A week ago, I got my first RTA, a UD AGA-T5 from a forum member.
I had already bought a small spool of kanthal (28ga, I think) and a length of 2.5mm silica at an inflated price to support a random B&M I found.
I grabbed a small phillips screwdriver and wrapped 5 or 6 lopsided coils around it. I jammed the new "coil" on the posts and tightened the screws. I then beat the coil into submission with the screwdriver until even more lopsided and ugly, but centered properly to avoid shorts.
I set my SID to the lowest power and screwed the deck on. I tapped the fire button and got a 2.1 ohm reading, well within my hoped for range. I raised the power and glowed it red to observe for even heating. It was officially "close enough"...
Ideally, I'd have used cotton, but I'm not there yet and used what I had. I cut a 4" piece of silica wick, folded it in half and inserted it through the coil. Sending it folded end first made for easy threading. I snipped the wick at the fold, creating two wicks instead of one folded one within the coil.
I trimmed both ends to a length generous enough that I could tuck all four ends loosely into the juice well area with the ends near the juice cutouts.
I assembled and filled the unit. My atty officially weighs more than my mod...
With the airholes fully closed, I get a nice warm vape at 10 watts on my favorite coffee juice, in my tootle puffing MTL draw style. This evening was my 5th or 6th session with it. I've not experienced a leak or wicking problem yet.
Besides the resistance test, not a thing was planned or measured.
Success, with nowhere to go but up from here....
Jay
I had already bought a small spool of kanthal (28ga, I think) and a length of 2.5mm silica at an inflated price to support a random B&M I found.
I grabbed a small phillips screwdriver and wrapped 5 or 6 lopsided coils around it. I jammed the new "coil" on the posts and tightened the screws. I then beat the coil into submission with the screwdriver until even more lopsided and ugly, but centered properly to avoid shorts.
I set my SID to the lowest power and screwed the deck on. I tapped the fire button and got a 2.1 ohm reading, well within my hoped for range. I raised the power and glowed it red to observe for even heating. It was officially "close enough"...
Ideally, I'd have used cotton, but I'm not there yet and used what I had. I cut a 4" piece of silica wick, folded it in half and inserted it through the coil. Sending it folded end first made for easy threading. I snipped the wick at the fold, creating two wicks instead of one folded one within the coil.
I trimmed both ends to a length generous enough that I could tuck all four ends loosely into the juice well area with the ends near the juice cutouts.
I assembled and filled the unit. My atty officially weighs more than my mod...
With the airholes fully closed, I get a nice warm vape at 10 watts on my favorite coffee juice, in my tootle puffing MTL draw style. This evening was my 5th or 6th session with it. I've not experienced a leak or wicking problem yet.
Besides the resistance test, not a thing was planned or measured.
Success, with nowhere to go but up from here....
Jay
