For chaining or plumes, I love my variable ZNA30 with bristling twisted pair dual coil tensioned micro's. But a Protank with t.m.c.'s is a great carry round.
Good luck.
Protank Cotton Rebuild, the way I do it
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For chaining or plumes, I love my variable ZNA30 with bristling twisted pair dual coil tensioned micro's. But a Protank with t.m.c.'s is a great carry round.
Good luck.
Initially as silicone worked it's way into the grommet supply it was just a suspicion. After the PT II heads (2Ω forward) came out you began to see some wild resistance reads on factory coil from the factory head stamp markings. It became curiouser when rebuilds got worse and would go out of whack easily with tank or device changes.
The reason leads slip, right along with the grommet. And where they end nobody knows. But it wasn't what you set.
So thank you f1ve for the validation. Of course, I work these tanks with a great many vapers and see this routinely. Done hundreds of these builds as you know. But it's high time it got posted prominently by folks. Specific verification that resistance skews by design. Why? Let's call it what it is. Because it's Kanger's JOB to know what their new grommets actually do!
That they seemingly don't begs the question. Kanger, really?
Now it's been my observation that there seem to be variations in the silicone composition. Some heads seem to break in, the silicone tempers or toughens in operation becoming less flaccid. Other head batches it appears to remain silly putty. So there is no QC here that I can see suggesting sources of supply must be varied for Kanger and accordingly, unpredictable as the resistance results such heads may yield.
Not a happy situation for us campers. No sir.
So it's not necessarily you folks (listening M?). There are many of us observing this lower-res. skew. And it's always potentially been there. It is possible to over-tighten a clearo head. However, it's substantially easy, in practical terms unavoidable, to do with silly putty grommets.
Pardon my rant. Hope you all payin' attention.
Good luck.
I know one thing: the Protank's frustratingly capricious resistance is the best argument I've yet seen in favor of variable-wattage devices over variable-voltage.
And thanks for the kind words earlier, Mac. Sat down and wrapped 20-ish coils this weekend, all in a bunch, because I've finally set my wife up with cotton-wicked mini protanks (and two itaste vv3 units). She ain't gonna rebuild, so it's best to have lots of spares. My effort was probably overkill, though; based on albeit relatively scant experience, the coils should last a long time as long as I clean them and rewick every few days.
Honestly, at this point the most annoying part of the process for me is screwing the naked heads onto the device to check resistance. And then unscrewing to wick, and then screwing them back on again to soak with juice and test fire. Without the chimney piece attached, there's no obvious place to hold the heads, so I usually just push down on the whole thing and twist with the tip of my finger, which hurts after awhile.
Thanks to all y'all, the coil-and-wicking parts are pretty much automatic by now. Using ~12 wraps of 30-gauge kanthal on a ~1ish millimeter eyeglass screwdriver. Twelve wraps is what I aim for, anyway; sometimes I lose count of the wraps, LOL. Usually works out to 1.5-1.8 ohms, but I really don't care as long as it's comfortably over 1.
The resistance does seem to settle down over time. FWIW, the stock protank (non-mini) bases seemed to give me the worst dancing-resistance problems. Ever since I dropped those, I've only noticed a few resistance inconsistencies, and those usually not too pronounced.
On the upside, I've yet to see a burn mark on any of my grommets. If a little resistance mambo is the trade off, then I'll take it.
Capricious, good word and quite apropos to the dilemma posed by the remote supply chain we're faced with.
That is a lot of coils! You're lucky you can get away with 2-3 days. I'm grimacing after a day or so with my drippers. And my experience has been the other with older Protank bases being less prone to res. variation. The newer Aero's, awful. Some…silicone grommet heads seem to settle down, as I wrote about. And I do see a very broad range of product from many sources. Some variability is to be expected. What I'm seeing lately is redick. And I'm discarding many as once they start to give me problems I dump 'em keeping what parts I may. So guess what, I've got a lot of chimneys, LOL.
Ah, installing the head in the base, PIA. I usually use a light curved tip forceps to grasp the tip of the head at the slot. As much as I handle the darn things, I get enough of the juice on me as it is. And it helps detecting hangers to focus on the threading.
But wait, there's a great alternative! Use a paper towel, hah. Why do we have to look at it, right? LOL
Good luck Fulgurant and thanks for the feedback.
I don't have any of the new milky looking silicone grommets so the issue is prevalent with both types.
It has to be the type of rubber/silicone in some grommets as some barely suffer from this issue.
It has to be the type of rubber/silicone in some grommets as some barely suffer from this issue.
The very initial supply which came with the first and interim (1.5 glass crossbar) varieties was mostly a composite rubber. Sometime after the interim "PT 2" and Protank II we got a composite that contained apparently a higher percentage of silicone. There things started to get a bit dicey at times. But as I mentioned, not all heads were the same coming through. I still have an ample supply for comparison of the original grommets. Some scarred going back to my initial few weeks vaping before I started winding in earnest nine months ago. These though somewhat stiff remain consistent in operation. It's been extremely interesting to watch this evolve. But I've been frankly reticent to discuss this issue but for the magnitude of the problem that it's created.
