Preparing to rewick my ProTank 2 with cotton, how much do I need?

[Technohydra]

About to do my first rebuild on my ProTank 2 with 32ga Kanthal Vapewire and #4 worsted weight cotton yarn. My question to those who have tried this: how many strands of yarn should I use for a wick to avoid choking / flooding? I have heard anywhere from 1 -4 lengths, and at least as many more arguements as to why these are the amounts to use.

So, anyone with experience doing thi little proceedure, please let me know what has worked for you and what to avoid. I will post my results as well as soon as my spool of wire comes in (tomorrow?).

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

The standard I always used was to shoot for a thickness of about 3mm or about 1/8 inch. Wrap rather loosely because the cotton will expand a bit as it saturates.

Cotton is really good at moving and maintaining the liquid in place. You should notice an improvement in flavor and vapor production, but make sure the wick is properly primed before you fire it. Burnt cotton can't be fixed and you'll have to do it all over again.

 

[Maggie3199]

About to do my first rebuild on my ProTank 2 with 32ga Kanthal Vapewire and #4 worsted weight cotton yarn. My question to those who have tried this: how many strands of yarn should I use for a wick to avoid choking / flooding? I have heard anywhere from 1 -4 lengths, and at least as many more arguements as to why these are the amounts to use.

So, anyone with experience doing thi little proceedure, please let me know what has worked for you and what to avoid. I will post my results as well as soon as my spool of wire comes in (tomorrow?).

I like this question as I'm new to this also, thanks!

 

[Technohydra]

The standard I always used was to shoot for a thickness of about 3mm or about 1/8 inch. Wrap rather loosely because the cotton will expand a bit as it saturates.

Cotton is really good at moving and maintaining the liquid in place. You should notice an improvement in flavor and vapor production, but make sure the wick is properly primed before you fire it. Burnt cotton can't be fixed and you'll have to do it all over again.

I really can't wait to try this. I am vaping some 18mg Wisconsin Frost at the moments, and already love the taste with a half dead silica wick and week old stock coil. I am hoping that when I take my first vape off of the rebuild that the stuff floats out my ears and I die of a heart attack with a huge satisfied grin on my face. I have good photo and video equipment, so I may do some A/V work related to said rebuild (after I finish my C# program this weekend...).

 

[Scarey]

I've been using gauze, and hand spinning its fibers into yarn, like you would do with any fiber you were going to use for making textiles. In principle it's the same. Use just enough that you can slip it into the coil. There should be a bit of resistance, but not enough to deform the coil. After you get it through, look to make sure the yarn is not puffed out at either end of the coil. It should look straight. That's when dry. After you wet it with liquid, it will expand a bit. That's okay. I also like to leave a small tail on either end, that I can wrap around the base of the head. I haven't needed to add a top with that. I've only had a couple gurgling episodes, and that's after I've left the tank sitting for a couple hours, and when it gets below half full. That was with 80%pg/20%vg. 100%vg behaved very well.

 

[docp1620]

I make micro coils for my pro tanks and t-3s and they work great with cotton yarn, don't know what 4 weight yarn is, what I have is some yarn from wal-mart that has 4 strands 100% cotton. Lots of videos on you-tube on how to make micro coils( rip trippers!) I then take a small length of yarn, 1 or 2 inches, then wet my finger tips and roll the end of yarn between them to tighten it up then thread it through the coil, I find I need to keep twisting the yarn to get it through, once the end comes through I pull it further then trim. I then use one or two strands as flavor wicks. Hope this helps

 

[Taylor7617]

Docp1620 - I'm the same, use cotton on my micro coils. Have experimented between 2 and 4 strands of Wally-world cotton inside the coil. I've noticed on a couple of mine that I'm getting some popping of the juice. Not sure the cause. Have you gotten anything like this?

Maybe to much or not enough wick?

 

[scalewiz]

I wind my coils and then pull the cotton through, using drill bits to wind the coils on.

Using a 1/8 inch bit, I have good results with a single strand of 4-ply yarn.
Using a 5/64 inch bit, I will unravel a second length of yard, removing 2 strands. I twist all 6 strands and pull them through the coil.

It all depends on the size of your coil. Experiment, just make sure that you don't get the cotton in there tight. As stated above, cotton will swell when wet; silica does not expand much. It may seem slightly loose, but when wetted down it will tighten up nicely. Too tight, and it will taste burnt. Lately I've been using cotton balls, pulling the fine strands through loosely, and I am finding it is much easier to use and performs very nicely, but not quite as durable as the yarn.

 

[Technohydra]

Good info. I went home for lunch / dinner prep (throw roast, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and barley in a pot) and my Vapowire was sitting on the step in all of its postal packaged glory. Almost didn't go back to work...almost...the engineering degree was telling me to go inside and play.

