SXK Billet box...

[englishmick]

Yep. The negative contact comes out easy. Just put it in a cloth and gently squeeze it with some pliers. It's best to under do it and have to do it a couple times than it is to over do it and have to try to pull it apart again. This has to be a stupidly easy thing to adjust during manufacturing. I don't know why they don't just make them a bit looser.

What size Allen key do those screws take? The smallest I've got are 1.5mm and 1/16th". Looks like I need something smaller.

I put a battery in without the nylon strap and the door fits fine without rocking. With the strap in the door won't go all the way in and it rocks. Some pretty tight tolerances there. I used a rewrapped battery and it came out OK. One with the original wrap the wrap got messed up on the neg end. Both HG2 batteries. I need to get that neg contact sorted out.

 

[gsmit1]

What size Allen key do those screws take? The smallest I've got are 1.5mm and 1/16th". Looks like I need something smaller.

I put a battery in without the nylon strap and the door fits fine without rocking. With the strap in the door won't go all the way in and it rocks. Some pretty tight tolerances there. I used a rewrapped battery and it came out OK. One with the original wrap the wrap got messed up on the neg end. Both HG2 batteries. I need to get that neg contact sorted out.

I use a torx driver. I think it's a T5

 

[englishmick]

I use torx driver. I think it's a T5

The smallest Torx I had was T6. It actually worked. But I looked at the screws with the mag and it definitely seems to be a hex socket. I might try getting some smaller hex and Torx gear. Don't want to strip those little screws.

 

[gsmit1]

I just checked again and the T5 fits perfect. I know it's an allen screw, but I just found that the T5 torx worked and have been using it ever since

 

[Wolfmeat]

1.3 mm hex is the actual size.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[englishmick]

1.3 mm hex is the actual size.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks. It's in the mail from Amazon.

 

[englishmick]

I barely got those little screws put back in after I adjusted the negative contact. The door magnet kept grabbing them off the end of the screwdriver. I dropped one on my kitchen table. If it had hit the floor it might have been over. Does anyone sell replacements?

 

[englishmick]

I'm making a bit of progress. I started with the STM style insert that came installed. I put in the same 1.2ohm coil I use in the STM and assumed it would take the same power as the STM, 14W. That gave me hardly any vapor and it was flooding. I put it up to 20W and now it's doing good. It appears to have a lot more air flow than the STM.

 

[BillW50]

I barely got those little screws put back in after I adjusted the negative contact. The door magnet kept grabbing them off the end of the screwdriver. I dropped one on my kitchen table. If it had hit the floor it might have been over. Does anyone sell replacements?

I know if you ask SXK nicely, they will generally sell you parts. Another option is fasttech sells all kinds of screws. They probably have some that would fit nicely.

 

[gsmit1]

I know if you ask SXK nicely, they will generally sell you parts. Another option is Fasttech sells all kinds of screws. They probably have some that would fit nicely.

I have tried to get parts from SXK lately (I have in the past) and they do not answer anymore. I'm pretty sure their state overlords are monitoring closely all communications in and out of the country in light of all this controversy as of late.

There's a young lady over there who is co-founder of a company that makes mech mods and RDAs. She sold me a hard to find RDA.

Her English is quite good (studied in university) and we've had some friendly conversations about life on both sides of the world in general. I sent her a message a couple weeks ago wishing her and her family well during this trying time and her answer was short, vague and very guarded. Highly uncharacteristic.

I sent her an uncontroversial message 2 days ago and she didn't answer. She has ALWAYS answered me in the past.

The point is, it might be tricky communicating with people over there right now.

 

[gsmit1]

These are both with the Xeta. I'm getting great mtl vapor production. Low mass high resistance. I can't remember the exact builds I have in there now LOL!

 

[englishmick]

These are both with the Xeta. I'm getting great mtl vapor production. Low mass high resistance. I can't remember the exact builds I have in there now LOL!
View attachment 884201 View attachment 884203

So is the Zeta what you would recommend for MTL? I would like to use my own coils rather than drop in heads, and stick with the MTL I'm used to.

 

[b.m.]

So is the Zeta what you would recommend for MTL? I would like to use my own coils rather than drop in heads, and stick with the MTL I'm used to.

I haven't used the Xeta in mtl,i keep mine wide open with no inserts,but it is a very good rba.It comes with several reducers for the chimney and deck,so i would say you can definitely get it set up how you like it.

 

[gsmit1]

Here's the mouth of the black rabbit hole.

IMHO the Xeta is a must have. At least to try. It is SO versatile. I've run it wide open with titanium wire in TC and it was great. Lately I've been running it in mtl as you see, and it's also great in mtl. Like @b.m. says, it has a bunch of chimney and deck inserts that make it configurable a bunch of different ways so you should be able to find something you like.