I refrained from comment while the full silicone solution was pending release but dreaded the notion as I tried to wave folks like Trayce away from the idea way back when the term burny grommets was adopted. I just didn't think it would work and it's become clearer to me silicone is not such a great idea anyway due to its lack of heat resistance. It is, to a point. And that point makes it inadequate as in insulator, imo, despite our safer better behaved tensioned coils. I had hoped otherwise. And Kanger's non-res wire suggests they think much the same (the grommets are not adequate).
I need to clarify with Sean over at Lightning if the current iteration "rubber" is in fact that or the rubber composite silicone I've already tested previously from them. In the meantime I'm holding on to my old ones. Research continues on clone sources.
Good luck all.
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You are spot on Mac, the ones that don't skew the resistance much have a sandy texture to them..almost like a pencil eraser but not as rough.
You are a marvelous observer Dr. Watson.
They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work. ― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
I'm listening Mac.. Man, to think that when those new silicone grommets came out, I ditched a bunch of my rubber ones and tried to get more new ones; because I thought the silicone would be easier to squeeze in (and it is). But I'm kicking myself now for ditching those rubber grommets. All this makes sense, at least I still have a few of the old grommets left.
When I rebuild tonight, I'm going to use 1 of the old rubber grommets, for the 1st time in awhile. Thanks Mac, five and everyone else!
When I rebuild tonight, I'm going to use 1 of the old rubber grommets, for the 1st time in awhile. Thanks Mac, five and everyone else!
The problem with progress is that it's not always what it's touted to be.
Just sayin'.
Just rewicked a coil w cotton for the first time! So far so good but used a bit much for this mini. Was hard to get it to all screw together at first. Did this on a fresh coil.. Screwed up on an old coil BC I didn't let it soak first but the wire isn't mangled so I'll still play with it.. Ty for the tutorial!
Edit... The taste! I didn't think the boysenberry pancakes could taste any stronger.. Wrong! Wow!
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Edit... The taste! I didn't think the boysenberry pancakes could taste any stronger.. Wrong! Wow!
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Soul grab your boots kick it down the road past that coil you got and try a tension wind. If you have some Kanthal and either a 1/16" or slightly larger screwdriver you can use a forceps or vice grips to hold one end of the wire while you wind. You don't absolutely need to wind from the spool. And good old mother nature will keep those turns even, tight and not crossing each other. The result about as perfect a coil as physics allows. That'll improve your vape by several months (or years) maybe.
No fiddlin' necessary.
Tap us on the shoulder here if you need help.
Good luck soul.
Once I get some kanthal I will definitely try it. Just currently jobless and on an extremely limited budget so it will have to wait. Heck got the cotton balls from my girlfriend even. But wanted to do what I can.. I'm not the most patient guy in the world. Thanks for the encouragement!
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Cotton as wick is a great fix for gurgling problem as long as you don't use to much
Cotton's just a wick mike. One of numerous options. All of which have best application for some device or juice favorite for example. However, it's not suitable for everything including high power in some devices and builds. A case in point would be the Protank where it tends to dry out at high wattage with small diameter coils. And too much coil can cause, well, gurgling. Speaking of which, congratulations. Because it looks like you got the density right. And that's not easy for everyone with cotton. And I might add your reasoning is right on. Too much cotton will definitely interrupt the flow and cause gurgling (flooding).
Didn't I just say that?
You found a good thread Mike. Thanks for your contribution, and
Good luck.
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One thing I notice with cotton is I get way more popping/cracking. Which I always associate with tastier vapor! Seems true do far!
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Usually an indication that you're running dry.
It would seem from other wick media but the exact opposite is true.
You'll get airier and so apparently more vapor when this happens. In fact your vapor density has declined and heat is rapidly expanding the remainder as the coil/wick is getting hotter without the cooling effect of juice. This gives the appearance of more vapor, not flavor though. And that's how you tell.
If it's a fresh build it may be normal but try and juice up the wick a bit more prior to vape. If it starts to scorch on ya it'll taste like sh!te and give you the mother of all dry hits.
At first sight, the thing to suspect is the possibility that your wick is a tad too tight or dense. It may suffice for the moment but with repeated near-scorching may start to funk out on ya right quick. The other possibility is your flavor wick if you use one may be too full and is chocking off the primary wick. A third possibility is too much power applied for the wick you have (not enough flow). Or any combination.
But the key to being able to rest with these three simple adjustments...is to make sure there isn't a short that could be overheating the coil and drying out the wick. The main indicator, resistance. If that's off to the high or the low (from what you built, where you should be per the wind) substantially the most common is a leg hanger (described elsewhere on this thread and how to deal). The remainder bad coil or termination geometry/orientation.
You're doing good. Assuming no resistance change, that means no shorts in all likelihood and a solid build. You've got a vape goin' and you're not flooding. The rest is fine tuning.
This thread is here to help folks know where they stand. If you build a simple precision coil install by a standard, you have that starting point. You know what optimal will be. And you'll always know how to get it back.
Good luck soul.
I took the shorter lead and pulled it tight to maintain tension and lightly wrapped it around the bit.
.
Thanks for this tip!! I was mushing mine all to heck when I put it back together. This made getting back together (with a straight/centered coil) a breeze!
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