I'm not too much of a fan of cotton. I tried vaping on a coil someone else rebuilt with a cotton wick and the sauce tasted like a cotton ball.
Must have been a fresh coil. Cotton wicks will give the taste of cotton for the first few toots, after that it's flavor city. Cotton is just so easy to work with that I put up with the initial taste.
As for your wonky resistance readings, with the evod base maybe the grommet was being squished down a little more than with the PT base causing a lead to touch the inside of the coil and give a goofy reading? Or maybe the coil wasn't making good contact?
I do know that practice makes perfect and I've learned a few tricks to make really nice consistent coils.
Such as:
Get a microtorch (I have a bernzomatic from Home Depot). Make the coil, gently compress it with steel tweezers and torch until it glows orange. This will tighten it up and keep it's perfect compressed form.
Put the coil back on the tool you wrapped on, feed the leads through the coil and set the tool into the channel to hold the coil in optimal position while you install the grommet and pin. Take one lead, bend it over and pinch against the side with a finger or wrap the wire around the tool to keep it tight while reinserting the grommet then do the same with the other lead to place the pin. This keeps the microcoil nice and tight.
Once the pin is installed, put pressure on it and wiggle each lead up and down to break the excess wire off. Easier and breaks off shorter then using clippers.
If you do decide to use cotton balls, pinch off just a wisp and roll very tight between your fingers and feed through the coil. It should be snug but at the same time can be easily pulled back out. Clip each side and fluff with a toothpick to make nice fluffy cotton clouds that fill the holes.