However, there are also other great RBAs that tend to be better one way or the other, though some like the Vapeshell with the Kindbright inserts are pretty versatile too. The Exocet does really good dtl and the Crossbow does really good mtl though it's finicky to wick or you'll get leaking. The KRMA I've only used in mtl and it vaped good, pretty much like the Xeta, but was also a bit pickier about wicking

The newer ones like the Wick'd and the Vapesnail and some others you've seen people post I don't have. so I can't personally comment on those.

The bottom line with the Billet Box, if you want to get the most out of it, is experimentation. There's no way around it There's just waaaaay too many ways to set it up for somebody to say" THIS is THE best" at anything.

 

[gsmit1]

I barely got those little screws put back in after I adjusted the negative contact. The door magnet kept grabbing them off the end of the screwdriver. I dropped one on my kitchen table. If it had hit the floor it might have been over. Does anyone sell replacements?

Get yourself a strong magnet (doesn't have to be big) and move the tip of your screwdrivers and bits around in a circle spinning them slowly in your fingers as you do it. You should feel the magnet pulling toward the middle of itself as you do this. It will magnetize the tip and make your screws stick to them.

You're welcome

 

[englishmick]

Here's the mouth of the black rabbit hole.

The bottom line with the Billet Box, if you want to get the most out of it, is experimentation. There's no way around it There's just waaaaay too many ways to set it up for somebody to say" THIS is THE best" at anything.

I'm enjoying it. Vaping meant a lot of figuring stuff out the first couple of years. Not much of that lately. My last major challenge was wicking a KFL.

I won't feel too guilty buying stuff for the BB either. Haven't done that a while. All I've got on the list so far is spare Boro tanks so I can have more than one thing going at a time, especially as it seems like replacing coils and wicks is a bit more work than for a regular tank. I noticed those Boros are around $10 at Gas City. Around half that from China, but who knows with China these days. Likewise for the insert parts.

 

[FLICK]

So is the Zeta what you would recommend for MTL? I would like to use my own coils rather than drop in heads, and stick with the MTL I'm used to.

Yep, I use the xeta with roughly 1.8 ohm coils at around 10 watts, couldn't be happier...

I use the smallest 0.8mm deck air insert which I ran a 1mm drill bit through to open it up a fraction, and I use the medium chimney insert, all good, perfect for my preference of a fairly tight draw..

I've used a couple of the other MTL bridges, the crossbow was pretty leaky, the Insider V2 was ok but it's finish is a bit rough and wicking was a bit hit and miss... The xeta is better all round and fairly foolproof IMO...

 

[englishmick]

Ordered a Xeta from Gas City.

Might regret this but I also ordered 4 Boro tanks from FT. Hard to resist at $20 shipped for four tanks. Gas City were out of them today, I looked yesterday and they had them in stock. I would have paid a bit more to get them from GC just to be sure they would arrive this year.

 

[FLICK]

It seems the standard YFTK Xeta from FT includes a spare positive post now:
$21.95 YFTK Haku Xeta Inside Styled RBA Rebuildable Atomizer for BB Box Mod Kit - 316 stainless steel + ultem at FastTech - Free Shipping

I contacted FT in Jan after my 3 month old Xeta positive post broke (as mentioned before), they were going to send a replacement post with my next order, I ordered some cheap coils late March and they added a whole new Xeta to the order, at the time I assumed they did that because they couldn't get just a post..

To my surprise they've included a replacement positive post in a little bag, and there was also another spare post in with the complete new Xeta they sent, lol... I guess with this all being drawn out over a couple of months and CNY + Covid in between times, they got confused and sent a replacement post + a whole replacement Xeta... a nice bonus...

So between this new Xeta, my original one, and the replacement I ordered from 3F in Jan that came with a spare post (I ordered that one in a rush just before CNY because I didn't want to be xeta-less for months and I didn't expect FT to replace the post due to the age), I now have 3 Xetas and a couple of spare positive posts, lol, that'll keep me going a while and make it hard to justify buying a Vapesnail or such ...

 

[gsmit1]

Ordered a Xeta from Gas City.

Might regret this but I also ordered 4 Boro tanks from FT. Hard to resist at $20 shipped for four tanks. Gas City were out of them today, I looked yesterday and they had them in stock. I would have paid a bit more to get them from GC just to be sure they would arrive this year.

I don't know how you can go wrong with the Xeta. Just do be aware of that positive post. It does not HAVE to break. I've had both of mine for months with a few builds in each and have not had any problems.

Like I said in a previous post. Just snug it up until the wire doesn't move on the outside of the clamp when straightening out the coil. This should be no problem with a lightweight mtl coil especially.