Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Quigsworth

Just some guy...
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 25, 2011
2,943
5,784
The Republic of Cascadia
Just rebuilt the Penny and I remembered this time...I laid one of the wick tails I cut off over the coil...it's pretty early to tell as I'm only about 10 mins in but there's a lot of banging and popping going on in there...

I did pick up a pack of that un-bleached cheese cloth from Bed, Bath and Beyond...someone said already but I agree, this is the second build with it and it does have a longer break-in then the bleached stuff...very odd, seems it should be the opposite???
 

Bourbonman

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
May 7, 2012
330
452
Chicago burbs
Just rebuilt the Penny and I remembered this time...I laid one of the wick tails I cut off over the coil...it's pretty early to tell as I'm only about 10 mins in but there's a lot of banging and popping going on in there...

I did pick up a pack of that un-bleached cheese cloth from Bed, Bath and Beyond...someone said already but I agree, this is the second build with it and it does have a longer break-in then the bleached stuff...very odd, seems it should be the opposite???

I would hypothesize that the chemical treatment of bleaching would "open up" the fibers, making it more porous, thus a shorter break in period. Bleaching causes a small amount of damage when it removes pigments, and that causes greater porosity.
 

Quigsworth

Just some guy...
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 25, 2011
2,943
5,784
The Republic of Cascadia

the ob

Unregistered Supplier
ECF Veteran
Jan 31, 2011
7,577
12,011
Portlandia

Quigsworth

Just some guy...
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 25, 2011
2,943
5,784
The Republic of Cascadia
I would hypothesize that the chemical treatment of bleaching would "open up" the fibers, making it more porous, thus a shorter break in period. Bleaching causes a small amount of damage when it removes pigments, and that causes greater porosity.

That's a damn good Hypothesis...I've also noticed that the juice "beads" on the un-bleached where the juice immediately soaks into the bleached...maybe the bleaching process also strips some of the natural oils (or whatever) out of the cotton???

I've been heavy on this set up for an hour now and it's settled in nice just like the bleached...I don't know, I guess if you're really hung up on the full-on organic thing, sure, go for it, but I'm not sure I'd drop the almost double the price for this stuff again...6 of one...
 

Cool_Breeze

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Apr 10, 2011
4,118
4,296
Kentucky
At the risk of making a fool of myself (what's new..?), I might attempt to make a chart of 'the basic' variations found in Cotton and the major competitors.

The notion would be, while not trying to precisely represent every possible variation, to find a 'center of gravity' of qualities found by various users.

Here is a start of a chart... http://i.imgur.com/GvJwt.png

One type I see I've missed is cheesecloth.

Anyway...input is sought on types of devices that you've used with various user installed wicks and the performance found with each wick type. It may be useful to generalize wick performance across atty/carto types, if that is possible.

At this point I'm open to adding a couple of performance characetertics and add and/or delete one or two types of wicks. Hopefully we can stick to the Poor/Fair/Better/Good/Excellent/Superior grading scale, though I am open to suggestions on that as well.

The example shown only indicates the CE4 type cartomizer that I have used. Other types can be included in that same cell in the matrix.

...hoping for a 'loose digest'...what do y'all think?
 

Quigsworth

Just some guy...
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 25, 2011
2,943
5,784
The Republic of Cascadia
I'd love to see that. Thanks. I can be very dense sometimes and it takes a while for these things to sink in.

Then I'll tell you what, I'll do it this afternoon, it's Friday and I'm not really diggin' work atm...not to mention, I've yet to rebuild my Penny twice in one day :laugh:...my GTUS holds that record at 5 I think?...god I hated that thing before I finally figured it out...if you haven't already, go get yourself some cheese cloth and clean up your Penny, you'll be vaping hard tonight...:D
 

Quigsworth

Just some guy...
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 25, 2011
2,943
5,784
The Republic of Cascadia
"There's just never going to be a comprehensive "Cotton Wick Wiki" with detailed step by step instructions that are guaranteed to work every time...it just doesn't work that way, far too many variables."

:laugh:...well there ya go, just goes to show you how much I know...:facepalm:

That's cool TC, can I edit it just like I do with Wikipedia when I'm bored?...who knew NASA bought Apollo 13 from ACME? (that was up for days until someone changed it back :laugh:)
 

MickeyRat

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Mar 4, 2011
3,470
1,568
69
Hickory, NC
I would hypothesize that the chemical treatment of bleaching would "open up" the fibers, making it more porous, thus a shorter break in period. Bleaching causes a small amount of damage when it removes pigments, and that causes greater porosity.

Actually, take a good look at what mercerizing does.
 

Cool_Breeze

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Apr 10, 2011
4,118
4,296
Kentucky
TomCatt, I could probably do a small write up on how I do candle wicks with pictures and stuff if you like, just let me know.

Hi Lumpia - as well, if you'd like to contribute to the chart, you can PM me. I've updated it to be parallel with TomCatt's Wiki.
http://i.imgur.com/gLxIE.png
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread