Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

[Porksmuggler]

1. The silica wick that comes on prebuilts and for rewicking should not be a major health concern. That said, many including myself choose not to use it.

2. I know of no prebuilts that do not use silica or SS mesh.

3. There should be no health risk if you choose the right cotton. Most are treated: blued, dye, bleached, or primed, all not good things for vaping.

4. Boil it in distilled water, you need to remove any contaminates.

 

[Hoka]

I call this whiskers. And you too can Beastvape!!!


This is #1 square braid cotton, unbraided. I get 1.9-2.0 Ω @ 3.7-4.0 volts nice. Thick e-juice no proplem. The whiskers keep the coil fed nicely. I keep them short so the cotton will not eat up all the space. So you still haffta tip&spin, BUT it will suck yo tank dry.

 

[Cyrus Vap]

This thread is asleep! Here's a bump...

Question for you fine gents and gals, what do you all think of "micro coils?"

My go to for 'cotton' wicks is still 10 or so wraps, basically touching (without shorting) of 30 awg kanthal around a 14 gauge needle. I use this is on VV devices. I fail to see what I would gain by narrowing the diameter of this set up, besides having to squonk or drip more? I guess a narrower diameter would decrease the the heat up time/power needed for an equivalent wire temperature, decrease the amount of 'dead wick space' by effectively removing it from the center of the wick, but hurt the juice reserve some. Not sure that would play so nice with my long draws.

Seems if you're comparing an equivalent length of wire tightly wrapped vs. spaced out, narrow vs. wide, yes the vape quality of a short burst would be improved but...comparing the above scenario doesn't seem so clear to me. I've just been out of the loop really long and was shocked to see the micro coil army in the forum lol

Any thoughts?

 

[Stoneface]

I've been experimenting with the micro coils some, and I really like the vape. I have only used the micro coils in a dripper, so I can't effectively compare it to a Genisis, other than to say that I like it better.

I've been using a 1/16" drill bit and either 32g or 30g Kanthal wire with sterile cotton ball wicks. The advantages for me are quicker coil response, ease of changing out the wick, and great flavor. I think perhaps the biggest advantage of the drippers over the gennies is that the drippers seem more reliable for me.

I haven't discerned a huge difference in the amount of juice required to run the different set ups, but others have reported the micro coils using a lot of juice. I do notice that the vapor production from faster coil response makes me take shorter hits than I'm used to with a clearo or carto.

 

[weisner]

I think much like internal combustion engines, displacement/space is king.

This thread is asleep! Here's a bump...
Question for you fine gents and gals, what do you all think of "micro coils?"
My go to for 'cotton' wicks is still 10 or so wraps, basically touching (without shorting) of 30 awg kanthal around a 14 gauge needle. I use this is on VV devices. I fail to see what I would gain by narrowing the diameter of this set up, besides having to squonk or drip more? I guess a narrower diameter would decrease the the heat up time/power needed for an equivalent wire temperature, decrease the amount of 'dead wick space' by effectively removing it from the center of the wick, but hurt the juice reserve some. Not sure that would play so nice with my long draws.
Seems if you're comparing an equivalent length of wire tightly wrapped vs. spaced out, narrow vs. wide, yes the vape quality of a short burst would be improved but...comparing the above scenario doesn't seem so clear to me. I've just been out of the loop really long and was shocked to see the micro coil army in the forum lol
Any thoughts?

 

[gdeal]

This thread is asleep! Here's a bump...

Question for you fine gents and gals, what do you all think of "micro coils?"


My go to for 'cotton' wicks is still 10 or so wraps, basically touching (without shorting) of 30 awg kanthal around a 14 gauge needle. I use this is on VV devices. I fail to see what I would gain by narrowing the diameter of this set up, besides having to squonk or drip more? I guess a narrower diameter would decrease the the heat up time/power needed for an equivalent wire temperature, decrease the amount of 'dead wick space' by effectively removing it from the center of the wick, but hurt the juice reserve some. Not sure that would play so nice with my long draws.

Seems if you're comparing an equivalent length of wire tightly wrapped vs. spaced out, narrow vs. wide, yes the vape quality of a short burst would be improved but...comparing the above scenario doesn't seem so clear to me. I've just been out of the loop really long and was shocked to see the micro coil army in the forum lol

Any thoughts?

Hey Cyrus.

