SimpleCJ's eGo-T Wick Mod

[simplecj]

SimpleCJ's eGo-T Wick mod

NOTES AND SPECIAL THANKS: I was pretty frustrated when both atomizers that came with my kit started flooding pretty much from the beginning. Reading online it seems many people have had this problem also, but no good repeatable solutions have been found. While some people have not had this problem, I think they were just lucky. The pre-installed wicks are varied in density and position, and difficult to adjust or repair. After reading dozens of forum pages, a little encouragement from Vicki @ Cignot (she's awesome!!!), and a few attempts, I think I have come up with a solid solution for a superior wick. This not only stopped my leaking problems, but also seems to be giving me better flavor from my liquids. Probably the best part about this is that the wicks are fairly easy to make from cheap and available resources and you can adjust the density of the wick to suit whatever liquid you choose. Thinner liquids; use a denser wick. Thicker liquids will do better with less wick material providing better flow. Adjust and modify to whatever works best for you!

UPDATE: I think this may also help people who have been having problems with burnt taste or no vapor. As long as your coil still heats up, a new wick will probably solve your problems. From looking at the stock wick, there was very little silica there and very short strands at that. I wouldn't be surprised if they lose contact with the coil (probably during cleaning/blowing out the atty), leading to dry burnt taste and little to no vapor. Give it a try!

Materials Needed:
eGo-T Atomizer - Lipton Pyramid Tea Bag - About 1 inch of Silica Rope - Needle Plate Removal Tool - Small Sharp Scissors - Safety pin or other narrow object - A lighter


Step 1: Disassemble atomizer wick and needle plate

I fashioned a handy needle plate extractor from a paint can opener using my pedestal grinder, basically just grinding it down to a small pick that fits into the atomizer perfectly. Anything similar will work as long as it fits and is strong enough. Simply hook under the plate on either side where there is a notch and pull up. This should easily dislodge the needle plate and removing it from there is easy. Note: Some people have recommended using needle nose pliers and grabbing the needle itself. I would suggest not doing this because damaging the needle's outer surface can wear out the opening on your tanks and cause leaks. It's better to pull it up from the side.

Once the needle plate is out, remove the old wick materials and discard. This is also a good time to clean out the atomizer and do a dry burn while the element is exposed. You can also relocate the element by gently nudging it. It can restrict airflow if it's directly over the airway, sometimes they are litterally sitting right on top of the hole and that's not helping anything. However, you don't want to push it all the way to the side (as has been suggested). Just slightly off center should help keep air flowing while also keeping the heat source centered.

 

[simplecj]

Step 2: Prepare the new and improved wick

Most likely you will have a braided silica rope from McMaster Carr or somewhere like that (GOTO: McMaster Carr -Silica Rope). Cut a length of 1 to 1.5 inches, then push the ends together and start working the braids loose. Soon you will be able to pull out separate strands at about an inch or longer in length. You'll need to gauge what thickness and length of strand you want and have a few ready as they sometimes fall apart while trying to roll and install the wick. You may find you waste alot of strands that brake or fray, but at only a few dollars per foot that shouldn't be much of an issue.



Now take your Lipton pyramid tea bag (PTB) and cut a small square of about an inch. Lay your selected silica strand across the PTB and make sure it overlaps at least a half inch on both sides. Starting at one side, roll the silica up in the PTB as tight as possible. This can be a bit tricky. Roll it up then push it back to help tighten it up. Once you've got it rolled up nice and fairly snug, fold it directly in half. You want to make sure the ends of the PTB are even and that you have a good half inch or more of silica hanging out the ends.

Step 3: Install the new wick

Keeping the wick folded in half, gently roll and press the bent end of the wick to compact it and give you a good starting point to feed into the needle. Start feeding the wick into the BOTTOM of the needle plate, leading with the bent end of the wick. Once you get it started, use a safety pin or something similar push from the inside (center) of the bend in the wick so it feeds in evenly. Flatten the end of the pin first to help push the wick, a sharp point only pokes holes. (I again used my grinder to do this)

Once the wick has reached the top of the needle, remove the safety pin and carefully pull it up until the ends of the PTB are just barely visible on the bottom side of the needle plate. If you leave the PTB sticking out too far, you may end up burning it (more nasty taste).

