Nautilus mesh wick and inner sleve rebuild. Just photos, no text and not mine either.

[ForeverDiving]

Reviewing the famous RiP Trippers video on single-coil + cotton rebuild video of a nautilus head, I came across a comment by Paul Till with a link to this ingenious mesh rebuild. Since I don't have any mesh and ordering some to try it will have me sitting for a good four or five days unless I want to splurge twice the materials cost on next day delivery, I won't be doing it anytime soon. Kudos to Mr. Till for the great idea!


I would PM him here were it not for the anonimizing noms de plume everyone uses. In any case, the pics are good enough to get the essence of the idea and I've already opened one of my burnt heads —that being the most difficult part.

Since Mr. Till doesn't explain how, I must say that it took me some experimenting that nearly destroyed it when it dawned on me that the "extractor" was nothing more than a push rod.

Placing the head right-side up in a suitable hole or tube that rests against the flange, and gently knocking on the inside with a fitting rod (screw, drill bit, etc.) will push the bottom -inner- part out and allow the mesh conversion. The rest should be more or less straightforward.

I'd like to know the mesh type and coil data but it's not rocket science. I guess 300~400 mesh plus 28~32WGA Kanthal for the coil should cover all the bases. I´ve managed 1.5~1.8Ω with K. A1 32 on a 2mm screwdriver; 5 to 8 turns.

Please let me know if smebody succeeds at this, how it tastes/wicks and also if somebody is acquainted with Mr. Till. I'd like to congratulate him.

 

[DejayRezme]

Oh nice, thanks for the link! I've seen the rip tripper video too but I don't think he knew about the removable bottom part. I'm just starting rebuilding, so I don't have the right tools to try this stuff either, but was already thinking about this... the Nautilus is my favorite tank so far because of the glass tank and airflow control (and no whistling!), is cheap and has only a few parts to clean. If it could be rebuild more flexible that would totally rock.

Can anybody tell me why the mesh wick around the head? As a reservoir and prevent flooding?

Why not just put a wick through those wick holes? I was thinking about drilling two of the wick holes to about 2mm, and threading a wick through the holes and coil. Either a stainless steel "bar" through the head, or use some kind of needle to pull a silicate wick through it.

Is there a kind of tool or needle that can "grab" a 2mm wick without making it bigger (no folding)?

If you find any more info about rebuilding the Nautilus, please share!

 

[ForeverDiving]

Can anybody tell me why the mesh wick around the head? As a reservoir and prevent flooding?

If you take apart a Nautilus head you will notice two things; there's a braided sleeve or liner made of incombustible material with four notches, that's where the original wicks (with their respective coils) rest, and there's an absorbent material, not unlike that of a paper towel between the gap left on the inner wall of the top part of the housing and the outer wall of the (notched) bottom section.

If you watch carefully photos 07, 08 & 11, you'll notice the bottom has a sort of step where the mesh (in photo 08) is wrapped around. You shall also notice that tha author folded the mesh in at the top of the notched tube, to ease the assembly go inside the top part.





My guess is that making that lower part go inside the top tube must be hard and on photo 11 you can see the border of the mesh where it's folded in to make it slide. I don't know what kind of antics this required to avoid ripping the mesh but being a 400 cal. it must be quite thin. Just check the size of the rolled wicks.



What I do know is that there's barely enough of a gap for two layers of the lining material which helps wick the juice through the small holes up to the wicks that run inside the coils —probably just 0.2mm or whereabouts, my caliper is not precise enough to measure that– and I know this absorbent material saturates with juice, as well as the wicks and the braided sleeve do.

The notches in the metal must generate enough capillary attraction between the absorbent liner and the notched inner sleeve that holds the (original) wicks in place so there's migration of liquid. This must be why the heads have to be left to saturate before firing them or you get dry hits.

Since my mesh is weeks ahead from me at best —the best supplier in Mexico doesn't have any at the moment and I just placed an order for some on ebay– I cannot judge the ease or difficulty of the rebuild, however I think that with proper washing and care not to burn the rebuilt coil, the head should last a long, long time.

Let's see if somebody succeeds at this and chimes in. I have my disassembled head ready for the day the mesh finally arrives.