I recently been playing with micro coils with cotton for the past week or so. I've done them in a dripper, BF and gennies. I'm using a 16g needle so about .5mm thinner than what you are using. Two thing have stood out. 1) Faster response times, 2) more dripping, squonking needed and for gennies tilting. I take long drags too and dont get dry hits if the cotton is well saturated. So for micro-coil the BF wins. I have only had the BF for a couple of days and the novelty of squonking is kind of cool and is becoming automatic in my vape routine. No issue at all and the form factor is really growing on me.

I am not sure if there is that well defined a difference between a Micro-coil and Mini-coil. I think the Army specs for micro are 1.6mm and below and mini are above 1.6mm.

I'm not yet convinced that going to 2.1mm from 1.6 would make more that a slight tweak difference in response time. (Vape temp is higher) It may just be one of those "it depend upon how you vape" and what your set up is. Looks like with 30g 10 wraps on a 14g needle should get you around 2.1 volts? So on a VV device you can deliver the amps to get that coil glowing fast. However if you are taking really, really long drags, you might deplete the juice reserve in the micro. I think a lot of folks are using micros with 28g and below on mechanicals with sub-ohm coils to get to the faster response time along with the increase vape surface.

So the only way to tell is to grab a 16g needle, twist one up and try it. Worse case you get a slightly nasty hit of burnt cotton. Coil change out in dripper/BF are a breeze compared to recoiling a genny, etc...You might need to add two more coils to the 30g or just vape it at .4ohms lower. Still should be effective in a VV right?

 

[gdeal]

Just in case you dont make it over the "Army" thread. I just pulled this together to demonstrate the pulse response from a 1.6mm ID coil. It's 26g at .7 ohms. Cotton is still juicy after a couple of pulses. Its a juice hog, but in the BF set-up it works well. Cotton hasn't dried out on me yet. Not VV, but I thought I would share it.

 

[BJ43]

Link to "Army" thread please.....

 

[pendragon]

Ω i used the windows character map

 

[gdeal]

Link to "Army" thread please.....

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...271-micro-coils-increase-vapor-flavor-th.html

Lots of Reo's for a non-reo thread....interesting, some drama , but good feedback on different set-ups.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Ω i used the windows character map

Ω i use copy and paste from mobile

 

[DrMA]

Ω i use copy and paste from mobile

Ω = [Alt + 234] on the Num pad (ASCII code 234)

 

[MikeE3]

Ω = [Alt + 234] on the Num pad (ASCII code 234)

And, Ω = [option + z] on a Mac keyboard

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Can get quite a few characters on Ipad by holding down keys, but can't find Ω

On a more serious note, anyone have any info on safety of nickel metal foam for wick?
Says it has a porosity of >= 95%

Nickel Foam for Battery Cathode Substrate (1m length x 300mm width x 1.6mm thickness) - EQ-bcnf-16m

 

[MikeE3]

Can get quite a few characters on Ipad by holding down keys, but can't find Ω

On a more serious note, anyone have any info on safety of nickel metal foam for wick?
Says it has a porosity of >= 95%

Nickel Foam for Battery Cathode Substrate (1m length x 300mm width x 1.6mm thickness) - EQ-bcnf-16m

There's 2 active co-ops that should be getting some of this soon. From what we found out - 'some' people can be allergic to nickel. It's basically the same 'stuff' used in a lot of 510/306 atty's. Looking into this as a 'test case' for the much more expensive titanium mesh.

 

[Cyrus Vap]

Thanks for the replies gdeal, stoneface, weisner

@stoneface: I'm glad that's working for you. If you ever get around to trying a tightly wrapped coil with a wider diameter, let us know how you think it compares

@gdeal: you're right I just need to try it I suppose. Yes, my set up gets me about 2.1 ohms every time. I usually start my vaping at around 4.4 volts or so and as I vape more and the TH becomes less jarring for me I crank it higher I do this on my Reo VV, home cooked top feeder, and dripping atties that I throw on the Provari or CVI. I'm glad your dabbling in feeder land. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just sell everything and switch exclusively to feeders, alla Quigsworth. I guess there are certain things flavor wise a genny does for me that I find worth the hassle of that set up and the form of a wacky tube, but sometimes I'm not sure.

I've also only recently started messing with flat kanthal. It seems the vape I'm getting from 5-6 wraps of ribbon around the same 14 gauge needle is pretty much the same for me as my set up described above. Perhaps I'm too busy to notice the difference. Or maybe the increased surface area explains it.