Now, using some nice and sharp scissors, trim the top part of the wick flush with the angle of the needle. You can then use a pin or something to fluff the wick and ensure it fully fills the needle opening (gaps are no good).



On the bottom side, straighten out the silica (careful not to pull it back through). Trim the silica at approximately 1/8 of an inch below the lower part of the needle plate. This should be long enough for the silica to stick down into the coil cup when installed. Take your lighter and holding the needle plate with some tweezers or something similar, burn the ends of the silica wick till it glows red to remove any nasty chemicals that would otherwise burn off on your coil. Try to only burn the ends of the silica, overheating the needle plate may melt your PTB. If you skip this step you will find out what I'm talking about with the nasty chems on the silica. It's bad... I have suspicions that the PV companies don't do this and that it is part of the common "burnt" taste that people get besides the nasty primer fluid they come shipped with. I tried fully burning the silica before making the wick, but this made it more brittle and it fell apart when trying to roll and install the wick. Do it after it's installed and trimed to save yourself some trouble. Only the ends near or on the coil will get hot enough to matter.

Step 4: Re-install the needle plate with your new wick!

Make sure your silica is grouped together fairly well and sticking straight out from the needle plate. Wetting it will help it stay together while you install it. Water or maybe a bit of juice will work. You want the silica to enter the coil cup only, bridging across the sides to the mesh surround will only help your liquid escape the coil.

Insert the needle into an empty tank and carefully feed the plate straight down into the [cleaned and dry-burned] atomizer. Give it a good squeeze until the plate pops into place and you can see that the tank is full inserted. If doesn't easily snap into place while trying to reseat, either give a little twist or remove and try it again.

Step 5: Prime and vape!!

Place a filled cartridge into the atomizer and take "primer puffs" until you can start to taste the flavor of your liquid. This means the wick has saturated and your juice has reached the coil. Give it a few drags and see if its producing vapor. If not, prime some more and try again.

As I said before, this may take a bit of modifying to optimize it with your juice thickness. Play with it all you want, once you get this down you will be able to readily make yourself new wicks whenever needed.

Enjoy!

Some additional info about this mod:
Why use silica? It's one of the only practical materials that has a high enough temperature rating (2300F+). The coil in your atty will likely never exceed 500-600F, well below silica's rated temps, but above most other materials suitable for wicking liquid. It will not burn and allows the juice to be heated directly from the coil. If you don't touch the coil and it just is "hanging" there, you wouldn't get any efficient heating and little or no vapor. You want the liquid to "flow" right to the coil. The thin fibers of the silica rope will bush out and allow air to flow freely through it while also directing the liquid directly to the heat of the coil. I am pretty confident that ALL atomizer wicks use silica fibers to do this, there simply isn't anything else that will do the job! Silica rope is perfect (and super cheap), just make sure you burn off the ends before using it. I think they add some other elements to improve the fiber flexibility and durability.

Why use PTB? The PTB serves two functions. By itself it is an excellent wicking medium and it also provides good material to wrap the silica up and make it easier to insert into the needle. When installed, the PTB helps keep the silica fibers in place and is actually part of the wick. The original wick uses fine nickel mesh for this purpose, but PTB is far cheaper and easier to work with.

 

[kashmoney]

Nice walk thru! Thanks.

 

[wyojoe]

Very good, thanks. Where can you get the silica rope??

 

[simplecj]

McMaster-Carr

A foot of either the 1/4" or 3/8" dia, square or round braid, should last you a long time and it will only cost you prob about $5 with shipping.

EDIT: I have added this link to the main post on Step 2

UPDATE: On further review, the 1/4" dia rope is only available in square braid and a min of 5 feet in length. The 3/8" dia rope is available at a min 1 foot in either braid style.

