Time to start building

[spanky131]

Hi all

I have been vaping for 2 years, and resisted the changes the best I could, but now its time to step up. I ordered a fogger v3 and an igo w as well as some silica wick and 30 gauge wire and a tester. What are my next steps to this whole rebuildable craze????? Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

 

[happigrinz]

Your next step... is to build and get frustrated!

In all honesty though, the only way to learn is to get your hands dirty and get up in there! You'll make TONS of mistakes! Trust me... if you're just starting out, invest in a good amount of wire, because you'll be burning through a lot trying to find 'sweet spots' in your builds. Don't do the dollar/foot thing from most vape shops... go online and get yourself a 50ft spool of whatever gauge you're comfortable with (usually about $5) and then you don't have to try to be stingy with your wire (rookie mistake I made). Give yourself plenty of lead wire after making your coils to make them easier to mount in your igo-w.

With that said, begin with a simple 3/4 wrap, no microcoils, no frills, just wrap around your silica, mount and try it out. Get comfortable working with the coils and atty before you try anything crazy. After that, it's off to the races! Hit up youtube and check out build tutorials and try it out. The MOST IMPORTANT THING I will say is this though: please read up on Ohm's law and the general properties of electronic circuits. TRUST ME, it will help in the long run to figure out why you are getting shorts, why going from single->dual coils cut resistance in half, and overall a general background knowledge with what you're working with. Why do I say this? To keep you SAFE!!! Don't cloud chase before you even know what goes into the production of vapor. Get good, reputable batteries if you're gonna go into the sub-ohm realm (the green Sony 30As are my go-to).

Other than that, it's all up to you. Dragon, nano, micro, trico, diamond, duals, quads, (OCTOS?!?)... there's a lot of trial-and-error ahead of you, but don't let any of the pitfalls discourage you! When you make builds that vape beautifully and you have the chance to say "yea, I built that", you're gonna be very happy.

 

[spanky131]

Thanks that's all good advice. I guess I should have stated that a while back I tried rebuilding my protank coils (with 400 ss mesh), with limited success. One of my biggest gripes was everything tasted burnt after I build it. Is there any tips or tricks out there to avoid this?? I also plan on getting an aga-t2 to easier builds, but worry about the mesh wick. Is it ok to use silica wicks in the top coil tanks. I only started researching this yesterday (after talking to my local shop, and being amazed at his vapor production with the rda), and all I have seen online are the mesh wicks.

 

[happigrinz]

Honestly, as much as I know about building, I have still yet to try out a Genesis-style atty. I DO hear though that for people using SS mesh, you can wrap it around a length of cotton or silica - but I've never done this, so I don't know. I would like some feedback on this though because my Pulse-G has been sitting on my desk at home for a week and I still haven't built it out yet! I will say though, there are people that build Genny's without using mesh at all... just run a length of the silica/cotton down into the tank.

As far as Protanks go, I can chime in on that! First... I've never heard of anyone using SS mesh in Protanks, I personally use cotton. That burnt taste might be from different things. You can be burning 1 of 2 things in a Protank, your wick, or the rubber grommet held be the bottom pin. Is the burning a rubbery taste? You might be running too hot of a setup and melting that rubber. You CAN use NR-R-NR coils (non res - res - non res), or just be more aware of how everything is heating up. Gimme a few mins, I'll post a pic of how my Protank is currently set up...

 

[edyle]

Hi all

I have been vaping for 2 years, and resisted the changes the best I could, but now its time to step up. I ordered a fogger v3 and an igo w as well as some silica wick and 30 gauge wire and a tester. What are my next steps to this whole rebuildable craze????? Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

Me too! I'm waiting; and FT is going to be on holiday for a week so I hope that doesn't affect my order; it *should* get sent out from FT before that.

Meanwhile I guess the only thing for you to do is ..... boil some cotton?


I got me genny in the meantime.