Weisner: I think I understand what you're getting at, but I'm not sure

 

[studiovap]

Nice to come back to this thread after a while and still find cotton being hailed top dog, I have an Ithaka clone on the way and am going to give "good quality silica" if there is such a thing another bash, but even before I get to it I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate that scratchy throat feeling a silica setup always seem to deliver, regardless of the potential or not health issues, so I'm researching my alternatives in advance. I have used organic unbleached etc cotton pads in kanger T2s and my Smok octopus, but never had much luck with my cotton pad gennies setups, they always seemed to bloat up after a day or so and then flood and burn, which I know seems like an unlikely combination, but there it is. The cotton bird house seem like fun to try, bu I'm pretty much mech mod only now and see more bunt cotton pads in my future from a fresh battery.
I read about "rolled cotton" and wonder if it is better than the pads, and how folks are preparing their wick with this stuff, and if cotton balls are the same thing as the rolled stuff, any advice would be gratefully received
As for bamboo yarn, I always end up burning that too in my Gennie experiments, maybe this is suited to the Ithaka ?
While micro coils are being discussed away from the "army" I built a 6wrap 28g micro/mini on a 2.3mm #200 u-wick in my RSST today and although I usually run a 0.7ohm 4wrap 28g on a 2.8mm #200 this one comes in at 1 Ohm and is instant on and interesting. Interesting because TH is different, more, but harsher rather than fuller I think, still running it in, but as I mainly run 18350s the higher OHms is a definate plus. Vapor Is a very slightly less than the 0.7ohm, and flavor is similar/still deciding if better. Gunking was always an issue on my fatter wick close coil setups when I first got into gennies, but that was with #400 and #509 before I started using #200 u wicks with my high VG ADV, so time will tell on that one.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Regarding your burnt cotton, while it is not a gennie per-say I have been using a couple of wraps of ss mesh over the cotton and that has been working real well for me. I don't see why it wouldn't work in a gennie. I pre-make the coil / SS mesh on a form, tightly wrap around it, pull out form while holding onto wire with vise grips, torch and quench. The coil & mesh hold their shape and as long as I am careful the coil stays very tight. Then I pull the cotton through working it carefully as it will catch sometimes. If I do get a dry hit with a fresh battery it does not burn the cotton at all and I am using .6 to .9 ohm coils.

 

[gdeal]

Nice to come back to this thread after a while and still find cotton being hailed top dog, I have an Ithaka clone on the way and am going to give "good quality silica" if there is such a thing another bash, but even before I get to it I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate that scratchy throat feeling a silica setup always seem to deliver, regardless of the potential or not health issues, so I'm researching my alternatives in advance. I have used organic unbleached etc cotton pads in kanger T2s and my Smok octopus, but never had much luck with my cotton pad gennies setups, they always seemed to bloat up after a day or so and then flood and burn, which I know seems like an unlikely combination, but there it is. The cotton bird house seem like fun to try, bu I'm pretty much mech mod only now and see more bunt cotton pads in my future from a fresh battery.
I read about "rolled cotton" and wonder if it is better than the pads, and how folks are preparing their wick with this stuff, and if cotton balls are the same thing as the rolled stuff, any advice would be gratefully received
As for bamboo yarn, I always end up burning that too in my Gennie experiments, maybe this is suited to the Ithaka ?
While micro coils are being discussed away from the "army" I built a 6wrap 28g micro/mini on a 2.3mm #200 u-wick in my RSST today and although I usually run a 0.7ohm 4wrap 28g on a 2.8mm #200 this one comes in at 1 Ohm and is instant on and interesting. Interesting because TH is different, more, but harsher rather than fuller I think, still running it in, but as I mainly run 18350s the higher OHms is a definate plus. Vapor Is a very slightly less than the 0.7ohm, and flavor is similar/still deciding if better. Gunking was always an issue on my fatter wick close coil setups when I first got into gennies, but that was with #400 and #509 before I started using #200 u wicks with my high VG ADV, so time will tell on that one.

Cotton balls are the same as the rolled cotton, if 100% and sterile, and no other nasties added. I get that bloat too with cotton balls and gennys, it just does not like being vertical. The pads I have are 100% cotton, but they have been heat treated and compressed on the outside and are puffy on the inside. While they initially have good structure and stay in place in gennys, they eventually bloat up and go to cotton heaven just like the other stuff. (for me at least)

 

[TomCatt]

I've pretty much settled on roiled cotton in Kangers (Evod/T3) for the past couple of months. Mainly on a Vamo or L-Rider Robust.






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