The Billow v2!

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Sycowulf

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Jul 13, 2014
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I got my Billow v2 in today, and on my first build I had a leak. A bad leak, to the point where I had it laying on my chest and I had a huge juice mark when I picked it up. After a little google-fu I found a fix on YouTube that worked perfectly ( ). The trick is to have some kind of cotton on the entire deck, including in between the posts. Since I did this, I haven't had a single drop of leakage.
 
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BennyAdeline

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Jun 21, 2013
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This is a nice atty! The screws seem a little weird and give me some trouble, but beyond that, it's damned good. Wicking was a breeze after reading this thread.

Compared to the Cthulhu, the BV2 seems a tad more refined. A little less airflow but the tank capacity makes up for that. I don't know if I like one more than the other yet.
 

jcmcphail

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Sep 29, 2014
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This is a nice atty! The screws seem a little weird and give me some trouble, but beyond that, it's damned good. Wicking was a breeze after reading this thread.

Compared to the Cthulhu, the BV2 seems a tad more refined. A little less airflow but the tank capacity makes up for that. I don't know if I like one more than the other yet.
I too dislike the screws, I've found them to cut even 26 ga Kanthal, I use 28 ga on B2s nomally. They also seem to back off when I check my builds after a refill.

I have checked into cheeseheads to replace them with but fine the center post holes are too close together for them. I was thinking of securing wires under screw heads with them.

I ended up ordering grub screws from around the world to try and see if that helps. They will be in at end of month.
I have 8-B2s in my rotation some have real bad screws some not as bad.
 

jj6404

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I too dislike the screws, I've found them to cut even 26 ga Kanthal, I use 28 ga on B2s nomally. They also seem to back off when I check my builds after a refill.

I have checked into cheeseheads to replace them with but fine the center post holes are too close together for them. I was thinking of securing wires under screw heads with them.

I ended up ordering grub screws from around the world to try and see if that helps. They will be in at end of month.
I have 8-B2s in my rotation some have real bad screws some not as bad.
Yeah I hate the screws. My issue is on both my B2s, I find myself struggling to screw the screws down until the screw heads almost seem flush with the deck and still appearing to not have a good connection. Then I screw down one more rotation and it snaps the lead. I would much MUCH rather have grub screws. I wouldn't mind if every atty had grub screws. With something especially small like this I think working with a little Allen key rather than a bigger screwdriver would make the whole experience easier, never mind the security and lessened chance of snapping your leads.

If you find the right size grub screws that fit, please share!


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jcmcphail

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Sep 29, 2014
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Yeah I hate the screws. My issue is on both my B2s, I find myself struggling to screw the screws down until the screw heads almost seem flush with the deck and still appearing to not have a good connection. Then I screw down one more rotation and it snaps the lead. I would much MUCH rather have grub screws. I wouldn't mind if every atty had grub screws. With something especially small like this I think working with a little Allen key rather than a bigger screwdriver would make the whole experience easier, never mind the security and lessened chance of snapping your leads.

If you find the right size grub screws that fit, please share!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Got my grub screws in, was not expecting them so soon, came from England.

 
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jcmcphail

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Oh yea, B2 is a coil guillotine for sure! They chill out after a few coil replacements though. If I get another one of these I'm going to pull the screws out and just file smooth the ends.

Coil guillotine for sure, I took a couple of photos when replacing mine.



What I installed
 

johnlacie

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Jun 21, 2011
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Finally got all my Billow v2 RTAs (all 3) since ordering them on the first week of May. Waited 2 full months and now they're here. :)

First impressions, they're awesome. Did not really have any issues coiling them. No clipping of the coil leads (even when I used a non-twisted 28 gauge on a couple), and the post holes could easily take a twisted 28 gauge wire. No dry hits and definitely no leaking so far. Love how easy each tank were to fill up to the brim. These are the most convenient RTAs I have used to date.

