Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

[TomCatt]

Anyone see the Steam Machine?
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/308550-steam-machine-vst.html

It uses some sort of 'filler' material plus silica wick. All the reviewers are raving about them, so I ordered one to use with the Ego twist.

I plan to set it up with a cheesecloth wick, and to use batton in place of the suggested filler (I think its some sort of aquarium filter?). Not having actually held the included filler material, it does look less dense and more porous than batton, but I think it should work.

Just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with these.

That looks like the same concept as the "GP Spheroid" - watched a review of that by igetcha69 a short while ago.

I had thought about batton as a carto filler before - my concern was that as a wick it works great; but will it "give up" the juice as a filler material? Let us know how that works!

 

[TomCatt]

Another side note :
My found CE2 lasted all of ~4 minutes into the drive home yesterday . Finally re-wicked the TBC-2 with cotton batton - working wonderfully. Also ordered 2 packs of XL clearos from myvaporstore; they're having a sell on the 'older style' clearos - says these come with cracked tubes. Works for me .

 

[Bourbonman]

Interesting, I've heard of guys doing that with mesh...it'll increase the difficulty rating a touch but worth a try...next build

With mesh a diagonal roll is to make the wick flexible, easier to do a U shape for a Scubagen style. Not sure if it will do anything for juice movement.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

I've seen comment both that 'lots of mesh, tight roll,' and 'less mesh, big hole'... ...any consensus?

 

[Quigsworth]

I've seen comment both that 'lots of mesh, tight roll,' and 'less mesh, big hole'... ...any consensus?

Depends on juice and device but I definitely lean toward less mesh/big hole...

 

[Cool_Breeze]

...mostly 80/20 VG/PG here.

 

[roadrash]

@hildicat
I tried rebuilding a carto with cotton batting. it burned almost instantly even though the batting was soaked with joose. I think you need something more porous like the OEM filler so the joose will flow through to the wick.

@TC, Why do you need more E-2's? Don't you just rebuild em? I had the same ones for over a year and a half.

 

[ratpack7]

@hildicat
I tried rebuilding a carto with cotton batting. it burned almost instantly even though the batting was soaked with joose. I think you need something more porous like the OEM filler so the joose will flow through to the wick.

@TC, Why do you need more E-2's? Don't you just rebuild em? I had the same ones for over a year and a half.

you might have your coil to tight

 

[TomCatt]

@road: by "E-2", are you meaning the CE2s - clearos, come in standard 0.9mL and XL 1.8mL sizes?
I tried rebuilding a few; but they caused my clear DIY juice to color within a few hours and after a while it would develop an 'off' taste. I was using SS tubing to replace the wires and I recently discovered that this tubing got very hot with each vape. So I spent a week or two getting set up and making those rebuildable CE2s and prolly 2 days vaping them.


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[TomCatt]

Got my SmokTech rebuildable tanks today. Also got a couple clearos as a side contest prize from the co-op as I popped my last clearo a couple of days ago.
I can see why some are having problems out of the box. The one I opened had a badly formed coil; the ends were off the wick, the coils themselves were misshaped and too large for the wick.
I removed the silica wick, straightened the coils up some and threaded a rolled cotton wick through everything. Not the ideal setup, but good for a trial run. Seems to be working ok even with this quick and dirty setup. I'll play some more this weekend fer sher.




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[roadrash]

you might have your coil to tight

Not on this one. It's a carto with a cotton diaper wrapped around the coil. I used the cotton batting to wrap the diaper instead of the OEM filler. :>)

 

[roadrash]

@road: by "E-2", are you meaning the CE2s - clearos, come in standard 0.9mL and XL 1.8mL sizes?
I tried rebuilding a few; but they caused my clear DIY juice to color within a few hours and after a while it would develop an 'off' taste. I was using SS tubing to replace the wires and I recently discovered that this tubing got very hot with each vape. So I spent a week or two getting set up and making those rebuildable CE2s and prolly 2 days vaping them.


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Sorry to hear your having so many problems with your CE-2's. It sounds like you have some kind of quick connect set up with the ss tubing and I'll bet thats part of your problem. Iv'e tried a lot of different quick connects and they all had problems in the CE2's with the resistant wire being outside of the cup and loose/not solid connection. It gets to hot and burns up the joose. Thats why when I rebuild mine I re-solder the nr wire. Takes about 5-10 minutes to complete one.

I have some clear DIY joose in one of mine 4 days (40 mil+) and it's still clear.

CE5, Same as a CE-2 only different. lol

 

[Cyrus Vap]

I think wifey to-be's sewing kit gear is probably just fine, I've got an array of really cool tools (found my dental pick, god I missed that thing) at my finger tips and I can't get a 1.7 with NR leaders in that head without it shorting ...I gave up and used BJ's "twist some NR together with the tail ends to double it up" method...easy-peasy...but as I said, I didn't think I had a problem before...ah well

I thought BJ just doubled the R wire legs?

 

[Cyrus Vap]

I've seen comment both that 'lots of mesh, tight roll,' and 'less mesh, big hole'... ...any consensus?

