SimpleCJ's eGo-T Wick Mod

[OwnedByAGrey]

T-mod v2.0?! I think I'm gonna faint. LOL!

 

[orion7319]

I'd like to second the motion for making this a sticky!

orion -
Good ole' 485...Glad I don't have to drive on that highway very often - what a joke! My company has an office in downtown Rock Hill, so I get down there every so often. Time in the Rock seem to move a lot slower than other places on earth..not sure why!

I try to avoid 485 at rush hour like the plague! My wife has to take that route to work every day though. We call it "Rock Thrill" for a reason lol Honestly though, with a two year old son kicking my ..., life doesn't seem very slow these days! I really like the Stallings/Matthews area. It has some scenic spots to it.


I also would like this to be a sticky! It's a must for any ego t owners.

 

[Blinddriver]

Good Job. Thank You.
This Works. I am getting about the same hit as with the low res t-tank.
So, for me, it is better than the wick that comes with the tank.

 

[lrd3]

any chance you would be willing to do a YouTube video of your work on this?

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.

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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).

View attachment 31991View attachment 31992

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.

 

[skorpios1027]

SimpleCJ's eGo-T Wick Mod 2.0 - COMING SOON!!!!

I have 2 atomizers that I have tried this on and while they are working, I'm getting a nasty taste and the outside of the atomizers are getting considerably warmer than one that has not been modified. What am I doing wrong?

 

[my2hands]

To get the metal plate out all I did was straigten out a fish hook, clip the very end of the point off and used the barb to pull out the plate. Worked great...very cheap.

 

[Erfmann]

Ok, I received my rope and tried this mod again today....this is how it went....first attempt resulted in burnt taste that wouldn't quit, so, I figured maybe I left too much wick sticking out..trimmed it off a bit, and still no flavor other than burnt...tried to push the wick down in the tube a little and, ...oops pushed it all the way out..lol...when I tried to reinsert it, about half of the strings broke off...what the heck I put it in anyway....still getting a burnt taste...I read somewhere about improving juice flow by taking a straight pin and poking thru the wick along the side of the pierce tube wall..know what?... That works...the atty is now working like new...flavor is good, vapor is great, burnt taste is gone...now, if I can remember how I did it for next time....heh..

 

[Jacinda222]

Just got my first SCJ TWM done, and so far it's working great! Got vapor right off the bat, although there's a faint chemical taste - but not too bad and I think it's getting fainter as the juice goes through.

This is my first atty mod I've ever tried and it was fairly quick and not terribly difficult. Thanks much SimpleCJ!

I think this would make a great sticky too!

 

[skorpios1027]

Ok, I received my rope and tried this mod again today....this is how it went....first attempt resulted in burnt taste that wouldn't quit, so, I figured maybe I left too much wick sticking out..trimmed it off a bit, and still no flavor other than burnt...tried to push the wick down in the tube a little and, ...oops pushed it all the way out..lol...when I tried to reinsert it, about half of the strings broke off...what the heck I put it in anyway....still getting a burnt taste...I read somewhere about improving juice flow by taking a straight pin and poking thru the wick along the side of the pierce tube wall..know what?... That works...the atty is now working like new...flavor is good, vapor is great, burnt taste is gone...now, if I can remember how I did it for next time....heh..

After reading this, I started thinking this too was the solution to my problem, unfortunately for me, I ended up poking the wick out of the piercing tube I was unable to get it back in place. Anyway, I was at work and did not have my supplies to make a new one so I ended dripping on the coil. The bad taste was gone, except for when it was time to add some more. Now I'm home ready to try another wick. I think this time I will try fewer strands.

Just got my first SCJ TWM done, and so far it's working great! Got vapor right off the bat, although there's a faint chemical taste - but not too bad and I think it's getting fainter as the juice goes through.

This is my first atty mod I've ever tried and it was fairly quick and not terribly difficult. Thanks much SimpleCJ!

I think this would make a great sticky too!

Howdy neighbor!

 

[Jacinda222]

Howdy neighbor!

Hey there, I'm in West Jordan too! I guess I should pay more attention to the location info... good to meet you! Hope your second wick turns out better than the first. I think the hardest part is deciding exactly how thick of a strand of rope you need. I think I got lucky with my first try.

 

[skorpios1027]

Hey there, I'm in West Jordan too! I guess I should pay more attention to the location info... good to meet you! Hope your second wick turns out better than the first. I think the hardest part is deciding exactly how thick of a strand of rope you need. I think I got lucky with my first try.

Thanks, this one works much better.

 

[Rimau]

OK, resume of what I did.

While I was waiting (ended up being one day), I was thinking of how to streamline the process. Here is what I come up with, tried it, and it is working perfectly.

3/8'' rope is pretty thick! Cut off about 2 inches and unraveled the strands, discarding the center core. I looked at how many strands I would need but ended up deciding on just one, since it will be doubled.

