Okay, I've been doing some more testing the waters with my VX2 and here's what I've found.
As far as stuffing carts, I think it's good to have a backup plan aside from buying them, however all of Shawn's carts are quite inexpensive AND they seem to last considerably well for the very low price. My recommendation is to simply have them on hand, but backup stuffing materials and plans are not a bad idea either. The characteristics that seem to make "home-stuffed" carts perform well are pretty simple. The stuffing material has to be very absorbent, yet packed relatively loosely for good fluid flow and airflow. The cart stuffing has to act like a sponge that is in the "relaxed" position, giving it maximum fluid capacity. Keep in mind that the stuffing MUST FILL the cart enough to retain the juice AND carry/wick juice to the atomizer. It's ok to have the whole evenly trimmed stuffing sticking out of the cart a bit, BUT there should be NO LONG STRAY FUZZIES protruding excessively above the evenly trimmed top of the stuffing.
The $5 ROLL of “FAIRFIELD POLY-FIL traditional batting” I got at WalMart works extremely well and will make SEVERAL THOUSAND EXCELLENT PERFORMING CART STUFFINGS for the original VX2 carts. This stuff is less than 1/8” thick and comes in a nice 12” wide roll….although the bag says “Crib size, 45" x 60".
Preparing the poly-fil batting for cart stuffing:
First off, the long fuzzies MUST be trimmed off before filling any cart with juice. Unless you actually like to taste the long stray fibers burning on the atomizer, there is just no way around it; but I’ve found 3 methods of doing it. Since I presently don't have scissors sharp enough LOL to trim it nicely AFTER stuffing the cart (which is tricky to do even with sharp scissors), I have come up with TWO other easy methods of trimming the fuzz. One is done AFTER stuffing the cart and it’s very simple….just run the “invisible” portion of a micro-torch flame rapidly across the top of the cart 2-3 times. This burns all the stray fibers away without doing any damage to the cart or stuffing. I will reiterate….the key here is RAPID MOVEMENT of the INVISIBLE portion of the flame across the top of the cart. This method works very well and can be done very rapidly. The 2nd method is done just before stuffing the cart. The poly-fil roll is 12” wide, so each 28mm x 12” strip you cut off will make TEN cart stuffings. Use scissors (or steel ruler & razor on a hard flat surface) to cut a 28mm X 12” strip of batting off the 12” wide roll. Going slightly bigger than 28mm is ok, but if you go too much bigger, you will overstuff the cart, which will give you flow problems and you will NEED the straw modification for sure. Now cut the 12” strip into 10 small pieces, each 23mm x 28mm. Grab one of the 23mm x 28mm pieces and roll it up (not too tightly) so that you have a 23mm long ROLL. Now GENTLY pinch it closed with your thumb & forefinger, about 3-4mm from one end of the roll (this will be the end that comes into contact with your atomizer). Keep the roll pinched and make one straight, swift scissor cut about 2-3mm from the end (very close to your thumb & forefinger). The roll should now be about 20mm long. Carefully pinch the roll with a pair of tweezers and insert it into the cart. There is a technique to this, but you'll figure that out by doing it a few times. IF you were careful while inserting the roll, you should have very minimal (if any) fuzzies sticking out. I juice mine with a syringe & needle, so that it saturates COMPLETELY from the bottom up. Soak the whole cart, but not enough to make the juice pool excessively at the top. Place the cart in a mouthpiece and let it sit on a bench top for a few minutes before inserting into atomizer. This works very nicely for me. The rolled-up paper towel stuffing also works nicely, but seems to go dry a bit sooner and I doubt it can be refilled or topped off as many times as the batting material. If you initially use a syringe & needle to fill the cart from the bottom up, you should be able to get quite a few eyedropper refills/top-offs, with no trouble at all. Don't let the cart get too dry before topping it off with an eyedropper bottle! Letting it get too dry before topping it off will definitely shorten the useful lifetime of the stuffing.
Batteries: I'm almost certain I've been overcharging my batteries...especially the manual ones. This sometimes causes rapidly excessive atomizer heat, which causes loss of flavor until the battery discharges a bit. Lack of proper battery charging documentation leaves us all in the dark, so experimentation is the only solution to finding the proper charging time.