 

[wyojoe]

Thanks I will give it a try. What does the tea bag material do just to keep it together ? Also when the wick is in the pot you do not want it touching anything including the coil is that right? Just hanging in the cup.

 

[arjay55]

Nicely done. Very informative walkthrough indeed.

I had recently done something similar but used alfoil instead of ptb (which to be honest I didn't even think of. If I had I certainly would have tried it. Good thinking.). I don't have access to any wick selling places here in Oz that I can find so I had to improvise. I had a clearomizer that died and it had been an amazing wicker. I washed and dried the wick from it; removed it from the coil, and used it as my replacement wick. I doubled it over until I had 5 threads to work with then rolled it in the foil to make it easier to thread through the wick-plate. Once through I peeled the excess foil off the underneath of the wick-plate, trimmed the top section and fluffed it out using a pushpin. I made sure the foil was flush to the sides of the wick -plate needle. It works like a charm. Better than the original by far. I had tried something similar with my CE-2 wicks but they don't compare with the newer clearomizer wicks.

 

[simplecj]

@wyojoe: No, you want it to basically fill the cup and contact the element. This is why we use silica. It's one of the only practical materials that has a temperature rating of 2300F+. The coil in your atty will likely never exceed 500-600F, well below silica's rated temps. It will not burn and allows the juice to be heated directly from the coil. If you don't touch the coil and it just is "hanging" there, you wouldn't get any efficient heating and little or no vapor. You want the liquid to "flow" right to the coil.

The PTB serves two functions. By itself it is an excellent wicking media and it also provides a good material to wrap the silica up and make it easier to insert into the needle. When installed, the PTB helps keep the silica fibers in place and is actually part of the wick. The original wick uses fine nickel mesh for this purpose, but PTB is far cheaper and easier to work with.

The thin fibers of the silica rope will bush out and allow air to flow freely through it while also directing the liquid directly to the heat of the coil.

@arjay55: I'm pretty sure McMaster Carr ships world wide. If not, you should be able to find silica rope from some sort of industrial supply. It's used as an insulator for high temp applications. It's often found around the doors on wood burning stoves and ovens. You can get woven silica fabric or mats also, but we want the nice long bunches of fibers from the rope.

Silica rope is amazing, you can take a torch to it and it will just glow red. I've searched for any other materials that could work for wicking to the coil, but so far silica rope is the only thing that is up to the task other than nickel or stainless mesh, but that conducts too much heat away from the coil and would not work well for actual contact with the coil. Silica rope is perfect, just make sure you burn off the ends before using it. I think they add some other elements to improve the fiber flexibility and durability. I am pretty confident that ALL atomizer wicks use silica fibers, there simply isn't anything else that will do the job!

BTW: I'm a mechanical engineer, I dig this stuff. Part of the reason I wanted to share my insights. I had given up on vaping and went back to analogs about a year ago since the original 510's and similar systems were too much to deal with. I wanted something I could fill up and not fuss with other than the occasional cleaning and maintenance. The eGo-T along with the new batteries with the shutoff feature made this an ideal solution. Only problem was the leaking issue, something I think I've solved with this mod!

Edit: also added some of this info to the main post....

 

[wyojoe]

Thanks I will be trying it when one of my atty,s quit working properly.

 

[ledouxmike]

Great job. I might have to try this on my atty's. They're just collecting dust at the moment. The lipton tea bag isn't a bad idea. I have some of that silica rope, just haven't tinkered with them in a while.
It seems is would hold the wick in place well in the needle tube.

 

[tsbrewers]

I have been doing this for a few weeks (except the (PTB) with ok results too. My biggest problem is getting the strands of silica rope apart without it coming apart in short tiny threads. any tips for this? I tried pretty much everything.

Are the tea bags some sort of metal? or is it just a cloth that can be wound tight? That is my other issue, I too have been using foil and it is very hard to get it to wind up tight enough. I have never thought of the 1x1 square and folding it over. That might work with the foil.

