Russian 91% juice channels

[HoppinS10]

I have searched around and couldnt find any threads about this. Has anyone ever opened up the juice channels on a russian or kayfun? I Dont have another russian or kayfun to compare to but basically I vape 50/50 or thicker juices and I have to close off the air pretty tight to get it to wick properly. If I Dont close the air down I get dry hits pretty frequently. I wish I had a clone to try this on as I Dont want to put a real russian in the mill but if I make the juice channels bigger, can i leave the air path open and still get good wicking? Am I going to get flooding if I do this?

Thanks in advance.

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[cantstopwontstop]

I dont have any problems with my Hcigar Kayfun 3.1 clone and it has relatively shallow channels. There is supposed to be a vacuum effect created in the chimney when the seals are air tight. What I've seen some people do is cover the airhole and pull bringing more juice to the wick. What kind of wick are you using? I use 2mm ekowool doubled over three times, & don't run it down the channels just leave in on top of them.

 

[sandt38]

At the risk of sounding redundant, search for Truman and look at his Kayfun wick method. It works, and works well. I struggled for a few weeks trying to get it right. I struggled with dry hits like crazy. I tried chimneys, and still had issues. Right now I am at ~1.4ohms on a micro coil using his method. Perfection. No need to build fancy coils or drill out anything, just play with that wick design.

 

[HoppinS10]

I have tried silica, ecowool and cotton. I have had best luck with microcoils and cotton wick. I will try to find the Truman wick method. Thanks for your help.

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[metamorpheus]

I have a full Russian and honestly man I wouldn't use more VG than 50%. I tried too many builds to count to get 80/20 working well and it's not worth it. The flavor is so much better with 50/50. I've tried V core(vertical nano dragon) with a lot of hemp/cotton or minimal, armored dragon(mesh wraped coil with hemp feeds), XC-116, XC 132 with 1-4 strands, XC-132 with a navy nest, XC-132 with the two loops going into the juice channels, XC-132 with a thick mesh cover, Short XC-116 with loose hemp fiber feeds, hemp fiber micros, rolled cotton micros, yarn micros, double 2mm ekowool...you get my point.

Now hear me out on this. You pull on your Russian and the same amount of juice is coming into the evap chamber regardless of how much wick you have(assuming your not blocking your wick channels). If you use all this extra wick like the Truman method, your juice has a longer path to travel to reach your coils. Even if it wasn't then you still are spreading the same amount of juice over a larger area. This and cotton retains a lot of juice which doesn't all make it under the coils before things start tasting depleted and on the dry side. What this method might help with is when you cover the air hole and force juice in, you may get more hits before things go dry again, but it won't help with the original problem with wicking.

Again stick with 50/50, heavy VG has a big flavor drop and wicks slower than 50/50. I make my juice and notice this with the exact same recipe with VG as the only variable. PG irritates my nose, but its a necessary evil I suppose. Try very minimal amounts of hemp or cotton pulled thin in your micro. I have had perfect wicking and flavor with hemp fiber when it only filled 2/3 of the coil and had the ends right above the juice channel and only touching the bottom with a few fibers. A short, fluffy, and thin wick will wick faster and be more efficient. My current setup is a white porous ceramic piece with 26Ga at .965 with two tiny inverted U shaped pieces of hemp touching the ends and going down into the evap chamber floor. No dry hits with 50/50 but I do cover the air hole occasionally because the flavor off the ceramic when the chamber is a little floody is bar none the best I have ever tried on this device.

 

[HoppinS10]

I have tried the less is more approach and I found that to work the best for me. I guess I'm just a little disappointed that my $15 protank with a micro coil and cotton wick will wick much better than an expensive device like the russian. Maybe I'll tweak my diy juices to 60/40 and see if that works better for me.

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[t8kiteasy]

I use a 50/50 blend in my R91%,3mm silica wick and airhole wide open and it wicks fine.I have gone to a 70/30 VG/PG blend and it still wicks wide open.The problem starts for me when,i close off to a tighter draw and the juice gets sucked into the chamber and it is hard to get the gurgle to go away without taking the tank apart to empty it.Blowing out the airhole with it upside down does not get the juice out of the chamber with a thick blend,but it does wick fine wide open.

 

[HoppinS10]

My buddy has a cheap kayfun clone with no air control and he has no problems with wicking either. I guess I will have to make time to tear both my russian and the clone down and compare the juice channels. The ones on my russian look very shallow but like I said earlier I have not compared them to another device yet. If they are shallow I may just have to mill them.

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[metamorpheus]

I have tried the less is more approach and I found that to work the best for me. I guess I'm just a little disappointed that my $15 protank with a micro coil and cotton wick will wick much better than an expensive device like the russian. Maybe I'll tweak my diy juices to 60/40 and see if that works better for me.

