So you've seen a dozen Atlantis rebuild posts or videos by now, but this one is slightly different. Instead of making a new coil with fresh 26ga Kanthal, you re-use the original coil wire. This has a few benefits.
1: You get identical coil performance
B: It's free wire!
When trying to rebuild an Atlantis head with normal 26 AWG Kanthal, you need quite a few wraps to get it up to the 0.5-0.6 ohms range, and it won't heat up as fast, nor will it cool down as fast, compared to the stock coil wire. If you go with 28 AWG Kanthal, you end up with a tiny coil that heats up too fast and is harsher than the stock coil, and you can't get that many wraps if you want to stay in that 0.5ish ohm range, which makes getting it wicked more of a challenge as well.
TL;DR: Aspire knew what they were doing when they built the coil heads for the Atlantis, lets take advantage of that.
Stuff you'll need:
A 3/8" drill bit
Wicking material, preferably Koh Gen Do (KGD) organic cotton
3.5mm rod to wrap coil (if you have to go smaller, you'll get less airflow and need more cotton)
Pliers (Channellock style works best)
Hammer or something suitably poundy
Before you dive into the steps below, scroll on down and watch the attached video, it covers much of what I just typed, other than reusing the stock wire. Green text is what I've added or changed in the process.
1. Remove the splash-back screen from the top of the coil and set it aside
2. Remove the bottom pin and rubber insulator, and the white O-ring on the outer barrel and set them aside
3. Remove the old coil from the bottom. Don't worry about deforming the wire, we'll fix that later. Save the wire, discard the old nasty wicking material
4. Wrap the coil with something to protect it, then grasp it firmly with a pair of pliers. A cloth or a piece of flexible rubber works. I used some clear plastic tubing that was just the right inside diameter to hold the coil.
5. Place the 3/8" drill bit into the top of the coil, flat side first.
6. Strike the drill bit with a small hammer. I get best results using the side of the hammer. Keep tapping it until the bottom barrel comes free. Watch the video at 6:00
7. If it's in good condition, save the little strip of cotton that wrapped around the inner barrel
8. Set all this stuff aside, it's coil wrapping time
9. Get a 3.5mm drill bit, screwdriver, or whatever. You want to stay around 3.5mm to keep airflow similar to stock and use about the same thickness of wicking material
10. Take the old coil wire and straighten it. Don't worry about perfection, but the straighter it is to start with, the better.
11. Clean the old wire, taking special care of the darker middle section, this is the part that actually heats up. A rinse and wipe works, you can torch it if you like.
12. Use the wire to wrap a standard (spaced) coil around the 3.5mm tool. Don't worry too much about the number of wraps, because it won't affect resistance much at all (more on this later). Just try to center the darker resistance wire on the coil (there should be about 3 wraps of this). You want as many total wraps as you can get and still have just enough wire left for the leads.
13. Test this by inserting the wrapped coil into the inner barrel from the bottom, lining the top of the coil with the top of that barrel..if there's a lot of lead sticking out, try another wrap or half wrap on the long lead. We need just enough wire to bend the negative down into the little indentation on the barrel, and the positive lead needs to be just long enough to extend past the rubber grommet and bend over just a bit when the pin is inserted.
The more you wrap now, the more re-use you can get out of the coil later, and the more coil wraps you have, the better your foundation for wrapping cotton around the coil is.
14. Once you're happy with the coil, it's time to wick. I prefer KGD cotton for this, it's much much easier than other types. Cut a strip as wide as the coil, or maybe a hair thinner, and wrap the coil (see video below). I use all four layers just to make it easier, but you might get better flavor by peeling one layer off. Wrap it until it can just barely slide inside the inner barrel. You don't want to wrap it so thick you have to stuff it into the barrel, just a little resistance is all you need, as the cotton will expand when wet. If you're using Rayon, different story, stuff it in there.
15. Keeping the coil and wick on your wrapping tool, slide it into the inner barrel from the bottom, and line the top of the coil with the top of the barrel. Slide your tool out and place it in from the top.
