Questions re: the balancing of tanks

[Sunburst]

Well folks, it's time for another installment of "Here's How I Was Wrong." TL;DR incoming. You've been warned.

It's funny how rebuilding one thing can pump you up to do others. Or, this is how my Zamplebox kicked me into gear. I rebuilt my Hobo clone this morning. I like that atty setup like a real, impolite beast. I like to run it at 50W, give or take 10. The problem is that most of my wick jobs have been fairly, um, bad. The homework assigned lead me to re-evaluate some correspondence I've had with JeremyR and re-watch his videos. If you don't know, he's sort of the Ambassador for Rayon around these parts.

So, I did a bit of rough trimming with the wicks dry, juiced up the ends just a little to help glue them in place and really did the finish work. Tails so thin that if you had enough time, you could actually count the fibers. Well, almost. Big, fluffy, juice reserving shoulders that droop just a smidge into the tails. Oh yeah, it's totally like that. Have I mentioned how little I care for building the Clonebo v2? Eh, doesn't matter, that's not why I'm here. Anyway, she works like a champ. I like this build at about 45W, but I stopped at 70 since the vape was too hot. And wicking was really, really keeping up.

Spurned on by that success, I rebuilt the Erl again, among others today. I was fairly happy with the flavor I was getting, but vapor was really anemic unless I let the 26ga do work and heat up making the vape too hot. I decided to go back to square one with it. So, I fired up the coil gizmo and made a 2mm 28 gauge seven wrap. It came out, on the money, to 1.2 ohms.

I abandoned KGD in it, which had been the best wicking I'd had with it. Since I had really, really good results with lightening up on the rayon density a bit in the Fauxbo, I gave rayon a shot again. I had found where it goes nutty tasting last week and figured out how much to back it down. Re-viewing JeremyR's videos were a real big help. He's doing great work. I also was playing around with thinning the tails out more after conversing with him in another thread. So, I wicked that bad sumbee up and really, really, really thinned the tails making sure to increase density a bit in the top of the channels while leaving some really fat, droopy shoulders that are even with the sides of the channels. I really should have taken pictures.

How's she vape? Well, just watch any of Twisted's videos about an atty he likes. But, if you held a gun to my head and demanded a polite answer, I'd just say that it vapes really, really well. I'm running at 14W and it could be a smidge warmer, but that's what this juice wants for the best flavor. The vapor production is actually surprising. I am a bit confused by that bit since the last two KGD wicks kept up with wicking unless I got stupid with the power. If I think about the changes I made, it kind of makes a bit of sense. I compensated for my bad wicking abilities by using a 3mm 26ga coil. Which due to some of the quirks of the Erl design, actually produced pretty warm vapor. I used 26 gauge to stuff the fattest coil in there that I could. I lifted it up to give the airflow a chance to envelop that coil and make sweet, sweet vapor. All of those things seemed like they should work. To be fair, it was a decent vape with tons and tons of flavor, but that baby was ugly. The flavor presented itself loudly, but it was quite unbalanced and super sensitive to power changes affecting flavor. Which to some extent is normal, but in this case, was almost funny. That's probably because 26ga had no business in there trying to vape at such low mw/mm^2.

Presently, with the 2mm 28ga build, she almost does what is called 'chucking' by the kids these days. Okay, it's not that big, but it was surprising to me. It is a satisfying amount of vapor with a nice, but on the cool side of warm temperature and packed with a really balanced flavor presentation. Now it's definitely a keeper and next time I tear it apart, I'll break out the drill and files and get down on it. I know I can get a replacement positive block with the bigger hole, but I'm a bit cheap. I'm also going to do some work on the drip tip. It needs opened up a bit and if I can find my Dremel, I'll shorten it up and tweak the shape.

Now I must be off, I have to re-wick my Magma clone to compare the flavor. And I should probably get some cleaning done before the wife gets home from work.

TL;DR - I rebuilt the most temperamental atty I have and I love it now. It turns out I was doing it wrong.

 

[Meresya]

One additional thing to consider in your vast array of calculations is the draw strength. I switch between tanks with stock coils and drippers. And I can tell you, just because someone does a ten second draw is totally and completely meaningless. How much air flow is sucked in with the draws? It is a fast intake or slow intake? Most times I hit tanks like you would a mouth hit off a cigarette. However, and this was a complete surprise to me, I can get more vapor off the tanks if I suck airflow from outside of the tank, letting the tank airflow slow down. Sort of like just using air current to hit the tank without actually touching the tank - trying to keep regulated topics out of the response. lol

 

[Sunburst]

One additional thing to consider in your vast array of calculations is the draw strength. I switch between tanks with stock coils and drippers. And I can tell you, just because someone does a ten second draw is totally and completely meaningless. How much air flow is sucked in with the draws? It is a fast intake or slow intake? Most times I hit tanks like you would a mouth hit off a cigarette. However, and this was a complete surprise to me, I can get more vapor off the tanks if I suck airflow from outside of the tank, letting the tank airflow slow down. Sort of like just using air current to hit the tank without actually touching the tank - trying to keep regulated topics out of the response. lol

I know what you mean, I lung hit like I mean it and I have to make a conscious effort not to do that with the ErlC. I end up getting juice in my mouth if I do. It's a frustrating device and I refuse to capitulate at this point in time. And, I think what you're describing is called slipstreaming. I have done it, but usually to cool down an otherwise awesome vape. Hmm, maybe I should try that, lol.