PS,

Is there a kind of tool or needle that can "grab" a 2mm wick without making it bigger (no folding)?

I made me a "threading needle" out of a piece of wire of the kind used to pack the cables of electronic gadgets; twist ties I believe they're called. Just ripped the plastic sleeve off it and folded it in half. Helps me pass a folded 1.5mm wick through a 2mm coil. Wetting the wick a bit with juice (or even saliva) makes it less brittle so the wire doesn't snap it n two and alsoo helps to slide it in.

 

[DejayRezme]

Thanks for the explanation! I was wondering more about why they put a wicking material behind the holes, instead of through the holes. Probably just doesn't matter, but wicks though the holes might get sucked in when pulling on the atomizer.

Maybe they didn't want to have wicks hanging out the head so there is less danger of moving the coil by accident. Also the chimney is going very far down the atomizer head, so there isn't much space between the rim and the start of the chimney. Can't wait for my first Nautilus coil to burn out so I can experiment lol.

The new redesigned C2 atomizer head from Joyetech (eCom / eMode) has a similar design, they also have only 4 tiny wick holes with nothing hanging out. But the nautilus head has a straight, non tapering chimney. That might be better for vapor because of less turbulences?

 

[ForeverDiving]

But the nautilus head has a straight, non tapering chimney. That might be better for vapor because of less turbulences?

Fluid mechanics are not exactly my thing, although after giving 40 years of my life to the car trade I understand carburators, not that they are used any longer. I think a tall and narrow chimney should work as a kind of Venturi tube and somehow aid the pull. If you see your Naut assembly you will see there's one that just is not in the head but in the top cap. The particular dimensions should be calculated to match the size of the plenum chamber so they will vary from design to design.

I guess the peculiar design of the Naut heads is more out of necessity of a high capillarity than anything else, coupled to a marketing decision of having a totally contained look plus difficulty to rebuild ($$$). Only the CEO of the company must know for sure...

There are so many good attys out there, as well as tenfold that of crappy designs that it's dizzying. I've splurged for a Kayfun clone hearing so much hype about them. They seem to be already en route to Mexico —some three weeks more to clear customs and be delivered to my hole in the wall, maybe. I just pray it's everything I've heard. Surely next month there will be another dandy of the class; the new kid on the block!

In the meanwhile I've managed to make a decent (single silica wick) rebuild for my Nauts at 2.0Ω for those mods whith weak batteries. It gurgles even less than the originals as I crammed three lengths of 1.5mm silica in the wide spaced 32ga coil.

 

[DejayRezme]

Ok my first rather shoddy try at rebuilding the nautilus head with my idea of a stainless steel roll through a 2mm hole drilled straight through the head. It flooded...

I managed to mount the micro coil fairly easily, but the 12 wraps of 30 ga is almost too large. You can put it in there and stick a ss roll through it, I used 500 mesh. I had big problems with hot spots / shorts though. Not sure what part shorted. After a bit of pulsing, the coil glowed evenly, but if it got too hot one wrap in the middle started to get very hot and one half got dark. Then it got back to glowing evenly. Not sure if the legs shorted, the original coils uses NR-R-NR wire with some insulator (burned plastic?) around the legs. Maybe it was the SS mesh and not the legs, not sure. I oxidized both, wire and SS mesh, can it still short / produce hot spots?

Also I'd have to stop the flooding. The first problem would be to plug the 4 old wick holes and rely solely on the extra drilled hole. I could have reused two of the old wick holes, but I would have had to remove the inner piece and didn't find the right tools.
The ss roll was too thin and I couldn't "unroll" it after it was mounted because I already trimmed the ends. I think my microcoil was 1.83mm (from the coiling gizmo) and the drilled holes is 2mm which complicates things :/

I tried to vape it even though it was a gurgly mess. It also was pretty "harsh". Not sure if that is because of intense flavor or some burned metal :S I either tasted the purest flavor or the coil spat small drops of orange juice in my mouth X)

Even though it didn't work so well yet, here are some pictures:

 

[DejayRezme]

How does one avoid getting hot spots with SS mesh rolls? I've tried again with the SS sleeve. When I took out my previous SS roll there where actual holes burned through the mesh from hot spots. I torched the mesh thoroughly of course. I'm not entirely sure if it's the legs or a short with the SS roll, but when I move them to sit right I still got one of the middle wraps to glow much brighter than the rest, and some tiny bright glowing spot beneath the wraps on the ss roll.