 

[edyle]

Thanks that's all good advice. I guess I should have stated that a while back I tried rebuilding my protank coils (with 400 ss mesh), with limited success. One of my biggest gripes was everything tasted burnt after I build it. Is there any tips or tricks out there to avoid this?? I also plan on getting an aga-t2 to easier builds, but worry about the mesh wick. Is it ok to use silica wicks in the top coil tanks. I only started researching this yesterday (after talking to my local shop, and being amazed at his vapor production with the rda), and all I have seen online are the mesh wicks.

My I-atty came with what looks on the outside as a mesh wick, but looking more closely, it has a silica wick on the inside, and the mesh is just wrapped around it; that's better in my opinion anyway, than just having mesh; the mesh effectly just acts as a rigid container/straightener.

If I rebuild it, I would use a longer piece of silica rope, and a shorter steel mesh, with the steel mesh just acting to bring the wick up to the top, then the silica rope I would let bend over, and maybe wrap two coils on it; or better yet drill a second hole and let the rope come up one side and go down the other, with two coils in a sysmmetrycal configuration

 

[spanky131]

Me too! I'm waiting; and FT is going to be on holiday for a week so I hope that doesn't affect my order; it *should* get sent out from FT before that.

Meanwhile I guess the only thing for you to do is ..... boil some cotton?


I got me genny in the meantime.

edyle

Boil some cotton???? am i confused here or is that a tip????

 

[happigrinz]

Here she is! I think it's 9/10 wraps of 26g. I did NOT use a flavor wick, as with coils this large, a flavor wick not only chokes the wicking process, it also HIGHLY disrupts vapor production. This thing throws vape for a Protank. The wicks along the inside channel actually SLOW wicking for me, as without it, I was getting some flooding. Now, this is the ONLY way I build my Protank 1. It comes to 0.7ohms, so it's only good for my mechies. I do a slightly different variation for my mini-Protank 2.

Her in action:

 

[edyle]

edyle

Boil some cotton???? am i confused here or is that a tip????

There's a bunch of people here the cotton club that swear by cotton;

the fogger is a bottom coil I believe, and I plan on putting cotton in mine;

I've been using cotton on my protank coils, and although I had resisted the notion for a long long time, I gotta admit, after trying it out, ... that cotton sure TASTES nice; as long as you never let the wick go dry it should be good; and with a bottom coil, you wick won't go dry. So I'm pretty confident about using cotton in bottom coils.

 

[edyle]

View attachment 296531

Here she is! I think it's 9/10 wraps of 26g. I did NOT use a flavor wick, as with coils this large, a flavor wick not only chokes the wicking process, it also HIGHLY disrupts vapor production. This thing throws vape for a Protank. The wicks along the inside channel actually SLOW wicking for me, as without it, I was getting some flooding. Now, this is the ONLY way I build my Protank 1. It comes to 0.7ohms, so it's only good for my mechies. I do a slightly different variation for my mini-Protank 2.

Her in action:

View attachment 296534

Have you tried vertical coil on that?

 

[spanky131]

There's a bunch of people here the cotton club that swear by cotton;

the fogger is a bottom coil I believe, and I plan on putting cotton in mine;

I've been using cotton on my protank coils, and although I had resisted the notion for a long long time, I gotta admit, after trying it out, ... that cotton sure TASTES nice; as long as you never let the wick go dry it should be good; and with a bottom coil, you wick won't go dry. So I'm pretty confident about using cotton in bottom coils.

That sounds interesting. What are the steps for making a cotton wick?? What do you use for the base material?? info is appreciated, my toys should be here within a week!!! Need to educate myself as much as possible between now and then....

 

[happigrinz]

Have you tried vertical coil on that?

No sir, but I think you just gave me my next project!

I attempted a diamond coil in the Protank that was OK, but the production of my current setup is nuts. A vertical dragon coil would be nuts tho! I could just see the smoke coming out the mouthpiece when just firing the mod! My ONLY hesitation would be the fact that the top piece that covers the atty head and channels the vape into the center chamber of the mouthpiece goes down pretty far. I think there's only like 1-2mm of clearance between that and the top of my coils when it's all put together. Touch that, we got a short.

