Why am I shorting out?

[CaminoDiablo]

Ok, I have made two of these drip attys and they short out. There is no solder in a place there shouldn't be to cause a short and I made sure on the 2nd one I did I didn't overheat it and cause the insulation to burn. I put the kanthal wire on it and every time it lights up then goes out. My batteries shut off or I get the E1 error on the provari. This is made from a CE2 with pins soldered on the post and the ground. I just don't understand and I'm hoping someone can tell me where I'm an idiot and screwing up. Thank you

 

[meatsneakers]

Do you have a multimeter? A continuity test will let you find the short easily. My best guess would be a rip in the insulation. Even when you're careful, it's easy to get a small tear or burn through. If you're out of insulators, throw a piece of heat shrink from Ratshack in place of it and test again.

Also, how many ohms are you wrapping to? If you're using too little kanthal, you'll be drawing too many amps and the protection circuit on the batteries will trip.

 

[CaminoDiablo]

I just added a longer loop of kenthal to try it longer and I got this:



so it worked for a few minutes then shorted again, so progress meatsneakers

 

[Scubabatdan]

I just added a longer loop of kenthal to try it longer and I got this:

View attachment 63092

so it worked for a few minutes then shorted again, so progress meatsneakers

Ok what gauge Kanthal are you running?
How many wraps are you throwing on the wick?
Are you using a wick?
What Voltage are you running?
I run 32 awg kanthal at 4 wraps on a 1/16" wick at 1.8ohms at 4volts all day long on my provari. If it is dry it can cause errors on the provari, it needs to be wet. Running it dry with no wick, low ohms and high voltage will burn out every time.
I am on 70+ days on the same wick and coil on my provari.
Dan

 

[meatsneakers]

Yea, it's probably just not enough kanthal. You should be testing a wrapped coil, with juice. A bare wire with no juice on it will burn out in air.

 

[CaminoDiablo]

Ok what gauge Kanthal are you running?
How many wraps are you throwing on the wick?
Are you using a wick?
What Voltage are you running?
I run 32 awg kanthal at 4 wraps on a 1/16" wick at 1.8ohms at 4volts all day long on my provari. If it is dry it can cause errors on the provari, it needs to be wet. Running it dry with no wick, low ohms and high voltage will burn out every time.
Dan

I'm using 32 gauge Kanthal, on my test run I just used the wire and no wick. I will try about 4 wraps around CE2 wicking, my voltage is running between 3.2 to 5 volts. Thanks Dan, might just have this licked soon. Thanks and I will report back.

Yea, it's probably just not enough kanthal. You should be testing a wrapped coil, with juice. A bare wire with no juice on it will burn out in air.

What I'm gonna try next and thank you again , been hitting my head against the wall

 

[CaminoDiablo]

Ok, I tried it with 4 wraps around a CE2 wick and got a E1 on the provari. So I put the Kanthal into a big loop and wrapped it around a wick. I works great and lots of vapor but it's like huge, won't fit into a phono rca plug housing. So I know it works but anytime I just use what I'm suppost to, in the length of coil, it shorts. What to do now? I'm at a loss, again.

This is the big loop working

 

[Scubabatdan]

Ok, I tried it with 4 wraps around a CE2 wick and got a E1 on the provari. So I put the Kanthal into a big loop and wrapped it around a wick. I works great and lots of vapor but it's like huge, won't fit into a phono rca plug housing. So I know it works but anytime I just use what I'm suppost to, in the length of coil, it shorts. What to do now? I'm at a loss, again.

This is the big loop working
View attachment 63244

Ok the problem is the legs of the kanthal are too long from the wick to the post.
I would try 6 wraps, since it liooks like they are smal coils, the wick should be almost sitting on the post, so there is almost zero kanthal leg from the post to the wick. Check the ohms with the provari, and shoot for 1.7-.19 ohms. keep it WET!
Dan

 

[meatsneakers]

Dan do you have a link to the post where you show how you wrap your coils? I can't find it and I think it would help CaminoDiablo.

 

[Scubabatdan]

Dan do you have a link to the post where you show how you wrap your coils? I can't find it and I think it would help CaminoDiablo.

Here is a bad and good coil wrap:

That help?

Here is a video of setting up the SS wick and coil wrap for a scubagen:
Wick for Scubagen - YouTube

Dan

 

[CaminoDiablo]

I did it!!!!! Thanks to you guys, Dan the 6 wraps and the really short wick to the post worked!!!!! It's at 2 ohms and damn it works great. I'm like freaking out here, lol, used a junk CE2 to make a nice dripping atty. Now my friends are gonna want one (sigh) lol. I want to thank you both again, this is so awesome and easy once you do it a few 1,000,000 times Meatsneakers and Subabatdan.....you guys rock in my book. Them pictures helped at the end, I'm glad cause I was thinking I was gonna need a helmet the way my head was hitting the table in frustration.

My WORKING atty:



In the RCA phono plug :

 

[CaminoDiablo]

Ok, lol, have another question guys. The wick, can I just make a coil wrapped around the wick then add more wicking on top of the coil or is it better to have the whole wick as one? Again I'm using old CE2 wicking.

 

[meatsneakers]

You want as much of the coil to be touching the wick, so wrapped around is ideal. I usually wrap my stainless steal wick, then wrap the legs of the atty with silica rope to keep it wet.

 

[CaminoDiablo]

You want as much of the coil to be touching the wick, so wrapped around is ideal. I usually wrap my stainless steal wick, then wrap the legs of the atty with silica rope to keep it wet.

Sounds like a plan , I have the SS wick, guess I should switch it and do what you did. Thank you!!!!!

 

[CaminoDiablo]

Wow, lol, made the last one from start to finish in under 10 minutes. Can wrap a coil in a minute now, lol, I had to give myself a pat on the back That RCA phono jack works great meatsneakers!

 

[meatsneakers]

haha yea it gets scary how fast you can re-wrap a coil once you get the hang of it, especially after all the frustration when first starting. We all went through that I think... The phono atty was the result of a lot of messing around with different off-the-shelf ideas and turned out the easiest. Hopefully it can save people money, that they can spend on VV regulators and juice instead of attys

 

[CaminoDiablo]

I know, I think of the hundreds of dollars I spent on attys over a couple of years and to stumble upon this..... speechless. Your sticky thread got me going now, I want to keep going lol. That phono jack just looks sweet and there is a radio shack everywhere. I tried the sticky to rebuild a stock atty and I'm surprised that I did it the first time thru. I have to say the frustration is worth it in the end, Think my wall need to be replastered from where I drove my head into it Your right, if people would start building stuff themselfs then yes the cash is there for the MUST haves. Live and learn and for the forth time thanks so much