Tight Wicking

[vaper1960]

I mostly agree (about Rayon) Yes, I make it tight through the coil (have to twist it to even get it through) but I don't feel that it "shrinks"... just doesn't "swell" like cotton. After getting it through the coil, don't forget to "untwist" it and pull back and forth to even things out. It does wick great and "seems" to be more tolerant of heat and break-in issues. What I really like is (the "tails") fluff out easily... no need to mess with it too much. Ironically, I have one rta that tends to leak so use cotton for that one.

 

[gsmit1]

Thinning the tails or supply of that however would seem to defeat the purpose.

In experimenting with these rayon/cotton combinations I have done almost no thinning of the tails. Just a little fluffing. It seems it would be harder to get rayon around cotton than the other way around too. I'm gonna try it though.

 

[MacTechVpr]

In experimenting with these rayon/cotton combinations I have done almost no thinning of the tails. Just a little fluffing. It seems it would be harder to get rayon around cotton than the other way around too. I'm gonna try it though.

Curious about your experiment and favor the idea of inner cotton feeding a protective and productive outer layer of rayon. However, my experience hasn't been great for rayon with flavor though. Also, the often discarded outer linear cotton pad surfaces of KGD are highly conducive of flow. Whereas the inner fluffy interior of the material saturates extremely well. I use primarily woven ceramic, Nextel 3mm but always have KGD in one thing or another, stripping one side of the padding off usually.

For me, I lightly roll sections with KGD's exterior padding in the center to feed the outer wetter fluffy exterior, stretch it to make the fluffy outside irregular surface as tightly linear as possible. Insert as much as the coil can handle and still permit some slight movement of the wick at its center. To do this and get as much volume of tails as possible, slight twisting and stretching of the wick (rolling) is needed to compress the wick going in. But un-rolling the center then leaves a tight surface of linear fiber within the coil. Tend not to thin tails but leave as much as possible for the deck area available and fluff them to improve permeability and retention. That's it. Works with rayon too.

I'd say, try that experiment using KGD padding and rayon outer fill.

Real care, as I'm sure you know, to not over-wick is needed regardless of material. Too much power for the available flow and you cook or char the juice. Less vapor, less flavor. More wick than needed chokes flow and prematurely clogs media with solids from under-vaporized liquid, i.e. stains and gunks.

A note here — length of tails determines the possible speed or flow. Short tails maximize flow and dry out or effuse quickly. Longer tails limit or constrain flow but increase availability and retention (less leaking, need to drip). The more coil power applied, the longer (or greater) the media needed…up to the limit of the coil Ø.

To sum up, I'd say just enough tight wicking is awesome for a productive balance of both flavor and volume.

Good luck.

 

[MacTechVpr]

From the thread Tight Wicking for info on cotton comparisons see link just below…

See THIS for some exceedingly useful information on rayon and cotton.

Curious about your experiment and favor the idea of inner cotton feeding a protective and productive outer layer of rayon. However, my experience hasn't been great for rayon with flavor though. Also, the often discarded outer linear cotton pad surfaces of KGD are highly conducive of flow. Whereas the inner fluffy interior of the material saturates extremely well. I use primarily woven ceramic, Nextel 3mm but always have KGD in one thing or another, stripping one side of the padding off usually.

For me, I lightly roll sections with KGD's exterior padding in the center to feed the outer wetter fluffy exterior, stretch it to make the fluffy outside irregular surface as tightly linear as possible. Insert as much as the coil can handle and still permit some slight movement of the wick at its center. To do this and get as much volume of tails as possible, slight twisting and stretching of the wick (rolling) is needed to compress the wick going in. But un-rolling the center then leaves a tight surface of linear fiber within the coil. Tend not to thin tails but leave as much as possible for the deck area available and fluff them to improve permeability and retention. That's it. Works with rayon too.

I'd say, try that experiment using KGD padding and rayon outer fill.