I never said I wouldn't try my damnedest though!

 

[spanky131]

View attachment 296531

Here she is! I think it's 9/10 wraps of 26g. I did NOT use a flavor wick, as with coils this large, a flavor wick not only chokes the wicking process, it also HIGHLY disrupts vapor production. This thing throws vape for a Protank. The wicks along the inside channel actually SLOW wicking for me, as without it, I was getting some flooding. Now, this is the ONLY way I build my Protank 1. It comes to 0.7ohms, so it's only good for my mechies. I do a slightly different variation for my mini-Protank 2.

Her in action:

View attachment 296534

Looks cool... I just gave up on mine since it took too long to make a wick for it, and my local shop sells then 5 for $6. it just wasn't
worth it for me anymore... I am looking forward to learning how to do a rebuildable though....

 

[happigrinz]

Looks cool... I just gave up on mine since it took too long to make a wick for it, and my local shop sells then 5 for $6. it just wasn't
worth it for me anymore... I am looking forward to learning how to do a rebuildable though....

I wouldn't give up... I didn't use my Protanks for like 2-3 months once I switched to drippers and other attys. Then I decided to learn how to rebuild the heads, and that's when I realized the potential of Protanks. The stock ones you get come in LR (1.5-2.0) and NR (2.4-2.8)... both suck... balls. Even with the genuine LR heads you can buy from Kanger sucks. I bought a 5-pack of LR heads just so I can take them apart and rebuild them as I need. A solid rebuild only takes about 10-15 mins once you get it down. Because I don't use non-res wire though, I burn my grommets after about 3-4 rebuilds and then it's time to toss and on to the next atty head.

The flavor production is great on Protanks and I honestly believe they are the best 'budget' tank system you can buy if you can build them correctly.

 

[happigrinz]

A Protank rebuild is definitely a tougher one though, and you may want to hold off on them until you get a solid foundation and are VERY comfortable building on real rebuildables. The Protank was never marketed as a having a rebuildable head - but they also didn't say it couldn't be done.

 

[edyle]

That sounds interesting. What are the steps for making a cotton wick?? What do you use for the base material?? info is appreciated, my toys should be here within a week!!! Need to educate myself as much as possible between now and then....

I bought a bag of cotton balls from the pharmacy, put 1 ball in a coffee cup of water and stuck it in the microwave for 3 minutes; then let it dry; then when dry burning my protank coils I would take out the flavor wicks and after dryburn, I would put in cotton; I can't redo the coil wick though; too tiny for my eyes.

Meanwhile I have a genny, but I'm not going to put cotton on a topcoil.

There's lots of pics in the rebuildables forum here where you will see cotton being used in kayfun style rebuildables.

 

[edyle]

View attachment 296531

Here she is! I think it's 9/10 wraps of 26g. I did NOT use a flavor wick, as with coils this large, a flavor wick not only chokes the wicking process, it also HIGHLY disrupts vapor production. This thing throws vape for a Protank. The wicks along the inside channel actually SLOW wicking for me, as without it, I was getting some flooding. Now, this is the ONLY way I build my Protank 1. It comes to 0.7ohms, so it's only good for my mechies. I do a slightly different variation for my mini-Protank 2.

Her in action:

View attachment 296534

By the way, why is the wick so dark? Is that a gunked up silica wick?

 

[happigrinz]

By the way, why is the wick so dark? Is that a gunked up silica wick?

You're not looking at wick. The dark section in the middle is ALL wire (oxidized slightly at this point - been using it about 3 days - making it have that darker appearance). All the wick around the circle and the tails you see coming out of the coil is all saturated with an amber color e-liq (berry lime ).

 

[crazyheiriphic]

that vertical coil sounds interesting

 

[edyle]

that vertical coil sounds interesting

Yes, a vertical coil up the middle positioned so that the airflow is up through the middle of the coil, and you put in cotton around the outside of the coil instead of running a wick inside the coil.

Nice symmetrical design