I hold both opinions LOL

mesh continues to baffle me

fwiw the most impervious wick I've ever had to dry hits is a stoopid dense/tiny pin hole 400 mesh in the DID and Zen, and a 270 loosey goosey open hole mesh in the G Tank. Different physics in either case. The trade off with the dense wicks is you have to run them hotter

 

[BJ43]

If you want juice to flow going down by gravity, a loose wick with with a big hole flows the best but that is not true wicking.
Wicking (capillary action) defined as a fluid rising against gravity is best with a tight dense 400 ss wick with a very small center hole.
I am now using # 500 ss on all my lines and it is twice as efficient at wicking as #400.
In a simple lab test I put 3 inch same dia wicks in 2 inches of VG and 3 more in 2 inches of PG and 3 in 2 inches of kerosine. This new test I used 325, 400,500 SS mesh. The kerosine only rose 1/16 in on the 325 and not measurable with PG or VG. I put a little dab of cotton on the top tip of each wick to see when it got wet. With kerosine the cotton got wet almost immediately on both 400 and 500, pg took 2 min to wet the cotton on 400 and and less than a minute on the 500, the VG took about 30 seconds longer on each. Using small jars with a hole in the cap for the wick I made mini kerosine burners. Even with prewetting the 325 it would not maintain a flame. The flame on the 500 was twice the size of the flame on the 400 and consumed the kerosine in half the time. All were 45mm rolled by 3 inches long, rolled tight on a thin paperclip.
500 mesh here
http://themeshcompany.com/acatalog/25-micron-super-fine-mesh.html
Hole size (space between the wires on 400 is .039mm and on 500 it is .026mm)

 

[BJ43]

I thought BJ just doubled the R wire legs?

I started with pieces of 30g silver wire as nr legs and ran out of wire so I went to doubling the legs and that seems to work fine and saves on silver wire.

 

[the ob]

If you want juice to flow going down by gravity, a loose wick with with a big hole flows the best but that is not true wicking.
Wicking (capillary action) defined as a fluid rising against gravity is best with a tight dense 400 ss wick with a very small center hole.
I am now using # 500 ss on all my lines and it is twice as efficient at wicking as #400.
In a simple lab test I put 3 inch same dia wicks in 2 inches of VG and 3 more in 2 inches of PG and 3 in 2 inches of kerosine. This new test I used 325, 400,500 SS mesh. The kerosine only rose 1/16 in on the 325 and not measurable with PG or VG. I put a little dab of cotton on the top tip of each wick to see when it got wet. With kerosine the cotton got wet almost immediately on both 400 and 500, pg took 2 min to wet the cotton on 400 and and less than a minute on the 500, the VG took about 30 seconds longer on each. Using small jars with a hole in the cap for the wick I made mini kerosine burners. Even with prewetting the 325 it would not maintain a flame. The flame on the 500 was twice the size of the flame on the 400 and consumed the kerosine in half the time. All were 45mm rolled by 3 inches long, rolled tight on a thin paperclip.
500 mesh here
http://themeshcompany.com/acatalog/25-micron-super-fine-mesh.html
Hole size (space between the wires on 400 is .039mm and on 500 it is .026mm)

So your saying a tiny hole works beat right?

 

[Quigsworth]

If you want juice to flow going down by gravity, a loose wick with with a big hole flows the best but that is not true wicking.
Wicking (capillary action) defined as a fluid rising against gravity is best with a tight dense 400 ss wick with a very small center hole.
I am now using # 500 ss on all my lines and it is twice as efficient at wicking as #400.
In a simple lab test I put 3 inch same dia wicks in 2 inches of VG and 3 more in 2 inches of PG and 3 in 2 inches of kerosine. This new test I used 325, 400,500 SS mesh. The kerosine only rose 1/16 in on the 325 and not measurable with PG or VG. I put a little dab of cotton on the top tip of each wick to see when it got wet. With kerosine the cotton got wet almost immediately on both 400 and 500, pg took 2 min to wet the cotton on 400 and and less than a minute on the 500, the VG took about 30 seconds longer on each. Using small jars with a hole in the cap for the wick I made mini kerosine burners. Even with prewetting the 325 it would not maintain a flame. The flame on the 500 was twice the size of the flame on the 400 and consumed the kerosine in half the time. All were 45mm rolled by 3 inches long, rolled tight on a thin paperclip.
500 mesh here
The Mesh Company (Warrington) Ltd #400 Super Fine Filtration Mesh - 25 Micron
Hole size (space between the wires on 400 is .039mm and on 500 it is .026mm)

Nice body of work BJ..., just ordered some 500...you know, I've put a fair amount of thought into the whole mesh thing and you've debunked a theory of mine...I always rolled less mesh than recommended for my Lines (a habit I got from my first Frankengenesis)...in my mind I thought the center hole gave the device an easier go at relieving any sort of vacuum created by juice level drop (the 1mm breather in the Line is usually covered in cruddy juice and my Frankengenny didn't have one period)...maybe I'm over compensating.

As for your gravity flow (not wicking) statement...I assumed the same thing was happening when I found that the 170 sloppy loose wick in the GTUS worked so well...it's not acting so much as a wick as it is a porous down pipe...the only thing keeping it from making a complete leaky mess is surface tension

 

[TomCatt]

Ahem ...

Happy Birthday roadrash!!!

 

[Cyrus Vap]

I started with pieces of 30g silver wire as nr legs and ran out of wire so I went to doubling the legs and that seems to work fine and saves on silver wire.

yeah that was what I thought

I'm gonna try the doubled legs as for whatever reason I'm having issues avoiding a short with the NR twist. I feel like I'm playing a high stakes game of "Operation" lol