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I know what you mean except I was frustrated because I was getting better flavor, more TH, and denser vapor out of my fogger v2 until I got it just right and switched to 50/50. The raised evaporation deck is a blessing and a curse. On one hand when it leaked it didn't pee out of the air hole until the tank was empty. On the other I was getting less saturated hits off of it. Maybe the Taifun or one of it's clones will be a better fit for you.

 

[snowyghost]

I just switched all mu juice yo 100vg or as close as I can get. I have a microcoil on wrapped around a 5/64 bit. I have 0 issues never had a dry hit even chain vaping at high voltage. I wouldn't make them bigger all u have to do is get the wicking right. Less is more once I figured that out its been amazing vaping

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[snowyghost]

And my air holes are not wide open and I still have no issues

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[metamorpheus]

That itself is an issue for me. I want my air holes wide open and to have proper wicking so VG is not a good candidate. Airholes closed off helps with more wicking, but it lowers the VP as well.

 

[Xcighippy]

Funny you posted this as I was pondering the exact same thing! I was thinking that maybe making the juice channels slightly deeper would possibly make it more forgiving in terms of wicking. That seems to be the biggest complaint, how to properly wick and how much wick to use.
I just may pick up a cheapo kfl and do a little machining. I will post my results.

 

[HoppinS10]

Funny you posted this as I was pondering the exact same thing! I was thinking that maybe making the juice channels slightly deeper would possibly make it more forgiving in terms of wicking. That seems to be the biggest complaint, how to properly wick and how much wick to use.
I just may pick up a cheapo kfl and do a little machining. I will post my results.

Please do.

And for the rest of you. I am not saying that I am an expert rebuilder but even if I didn't have my wick setup correctly shouldn't I see the little air bubble float to the top of the tank after every pull or every other pull? It makes sense to me that if I Dont see these air bubbles I will have dry, burnt hits no matter what wicking material I am using or how my wicks are set up. Seeing those little bubbles tells me that juice is being sucked into the chimney and onto the wicks and the air is replacing the juices volume in the tank. Going back to my protank and microcoil, I see at least 1 air bubble every time I take a drag. My russian on the other hand only has bubbles when I really tighten the draw up.

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[fjgotgame24]

What's your ohms? I actually got my Russian 91 kebo today and it's amazing. 6 wraps w/ 28g kanthal around a little screwdriver gives me 1.1 ohms, unfortunately I don't know the exact measurements of the screwdriver. I use a small piece of cotton and it wicks and taste great with or without the air hole adjuster. I'll post pics once I get off work later, maybe it will help you out if not just keep at it. There's no need to drill the channels I'm sure of this. And the bubbles is just on the initial fill that you see it.

 

[fjgotgame24]

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[fjgotgame24]

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[trouble1000]

I've got a few different Russian/Kayfun type attys. The only time I tend to get dry hits is when I use a bit too much cotton, or I have the coil at the wrong height on the deck, or I have the wick too far into the juice channels. I mainly use 60/40 or 50/50 juice too. Nano coils of 1mm seem to work consistently better than a slightly larger micro coil for me. I've never had a dry hit or have to do primer draws with a nano coil.

Hope you manage to get the problem sorted

 

[steel bender]

I like a fatter wick in my ehpro kayfun clone. I started out with a 1/16 microcoil/cotton and I was getting dry hits, then went up to a 5/64 mini which was a little better, then tried 3/32 (is that still mini or the low end of standard size?) and I was getting some gurgling. So, I went back down to 5/64 for awhile, but still had occasional dry hits, so I went back to 3/32 and it's been wicking perfect for me. It seems like, for me, the fatter wick with just enough of a tail to reach the channels has been better, for me. Keeping in mind, I drilled out my air hole to 3/32 and the center pin to 5/64, because I like an airy vape. I think I got lucky with the pin though, because after having this success, I drilled out my tobeco pin to 5/64 and then broke it while screwing it back in...

As far as opening up your channels, no two devices will be made exactly the same and some people seem to have had smaller channels then others. I've heard some people had success opening them, but so far, I've had no reason to try it.

 

[HoppinS10]

What's your ohms? I actually got my Russian 91 kebo today and it's amazing. 6 wraps w/ 28g kanthal around a little screwdriver gives me 1.1 ohms, unfortunately I don't know the exact measurements of the screwdriver. I use a small piece of cotton and it wicks and taste great with or without the air hole adjuster. I'll post pics once I get off work later, maybe it will help you out if not just keep at it. There's no need to drill the channels I'm sure of this. And the bubbles is just on the initial fill that you see it.

I have tried using 28 and 30 gauge ohms ranging from 1.3 to 2.5 (I am using a provari so i cant go too low). The current setup I have in there now is about 8 wraps of 28 gauge coming out to around 2.1 ohms. I have tried all different amounts of cotton. It looks very similar to the picture you posted of your setup. It is wicking fine right now but like I said earlier I have the airflow control turned in kinda far or else I get dry/burnt hits.