Spicy Mechs

[N_vj5497]

What was your most.. Racy, spicy, touchy... ok straight-up daredevil mech setup?
I started vaping with a noisy cricket v1, a spool of 28 g wire, and an obscure idea of ohms law.
In retrospect, it was not the safest path leading to vapetasia. Boy i am glad im still ok. I have all my fingers. My lips are not tattered. I have never even vented a battery. I think the guys that sold it to me thought it was funny, "hur hur lets give this newbie a bomb hur hur dur". Whatever. Those guys shop closed anyways, and a new obe has opened up, thats lasted way longer and flourishing.
I had a coworker that guided me and helped me figure it out. He knew a lot more about it all, and knew that i was a caveman with a torch, he kindly took pity on me and kept me safe lol. Here i am now, a novice by no means, and i am SO glad i never blew it up. I definitely came close. My first few builds on it was 28g 4-6 wraps. I used steam engine a lot, but had no actual way to measure my coil resistance. Another time i made ny first claptons, 26g kanthal, with 36g wrap, 2mm diameter, 5 wraps, dual coil. That same build usualy comes out between .2-.3 for me now, .23 at this very moment. At 8.4 volts.... This is truly the danger zone for battery safety, dry hits, vg break down, top cap heat, every red zone there is lolol

 

[bombastinator]

so "spicey" means "stupid" Fair enough. I melted not one but two 18350 batteries in a protruding button unregulated safetyless mod by putting it in my pocket. Twice. The first might be excused, but its pretty hard to label the second anything but stupid.

 

[N_vj5497]

Indeed. I had a similar tube, but only ever burnt my cotton in half and burnt my leg. Ohms were high enough to avoid melt downs lol

 

[N_vj5497]

And yes, stupid is exactly the word. Stupid, dangerous, wreckless, ignorant. Just wanted that first post to be a little more inviting is all. And 'spicy' puts up a bacckground image of a chili, flames, red and heat for me. Like a mod that blows up lolol. And its an environment that would also make me sweat the way i do when i think about that cricket

 

[crammit442]

I went from a cigar store cig-a-like to an ego straight to a stacked (series) 123's and 18350's tube with dual coil 1.5 ohm punched cartos and then to an authentic KF Lite at 0.4-5ohms. To date (knock on wood) I've never vented a cell either. I've had my share of (very hot) accidental pocket activations and a a few close calls, but fortunately God usually takes care of drunks and fools. I'm not actually sure when single 18650 tubes became the norm or why everyone I knew back then was running everything in series, but they did hit very hard. A single 18650 Super T mech at around 0.4ish ohms seems about right to me these days. I started vaping in 2010 and only bought my first regulated mod in the last six months. Until then I wasn't even aware regulated mods existed. I'd never heard of anything other than nichrome and kanthal. If I hadn't stopped at a local shop for a couple of 18650's, I STILL wouldn't know. I've enjoyed them and I like TC and "Replay" is REALLY awesome. That said, the I'm finding myself picking up my mechs more than the Replay and TC equipped mods. There seems to be a pure "form follows function" kind of feel to a nice mech when it's dialed in. The spilled liquid and "hot" pocket filled adventures definitely bring back memories.
Charles

 

[dripster]

Although I don't actually recommend it to those who are still new to the mech and or who don't know what they're doing, personally, I, don't think vaping something probably around halfway in between 30A and 35A (.11 ohms, measured with an accurate ohms reader that you have correctly verified that it qualifies as an accurate ohms reader) on a single VTC5A should be labelled as "spicy" provided that you take reasonably short pulls and provided that you take all the necessary steps to make absolutely sure you aren't going to overheat the battery (i.e., put the mod down for at least a couple of minutes as soon as you notice something is getting a little warm in there so avoid excessive chain vaping, choose a tube mech that is designed and constructed in such a way that it 1/ allows you to feel the warmth long before you ever need to start worrying about your own personal definition of "excessive" and 2/ allows you to quickly immediately stop the mod from auto firing in the rarest event that it does that, familiarize yourself with the mechanics of the mod, don't let the button get pressed by accident for a long period, and familiarize yourself with how fast the battery heats up in comparison to how fast you blow your clouds).

