READYxWICK for non cotton people

[oldbroad]

Well people...I tried again today to make a couple of RxW setups.....failure again. Oh, I got a real tasty, bitey vape with the first couple of hits, then it was totally tasteless.

One of them was 28Ga. Kanthal wrapped semi- tightly around the wick that had a small mandrel inserted in the core. I torched the wire first. Had spaces in between the wraps, 8 of them. I the ohms were 1.5. I wet the wick and coil with juice, fired and did it again a couple of times, then squonked real well, that's when i had a couple of really good hits....then nothing. I dry burned it a couple of times, wet it real good..again hardly any vapor and no TH or taste. The coil isn't sitting close to the bottom and it's as far from the posts as I could get it without touching the edge.

I want to love this stuff but I'm beginning to believe that I'm not savvy enough to make them well. I know it's me, but after about a half dozen tries i'm pretty well frustrated. So many of you make it sound so easy, and i;m sure it is...I'm just missing some major component.

 

[ltrainer]

Well people...I tried again today to make a couple of RxW setups.....failure again. Oh, I got a real tasty, bitey vape with the first couple of hits, then it was totally tasteless.

One of them was 28Ga. Kanthal wrapped semi- tightly around the wick that had a small mandrel inserted in the core. I torched the wire first. Had spaces in between the wraps, 8 of them. I the ohms were 1.5. I wet the wick and coil with juice, fired and did it again a couple of times, then squonked real well, that's when i had a couple of really good hits....then nothing. I dry burned it a couple of times, wet it real good..again hardly any vapor and no TH or taste. The coil isn't sitting close to the bottom and it's as far from the posts as I could get it without touching the edge.

I want to love this stuff but I'm beginning to believe that I'm not savvy enough to make them well. I know it's me, but after about a half dozen tries i'm pretty well frustrated. So many of you make it sound so easy, and i;m sure it is...I'm just missing some major component.

Kay, could you be wrapping your coil too tight around the wick. That will make it not wick very well. Thats all I can think of. I'm building 28 gauge on a16 luer and sliding the wick in and its wicking great. I've read that this wick can be choked if it gets wound too tight.

 

[MasterofNone]

Kay, could you be wrapping your coil too tight around the wick. That will make it not wick very well. Thats all I can think of. I'm building 28 gauge on a16 luer and sliding the wick in and its wicking great. I've read that this wick can be choked if it gets wound too tight.

And as a counter, too loose on this stuff is like too loose on a-well, a rigid ceramic wick, actually. Or a mesh wick. When it's soaked you may incidentally get a good hot, but as soon as that coil is not dripping, it's gonna taste like garbage- even if your atty gurgles hole down. Looking at my above pick, it looks like I'm blind, and my coils wasn't nearly as compressed as I thought. Haha. So yea, I guess tiny gaps between the loops works well with this wick.


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[freedogg]

I'm using the DZ coil jig 1/16th mandrel, threading in 2mm RXW in all 5 of my REO's and they are all amazing!!

I feel bad that you are having trouble with RXW.!!

 

[MasterofNone]

See I did that for one of mine, and I was getting the dry hits. Maybe my micros are TOO perfect on the jig? They look like itty bitty slinkies pre- stair fall lol

Plus I don't care what y'all say threading this stuff is a beyotch . Used dental floss to get it through last time, but once it's in it just slides around.


I hate deceptively tight openings that lead to a gaping maw


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[freedogg]

1/16th = 1.59mm.

RXW is 2mm. I don't see how putting 2mm in a 1.59mm coil can be loose??

Are you cutting the RXW at an angle which forms a point and then screwing/twisting it into the coil??

 

[MasterofNone]

Freedog I have not tried cutting at an angle yet... Guess that's the next step lol


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[Dconnor]

Freedog I have not tried cutting at an angle yet... Guess that's the next step lol


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I've been cutting at an angle and hitting it with the torch till it glows. Goes through much easier than trying to get the end wet.

 

[ltrainer]

Freedog I have not tried cutting at an angle yet... Guess that's the next step lol

 

[freedogg]

LT that's beautiful.

 

[ltrainer]

LT that's beautiful.

I just wanted to show how I cut the RxW so it goes in easily. I had trouble getting it in until I did this.

 

[MasterofNone]

Is that 28 or 26 ga Lauren? That's a nice coil


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[oldbroad]

I'm using the DZ coil jig 1/16th mandrel, threading in 2mm RXW in all 5 of my REO's and they are all amazing!!

I feel bad that you are having trouble with RXW.!!

If that mandrel is the larger one on the DZ jig, that's what I've used a couple of times, with the 2mm RxW. The first one I made the wick was way loose...is it supposed to be that loose? At any rate, that was no good either.

And I've trimmed one end at an angle whenever I've used the DZ jig.

Oh, and the other one I made was on the DZ jig...I wet it with juice after I trimmed the end and this time the wick wasn't so loose as the first one that i hadn't wet first...so i guess that shows how much the wick expands when it gets wet....somehow that sounds sexy....

 

[MasterofNone]

Rene 41, 10 wrap on 1/16th... 1 ohm. Me easy wick threaded through with dental floss... It worked! And damn is it good!