 

[SadLittlePony]

awesome! now I know how to get it apart. never buying new atties for this sucker again. I also drilled a 3/16 hole in place of the smallest hole, which was usually jammed with pocket lint. Vapes waaaayyyyy more. Cant wait to build me a micro coil.

 

[DejayRezme]

I tried experimenting again (instead of doing it the easy way lol) and so far no luck. I drilled out both holes and put one 1mm ekowool through the micro coil and another ekowool on top at 90 degree as a "flavor" wick. But so far it tastes like ... and gurgles like hell lol. I only had 2mm drills so the wick holes are too big for my standard 1.22 micro coil I guess.

 

[ForeverDiving]

I tried experimenting again (instead of doing it the easy way lol) and so far no luck. I drilled out both holes and put one 1mm ekowool through the micro coil and another ekowool on top at 90 degree as a "flavor" wick. But so far it tastes like ... and gurgles like hell lol. I only had 2mm drills so the wick holes are too big for my standard 1.22 micro coil I guess.

Missed the updates, sorry. I've got a 1.4mm mcro drill but my sis-in-law is a dentist and I convinced her to drill me 1mm holes in one housing. She still has it but I'll have the thing back this week. Back when it does.

 

[DejayRezme]

Here is thread on reddit about nautilus head rebuild. Apparently he didn't remove the bottom section, but drilled the bottom section away to make more room (with a drill that fits inside the nautilus head but drills down the inner metal sleeve.
Not sure if that helps anything, but it's an idea. One could simply remove the metal sleeve and saw it off of course.

http://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_..._a_quick_tip_for_those_that_rebuild_nautilus/

 

[plumber105]

Hi all I don't usually post I normally just browse untill I find the solution to the particular problem I'm facing but I have a nautilus and at first was impressed with flavour / vapour although after putting new coils in found that I was getting alot of dry hits and I went through quite a few new heads so after some searching around found a thread on uk vapers (I am in the uk!) which was showing how to rebuild these heads basically you need to rip out the insides including the surrounding wicking material including the mesh (the bits that rip tripper says to be careful with ) and leave the inner sleeve where it is (so no dismantling) then using a 2mm drill, drill out 2 of the wicking holes at the bottom of the head on opposite sides then make a coil around the 2mm drill bit and insert into head rip tripper style using the blunt end of drill through holes to line up the coil then get a bit of cotton and without too much trouble thread through holes and coil then trim ends and pack the other 2 small wicking holes with cotton and voila reassemble and away you go you do need to get the cotton right but when done correct this rivals my russian91% for flavour and vapour production .
I know this is long winded but I was getting ready to bin my nautilus now I wouldn't be without it ! and thought I would share this method as it seems alot simpler and cheaper than the way in this thread. Hope this helps - happy vaping!

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk

 

[ForeverDiving]

Hi all I don't usually post I normally just browse untill I find the solution to the particular problem I'm facing but I have a nautilus and at first was impressed with flavour / vapour although after putting new coils in found that I was getting alot of dry hits and I went through quite a few new heads so after some searching around found a thread on uk vapers (I am in the uk!) which was showing how to rebuild these heads basically you need to rip out the insides including the surrounding wicking material including the mesh (the bits that rip tripper says to be careful with ) and leave the inner sleeve where it is (so no dismantling) then using a 2mm drill, drill out 2 of the wicking holes at the bottom of the head on opposite sides then make a coil around the 2mm drill bit and insert into head rip tripper style using the blunt end of drill through holes to line up the coil then get a bit of cotton and without too much trouble thread through holes and coil then trim ends and pack the other 2 small wicking holes with cotton and voila reassemble and away you go you do need to get the cotton right but when done correct this rivals my russian91% for flavour and vapour production .
I know this is long winded but I was getting ready to bin my nautilus now I wouldn't be without it ! and thought I would share this method as it seems alot simpler and cheaper than the way in this thread. Hope this helps - happy vaping!

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk

Great solution! Easy as pie.. I'll try it (rebuilding my new Fogger V4 at the moment)