Brew

 

[Dougiestyle]

Good write-up! I had attempted this previously, but rather than the teabag, I made the mesh "cap" out of a pipe screen which I had cut a small section from. Same principal. I thnk it was mentioned that the mesh "cap" was necessary for the air to flow back into the tank, or rather to prvent vacuum-lock on the juice.

Where to buy these teabags that I've seen mentioned so much? GF says Earthfare or Freshmarket. Good vendor?

 

[ledouxmike]

Target has 'em. They have to be the pyramid bag type. I personally had to search around town until I found them at Target. Some Walmarts carry them as well, just not mine.

 

[Iluvthearmy]

Thank you very much, you just stopped me from tossing 2 salvagable atty's...man I love this forum

 

[simplecj]

@tsbrewers: The PTB is some sort of high temp plastic or nylon mesh. I found them at Smith's and Walmart. Should be anywhere with a decent tea selection that includes Lipton teas. Since this also acts as part of the wick, it is a better solution than foil. You don't have to get it completely tight, just tight enough to feed it into the needle. The needle itself will squash any remaining looseness.

As for getting the strands out of the rope. You have to be somewhat gentle with it. Cut a 1 inch or so piece off so you're not trying to unravel the entire length. 1 inch of rope has strands that are almost twice that length because of the braids.

If you push the ends of a short piece together, it will open up the braiding, then slowly pull on the individual groups or "strands" to work them out. Even once you get a good piece off your rope, you will want to run your fingers down it to pull all the short pieces off. You probably only need LESS THAN half the total fiber from one "strand" out of the rope for your wick, especially since you effectively double it up when you fold it in half. With how cheap this stuff is don't feel bad about wasting half the fibers in each section you cut off, you'll still likely get hundreds of wicks from each foot of rope.

EDIT: I'm thinking more like a quarter of the fibers from a "strand" off my 3/8" rope is more than enough. The amount I pictured would probably be maximum wick for very thin liquids.

@ Dougiestyle: I think that "lock up" is the reason for the three little channels inside of the needle. This wick will pretty much fill the needle opening, but I haven't had any issues with lock-up. Have vaped probably 10 tanks so far with no problems.

@ Iluvthearmy: No problem man! You are more than welcome!

 

[OaklandCA]

now if 'all could get this intelligence back to the manufacturer so klutzes like myself could just buy the &^^% things...well i guess in a couple of moths /days? someone will set up shop with a little "rebuild your tank atomizer shop" for $3.00 and I will mail mine in and with postage get fresh attys for less than $4.95 each

 

[juz]

Nicely done, good pics and clear instructions and the PTB is a great idea to hold it all together.

 

[tsbrewers]

One little thing I would add to the "how to" would be to use some thread or string to pull the wick through. When you double over the PTB feed some string through it and double it over too, then feed the string through the bottom of the wick plate and out the top. Then used the string to pull the new wick assembly in through the plate. Much easier to get the new wick in that way instead of trying to jamb it in there with a syringe or tooth pick, or what ever.

Next I will add that it seems to me, less is more. The first few times I replaced the wick, I was adding a bunch of the silica rope thinking that if I had more, it would wick more of the fluid. But it seems like if you have too much wicking material it will stop the fluid from wicking at all. When I use a much smaller amount of silica rope, it wicks much better.

Brew

 

[ledouxmike]

thanks for the update. I was wondering why you were doubling it up. And once it's through, you pull one end up so you just have one straight wick and not a double wick. I was thinking you were using a double wick at first. I hadn't fooled with mine, but someday soon I might give it a go again.

 

[tsbrewers]

Nope, leave it doubled up. You pull it up just far enough that the tea bag material is just flush with the under side of the plate. You will have 1/2" or so above the piercing tube, you just cut this off and discard. By doubling it over you are keeping it from unrolling, and it is easier to feed through the tube. Once you do it, you will see how it works. hardest part is figuring out how much wick you need when you start to roll it up in the tea bag material.

Brew