Here is my variation: I didn't do anything to the rope strands, just doubled it over, put a piece of thread through it (doubled thread as the single one broke). Threaded it through the needle base. As the loop end was pulled through, I inserted a bent a piece of wire through the loop so it wouldn't pull back out the base, , and pulled the wick back down through the base until the wire wouldn't let it be pulled though completely.

Next I "fluffed" up the threads pretty good, and since I was working with a 2'' piece, pulled it back through the needle until there was fluffed up wick sticking out of the top of the needle by about a 1/8" +/-.

Then I cut the wick at an angle with the needle, cut the wick below the base to a desired length, and then used a small handheld torch to season (burn) the ends.

Put some drops of pg through the needle side, saturated the wick on the base side (which made it easier to group together, and snapped it back into the atty with a tank.

First couple of hits were burnt, then perfection!

The second wick I made just kept giving a burning taste if I hit it longer than 3 seconds (I counted). The vape was still pretty darn good, but knew that it could be perfect like my first. Made another wick, but a little bit longer, and now the taste and vape are excellent.

There is so much wicking material in a 2' piece, that wasting a few strands are no big deal. Without having to deal with the tea bag, it is even simpler and faster.

Thanks to CJ for the original post, and everyone else that contributed. All of your ideas and afterthoughts is what brought me to mod the process a bit and I am even happier than before with the ego-t.

Saludos

 

[Uncle Screwtape]

Fidel,

I've tried that before, using only the wick material. I found that the wick ends up blocking the flow of air back into the tank. The wrap allows the air to go up the tiny slots in the interior of the needle. It looks like this in there.........

If those slots are blocked you get a vacuum in the tank that inhibits good wicking. If it's working for you great, but I had it start out good, then performance dropped off quickly.

My 2 cents.

 

[Rimau]

Uncle, Thanks for the great graphic. What you say makes perfect sense. Never took that close of a look at the needle and no one else has mentioned it that I can remember.

When I switched to a little thicker juice I started getting a bit of a burnt taste if I took too long of a hit. I pulled out the wick and separated out some fibers, and since it was formed and wet, it was easy to put it back in with a piece of wire. It might be just loose enough to allow air back into the tank (I see really small bubbles), and it is still working great. I have only run about 4 tanks though one particular atty, so time will tell. If it's performance starts to drop I'll do the tea bag wrap.

Thanks for the insight. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[Rimau]

Update: the wick only atty is still working fine, but it must have been sheer luck. After that I picked up some ptb (that didn't come up on the scanner, so the guy just charged me a dollar) and have been doing all my other wicks as outlined in Simplecj's mod guide.

I have one atty from cignot that I just could never make it stop tasting burnt. It still took me a number of wick mod attempts to get it right. I thought I might end up just having to tossing it out, but finally I got the right amount of rope and the length right, although I did have to push the wick lower down the spike, but I was able to salvage what I though was an unsalvageable atty.

Even if I have to make a new wick every week, I am really happy.

Thanks again guys

Saludos

 

[vapwench]

Ok. I've had my rope and ptb for a while now and hadn't had the nerve to try this mod. Finally tried it today. It took a bit of futzing to get the stnd thickness right. I rolled it up in a small square of ptb. Instead of using thread, I found an old xmas tree ornament hanger, and used pliers to make a vey narrow hook in it. Put my cylinder of rolled up rope in the hook and evened it up. Carefully pulled the doubled up rope thru the needle and carefully extracted the wire then pushed the wick down til it was just shy of the top of the needle rim. Used a tank to inseert the needle back into the atty.

Primed the bottom of the atty and sucked on the full tank without the button to saturate the wick. gave a couple of primer puffs with the button. Very good flavor. Bit of a hard draw. I probably got just a bit too much rope in there. Needs a bit of tweeking but overall it is way better than the original wick.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

[Rysup]

Anyone tried this on a type B? Should be much the same right? (as the internals are identical)

I've got an LR one I'll try this on eventually...

With burning the wick after removal from the needleplate, is it strange for the whole thing to want to catch a light?

 

[tsbrewers]

you don't want to remove the original wick to burn it, just hold the plate with a pliers, with the wick sticking out. Plus it is normal for the wick to flame up when you first burn it, it is the old juice burning off. Once it is clean, it will no longer hold a flame, and be a nice clean white.

Brew

 

[Rysup]

you don't want to remove the original wick to burn it, just hold the plate with a pliers, with the wick sticking out. Plus it is normal for the wick to flame up when you first burn it, it is the old juice burning off. Once it is clean, it will no longer hold a flame, and be a nice clean white.

Brew

Thanks dude. That should have read "after needleplate removal" above hehe

 

[Dj Xy]

Just tried this mod and it works perfectly, I used the silica rope out of a ce2 that I dissected after trying to remove the inner seal and accidentally pulled the coil and wick out with the seal, so far so good the atty isn't flooding after just a few draws as it was doing with the stock wick.

Ps locking forceps are idle for removing the needle plate and holding it during buning.