Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

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Malduk

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Something I haven't seen ne1 mention is Aerogel... Karmachine had been looking into it before he got banned for life. it can be made from several different compounds with each having slighty different properties. drawbacks are : manufacturing source (FDA approved) and it is kinda brittle. But holy crap can it wick, capillary action is nearly double that of currently popular wicking materials.

Aerogel.org

I was looking into using aerogel or zirconia as a heat insulator for gen atty, but didn't find any affordable sources (that sell in small quantities). Never occurred to me that aerogel can be used as a wick.
 

TomCatt

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Wikipedia (aerogels):

"Aerogels are good thermal insulators because they almost nullify the three methods of heat transfer (convection, conduction, and radiation). They are good conductive insulators because they are composed almost entirely from a gas, and gases are very poor heat conductors. Silica aerogel is especially good because silica is also a poor conductor of heat (a metallic aerogel, on the other hand, would be less effective). They are good convective inhibitors because air cannot circulate through the lattice.

Owing to its hygroscopic nature, aerogel feels dry and acts as a strong desiccant. Persons handling aerogel for extended periods should wear gloves to prevent the appearance of dry brittle spots on their skin.
The slight color it does have is due to Rayleigh scattering of the shorter wavelengths of visible light by the nanosized dendritic structure. This causes it to appear smoky blue against dark backgrounds and yellowish against bright backgrounds.

Aerogels by themselves are hydrophilic [absorb water], but chemical treatment can make them hydrophobic [repel water]. If they absorb moisture they usually suffer a structural change, such as contraction, and deteriorate, but degradation can be prevented by making them hydrophobic. Aerogels with hydrophobic interiors are less susceptible to degradation than aerogels with only an outer hydrophobic layer, even if a crack penetrates the surface. Hydrophobic treatment facilitates processing because it allows the use of a water jet cutter."
 

CigFreedMike

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has anyone ever compiled a list of the kinds of wicks used by the different vendors? Sorry if this was already addressed, but hard to go through 115 pages of posts. The initial post about the silica is very concerning. I'm relying on ecigs because the analogue is worse, however, I think too much is assumed re: 'safety' of ecigs, particularly since chronic irritation of any sort is known to cause cancers.
 

TomCatt

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has anyone ever compiled a list of the kinds of wicks used by the different vendors? Sorry if this was already addressed, but hard to go through 115 pages of posts. The initial post about the silica is very concerning. I'm relying on ecigs because the analogue is worse, however, I think too much is assumed re: 'safety' of ecigs, particularly since chronic irritation of any sort is known to cause cancers.

I haven't seen any 'vendor specific' wick material lists. I believe (read as 'in my less-than-knowledgeable-in-this-area opinion') most atomizers and non-filler cartomizers being mass produced are using silica wicks. Another opinion/belief (in this I am somewhat more knowledgeable than the previous sentence, though I don't have any references at present) I have is that for silica fibers to pose a carcinogenic risk they have to be nanoparticles [a nanoparticle is a particle with at least one dimension that is less than or equal to 100 nanometers (1 nanometer = 0.000000001 m)]. The chances of silica fibers producing nanoparticles is very slim.

But on the other hand, COTTON seems to be even lower on the risk scale than silica and appears to wick much better than silica as long as you don't let it go dry.
 

kwalka

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Ok fellows and ladies, remember a few days ago when I said something to the effect of I'm waiting for the pros to say use this or use that, and one of you replied saying something along the lines of were not pros. I just ordered my first RBA that requires a wick to have a coil around it. The Penelope from GG. So after over 1,000 pages of trial and error, where should I begin?
 

Quigsworth

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That would be me, I'm not a pro...but in reference to your future acquisition of a Penelope...I am jealous;)...I was going to get one but I thought...ga! too many RBA's atm...

The Penelope is essentially a baby Ody, of which I have a TON of experience with...and it takes to cotton better than any of my other RBA's...youtube the Imeo review/build vid (it's pretty good as most Imeo vids are) and go from there...compared to a genny, these are a piece of cake to set up
 

TomCatt

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kwalka, it's pretty much try to see what you like:

Quigsworth swears by the cotton batton (cotton roll). My take is that cotton balls would be very similar to this.