Real care, as I'm sure you know, to not over-wick is needed regardless of material. Too much power for the available flow and you cook or char the juice. Less vapor, less flavor. More wick than needed chokes flow and prematurely clogs media with solids from under-vaporized liquid, i.e. stains and gunks.

A note here — length of tails determines the possible speed or flow. Short tails maximize flow and dry out or effuse quickly. Longer tails limit or constrain flow but increase availability and retention (less leaking, need to drip). The more coil power applied, the longer (or greater) the media needed…up to the limit of the coil Ø.

To sum up, I'd say just enough tight wicking is awesome for a productive balance of both flavor and volume.

Good luck.

 

[gsmit1]

@MacTechVpr

It wasn't as bad as I thought getting some rayon around the cotton. I have tons of pads, which I love, but decided to go with CB V2 for the core. about half and half cotton to rayon. Pretty tight, but not so as to move the coils. (almost) Tails laying, but not stuffed in the well.

A dual twisted 28, 3mm 316L build coming in at .29 cold. In a Unicorn RDA on the MDX 21700 series stack with a pair of 30Ts.

Yes, that is rockin pretty hard, but the resistance will climb to maybe .35 or so as it heats up and I want to see how this holds up to some serious action.

I have maybe a dozen hits on it and so far so good. We'll see how it goes. My inner inclination still has rayon as the core though. I can't seem to shake it

 

[gsmit1]

A thought that occurred to me is that if one of the materials in a given wick is more absorbent, it may not readily give up it's juice to the other.

Hmmmm. At what point are we really overthinking things?

 

[CMD-Ky]

A thought that occurred to me is that if one of the materials in a given wick is more absorbent, it may not readily give up it's juice to the other.

Hmmmm. At what point are we really overthinking things?

I am a firm believer in KISS. I became satisfied with my setups when quit messing a lot. I just wind the coil, squeeze the rayon and thread it in there. If there is a little gap at either end of the coil (often happens to me) then I shove a little piece in there and plug it up.

 

[stols001]

Oh I believe that point happened SOME time before you asked the question.

I never "Core" anything, not even apples. I did do that weird origami thing to the apple where it would come apart in two pieces so my kid would eat them. Passed down from my parents and no, I can't remember how. I wish I could it might be useful for the wicking experiments, but I would need an apple and a sharp knife (several of them really) to figure it out.

State dependent learning from when I was a mommy. I'm working really hard on forgetting how to cook.

Anna

 

[gsmit1]

I am a firm believer in KISS. I became satisfied with my setups when quit messing a lot. I just wind the coil, squeeze the rayon and thread it in there. If there is a little gap at either end of the coil (often happens to me) then I shove a little piece in there and plug it up.

To clarify, I'm not agonizing over finding a great vape. That's not the point at all. I have plenty of great setups with great wicking.

If I think of something, I HAVE to experiment with it I don't know how else to explain it. It'll nag at me and definitely not just with vaping.

 

[gsmit1]

I like the consistency of cutting KGD pads consistently sized every time, without fiddling to pull apart fibers, trying to get it right.

Exactly. I love the Japanese pads for precisely these reasons. If I had no other wicking material than my Puffs pads, I'd be fine.

But seeing that I do have numerous other materials, I have to play around with the possibilities.

 

[stols001]

Wow... I am the reverse.... I enjoy idle dreams with little follow through...

UNLESS I like, uh, want something then I'm like a Jack Russell after a badger, and a badger who is after something it wants PRETTY BAD.

Anna

 

[MacTechVpr]

A thought that occurred to me is that if one of the materials in a given wick is more absorbent, it may not readily give up it's juice to the other.

Hmmmm. At what point are we really overthinking things?

Don't think you are. When I roll KGD with the one side of padding on the inside, it kind of forms a pipette. I feel that the flow graduates freely to the lower density of the looser outside of the wick keeping it quite wet under power.