 

[tom_chang79]

Here ya go, that tuft was enough to do two PT coils... YMMV

It's a bit tricky at first, too much, and you'll choke your juice, too little, you get flooding and leaking...

 

[Technohydra]

Results: Attempt 1, shorted coil to the atty body....damnit...Attempt 2, shorted coil to the atty body...Swore, raged, and spear-chucked one of the cats head first through a wall...ragequit.

Wait an hour, realize that the mandrel I am wrapping around is too large. Attempt 3 on smaller mandrel: blinding success! Pulling 2.2, 5 wraps 32ga Kanthal A1, single length of yarn. I have had a little flooding, so next time i will be taking 6 of the threads than make up the yarn instead of a normal strand (which is 4 threads). All in all, I have learned a lot, and plan on posting some helpful info here this weekend for us newb rebuilders.

 

[Technohydra]

Correction, I used far too little wicking material. I am getting a lot of wet pops and the tank is getting so saturated that I can't even take a decent draw on it most of the time. I am going to rebuild the other head tonight and try 8-10 plys (2-2.5 starnds of yarn) and see if that solves the flooding. Always a work in progress, I guess. Really is convincing me of the need to put some pics and vid out there though. I write documentation and test things for a living, so I'd like to think I might be able to come up with a decent guide for we first timers.

 

[Trayce]

You don't have to rebuild a new head. Can gently pull your floody wick from the coil and thread in a new one to re-try. Unless it's too small for how much yarn you plan to pass through it.

BTW, there are a lot of YouTube vids on rebuilding coils from likes of GrimmGreen, PBusardo and such. The problem with writing an instructional guide for newbies based on your own experience (as you mentioned) is that "one size does not fit all." Depending on juice viscosity, the type of head being rebuilt, vaping style (ohms/power) and other factors, what works great for one isn't necessarily the same as what works great for another. People also use all kinds of cotton (different brands of yarn, rolled, balled, Q-tip, batting, etc) and I'd wager it all wicks just a little differently, even though it's all 100% cotton.

But it def takes practice to get it down, and the more people share about how they are doing it and finding success, the easier it is for the next guy or gal to try all different things to find what works for them. Hope you get your flooding issue taken care of. Some ppl who use yarn use one or two flavor wicks. Others say flooding can be caused by flavor wicks if using thick juice, so... Hence the trial and error phase.

 

[shaneshaheen]

Ever since I've heard silica wicks are no good I switched. .first I used 100 percent yarn from joanns fabrics it was the sugar and cream medium 4..I didn't really like the taste it gave off...so than I used just plain ol cotton balls and they work perfectly and really bring out the flavor..make sure u boil what ever you use twice for atleast 20mins twice and each time changing the water and letting it dry..I change my wicks everytime I use a different flavor...its cheap and works ..hope that helps...I use a t3s

 

[Trayce]

Ever since I've heard silica wicks are no good I switched. .first I used 100 percent yarn from joanns fabrics it was the sugar and cream medium 4..I didn't really like the taste it gave off...so than I used just plain ol cotton balls and they work perfectly[...]

I can second that Joanne's Sugar & Cream yarn tastes bad. Even after boiling. I also moved to organic cotton balls.

But while I had initial success, now I too am finding it hard to make a wick that doesn't flood... am not sure if I should be using less cotton and a smaller coil, or more cotton. It seems like the cotton is TOO good at wicking!

Wouldn't it be nice if the heads came with organic cotton wicks!

EDIT: I figured out what I was doing wrong. In case it helps someone else... I use nearly 100% VG and it seemed like the cotton-ball cotton fibers were too fragmented and wispy to hold that heavy liquid... that it was seeping from the wick down the breather hole on the center pin. Also was probably seeping in the wicking holes. I had just been pulling cotton off the ball, trying to get a "long line of fibers" but I wasn't compressing or twisting it up much... just left it fluffy and fat when I pulled it through the coil.

Well this time I pulled off a long fat, fluffy line of cotton fibers then twisted, compressed and rolled it between my fingers into a very condensed, very compressed and skinny long twisted wick, about 1mm in thickness and 6in long. Then doubled it over and twisted the wispy ends together to thread through the coil, pulling the doubled wick through as far as I could until I nearly pulled the coil out. So it was really tight in the coil, (which many people say you shouldn't do, and maybe for PG juice it isn't good, but for me it's working great). After centering the coil I replaced the stem without priming it, since my problem has been over-saturation, and trimmed the wick ends. I could already tell the stem seated better and the wick holes were plugged firmly on both sides of the chimney. I let it sit 30min then tried it, and it is hitting perfect. No flooding, gurgling or leaking.