There's cheesecloth which I haven't noticed any negative comments on.

And gauze which may fall apart.

Some use the cotton yarn, bamboo yarn or cotton string/twine; others say that these give a bad taste.

Cautions: don't wrap the coil too tight around the cotton
Suggestions for not wrapping cotton too tight: use a rigid rod (examples - drill bit, screw) that will be close to the same diameter as your wick and wrap your coil around this. Remove rod, wet the cotton wick and roll to get it thinner and feed through the coil and into your juice tank. When wick gets wet with juice, it expands into the coil.

Anything else anyone? :D

Meanwhile I wait on the Scubagen Mini ...
 

supervape

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has anyone ever compiled a list of the kinds of wicks used by the different vendors? Sorry if this was already addressed, but hard to go through 115 pages of posts. The initial post about the silica is very concerning. I'm relying on ecigs because the analogue is worse, however, I think too much is assumed re: 'safety' of ecigs, particularly since chronic irritation of any sort is known to cause cancers.

Even with getting some particulate in yourself, I think that e-cigs are much better than going back to analogs as they are much worse with 4600 bad things for you compared to one or two negative issues with the wicking in e-cigs thats my opinion... (not directed directly at you CigFreedMike) I had someone yesterday tell me they were scared to try my e-cig as they lit up a cigarette.. those types irritate the hell out of me
 

Quigsworth

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Quigsworth swears by the cotton batton (cotton roll). My take is that cotton balls would be very similar to this.

Meanwhile I wait on the Scubagen Mini ...

Rolled cotton (batton) is all I put in my Ody now, and I did try all the cotton media (string, yarn, cheese cloth, gauze and balls)...cheese cloth and gauze are almost the same and cotton balls and rolled are the same but try and get the balls out of the first aid section...the ones you get in the make-up section sometimes contain poly (which strikes me as odd seeing as nail polish remover is basically girl friendly acetone and will eat poly)

For me in my Ody, I've yet to find anything other than rolled cotton batton that gives the same consistent taste free crazy vape results (and it kicks the crap out of Imeo's "special recommended" silica and it also kills ceramic (not in taste but health, runtime and PITA factor)...vaping heavy on my rolled cotton Ody as I type this ;)...

and yes, can't wait for those SG300MV3's (felt it needed yet another name :laugh:)...can't wait to try Malduk's DC hybrid/hybrid ;)
 

Cool_Breeze

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Cool Breeze.. will the cotton from wal-mart work?

supervape - I have a coil of cotton string on a cardboard tuble that's been around for years. I don't know where it came from, nor do I have the original wrapping indicating the product. Just be sure what you get is 'cotton' and nothing else. Mine is maybe 1/16" in diameter.

Just now I received a sample of WWSS in the mail. I'm making a tuble about 1/8" long to put over the cotton string and place the coil on top of that. The 1/8" will fit inside the center tube of the Echo Crystal Vision cartos I am using. My hope is this will make for a dry-burnable wick system. I'll attempt to provide follow-up reports.
 

roadrash

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My :2c:, Is watch the heat. make sure you don't put to much voltage to the cotton wick or it will scorch.

Depending on what you use for wick, gauze/thread/yarn/bunnyballs It may be easier to wrap the wick with the coil rather than try and thread it through. Your results may vary.:)

I only use E-2's so the gauze works best for me. I got 10 2x2" sterile gauze pads for a buck and after 5 weeks I only used 3 of them.;)
 

Quigsworth

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My experience with gauze/cheese cloth and batton/balls has been almost identical as far as taste and vape goes...I think the biggest reason why I lean toward the batton/ball thing is the versatility of being able to use it on both a horizontal CE2 type (Ody, Penelope) and in vertical wick style genny's...but to prove a point to my buddy I set my SGV3 up with cheese cloth with 325 mesh legs and I don't see me getting it back any time soon.

I'm not denying the string/yarn successes at all (in fact I'm super jealous you guys are rocking this so easily) I thinks it's a matter of me just not getting the right one out of a quintillion string/yarn choices and my vague juice flavours...
 

kwalka

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