Now that I am an "expert" since I have built about 25 coils. (It's addictive!) I want to make a few comments.
1. Coil building: There are so many YouTube posts about building a coil, it scared me. I even bought one of those "Gizmo" coil winders. I also tried the needle through the wick method. It turns out that simply winding a coil by hand is the fastest and easiest; and it's not rocket science. I can build a coil by hand quicker than setting up the Gizmo. To salvage something out of the Gizmo, I do use the second smallest rod. It seems slightly larger than a 1/16 drill bit. More importantly it is silver and I can see the coil as compared to the black drill bit. I do transfer the coil to the bit since the bit is only about 2" long and I can further squeeze the coil.
2. Installing the coil in the cylinder: I don't know the technical term for the long round thing with 2 slots, so I'll just call it a cylinder. This was the second hardest task for me because one or the other coil leg would always hang up on the interior lip. I saw a YouTube video where the guy tried to install a wick using a bar straw, which didn't work for me. But I used about 1" of the straw, chamfered one end and slid this into the cylinder. Now I can put both leads into the straw and it goes through perfectly.
3. Installing the insulator and metal post: As I posted before, I use the shell of a ball point pen until I get to Walmart to buy a Bic. This works pretty good. I found out that the rubber insulator doesn't have to be in perfectly as the metal post usually straightens it out. By the way, I didn't like having to hold the bit and coil with one hand to keep the coil in place while installing. So I bought a 3/16" O-ring (59 cents - Ace Hardware) that I put on the cylinder. It holds the bit and coil in place while I install the insulator and post.
4. Cutting the wires: This was very difficult for me. But I found a pair of scissors at Michaels with a spring return and a nice point (Martha Stewart spring loaded scissors). This has worked very well for me. I still often get shorts after cutting. So with a magnifying glass I have to do a little extra trimming.
5. Installing coil wick: As posted before I went through most of the teflon tape to make a working atomizer. In fact I did go through all of it. Not giving up, I went to Ace Hardware and bought some more. I discovered that the new tape was wider (3/4" - I guess the last was 1/2"). This made all the difference in the world! I now have no problem wrapping the wick. I suggest cutting the tape at a slight angle (10 deg or less) to make a finer point when wrapping the coil.
6. Testing. I test after coil installation and after wick installation. Now that I have an IStick I can check the ohms. Before, I knew that 5 wraps was about 2.1 ohms. So after checking the coils pre-IStick I found a range from 1.8 to 2.2 ohms.
As I said coil building is now addictive. 25 coils will last me a long time but I still will be building more. The only other tool I think I will get is a lighted desktop magnifier.