According to Mooch, pulse ratings are useless. However, Sony rates the VTC5A at 35A Continuous Maximum Discharge Current with 80°C (176°F) temperature cut (temperature measured on the battery surface).

 

[sonicbomb]

I've had a couple of accidents with 18650s both resulting in nasty burns. As a result I take battery safety very seriously and don't consider the subject to be either funny or cool.
lol

 

[N_vj5497]

According to Mooch, pulse ratings are useless. However, Sony rates the VTC5A at 35A Continuous Maximum Discharge Current with 80°C (176°F) temperature cut (temperature measured on the battery surface).

Pulse ratings ARE useless. You could pulse on any battery at 60 amps for an 1/8th or 1/4 second

I've had a couple of accidents with 18650s both resulting in nasty burns. As a result I take battery safety very seriously and don't consider the subject to be either funny or cool.
lol

Not supposed to be funny. Maybe amusing, in a ghost-story-around-the-fire way. And it was far from cool, im sure i exceeded safe battery temperature a few times. Im just glad i never got burnt, & hope no other novice builder/vaper comes the way i came, barreling down a narrow path

 

[stols001]

Yes, I have a noisy cricket in my stash. I know how it operates, however, and I don't plan on breaking it out unless it's my last mod on earth (and also, I am feeling prepared to die).

It was kind of slanted toward the "funny" although I could see some usefulness coming out of the topic, primarily "know what you are doing, or bad things could happen."

However, I think that applies to more than just mechs, and if you haven't learned that life lesson by now, I'm not sure quite what would be needed to learn it. A mech with absolutely no learning in how to operate it might drive that lesson home a bit, I guess.

Anna

 

[N_vj5497]

I told the guys i had a ego beforw that but it didnt work, and i wanted something cheap butthat hit like my friends mods id tried. I tried the cricket and an AIO, and i liked the cricket wayyy better so i left with it. It all took like 15 mins maybee, and i got no warning or anything. I remember because i would never do that. All kinds of people have wanted me to sell them mods, but all my regs are busted, and i just cant sell a mech to someone that doesnt wanna hear about ohms & stuff and i cant sell someone something im scared might blow up on them. Some say itd be their fault for not wanting to learn, but i have to be responsible too

 

[Baditude]

I had a battery explode in my first mech (first real "mod actually) several years ago. The culprit was a protruding horn-style fire button that got depressed in a pants pocket and over-discharged the battery. I was using only a 2.0 ohm cartomizer in a cartotank on top. Lucky for me, I wasn't wearing the pants at the time and the battery vented its gas from the specially designed fire button so that the mod itself didn't explode.

This incident is the reason I took it upon myself to educate myself on battery and mech mod safety and share that information on this forum so that others do not make the same stupid mistakes that I made.

A Beginner's Guide to Your First Mechanical Mod
Battery Basics for Mods: The Definative Battery Guide for Vaping
Explain it to the Dumb Noob: Ohm's Law Calculations for a Mechanical Mod

 

[lupinehorror]

just out of interest i just counted my mechs. 14 (i've never actually counted them before...i think i know why. 14 is enough, right?). half hybrid and half 510 roughly. i've passed more onto friends...i think i know why, right?
the noisy cricket v1 was my second. i had done my research with my first (brass single 18650 SMPL clone) and had a great setup with that.
i still wasn't ready for building for series. though there was nothing unsafe about my setup/build i wasn't ready for the...impact.
no cotton/skin/coils/facial hairs were injured. nothing caught fire. nothing has before or since. all gear is checked, inspected and cleaned in a nice routine. i was involved in electronics a while back so i think that knowledge helped a load when i first started using mechs but all the info is on here and much of it has been absorbed by me though i know i'll learn more.
the cricket is still in rotation.
not trying to hijack OP so apologies if it seems that way. just my experience. probably not required but i've typed this far...