16. Check your lead length again. Take the negative lead (the one that comes from the top of the coil) and bend it over one of the indentations on the side of the barrel, making sure you haven't moved your coil
17. Slide the rubber grommet over the positive lead, lining up the tabs on the grommet with the indentations on the barrel, with the negative lead on the outside of the grommet
18. Slide the center pin into the hole, with the positive lead sticking off to the side of it. Once again check to make sure your coil hasn't moved in the barrel.
19. Trim the leads flush with the side of the grommet.
20. Check your coil again, center it if you like, make sure there's not too much wick extending past the top of the wire or the barrel, trim if necessary
21. Remember that little strip of cotton that was in the barrel before? Now it's time to use it. Wet it with a bit of juice, and wrap it tight around the outside of the inner barrel. Being wet, it should stick fairly well. If you didn't save the wrap, you can use a strip made from the outer layer of KGD cotton
22. Carefully insert the inner barrel into the bottom of the outer barrel until you meet resistance. With a pair of pliers, squeeze the two pieces together, making sure that outer cotton wrap is underneath the holes of the outer barrel. Tweak the wrap to get this right, if a hole is open, you'll have issues with flooding later.
23. Replace the white O-ring on the barrel
24. Replace the mesh screen in the top of the barrel
25. Wet your cotton good. Really good, soak it
26. Insert coil head into the Atlantis base
27. Check resistance. It should be almost exactly what it was before, give or take a few hundredths.
28. Fill your tank, put everything back together, take a few primer puffs with the airflow on low. Watch the bubbles. Give it a few minutes to saturate
29. Vape at your preferred wattage. Since the cotton wick is relatively thick, you may get some cotton flavor for a bit, keep vaping and it goes away and you'll get full flavor after less than 1ml of juice. Thicker juice might slow this down a bit.
30. Enjoy your new cotton-wrapped coil head that perform exactly like the old coil and tastes better!
Whew! 30 steps may seem excessive, but it's not really that hard. Watch the video.
Big huge thanks to DJLsb Vapes for his excellent Ni200 rebuild video, which covers everything I just posted above other than re-using the stock wire. The barrel-splitting technique was from him, and it's really the best way to rebuild these things, no matter what type of wire or wick you want to use.
Watch the video:
1: You get identical coil performance
B: It's free wire!
When trying to rebuild an Atlantis head with normal 26 AWG Kanthal, you need quite a few wraps to get it up to the 0.5-0.6 ohms range, and it won't heat up as fast, nor will it cool down as fast, compared to the stock coil wire. If you go with 28 AWG Kanthal, you end up with a tiny coil that heats up too fast and is harsher than the stock coil, and you can't get that many wraps if you want to stay in that 0.5ish ohm range, which makes getting it wicked more of a challenge as well.
TL;DR: Aspire knew what they were doing when they built the coil heads for the Atlantis, lets take advantage of that.
Stuff you'll need:
A 3/8" drill bit
Wicking material, preferably Koh Gen Do (KGD) organic cotton
3.5mm rod to wrap coil (if you have to go smaller, you'll get less airflow and need more cotton)
Pliers (Channellock style works best)
Hammer or something suitably poundy
Before you dive into the steps below, scroll on down and watch the attached video, it covers much of what I just typed, other than reusing the stock wire. Green text is what I've added or changed in the process.
1. Remove the splash-back screen from the top of the coil and set it aside
2. Remove the bottom pin and rubber insulator, and the white O-ring on the outer barrel and set them aside
3. Remove the old coil from the bottom. Don't worry about deforming the wire, we'll fix that later. Save the wire, discard the old nasty wicking material
4. Wrap the coil with something to protect it, then grasp it firmly with a pair of pliers. A cloth or a piece of flexible rubber works. I used some clear plastic tubing that was just the right inside diameter to hold the coil.
5. Place the 3/8" drill bit into the top of the coil, flat side first.
6. Strike the drill bit with a small hammer. I get best results using the side of the hammer. Keep tapping it until the bottom barrel comes free. Watch the video at 6:00
7. If it's in good condition, save the little strip of cotton that wrapped around the inner barrel
8. Set all this stuff aside, it's coil wrapping time
9. Get a 3.5mm drill bit, screwdriver, or whatever. You want to stay around 3.5mm to keep airflow similar to stock and use about the same thickness of wicking material
10. Take the old coil wire and straighten it. Don't worry about perfection, but the straighter it is to start with, the better.