Thanks for the comment and suggestion.

 

[Sunburst]

Welp, unless you guys have more to talk about, I'm fairly well done here.

I drained my tank this morning and set out to drill out the center post thingamajig and open up the drip tip. I really should have waited to have some coffee, but as I lay in bed sloughing off my slumber, I was scheming and getting excited about hot-rodding the Erlc. So, I tear it apart, clean all the pieces and grab my drill and bits. I elected to use a 5/64 down the middle and a 1/16 through the post horizontally. That went fairly well, so I started up my tiny pot of water to get all the dish soap off of everything and gave the post a real good cleaning with pipe cleaners. I set everything on a towel to dry while I went to work on the drip tip. I don't remember what I used, but it was enough to account for the threads on the bottom. I knew there were threads there. This will become important in a minute.

So, I have everything cleaned and dried back at my desk. I start putting it back together. Upon trying to reassemble the base and 510 section, a realization strikes. There were threads in that post. After putting together a re-creation of the furnace scene from 'A Christmas Story,' I took a moment of silence and a vape for my fallen soldier.

The ErlC project came to end just as unsuspectingly as it started. I'm already planning its replacement. I'm thinking a Lemo or a Subtank mini. I never did get the vape that was hyped. Then again, I never vaped or built the authentic. The last build was really close to what I wanted, but there was still an edge to the flavor. It was almost like listening to a vintage radio. No depth, no low end, just the squawky upper mid-range. Lots of it. Enjoy your vapes and thanks for following along.

 

[TrashCat]

Thank you and RIP Erlclonigin.

I truly enjoyed your epic vape journey.

Looking forward to the next one

 

[Sunburst]

Cheers trashy. I will probably end up using the blog feature for this type of thing going forward. It just feels like the forum isn't intended for this. I'm bad at using a notebook or a spreadsheet and making notes of what I've tried. So, I'll probably open the blog when I rebuild. Eh, I don't know.

 

[Sunburst]

IT'S ALIVE!!! I was taking a look at it earlier, while reflecting upon my own stupidity, and I noticed that there was still a whole lot of thread left in there. I dug through all of my spares and my computer screws. No dice. Hmm. While drumming my fingers on the desk and thinking about using solder, dental floss, a doubled up half thread cover of teflon tape, I had a realization. It's already broken, why not take pliers to it and give it a tiny crimp. After all, some lock nuts just have a slight oblong at the end.

So, I went as far as what I estimated was four threads and gave 'er a good crimp. Oops, little too much. Rotated 90, little less crimp and reassembled the deck. Holy cow! It worked. So, I grabbed a machine screw that's about 2.4mm and threw a quick coil on it. It came out to 1.5, rock solid and no bouncing. I wicked it up and put about 2ml of Water Malone in it.

SWEET MOTHER OF SINGLE COIL VAPING GOODNESS! That's what all the fuss is. I know I'm prone to fits of hyperbole and new-girlfriend syndrome. Look at the above posts. Even when initially completely happy with the builds, there was always an edge to the taste that I couldn't get past. Sometimes the flavor was unbalanced but definitely prevalent. Well, this was so good, I had my wife vape it. It's her juice after all. She loves it and if I have it wicked so that it doesn't leak, it's hers.

Modifications performed: 5/64 center airflow hole, 1/16 holes on the sides of the pin. Drip tip hogged out, cut down and semi-reshaped with a file and sand paper.

Results: I have to use the AFC ring with this coil. Airflow is more than adequate now. Wicking is keeping up just fine. And I like the modified drip tip much more. It isn't pretty, but it dances well.

Conclusions: I'm really happy with this tank now. I think I must have missed some machine oil the first time. When I un-boxed it, I didn't tear it all the way down to clean it; I didn't know just how far it came apart. That was my fault. I get excited way too much over new gear and skip some elementary steps. And, this is the only topper I've used, including my Magma clone that I can actually detect the honeydew note in this juice. (My wife gets it from everything we have, I normally get kind of a dirt, or earthy taste.

If it weren't for her wanting to use it, I'd slap a slightly more fun build in it. I may order another one. And, when the drill comes out this time, I'm putting the 510 screw in it first, lol. And, I need left-hand threaded machine screws. Badly.