 

[N_vj5497]

No apologies necessary

It is a hellofa strong/intense vape, especialy with the indestructible, which can only fit coils up to so big. Id let others try it and it always made them jump lol

 

[N_vj5497]

Ive had only had 3 mechs, but im thinking about a squonk mech box, i havent found one 26650 i like

 

[crammit442]

When I used to frequent the local vape shop, I was the guy that the employees used to "get" their friends. They would always tell unsuspecting people "you GOTTA try this guy's mod". Running a series tube at 0.4 ohm w/36 mg juice caused a lot of people to decide to sit down for a few minutes after trying it. Mostly harmless shenanigans. In all seriousness, battery safety, short circuits, hybrids, etc were never even discussed. Like someone else said, I guess I just inherently understood that it was important to check my builds for shorts. Even a well built atomizer is not far from a dead short when you get down in the low sub ohm area.
Charles

 

[N_vj5497]

Wow i wouldnt vape 36mg on anything less than 2 ohms. Now at 100+ watts, id find that far more than harmless. Id have a migraine. Id rather have the battery-ignorance situation hands down anytime.

 

[crammit442]

When I bought my first bottle of juice online I figured since I smoked Marlboro Reds, I should get the highest nic juice, so I just ordered 36mg. It seemed about right and I'm still at 36 now. I played around with slightly higher resistance (.75-1 ohm) when I first got regulated TC mods, but have gone back to building around .5 ohms for everything. The only real difference is that I'm using SS across the board so I've had to go from 24 ga kanthal to 28 ga SS because the resistance is so much lower w/SS. I'm pretty much MTL only, though. I'm sure I'd be in the 12-15 mg range if I used DTL setups. One unexpected (to me) benefit to using smaller ga wire is it ramps up really fast and doesn't need much preheat in TC and hits fairly hard on mechs. I also started using spaced coils for TC and they seem to stay clean longer.
Charles

 

[Baditude]

Even a well built atomizer is not far from a dead short when you get down in the low sub ohm area.

1.0 ohm = 4.2 amp draw
0.9 ohm = 4.6 amp draw
0.8 ohm = 5.2 amp draw
0.7 ohms = 6 amp draw
0.6 ohms = 7 amp draw
0.5 ohms = 8.4 amp draw
0.4 ohms = 10.5 amp draw
0.3 ohms = 14.0 amp draw
0.2 ohms = 21.0 amp draw
0.15 ohms = 28 amp draw
0.1 ohms = 42.0 amp draw
0.0 ohms = dead short = battery goes into thermal runaway

 

[crammit442]

1.0 ohm = 4.2 amp draw
0.9 ohm = 4.6 amp draw
0.8 ohm = 5.2 amp draw
0.7 ohms = 6 amp draw
0.6 ohms = 7 amp draw
0.5 ohms = 8.4 amp draw
0.4 ohms = 10.5 amp draw
0.3 ohms = 14.0 amp draw
0.2 ohms = 21.0 amp draw
0.15 ohms = 28 amp draw
0.1 ohms = 42.0 amp draw
0.0 ohms = dead short = battery goes into thermal runaway

I understand and agree w/your data. The point I was making is that even a perfect sub-ohm build is, relatively speaking, not very far above a dead short and can easily go awry. It doesn't take much at low resistance to push something past the designed limits of the battery or switch or other component. Most of the equipment used to test and measure resistance isn't even close to accurate enough to bet the farm on tenth ohm measurements. I think thoughtful experience and attention to detail is as or more important than what a cheap Chinese 510 tab says about a given setup. By experience, I mean noticing battery heat, a switch that wants to stick closed, etc and realizing something isn't right.
Charles

 

[N_vj5497]

When I bought my first bottle of juice online I figured since I smoked Marlboro Reds, I should get the highest nic juice, so I just ordered 36mg. It seemed about right and I'm still at 36 now. I played around with slightly higher resistance (.75-1 ohm) when I first got regulated TC mods, but have gone back to building around .5 ohms for everything. The only real difference is that I'm using SS across the board so I've had to go from 24 ga kanthal to 28 ga SS because the resistance is so much lower w/SS. I'm pretty much MTL only, though. I'm sure I'd be in the 12-15 mg range if I used DTL setups. One unexpected (to me) benefit to using smaller ga wire is it ramps up really fast and doesn't need much preheat in TC and hits fairly hard on mechs. I also started using spaced coils for TC and they seem to stay clean longer.
Charles

Ss is all i have.
And when failed with egos and smoked newport reds still, i thought my buddys 12 would be weak. It was on a xcube 2 at like .2ish 80 watts, and i got dizzy lol. Vape a 4 at 50w now .5