I've tried 3 ways – all KGD fill, both pads and single side only. Lightly rolling the latter (as superX recommended to me long ago) has for me yielded the best result in production and durability. Again, I typically use as much as I can get into the Ø and still see a reluctant wiggle at center. For that you need to roll the wick just to get it in as I'm cutting a wide section of 1.5-2x or more into 2.80-3.00 mmØ. Then I'll unwind the slight twist of the wick inside the coil pulling it mildly taught from both sides to restore a linear fiber alignment. A squeezed in roll to me may rather inhibit flow.

This method helps deter end-turn gravity sag setting in, provides ample uniform wet contact and fat broad fluffy tails for retention. To accentuate this with an even greater ratio of tail to Ø you can notch the wick section by doubling it over (before rolling for insertion) and cutting the center into a "V" to conform to the 1.5x and providing even more bulk to the tails. Depends how wet you want the flow.

BTW, just the pad side of KGD work exceptionally well loosely rolled together into a wick I've found. Especially in small single coil builds. And the flavor is just grand. Like you, I seldom run out of them and miss them when I do.

Good luck.

 

[gsmit1]

@MacTechVpr
When you say "padding," do you mean the "skins?"

Are you the fella I saw in the last few days saying that they leave the skins on their pads? Sorry. I have a lot going on offline too.

Poor @Fidola13 is probably staring at this thread wondering what went wrong.

 

[MacTechVpr]

@MacTechVpr
When you say "padding," do you mean the "skins?"

Are you the fella I saw in the last few days saying that they leave the skins on their pads? Sorry. I have a lot going on offline too.

Poor @Fidola13 is probably staring at this thread wondering what went wrong.

Yeah, the bread for the sandwich and it has turned into a hybrid media – stuff in as much working wick as you can – thread.

Good luck.

 

[Fidola13]

@MacTechVpr
When you say "padding," do you mean the "skins?"

Are you the fella I saw in the last few days saying that they leave the skins on their pads? Sorry. I have a lot going on offline too.

Poor @Fidola13 is probably staring at this thread wondering what went wrong.

Nahhhh not me! There’s some great rayon threads out there so talking padding & skins is great!!

 

[MacTechVpr]

Hey guys, @gsmit1 thanks for listening in. Sorry for my longer splains at times. Hope you get that I'm a bit preachin to the bleachers. Hopin' our misbegotten social distancing soon becomes a ridiculed relic of history and we see a resurgence of interest here in rebuilding. Think it may come sooner rather than later seeing what some are paying for drop-in products outside of our own enlightened crew of serial bargain shoppers. I'm sure most strollin' through here for now are expert at both.

Good luck.

 

[stols001]

I do not understand the whole work from home thing. I do not think I would enjoy it either, so it is somewhat disheartening to see certain giant companies adopting it. Kinda thing.

I have always wanted to keep my work FAR AWAY from home with the caveat the commute needs to be under 30 minutes. Otherwise I do not get enough "lilfe" time.
Etc.

Anna

 

[f1vefour]

It can be difficult to work from home since there's no oversight, back when my children were young I worked from home and during the summer it was awful as my wife worked as well. Two boys and a girl giving me hell while trying to work was not fun, I had to take more breaks than normal which severely hindered my workflow.

Now my kids are grown it's not difficult to work from home and I actually prefer it.

 

[MacTechVpr]

…I have always wanted to keep my work FAR AWAY from home with the caveat the commute needs to be under 30 minutes.

Would be rare for most I'm afraid. It would be great to have the option. However, the remote digital workspace optimizes earnings or net worth for the individual in the long run and makes best use of natural resources. Tell ya what, I am definitely diggin' the absence of aircraft and their pollutants in our skies.

And less time in stop-and-go means more time for creative wicking!

(Now digital electro-magnetic pollution, that's something else and not sure which may be worse.)

Good luck.

 

[stols001]

On the East Coast an hour commute could be really normal. Have been lucky all my jobs in S Tucson are close. One job in particular it was 10 minutes. In Douglas it was 8. BUT that is ALSO the amount of time it takes to cross the city. LOL. 8 is not enough I need musical time to brush off work crud.

Anna