Still a Newbi?

[John hannaford]

Hi everyone,

I just singed up here today after using this site to do research since I started vaping in September. I smoked for 25 years, haven’t had a cigarette since the day I walked out of my local vape shop. I left that shop with a Aspire Nautilus Mini powered by a Kanger Evod battery. At the time of this writing, I am currently vaping on a Treebox Mini with a Freemax Starre Pro siting on top. The tank has the .16 Ni200 dual coil in it and I have the mod set at 530F. (The jury is still out on TC; but thats for another post) I think I have come pretty far in my vape journey, my next step I think would be the world of the rebuildable RDA/RBA/RTA’s. I have watched tons of how to videos and have read plenty of reviews and post, I will no doubt use this site as a huge source for my information gathering; my question here is not technical. The question I have is; how does rebuilding fit it to your regular every day, busy lives. I’m a parent, I work 12 hours shifts we all know how busy life can be; is rebuilding something that fits? Can rebuilding become as convent as changing a coil, or should it be approached as a quest for the perfect vape, not as simply a replacement for analogs. I am happy with the equipment I have, it all works well and their operation is simple and straight forward. Is building necessary to keep growing my vape knowledge base. Do you “top out” at some point using just pre made coils and the latest and greatest tank? Will I be forever a newbi? A couple of specific questions;

How long on average does it take to do a simple rebuild?
How do you know when to rebuild?
What are your replacing when you do your rebuild? Now, I just throw out my coils and screw one in. Could it ever be that quick?
Do you travel with your RTA or RBA ( I understand you wouldn’t want to be dripping in your car)?
Do you need specialty tools and a dedicate area? Is using my dining room table with some simple tools I can keep in a kitchen drawer, while the kids play, an option?

What are your real world experiences; how long did it take you to get there?

Thanks everyone, I look forward to the conversation.

-John

 

[suprtrkr]

Hi everyone,

I just singed up here today after using this site to do research since I started vaping in September. I smoked for 25 years, haven’t had a cigarette since the day I walked out of my local vape shop. I left that shop with a Aspire Nautilus Mini powered by a Kanger Evod battery. At the time of this writing, I am currently vaping on a Treebox Mini with a Freemax Starre Pro siting on top. The tank has the .16 Ni200 dual coil in it and I have the mod set at 530F. (The jury is still out on TC; but thats for another post) I think I have come pretty far in my vape journey, my next step I think would be the world of the rebuildable RDA/RBA/RTA’s. I have watched tons of how to videos and have read plenty of reviews and post, I will no doubt use this site as a huge source for my information gathering; my question here is not technical. The question I have is; how does rebuilding fit it to your regular every day, busy lives. I’m a parent, I work 12 hours shifts we all know how busy life can be; is rebuilding something that fits? Can rebuilding become as convent as changing a coil, or should it be approached as a quest for the perfect vape, not as simply a replacement for analogs. I am happy with the equipment I have, it all works well and their operation is simple and straight forward. Is building necessary to keep growing my vape knowledge base. Do you “top out” at some point using just pre made coils and the latest and greatest tank? Will I be forever a newbi? A couple of specific questions;

How long on average does it take to do a simple rebuild?
How do you know when to rebuild?
What are your replacing when you do your rebuild? Now, I just throw out my coils and screw one in. Could it ever be that quick?
Do you travel with your RTA or RBA ( I understand you wouldn’t want to be dripping in your car)?
Do you need specialty tools and a dedicate area? Is using my dining room table with some simple tools I can keep in a kitchen drawer, while the kids play, an option?

What are your real world experiences; how long did it take you to get there?

Thanks everyone, I look forward to the conversation.

-John

Those are good questions:

It usually takes me about 30 minutes to build a coil from scratch, wick it, and get the atty back in service. You won't do it as quickly at first; there's a learning curve of course. And sometimes it just won't work right-- not unlike getting a bad coil out of the box-- and you'll spend an hour or more futzing with it.

You'll find you rewick more often than you rebuild. Rewicking takes abut 5 minutes, or not a lot longer than disassembling your current tank, removing the old coil, priming the new one, reinstalling and reassembling. How often you rewick is a personal decision. I know folks who rewick their drippers every day; they always want fresh wick to get the cleanest possible taste of the juice. Others go weeks to months without bothering, including myself. I find I rewick drippers more often than tanks because I can see the wick in a dripper. When it gets stained and dirty I start thinking about changing it, even though I can't taste it (I wick rayon, not cotton, and this makes a difference.) The truly neat thing about RBAs is the coil and wick are separate parts. If the coil still works, and you are satisfied with the performance, there's no need to redo it. Just pull the old wick, dry burn the coil (Kanthal, not TC wire) to get the gunk off, wash and dry it, rewick and back in business. I have some experience with the matter. When I first get a new atty, I might build it a dozen times to figure out its sweet spot for the juice I intend to use in it, not unlike trying coils of different values in a replaceable tank. But once I figure it out, then I'm good to go for as long as the coil doesn't break when I am rewicking it. I usually build twisted wire coils because the wire is stiffer and it withstands being shoved around to rewick longer. I have coils over 6 months old, maybe a year, and still going strong.

