Twisted/braided wire question

[Xobeloot]

I ordered 30' of 34ga by accident but dont want to chunk it.

Was wondering if twisting/braiding it would open up the current allowing me to build lower ohm coils?

 

[darkzero]

Yes, it will pretty much cut the resistance in half depending on how tight & consistent you twist it. Never tried braiding though, maybe with 34 awg braiding with 3 strands might be better.

I have 100' of 32 awg that I thought I would never anymore but after twisting I use it quite often & like it alot.

 

[Xobeloot]

Awesome. Sounds like i have a date with a drill.

 

[darkzero]

Don't even need to use a drill. I just doubled the length of wire that I needed & folded it in half. Secured the open ends in a small hobby vise then used a piece of 1/16"music wire with a bend at one end (or make a loop or even use a pen clip) to hold the other end of the wire & just twisted it by hand. Doesn't take long & you have better control over how tight you want the wires to be twisted.

 

[Xobeloot]

Any idea what twisted 34 nichrome produces? 30awg on a 4/3 is giving me around 1.1

 

[darkzero]

I don't, I only have 28, 30, & 32 Kanthal. Resistance can change depending on how tight you twist it. Might not be much but I did notice a difference after building coils with twisted wire that varied on how tight I twisted them. So if you build a dual coil using twisted it's best to build both coils from the same piece that was twisted.

 

[Xobeloot]

Nah. Not fluent enough with it to go dual just yet. Will try the twisted on my next coil build.

P.s. were you on snuson? Name looks familiar, but i stopped posting there years ago.

 

[darkzero]

The twisted performs great, I keep switching back & forth from single strand to twisted.

Nope, not me, this is the first forum I've been on that is specifically related to nicotine & I haven't been here long.

 

[Xobeloot]

Rgr that. I have a new genny in the mail. Think i'll fire it up w/ twisted.

 

[Maglin]

DarkZero are you also on the CPF forums? The lathe in you Avatar looks like a PM1236. Think I remember seeing you doing flashlight mods. I'm always amazed at how clean some of you can kept your lathes. Mine isn't horrible but it's not wiped down after every use. You don't anything with building custom PV's? I'm drawing up some plans for a Copper/Brass/SS mech currently. The firing mechanism is the one thing I'm trying to wring out. Want it to be one off and look like a Tesla Coil.

 

[darkzero]

Yup that would be me but I stopped modding lights years ago. Nope no PV modding, just personal stuff.

 

[Xobeloot]

Well, i decided to give it a go just to try it. Did a 3-strand wick of 2mm silica with twisted 34 nichrome 4 wraps gave me exay 1ohm.

Cut the wicks so that they curl upwards towards my drip tip on my octopus and it works great. Nice even glow.

 

[04stinugget]

3 wrap of twisted 28 ends up around .35ohms give or take a little bit. I did a braided 4 wrap with 28. actually 3 strands braided together and ended up with .2. ended up firing it 3 times and taking it apart. not way to keep up the wicking with a coil running that hot in any of my gens. be careful and be aware this can very easily end up badly when you play with low low ohm setups like this. I even took apart my twisted coil yesterday just because I wasn't comfortable with it.

 

[pdib]

I don't, I only have 28, 30, & 32 Kanthal. Resistance can change depending on how tight you twist it. Might not be much but I did notice a difference after building coils with twisted wire that varied on how tight I twisted them. So if you build a dual coil using twisted it's best to build both coils from the same piece that was twisted.

Hey, darkzero, which way does the resistance shift? Tighter twist = ?

 

[darkzero]

Hey, darkzero, which way does the resistance shift? Tighter twist = ?

Good question, not sure. So I just twisted up another one but not as tight as the left over piece that I have laying around. So measuring the same length I got the same exact reading on both which does make sense. But this was using my Fluke. So I went & grabbed another cheaper MM & the tighter one was .3 higher. So then I cut two pieces exactly the same length for better accuracy & measured again, difference of .2, same resistance with my fluke. I previously made two coils pretty much the same wrapped around music wire & I remember the difference was greater than that, one I twisted by hand, the other I used a tool to twist it very tight. So I am going to have to say it was a fluke, haha.

I do remember watching a video or something mentioning this too. Come to think about it, resistance shouldn't vary much at all when twisted, not enough to be measurable on a average MM or to make a difference. The tighter twisted one would techinically have more resistance since it would be ever so slightly longer than one that is not twisted very tight, but again, not enough to make a difference in coils. Tighter should be best though for consistency throughout the twisted wire.

Edit: BTW, thanks for pointing this out & making me check. Now I wonder if there is any noticeable difference in vape between one twisted tight & one looser.

 

[pdib]

Thanks, man. I think the tighter would actually be "substantially" shorter (longer . . . . . . longer wire becoming substantially shorter; so, higher res. because there's more wire in a shorter space), now that I think about it.

 

[pdib]

So, then, the lowest resistance dual coil (single wick) would consist of two wires running side-by-side, rather than twisted together. If I had only X gauge and wanted lower resistance, but the dual/parallel coil put me below my VV cutoff, I could twist them real good, and squeak by by just a couple tenths of an ohm.

 

[Jeremy Evans]

When I make a dual that is typically how I do them. I made this one last night on my AGA T

 

[pdib]

I'd like to see you twist that!

 

[Jeremy Evans]

I'd like to see you twist that!

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