11. Clean the old wire, taking special care of the darker middle section, this is the part that actually heats up. A rinse and wipe works, you can torch it if you like.
12. Use the wire to wrap a standard (spaced) coil around the 3.5mm tool. Don't worry too much about the number of wraps, because it won't affect resistance much at all (more on this later). Just try to center the darker resistance wire on the coil (there should be about 3 wraps of this). You want as many total wraps as you can get and still have just enough wire left for the leads.
13. Test this by inserting the wrapped coil into the inner barrel from the bottom, lining the top of the coil with the top of that barrel..if there's a lot of lead sticking out, try another wrap or half wrap on the long lead. We need just enough wire to bend the negative down into the little indentation on the barrel, and the positive lead needs to be just long enough to extend past the rubber grommet and bend over just a bit when the pin is inserted.
The more you wrap now, the more re-use you can get out of the coil later, and the more coil wraps you have, the better your foundation for wrapping cotton around the coil is.
14. Once you're happy with the coil, it's time to wick. I prefer KGD cotton for this, it's much much easier than other types. Cut a strip as wide as the coil, or maybe a hair thinner, and wrap the coil (see video below). I use all four layers just to make it easier, but you might get better flavor by peeling one layer off. Wrap it until it can just barely slide inside the inner barrel. You don't want to wrap it so thick you have to stuff it into the barrel, just a little resistance is all you need, as the cotton will expand when wet. If you're using Rayon, different story, stuff it in there.
15. Keeping the coil and wick on your wrapping tool, slide it into the inner barrel from the bottom, and line the top of the coil with the top of the barrel. Slide your tool out and place it in from the top.
16. Check your lead length again. Take the negative lead (the one that comes from the top of the coil) and bend it over one of the indentations on the side of the barrel, making sure you haven't moved your coil
17. Slide the rubber grommet over the positive lead, lining up the tabs on the grommet with the indentations on the barrel, with the negative lead on the outside of the grommet
18. Slide the center pin into the hole, with the positive lead sticking off to the side of it. Once again check to make sure your coil hasn't moved in the barrel.
19. Trim the leads flush with the side of the grommet.
20. Check your coil again, center it if you like, make sure there's not too much wick extending past the top of the wire or the barrel, trim if necessary
21. Remember that little strip of cotton that was in the barrel before? Now it's time to use it. Wet it with a bit of juice, and wrap it tight around the outside of the inner barrel. Being wet, it should stick fairly well. If you didn't save the wrap, you can use a strip made from the outer layer of KGD cotton
22. Carefully insert the inner barrel into the bottom of the outer barrel until you meet resistance. With a pair of pliers, squeeze the two pieces together, making sure that outer cotton wrap is underneath the holes of the outer barrel. Tweak the wrap to get this right, if a hole is open, you'll have issues with flooding later.
23. Replace the white O-ring on the barrel
24. Replace the mesh screen in the top of the barrel
25. Wet your cotton good. Really good, soak it
26. Insert coil head into the Atlantis base
27. Check resistance. It should be almost exactly what it was before, give or take a few hundredths.
28. Fill your tank, put everything back together, take a few primer puffs with the airflow on low. Watch the bubbles. Give it a few minutes to saturate
29. Vape at your preferred wattage. Since the cotton wick is relatively thick, you may get some cotton flavor for a bit, keep vaping and it goes away and you'll get full flavor after less than 1ml of juice. Thicker juice might slow this down a bit.
30. Enjoy your new cotton-wrapped coil head that perform exactly like the old coil and tastes better!
Whew! 30 steps may seem excessive, but it's not really that hard. Watch the video.
Big huge thanks to DJLsb Vapes for his excellent Ni200 rebuild video, which covers everything I just posted above other than re-using the stock wire. The barrel-splitting technique was from him, and it's really the best way to rebuild these things, no matter what type of wire or wick you want to use.
Watch the video:
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