No, it's not as quick, as I hope I have explained above. What you replace is the piece (pieces in multi coil tanks) of wire that actually does the heating. When you replace the wire, you always rewick at the same time. I wouldn't try it with cotton, but with rayon you can actually wash it, dry it, and reuse it. Nobody ever does, though, because it's cheap and easier to use a fresh piece. As above, it the wick gets gunky, it is not necessary to replace the heating coil to replace the wick. This is probably the biggest difference as compared to replaceables. When one piece goes out, you can salvage the other. You don't have to throw it all away. Oh, yes, and it's also a lot cheaper.

Yes, I travel with mine. The attached photo is my "car kit" that I take to work every day. The mod is an SX Mini M, the tank is an Indulgence MT-- my current favorite tank-- plus a unicorn bottle of juice, a spare battery and a little blue screwdriver and a penny to unscrew the janky-azz battery door on the SX. WHen I go to my woman's house for a visit, I usually bring a couple of mechs and drippers, plus juice and a handful of batteries.

Special tools, yes; dedicated area, no (although it's useful). I rebuild right here in the desktop where I am typing now so I am close to my machine and can see Steam Engine and the Ohm's Law Calculator. When you're ready, we can talk more about tools, but basically a multi tip small screwdriver, a good scissors, small needlenose, some tweezers and something to use as a mandrel to wind the wire on will get you by. It's not huge. I have a lot more gear than that, and it all fits in an 8.5 x 11 manila envelope. I strongly recommend the purchase of a coil tool, of which there are approximately 17 gajillion different types. Here's my favorite, all of three dollars worth:

And I further strongly recommend the purchase of a ohmmeter, which doubles as a building stand. You can get one for 10 bucks, but better quality (MHO) is available from USAOhmmeters. Here's mine:

I personally like to rebuild. Others do not. You'll have to make your own call. But you'll find plenty of help here if you decide to try.

 

[ChildWithATemper]

Hello and welcome,

I do not have any answers for you, but I'm looking forward to reading the answers you're going to get - I've had them myself. For now I simply chose not to get into rebuildables because it does seem like a lot of time.. well... guess not wasted.. but just a lot of time. I'm not a parent, but with a 40 hour a week job, dogs and husband to take care of, I chose to stop at DIY'ing my own liquids. That and the fact, that it takes me roughly 5 hours once a month to clean all my tanks and change factory-made coils somehow makes rebuilding seem like a hassle.

 

[Skunk!]

I have been working two jobs off and on for about a year. Lately I have more money than time. I take my drippers in to my local shop and have them rebuilt anymore. I tip them 5-10 bucks and hang out for a bit and shoot the ..... If you take care of coils in an rda, they can last a really long time. Even tipping well it is still cheaper than drop in coils... or cigarettes. I have a wife and 4 year old son, and sometimes it's nice to hang out with people who aren't family or co workers.

 

[Fog n Vape]

Single coils are easyier and quicker to get installed and vaping again as don't have to fire and squeeze two coils to get them heating up even. Usually takes me 5 minutes and I'm good to go. I use a dripper, Velocity Mini at home and its a easy 2 post 4 hole design, probably 10 minutes when I'm doing dual coils in it. I only did single coils in it at first. I keep a tank coiled and wicked and grab it when I leave the house or drive any distance. The first few coils will take longer but you'll catch on quickly. Wicking is probably a harder skill to get down then wrapping a wire around a thin tube of metal.

 

[EverPresentNoob]

all of us are always still newbs compared to others. as to your questions....

I build on my Kitchen table. with my kids around. Im not to worried about that aspect as teh wost thing that could happen is I put an extra wrap or two on a coil. but when installing to teh RDA it is pretty obvious when the coils dont heat evenly...

I keep all by build tools and wire and wicking in a small plastic snap closed pencil box. My basic tools are a set of Hakko Flush Cutters, different rods to wrap coils around, needle nose pliers, Ceramic tweezers and a GOOD SHARP set of small scissors. I keep all this in one container so i am not having to constantly hunt around for them. My wrapping rods I made from Stainless Steel bar, in 1/8, 2mm, 3mm. I also have a small generic rod that has different sizes on it from I think 1.5mm up to 3.5.