As far as stuffing carts, I think it's good to have a backup plan aside from buying them, however all of Shawn's carts are quite inexpensive AND they seem to last considerably well for the very low price. My recommendation is to simply have them on hand, but backup stuffing materials and plans are not a bad idea either. The characteristics that seem to make "home-stuffed" carts perform well are pretty simple. The stuffing material has to be very absorbent, yet packed relatively loosely for good fluid flow and airflow. The cart stuffing has to act like a sponge that is in the "relaxed" position, giving it maximum fluid capacity. Keep in mind that the stuffing MUST FILL the cart enough to retain the juice AND carry/wick juice to the atomizer. It's ok to have the whole evenly trimmed stuffing sticking out of the cart a bit, BUT there should be NO LONG STRAY FUZZIES protruding excessively above the evenly trimmed top of the stuffing.
The $5 ROLL of “FAIRFIELD POLY-FIL traditional batting” I got at WalMart works extremely well and will make SEVERAL THOUSAND EXCELLENT PERFORMING CART STUFFINGS for the original VX2 carts. This stuff is less than 1/8” thick and comes in a nice 12” wide roll….although the bag says “Crib size, 45" x 60".
Preparing the poly-fil batting for cart stuffing:
First off, the long fuzzies MUST be trimmed off before filling any cart with juice. Unless you actually like to taste the long stray fibers burning on the atomizer, there is just no way around it; but I’ve found 3 methods of doing it. Since I presently don't have scissors sharp enough LOL to trim it nicely AFTER stuffing the cart (which is tricky to do even with sharp scissors), I have come up with TWO other easy methods of trimming the fuzz. One is done AFTER stuffing the cart and it’s very simple….just run the “invisible” portion of a micro-torch flame rapidly across the top of the cart 2-3 times. This burns all the stray fibers away without doing any damage to the cart or stuffing. I will reiterate….the key here is RAPID MOVEMENT of the INVISIBLE portion of the flame across the top of the cart. This method works very well and can be done very rapidly. The 2nd method is done just before stuffing the cart. The poly-fil roll is 12” wide, so each 28mm x 12” strip you cut off will make TEN cart stuffings. Use scissors (or steel ruler & razor on a hard flat surface) to cut a 28mm X 12” strip of batting off the 12” wide roll. Going slightly bigger than 28mm is ok, but if you go too much bigger, you will overstuff the cart, which will give you flow problems and you will NEED the straw modification for sure. Now cut the 12” strip into 10 small pieces, each 23mm x 28mm. Grab one of the 23mm x 28mm pieces and roll it up (not too tightly) so that you have a 23mm long ROLL. Now GENTLY pinch it closed with your thumb & forefinger, about 3-4mm from one end of the roll (this will be the end that comes into contact with your atomizer). Keep the roll pinched and make one straight, swift scissor cut about 2-3mm from the end (very close to your thumb & forefinger). The roll should now be about 20mm long. Carefully pinch the roll with a pair of tweezers and insert it into the cart. There is a technique to this, but you'll figure that out by doing it a few times. IF you were careful while inserting the roll, you should have very minimal (if any) fuzzies sticking out. I juice mine with a syringe & needle, so that it saturates COMPLETELY from the bottom up. Soak the whole cart, but not enough to make the juice pool excessively at the top. Place the cart in a mouthpiece and let it sit on a bench top for a few minutes before inserting into atomizer. This works very nicely for me. The rolled-up paper towel stuffing also works nicely, but seems to go dry a bit sooner and I doubt it can be refilled or topped off as many times as the batting material. If you initially use a syringe & needle to fill the cart from the bottom up, you should be able to get quite a few eyedropper refills/top-offs, with no trouble at all. Don't let the cart get too dry before topping it off with an eyedropper bottle! Letting it get too dry before topping it off will definitely shorten the useful lifetime of the stuffing.
Batteries: I'm almost certain I've been overcharging my batteries...especially the manual ones. This sometimes causes rapidly excessive atomizer heat, which causes loss of flavor until the battery discharges a bit. Lack of proper battery charging documentation leaves us all in the dark, so experimentation is the only solution to finding the proper charging time.
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