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[rudy4653]

Ah, I wonder if I see my problem. My wicks were about half the length of yours - perhaps it's different than using cotton?

Not really. Your's should be good.
This was one of my earlier builds. I left the tails a bit too long actually. I normally leave only about 1/8" on either side of the coil.

 

[rudy4653]

Kay, could you be wrapping your coil too tight around the wick. That will make it not wick very well. Thats all I can think of. I'm building 28 gauge on a16 luer and sliding the wick in and its wicking great. I've read that this wick can be choked if it gets wound too tight.

+1 Kay.
I was a proponent of the insert mandrel direct wrap method as well but after reading MacTech's threads I have also switched to building on 16g luer and inserting 2mm wick. Fits perfect! Cut end at angle, dip in juice, slip in coil turning as you go. I then give it a good squonk let soak in give a couple short burns, squonk again then good to go!

 

[MacTechVpr]

See I did that for one of mine, and I was getting the dry hits. Maybe my micros are TOO perfect on the jig? They look like itty bitty slinkies pre- stair fall lol

Plus I don't care what y'all say threading this stuff is a beyotch . Used dental floss to get it through last time, but once it's in it just slides around.


I hate deceptively tight openings that lead to a gaping maw


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MoN, you have an excellent point. Loose wicks don't vape.

There seems to be still a lack of clarity about designations for (3m) ceramic braid and what it's actual size is. Of the three legitimate (cleaning/treating) relatively well known preparers the nomenclature seems to flip back and forth.

My experience going back to BTV is Marty had the 3mm product designated as XC-132 instead of what I understand to be XC-116 or the 1/8" product. I got shipments both ways and most likely the explanation was mislabeling. For some time 3M had what I believed to be the 1/32 i.d. product reflected as XC-132 on their samples page distinguishing it from XC-132. But at the close of last year precisely when a rising interest in Nextel surged on this forum and reddit 3M inexplicably pulled it leaving only the XC-116 product. All this name game by 3M and its distributor sources whether playing with labeling or representing its availability doesn't help matters.

What I have experienced to be the "thin" variety, the nominally published .1mm wall thickness, has been most often obtained as XC-132 from all sources.

This is the product I've been extolling for some time on various threads as an outstanding solution for tight precision enclosed tanks like the KPT and not coincidentally drippers for the complementary similarity of effective coil builds.

Yea it can be a PIA to thread the slim braid into 1/16" (1.5875 mm) . Even cut on the bias, the cross-section of the tip can present as almost 1.75 mm...before any of the individual braids splay to any great extent. It's almost a matter of luck when you cut how thin the cross-section ends up. Closer to the actual diameter and it is an amazingly simple feed. An IMMENSE difference to any other material to which this community has access. Reduction of fiddly ++++…on steroids. And ideal for drippers on REO's or micro's on any enclosed tank. It really is amazing.

I will agree with you 100% too that once threaded it's actual cross-section appears to be thinner than a 16th. I've done hundreds of builds using it and found that the thickness can vary slightly by kiln-run. It seems to be a factor (one of various) related to the methodology of the kiln process.

That said, the thin (XC-132) variety swells to a nice healthy plumpness when juiced. So much so that it might be a valid argument to consider it maybe too tight at 1/16" Ω and a matter of preference (too much deflection, compression limiting flow). That's exactly what I spend my time researching…it's performance under various load/use/wind situations.

All I can say is, it's delightful.

Good luck MoN.

 

[rudy4653]

I went to the 16g luer, after trying to thread thru 1/16" and even though it is only ever so slightly bigger it made a world of difference threading thru. Much easier. IMO

 

[Raynman]

Does anyone know the size of the 16 gauge needle? I'm guessing it's larger than a 1/16 drill bit. Does anyone have a micrometer that can measure and post it? I have a large set of drill bits and could move to the size of the needle if I knew the size.

 

[MacTechVpr]

I went to the 16g luer, after trying to thread thru 1/16" and even though it is only ever so slightly bigger it made a world of difference threading thru. Much easier. IMO

True that, with this fiber a few thousands make a difference in fit. And so it matters for vapor too. So it actually pays in this case more than other media to get the best proximate fit to really see the best advantage of flow. Too big of a diameter just leads to less efficient vapor output too.

I gave up blunts early on and went to trying screws because I was already trying tension shortly after quitting last Summer and I just couldn't do it on such a small thing without a proper handhold. And a screw I could rotate while clamped rigid in a vise (just an experiment phase) proved too cumbersome.

Pin vises and bits, that's the ticket. Best of both worlds. And a lot more precision as the runout on a drill blank is in the low thousands. Coupled with the hardened steel, no bent coils. And it's there rudy, just sometimes hard to see with the naked eye. So bend may not seem critical but it is. As important as cross-section and wind Ω to the symmetry of coil and wick.

KISS. Simple, affordable, accessible, reliable…repeatable.

That's been my goal developing tension winding. At the end of the day though I understand we gotta make it work for us. And soon that may be a jig for me. Well I guess I can tolerate a little bit of fiddly.

Take care rudy. Good luck.