It dosent take me to long to tear down and rebuild a RDA/RTA. Maybe 15 mins or so... I have a pretty standard coil that I use in almost all my stuff. If Im building a fancy coil, twisted, Clapton, Stapled or whatever it takes longer, but I mostly use a nice 24g 3.2m 7 wrap coil. with duals it comes ut around .38. Or I use a dual parallel 28G 3mm 5 wrap. pretty simple builds, and ones that I have been doing for a while. I can damn near build them in my sleep. I seldom do single coils. much prefer the production and warmth i get from a good set of Duals.

 

[HauntedMyst]

How long on average does it take to do a simple rebuild?
How do you know when to rebuild?
What are your replacing when you do your rebuild? Now, I just throw out my coils and screw one in. Could it ever be that quick?
Do you travel with your RTA or RBA ( I understand you wouldn’t want to be dripping in your car)?
Do you need specialty tools and a dedicate area? Is using my dining room table with some simple tools I can keep in a kitchen drawer, while the kids play, an option?

What are your real world experiences; how long did it take you to get there?

• Since I use single coil RDA's and RTA's the average build is about 5 minutes
• You know when to rewick when the taste drops off. You know you need a new coil when the old one breaks.
• The wick and coil. Prebuilts will always be faster but I don't have any that take them.
• I travel with both
• No specialty tools other than an ohm meter though a coil jig makes it easier to do precise sizes. I do everything at my desk.

 

[HighPlainsPuffer]

takes me about fifteen to twenty minutes to build, install, and prime a dual coil setup. For me, however, that does not include making the wire. I, like suprtrkr, use twisted wire more often than not, so I don't factor in the time used to make the wire. I typically make a bunch of twisted/claptons on a weekend and I'll be set for a month or so. I rewick everything after about a week of use. I almost always rebuild the coil for practice unless I'm pressed for time, in which case i'll just dry burn (I only use kanthal), and rewick, which can take under ten minutes. I've definitely found the actual wrapping of the coil to be the quickest portion of the building, takes me well under two minutes to roll the coils.

I do have an area I keep all the tools I use, it's a small plastic set of drawers on wheels (target) that is loaded with all my vape stuff. It's practical to move around to clean, and quite convenient. One drawer is juice, one is tools, one atomizers and wire, one mods, and one of empty boxes and torch.

Personally I use rta's so I can find the sweet spot, just as suprtrkr said above, to each atomizer I have. Rebuilding is a great way to dial in your vape, as compared to just using the wattage up/down on factory coils. I've been rebuilding for four months, and it definitely has a learning curve, which picks up as you become more experienced.

 

[djsvapour]

Welcome @John hannaford

This is great to read!

and no mention of the world Blu, V2, Apollo or Vaporfi on the entire thread.

(until now... )

 

[Tommy-Chi]

Very simple builds would take abt 15 minutes start to finish if you have good hands.

You can also buy coils online. It depends on what price you are willing to pay as to what you will be getting. Most of the popular retailers have the premade coils under "wire."

 

[John hannaford]

This is insight that I was looking for. You can't find this type of information on YouTube or review sites. I already spend about an hour a night with my gear in a dedicated spot; it sounds like once I get through the learning curve and with a couple of more tools, I'll be rebuilding my own coils. Learning that rewicking and rebuilding can be 2 different operations, makes the task less intimidating. And that travel is no different than what I already do. These real world accounts are priceless; I would like to thank all of you for the detailed responses. This is why I joined this forum the wisdom and knowledge base is second to none. Now, off to find the perfect RTA

 

[suprtrkr]

This is insight that I was looking for. You can't find this type of information on YouTube or review sites. I already spend about an hour a night with my gear in a dedicated spot; it sounds like once I get through the learning curve and with a couple of more tools, I'll be rebuilding my own coils. Learning that rewicking and rebuilding can be 2 different operations, makes the task less intimidating. And that travel is no different than what I already do. These real world accounts are priceless; I would like to thank all of you for the detailed responses. This is why I joined this forum the wisdom and knowledge base is second to none. Now, off to find the perfect RTA

lemo2 for single coils. Indulgence MT for blow-your-doors-off dualies

 

[JDC1958]

Welcome and you are in the right place to get answers. Just not from me as I am going to try my 1st rebuild this weekend. Great group of people here with many many years of experience and knowledge!

 

[Moaufan]

It takes me longer to get my rebuild stuff out and ready than it does to actually rebuild. I usually wrap a couple and keep them in an old medicine bottle in my carry bag just in case. The coil I am currently running is almost 3 months old. I re-wick weekly.

 

[JDC1958]

It takes me longer to get my rebuild stuff out and ready than it does to actually rebuild. I usually wrap a couple and keep them in an old medicine bottle in my carry bag just in case. The coil I am currently running is almost 3 months old. I re-cotton weekly.

Great idea. I was wondering what would be something good and simple to keep backup coils and wicking material in for work and travelling purposes.