Safety. This stuff can hurt!

[flaw101]

I'm kinda new to ecigs. Started with a couple evods and tanks. No problems.

then decided to try a dripper set up. Got the Smokteck rda mini and a cheap mod and some batteries and off I went. Decided to build a coil. One of my first builds was 4 turns of 28 awg kanthal on some 2 mm silica. I stupidly put the battery in the mod upside down (negative to the top, positive at the bottom on the button). Didn't lock the button while making adjustments to the coil with my index finger. Pow...pain to my index finger. Felt like a burn, but I ended up with what appears to be a cauterized 1 inch cut in the finger tip. It's healing up, but I'm obviously a tard.

Backwards battery placement in a mod energizes the outside case when the fire button is pressed. That was the first mistake. Not locking the fire button while the tank was off was the second mistake.

Be careful. My career is in electronics and I understand electricity. This was a bonehead move. Be careful....it freaking hurts!

 

[Tranquility Base]

Ouch! Almost took home a Darwin Honorable Mention myself early on in my vaping history. Touched a hot coil. Just to see what it felt like. Not red hot, but hot enough to leave a mark and lasting pain. Why did I do that? Because I'm an idiot but I never accidentally burned myself since.

Worked at this liquor store once. First day, the boss takes me and this cheap bottle of wine out in the back alley. Thought we were about to party! No. He says, "Here, smash this bottle on the ground."

"Huh?"

He goes all Nike on me: "Just Do It."

"Okay, strange way to run a liquor store but okay." So I smash it. Felt good.

"Everybody who works here breaks a bottle. That was your One, that cheap bottle of Two Buck Chuck. Don't break any more, especially not the Dom. Now clean up that mess."

Of course it didn't work, I still broke a bottle or two, but his method seemed pretty cool and Zen at the time.

So what's my point? No, I'm asking. What's my point?

 

[flaw101]

Haha.... Point is cheap wine is fun to waste.

I work on stuff that'll kill you every day. Most of us have probably changed an outlet or light switch. I used to work with 28000 volt circuits when I was in broadcast TV. Then a 37 volt DC battery bites me. Oh well.

 

[WattWick]

Had one of those cauterized coil-like burns on my upper lip once. Made me feel real smart.

... and those mesh wicks. If soaked and set on fire, they retain heat much longer than expected.

 

[Confuzzled1969]

I'm kinda new to ecigs. Started with a couple evods and tanks. No problems.

then decided to try a dripper set up. Got the Smokteck rda mini and a cheap mod and some batteries and off I went. Decided to build a coil. One of my first builds was 4 turns of 28 awg kanthal on some 2 mm silica. I stupidly put the battery in the mod upside down (negative to the top, positive at the bottom on the button). Didn't lock the button while making adjustments to the coil with my index finger. Pow...pain to my index finger. Felt like a burn, but I ended up with what appears to be a cauterized 1 inch cut in the finger tip. It's healing up, but I'm obviously a tard.

Backwards battery placement in a mod energizes the outside case when the fire button is pressed. That was the first mistake. Not locking the fire button while the tank was off was the second mistake.

Be careful. My career is in electronics and I understand electricity. This was a bonehead move. Be careful....it freaking hurts!

Battery direction had nothing to do with what happened, in most mechanicals, the direction of the battery is irrelevant. If you have a Kik, it is, but in a purely mechanical setup, direction of flow is completely irrelevant.

 

[flaw101]

Confuzzled....I here ya. The theory has been discussed over and over here on the forum. Whether the electrons come out of the ... end of the battery or whatever. The point is the casing of the battery is negative....making for potential danger if the battery is improperly installed. All I know, is my finger freaking hurts. I don't want to repeat....and I don't want any others to have to experience that.

 

[VaPreis]

My guess is, with said "cheap mod", installing the battery backwards caused a dead short when it was fired.

Otherwise, the coil would have fired normally. It doesn't care which side is positive or negative, nor does the tube.

 

[Skunkworkx]

Been hit by 480v once 110v a few times....even a 60,000 coil in a car along with a number of spark plug wire zaps.........but batteries scare me

 

[flaw101]

Ditto Skunkworkz. Unfused batteries just don't let go. Never got hit by 28,000 though.....obviously.

 

[VHRB2014]

4 out of 5 of my mods have recessed buttons, just because I know I get idiotitiss at times. :?)

 

[cstone1991]

Confuzzled....I here ya. The theory has been discussed over and over here on the forum. Whether the electrons come out of the ... end of the battery or whatever. The point is the casing of the battery is negative....making for potential danger if the battery is improperly installed. All I know, is my finger freaking hurts. I don't want to repeat....and I don't want any others to have to experience that.

The case is nothing more than one side of the circuit. It is only negative if the battery is installed with the negative end down. A coil doesn't care which direction current is flowing just like a standard incandescent light bulb doesn't care which direction current is flowing. The only problem with installing a battery upside down is that the design of some mods could allow the negative end to touch both the firing pin and the body of the tube at the same time due to the larger exposed area on the negative end of a battery.

As I understand them, these batteries almost always vent from the positive side when it happens, and the vent holes are almost always at the bottom of a mod, so it may actually be safer to install the battery upside down in a mod designed to properly hold a battery in that orientation.

 

[relapse]

it happens... I've dripped upon awakening and not put the top cap back on and then proceeded to catch an extremely hot coil to each lip. I thought, "wow! I'll never do that again!"... Then the next day... Yeah, did it again, same spot on lips. That was over a month ago, think I learned my lesson.

 

[DasBluCig]

Haha.... Point is cheap wine is fun to waste.

I work on stuff that'll kill you every day. Most of us have probably changed an outlet or light switch. I used to work with 28000 volt circuits when I was in broadcast TV. Then a 37 volt DC battery bites me. Oh well.

Learned a healthy respect for HV many moons ago in the broadcast industry.....klystron assemblies and BIG capacitors could do you in if you didn't pay attention!!
Happy (vaping) Trails!