Ok,
On the basis that someone posted about dry burnig Ti coils and using non-spaced coils etc I thought I would have a go.
Bottom line is that I have decided this may not be a great idea...here is why..
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So I did a moderate pulsing with TC off and things looked ok. Pinched the coil etc as one does and got it glowing from middle out as usual. Then I messed with it too much, disturbed one of the coil turns and had to pulse again. Not too hot, just glowing...Then gave it one last pulse for luck before wicking. This time I let it go a bit too long and it got a bit hotter, 'orange' hot if you know what i mean...Then I noticed that it had changed colour somewhat - much lighter. Opps, thought I, that is oxidation. So to check I heated it some more and then went at it with my ceramic tweezers. The puic shows that I knocked off a significant amount of the TiO2 (I presume) coating...this is how much came off about 1/4 of the coil deposued on my ohm meter for contrast
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So I dont know what to say here. Obviously I went at it pretty hard but not much more than I would do with Kanthal. Even a moderate amount of heating will generate substantial quantities of a rather friable surface coating of TiO2...
Now, having said all of this, I loked carefully at a couple of spaced coils (no dry burning/pulsing etc) that I have been using in a dripper and the subtank for the last week and there is no sign of any colour change ie no apparent increase in oxide beyond what is normally on the Ti surface.
Make of all this what you will. Im sure someone must have doen this before but I couldnt find any ref to it so here it is for all those interested in Ti for TC.
Bottom line is I am still using it but I certainly wont be dry bruning or pulsing for building/cleaning purposes. Although I beat on it, heating in air to high temp is not a good idea to my mind. In contrast, normal Tc-regulated heating with a wet wick etc seems to be fine even over a reasonably protracted period of time (`1 week for the same coil)
I'll be interested to see what people think!