Maybe Mac, thanks again!!
Just wrapped another 30g, 10wraps on 1/16' - 1.9ohm. I wrapped it by hand, near perfectly. I found out that my problem seems to be when I use the tweezers to tighten the coil (after dry-firing), and to center the coil. Somewhere when I'm tightening/moving the coil with the tweezers, it loses its perfect shape and becomes a little wobbly.. I took pics of this entire process right now so I can show you what I mean.
It went from a perfect looking micro to a slightly wonky micro, will post pics. Hope it vapes good at least, because it still looks better than most of my recent attempts!!
Let me say M I love a lot of your questions as they often are confined to just one issue. And that let's me focus on that one particular problem. I'll start by admitting I'm so diddly fingered at times I couldn't win at thumb wrestling. So precision is possible when you're feelin' it, if you know what I mean. Best to put the work aside sometimes. I know, I snapped three consecutive .5x.1mm ribbon coils at the last possible moment yesterday. You can't push the work, it must guide you. It just took me a bit longer than usual, to take my own advice.
I know that delicate point you're talking about when you're trying to complete the set and finally remove the bit. When you do the final push-in for the grommet. That's when things often go
sideways. I've mentioned in other posts about the grommet set, that I'm using a two step process:
The first, to slightly insert the grommet then, with light hand or forceps tension,
relocate the exit path of each leg so that it best conforms to the exit alignment from the coil. As best as Trippers could explain it, "
pull 'em straight, in the same direction [they are going]." Or, said another way, in the direction the leg is pointing as it finishes its last turn on the coil. This I want to say is about roughly at 120 deg (or 4 O'clock, facing) of the end turns and
the termination exit point about a third of the way from either side of the housing assembly (depending on the length of the coil).
So you don't get exit paths that are directly across from each other; rather,
opposing each other in the perpendicular to the coil axis. Imagine cutting off both ends of a pie. That's what you want.
The second now becomes a matter of tension. Let me emphasize first that
the bit must remain rock solid at the bottom of the slot. The very main point of this entire thread, localization. It's at this juncture that skewing, introducing
arching of the coil, etc. (uneven tension to one leg or the other) or dislocation (pulling to one side or the other of the coil, or raising or lowering of an end turn) are most likely to occur. And this is where a pre-tensioned or torsioned coil really helps; as metal memory is forcing it resume its original shape on the bit with every adjustment. The key here is to
achieve a balance of tension of the legs. So it's very important that
the tension you apply here should be delicate and precise.
This is the point where you solve your issues. Take a deep breath, exhale and relax it's the equivalent of the sharp-shooters trigger pull here so get close to the magnifier,
set the legs and pull gently.
Keep centering the coil with a fine flat-head or pin as you tension the coil until those end turns are perfect and your
exit paths will at that point be optimal.
Let the work guide you. It will tell you what it needs.
The key, the tool here is observation, that's what I mean by
guide you. We often are so glad we got that finicky grommet in, we push up pull and go, never to think
did I pull the damn coil out I yanked so hard. Really. Unfortunately, that's the way the human brain functions, regrettably. We are so easily distracted to be rote. But at this first partial grommet set, you can't be. It's the trigger pull. The time for precision concentration, when the intuitive and mechanical (muscle memory) must yield to clear focus as each coil's final precision
is unique. They just happen to look perfectly identical if you do it right.
There still remains another hurdle to cross: the final grommet set and pin set. Each are accomplished independently. Each step to finish, the grommet may require a few push ins, alternatively adding tension to each leg as you proceed; and, you should check the integrity of the symmetry of the coil and leg exit each time to continue adjustments accordingly as needed. This may be to nudge the coil to one side slightly or tension one leg to do so. "
Small moves," as Carl Sagan would have put it. And, likewise with the final pin set for punctuation.
And yer done. And done right, takes a minute or two. When you let the work guide you. When you allow yourself to observe the obvious...
and not proceed despite it.
The latter is how you end up with funky lookin' honeys. Ya just weren't lookin'.
You can have the egg nog now.
Happy Holidays. Good luck!