Also, I measured the inner diameter of the glass tube and came out to 20 mm. Fabricated backup plastic tubes from a 20ml syringe (Terumo) whose inner diameter matches. Works quite well and I don't have to worry about breaking the glass tubes.

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Mad Scientist

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Yeah I hate the screws. My issue is on both my B2s, I find myself struggling to screw the screws down until the screw heads almost seem flush with the deck and still appearing to not have a good connection. Then I screw down one more rotation and it snaps the lead. I would much MUCH rather have grub screws. I wouldn't mind if every atty had grub screws. With something especially small like this I think working with a little Allen key rather than a bigger screwdriver would make the whole experience easier, never mind the security and lessened chance of snapping your leads.

If you find the right size grub screws that fit, please share!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not sure if it's completely the screws or that the threaded screw hole is machined deeper than the bottom of the wire hole. This creates in effect a scissor that cuts the wire. If they just would machine the screw hole and threads as deep as the line tangent to the bottom of the wire hole circle, it would clamp instead of cut.

What I've been doing is inserting extra wires alongside each coil wire in the hole to sort of "stuff" the wire hole a little, and then trim once tight. This seems to help.
 

jcmcphail

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Sep 29, 2014
83
130
Virginia Beach, Va
I'm not sure if it's completely the screws or that the threaded screw hole is machined deeper than the bottom of the wire hole. This creates in effect a scissor that cuts the wire. If they just would machine the screw hole and threads as deep as the line tangent to the bottom of the wire hole circle, it would clamp instead of cut.

What I've been doing is inserting extra wires alongside each coil wire in the hole to sort of "stuff" the wire hole a little, and then trim once tight. This seems to help.
I agree with your conclusion.

I have installed grub screws in all my B2s now. They have certainly helped, but you can still over tighten and cut the wire due to scissor effect. The grub screws do have a true cup bottom though compared to oem phillips screws which are very inconsistant in shape. After replacing screws on 8 B2s I found maybe 25% of the oem screws were actually cut with proper shape on the bottom. I do prefer the feel of the grub screws when tightening. But any screw will cut the wire if you try to bury them due to what Mad Scientist has said.

Those interested in grub screws the correct size is M2 x 3mm. You will need a 0.9mm allen key to fit the head.
 

jj6404

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Jan 15, 2015
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I agree with your conclusion.

I have installed grub screws in all my B2s now. They have certainly helped, but you can still over tighten and cut the wire due to scissor effect. The grub screws do have a true cup bottom though compared to oem phillips screws which are very inconsistant in shape. After replacing screws on 8 B2s I found maybe 25% of the oem screws were actually cut with proper shape on the bottom. I do prefer the feel of the grub screws when tightening. But any screw will cut the wire if you try to bury them due to what Mad Scientist has said.

Those interested in grub screws the correct size is M2 x 3mm. You will need a 0.9mm allen key to fit the head.
Nice. I wonder if my hobo clone has this size in it...


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Mad Scientist

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Did you guys see Phil Busardo's latest video? He pretty much bashes the Billow 2 (he vapes one with a broken glass in the video) and then realized after the video that he was missing the first chimney piece.


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I did see that. I still can't figure out how he was able to use it without the inner chimney without it flooding like crazy.
 

johnlacie

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I did see that. I still can't figure out how he was able to use it without the inner chimney without it flooding like crazy.
It probably did flood which is most likely the reason why he overtightened the glass tube breaking it as a result.

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gone3uo6

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May 1, 2015
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Here's a Ti grade 1 build I tried this morning: 28 AWG, 2 5 mm, 9 wraps for each coil, 0.38 Ohm. I'm sensing much better flavor than from the Ni 200 but I think that's because my DNA 40 just works better with the higher cold resistance.
hey Mad, what do you mean by 2 5mm? Two 5mm ID coils? That would be impossible to fit in the chamber... 3mm ID barely fits...Just ordered some 26ga (0.4mm) Ti 1 wire and have been looking at everyone's builds on the Billow v2 with Ti.
 
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