I've been trying to make alien wire but I'm having a problem with my Clapton (26x34 N80) for the life of me I can not decore it, I've watched a lot of videos on alien wire and their cores just slide out with ease but mine appears to be stuck as if it's wrapped to tightly. I've tried unwinding one end, clipping both ends, brute force and nothing has really worked. I did have some luck with sliding the outter wire off with a pair of wire cutters but I ended up loosing some of the outter wire and when I wrapped it looked awful. Just wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if there's some trick to making it slide off.
Need help with alien wire.
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The 34 gauge is wrapped too tightly around the core, I had the same problem, the next problem is stretching that wire to the right point. If you don't stretch it out enough it won't re-wrap right, stretch it too much, same problem. The third problem is re-wrapping and getting all of the arches to align properly. FYI, I have yet to master this build. I've wasted a lot of 34 gauge wire. I didn't think this build was going to be so frustrating, I've done staple claptons, and fused just fine, but this one's been killing me. Good luck!
Oh and to help slide that outer wire off of the core, try lubricating the core with a little e-juice first, that might help.
To take the Clapton off, clip off the side of the core wire that you started the Clapton with, make sure it's straight and stick side of the core with the end of the Clapton you just finished into the chuck. Slowly spin the drill the same direction you wrapped it in while gently sliding the wrap off. Another thing you could try is to loosen the Clapton by running the drill in reverse & pulling off some wraps as if you'd made a mistake before you attempt to decore the wire. That should loosen up the Clapton enough so you could slide it off.
Edit: another thing you could try is re-straightening the core wire without touching the Clapton on it. Just make sure none of the wrap is inside of the chuck or on the other end that you'd be holding with your pliers. Then make sure both ends are straight and have no bends in them and try to decore it. I would advise against lubing it up with VG or juice because you're not only lubing the core but the entire Clapton wrap, and it might make it harder to take off.
Edit: another thing you could try is re-straightening the core wire without touching the Clapton on it. Just make sure none of the wrap is inside of the chuck or on the other end that you'd be holding with your pliers. Then make sure both ends are straight and have no bends in them and try to decore it. I would advise against lubing it up with VG or juice because you're not only lubing the core but the entire Clapton wrap, and it might make it harder to take off.
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I'm not sure if this is the right place to comment but, I found that Alien kanthal is a bit different than A1 kanthal, after dry firing it, the tinge looks different, and the usual tightness of wrapping other kanthal doesn't short out on adjacential wraps, but alien wire does that a lot. Even after using the strum technique that tend to happen. Over firing while dry firing will drop the resistance of the wire noticeably too....
I didn't know they made alien Kanthal...I must look into this. But if you meant alien Claptons with 3 Kanthal cores, you need to get the hotspots out. I use N80, but the principal is the same. Pulse & pinch with ceramic tweezers while firing. Sometimes even insert the bit you used back into the finished coil to straighten it out a bit. Pulse and pinch again until there are no hotspots. I've noticed that with any type of coil that if you don't wrap it properly, you're going to get flux in resistance from your first pulse to when you're finished setting the coil. Usually it'll drop a little bit with any coil. Also, remember to re-tighten your post screws if they're prone to loosening up
Wait..... so the Alien I've got is probably something else? lol.... Kanthal after drry firing usually gives a blue anodization, the ones I've got gives a slight brownish look, any ideas what it might be? the vape shop guy said it's kanthal and now I'm starting to doubt...
Add: googled, yeap N80 is sorta brown after dry firing.
It's prolly Kanthal because it sounds like you dry fired to get rid of a lot of hotspots, probably a little too much. Are you using a regulated mod? If so how many watts are you pulsing at? N80 goes green after it turns awesome pulse fire colors.
I'm on mechs, target wattage about 40W. Well it's not even blue at any moment tho.....
if you are twisting your core wire that you wrap your clapton on its possible that the twists will create little ridges and make it a little harder to slide off, i normally just straighten that wire out by running it inside my hand, if your claptoning with your thumb against the core wire it doesnt matter if you have a wavey wire.
i straighten out the three core wire for the alien by drill spinning
i straighten out the three core wire for the alien by drill spinning
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Is there a huge difference in the flavor/vape production between this and a regular Clapton? I tried this wire build a few times and found it to be a real pain in the balls. Gave up once I ran out of 32g 
Yes noticeably.Is there a huge difference in the flavor/vape production between this and a regular Clapton? I tried this wire build a few times and found it to be a real pain in the balls. Gave up once I ran out of 32g
Also for anyone having issues I've found the more "prep" work and precautions you take to make sure the center 3 wires don't collapse on each other, the cleaner it will be. For me I bend a 90 degree angle at the bottom of all the core wires (one for each split of the chuck) then tape not only at the top of the wire, but also at the bottom (the portion in the chuck).
The next troubleshooting steps come into how much tension you're pulling on the wire when wrapping, and how pulled apart your decored wire is. If you check the macros in Squidoode's tutorial, that is what you want. Spread out as far as possible so the wire maintains a little bit of spring. Once you're wrapping you literally want as little tension as it takes. For me when I start wrapping I start with a lot of tension until I see it start to "snap" into place around the core. Once that happens I loosen my grip to literally just enough to guide/hold the wire in place. Once you get a hand of the "feeling" it really does all the work for you. Just once you start spinning your drill you cannot stop your groove or most likely the wire will get messed up.
Another practice method to get the "feeling" down is wrap your decored around 28g and make a dual core alien with the fishing swivel method. This way you don't have to be afraid of warping the wire further down, and you can just vary your grip strength until you get it down.
If you need pictures or anymore advice let me know I can do my best to show you what I mean.
Thanks for all the tips. I'll def try again, though a single 18650 is a bit weak for Claptons. Next time I'll order the 250 ft spool of 32g for ten bucks from kidney puncher. If I run out then... Back to remedial wrapping lol
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also, if your wrapping alien onto n80 core wires its possible that just straight up kanthal will work for you as it wont move about as much and try to twist together as much
there are so many variations on actual setup technique that i think you just have to try them all untill you find the method that works for you, i do it very similar to Deap but i only pull the clapton apart a bit, pretty much keeping right angles in the springs and then with the three cores i leave the ends furthest from the drill loose, no tape, i have them come out of the drill parallel then i make the wire open up so they all go away from each other
there are so many variations on actual setup technique that i think you just have to try them all untill you find the method that works for you, i do it very similar to Deap but i only pull the clapton apart a bit, pretty much keeping right angles in the springs and then with the three cores i leave the ends furthest from the drill loose, no tape, i have them come out of the drill parallel then i make the wire open up so they all go away from each other
At the end of the day aliens are just a game of willpower, just when you give up that's when you can do it. They're frustrating, but you'll get it eventually. Also last recommendation try higher gauge outer wire 34/36g outer N80. I find the cores get less messed up. I still find 32 and 34 harder to wrap than 36. Also kanthal is just a bit too strong for the outer wire make sure nichrome is used it makes it a small degree easier which goes miles for 3+ core wires.
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