What are your wick tips & tricks

[dhomes]

Hi all, fairly new to rba (< month) but I'm enjoying them quite a bit

Thus far I'm using a 4.5 mm wide #400 wick with a center hole just a tad larger than a paper clip.

I'm wondering about the ways in which i can improve the wicking, is not bad but now and then I feel the vape a bit 'dry' (not dry as in an atty with no liquid, dry as in not fully saturated).

I have an old vivi nova head around with the long silica wicks (4) and thought about rebuilding the wick with 1 or 2 of these inside.

any tricks? silica inside SS mesh? cotton? I saw a youtube video with a SS wick inside another wick.

I'm enjoying tinkering with these things so I dont mind rebuilding just for the heck of it.

 

[j4mmin42]

I wonder how thick the juice you're running through it is, because fat wicks usually work *too well* rather than not well enough...and what the hell do you have a 4.5mm wick in? I've never heard of a device that can take a .5cm wick. If it is indeed under-wicking, give it 10 minutes- fat wicks take a LONG time to break in, occasionally, and sometimes it just needs time to become saturated.

Do the coils sizzle without throwing out lots of vapor, and do you see bubbles on the surface of your wick? That's actually over-wicking, if it looks like that. Under-wicking causes the coils to glow after a few seconds. Over-wicking can produce a dry, overpowering throat hit and not a whole lot of visible vapor, so it can be easy to confuse the two.

Silica inside mesh is useless imho, because SS is inherently better at wicking AND also because a big part of why we all use SS is to avoid the Silica.

Tinker away, try different gauges of wire, different juices and ratios...SS inside SS...This is part of what makes RBA's so fun!

 

[dhomes]

Hey sorry, that DOT wasn't supposed to be there:
4.5 mm is not the thickness, I meant 45 mm before rolling it

 

[j4mmin42]

Ah, ok, that's more reasonable. What atty?

 

[Rule62]

If it's a DiD clone, 45mm should work, if you're using a paperclip to roll it. If you eliminate the paperclip, you could go wider with the mesh.

 

[Newlook]

I agree I have 4 different gneiss and they all work a little different but still experimenting

 

[dhomes]

Atty? I'm using it on a Vulcan (Mini-DID clone from surevapes) with a slightly larger wick hole that I drilled on it.

Also get an AGA-T coming around in a couple of weeks (ordered it last week but I dont live in the USA)

On a new wick I always get over wicking (thanks for letting me know what it was!). After a day or so i get some build up around the coil and starts vaping a lot smoother.

I do a 3.5 wraps of 32 kanthal for 1.8 to 2.2 ohms, I noticed that my resistance changes based on how much I tighten the top screw (which seems to vary the tension on the top coil)

the idea of a hybrid wick or cotton / SS Mesh wick is because that's what I'm using a my two phoenixs: horizontal SS Mesh with cotton inside and they vape fantastic! (sometimes I enjoy them more than the Vulcan). BUT, the screws and holes are very small and everything is too close together. I dont enjoy messing around with them unless absolutely necessary

so how do you get rid of over wicking?

and thanks for the help btw!

 

[dhomes]

but isn't a small inner hole beneficial?

 

[j4mmin42]

You can solve over-wicking with more coverage at a higher temperature. This will improve every aspect of your vape. There's two ways to do it: Increase the number of wraps of 32 gauge, and run at higher voltage (or wattage), or use 30 or 28 gauge, cover the wick with wraps (literally), and hope that you have enough resistance to actually run the thing without blowing batts.

I choose option two for everything but phoenix hybrid mesh setups, because 28 is just...awesome.

 

[j4mmin42]

but isn't a small inner hole beneficial?

in a word, no. Either you want a straw wick with a huge hole in the middle, or a solid wick with no hole. But, a paperclip-size hole won't do any harm... nothing is exact in DIY/RBA.

edit: only exception is if you have a huge, hole-filling wick and no other open holes in your atty base for airflow into the tank. You can potentially get air-lock in your tank if you have a sealed tank and solid wick...but in my experience, even a solid wick allows air to get sucked back into the tank. The biggest wick I ever made, for my AGA, was completely solid- and it wicked so well that you would see a huge air bubble come out of the bottom of it every 3 drags or so.

 

[dhomes]

mmmmjm, too bad that I bought 100ft of 32 kanthal on ebay!

I didn't go for the 28 as I'm using it on a provari and I know it's got its issues with 23/too-low-resistance, also have a an EGO-twist and a 18650 mod I made (which I use for the phoenixs) and I'm waiting to see how that Joye eVic turns out to be (either that or a Z-Max)

any recommendation for a good mechanical mod ONE CAN ACTUALLY GET?

Is the new smoktek telescope v2 (the vented one) any good for these things?

 

[j4mmin42]

Caravela all the way

LOLOLOL

In all seriousness, in my book it goes something like GUS/PAPS/Caravela, then Precise/P Plus, Roller, etc. But, the mod that EVERYONE needs to have one of, and it's been around for years, is the Silver Bullet. If you're not flush with cash, a Bolt will also do the trick.

 

[dhomes]

Cash is not the issue, I actually very much would like a GGTS, but I'm not into hunting one like was salvation either.

The silver bullet is nice indeed but in my book overpriced. You may argue the same about the Provari, buy mine has taken many many beatings, while building and rebuilding the things has seen MANY, MANY shorts and still works without a glitch.

Will google GUS/PAPS/Caravela right away, had not heard of them! (8 months vaper, just getting out of cartos/tanks, never like dripping too much).

The Precise is one sexy little thing, I'll give you that.

 

[j4mmin42]

Caravela is 6 month waiting list; GUS and PAPs are both extremely limited, lists are somewhere, long wait times...

I was joking because you said you wanted something available now, that's where the LOL's came in

SB is a beast-and they're available anytime. other than that, there are many expensive options that are not readily available.

At the moment, I'm boycotting GG products- I've been watching Imeo do business for years now, and although he's been in the game twice as long as everyone else, his products just aren't worth twice the wait-time or twice the cash. The TS is a beautiful, hand-crafted piece of machinery, I will say that. But he refuses to expand his production team for fear of sacrificing quality, and his fanclub has recently gotten on my nerves, to the point where I ALMOST wanted to troll his subforum because people are so willing to kiss the ground he walks on. Alas, I'll let them be- but just remember that the greater the hype, the more careful one should be about choosing a product, and take it from there.

 

[dhomes]

Thanks for all the great input Ninja (grat info on your site btw). Just read your latest entry as well on the Phoenix. I tried them with vertical SS Mesh as well but for me the horizontal + cotton gives me the best results on those little things, with this configuration I can easily put 15 to 20 drops and use every single one of them. no dry hit until the whole atty is 100% dry.

an yeah, I would consider myself an enthusiast of vaping, it becomes a hobby, BUT my limit is right there where I have to be chasing devices or adding myself to waiting lists, not my cup of tea.

btw, last night I redid my wick with a solid 45 mm wide one (no inner hole, 2 extra wraps), so far no overwicking but I notice that the break in period is taking a bit longer than with the 45 mm + hole (may also be due to using the extra wraps). With the latter configuration at about half a tank the coil feel nice and smooth