, get something that will). Insert whole thing and wrap/tension with (Object used) still in the wick...When you pull out the center pin the wick will shrink down a bit, giving minimal space between the wire and the SS Mesh wick itself due to compression of the wick..
I found this works wonderfully..give it a go and see if it dosen't work for you

 

[on3fifth]

Grats (not sure why I didn't see this earlier)

AGA-T are nice and I'm learning them as well. I retrofitted mine tonight with a spring and flat washer on the positive end to have an easy twist and lock squeeze connection at the positive end. The washer also is closer to the wick so that reduces hot spots at the top leg.

So far it's been working well and 1.8 ohms @ 11w and vaping like a train but still have to tilt a bit until the wick picks up some ability and I was shocked after building the coil, Petar K style over a drill bit and firing it up, I slid the once over oxidized 400 SS mesh and went to town. Only after I was vaping it did I realize I didn't do any juice burns or dunks in water. I guess I get it well enough with the torch that it didn't need any further oxidation!

Grats and RBA's are awesome to tinker around with and once you have a good build it's hard not to want to rip it apart and do it again; only thing is, you'll not get it the same way twice, lol.

~Icky

I was getting hot spots near the negative end of the but loosened the negative end and tightened up a bit and bam perfect. I think I and just getting lucky with the coil building stuff cause I am having a blast messing with it. I want to order another one just to have around and mess with. I think I will wait for the new version of the aga to hit the states instead of spending 150 bucks on a device that does the exact same thing.

 

[HEADBANGERS]

congratulations

 

[on3fifth]

congratulations

Thanks a bunch!

 

[fraghole]

Congrats, it took me twice to get my coil and uwick rockin.

 

[on3fifth]

Congrats, it took me twice to get my coil and uwick rockin.

Very nice!! I am extremely intimidated by the uwick I don't know if the aga-t can even use a uwick. hmmm time to look i guess

 

[on3fifth]

l just used 28 awg kanthal and got .8 ohms. Seems very low but at 3 volts it is working very well. Is there something i did wrong to get it so low? Used the same wick from the 2.0 ohm setup.

 

[tartanraven]

the lower the AWG, the lower the resistance. I use 34 on my custom AGA-T's and bliSS's

 

[on3fifth]

Ok I am sure I have settled with using only 32 AWG wire. 2 reasons..1. Way easier to work with IMO. 2. More of the resistance I want. I only spent $1.50 on the wire so no big lose.