Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

[old hippy]

The total length of your Kanthal can be represented in ohms...2.4 ohms of 32 Kanthal is about 39mm +/-...that may be enough Kanthal to wrap around a pencil once, or around a needle 15 times...so yes, the thickness of your wick is a big factor...don't take on too much to chew on, get happy with the 32 awg, try different numbers of wraps, spacing and like I said, try changing the pitch of your wraps and play with different wick thicknesses (and try wrapping your wicks along with 1 or 2 needles, which will also help with wick swell)...after a while, you'll just start to "get it", till then, it's all trial and error

THANK YOU !!! have tried the "two needle trick" and now am using the tiny metal screw.(harder to hold in old lady fingers and eye site)
the slant you said about, that would make the slant with the two needles. Have tried the bunny balls ( GREAT TASTE) , gauze (yuck)and am now trying the bamboo.

2 years ago, I lost 4 ego's by having a carto drop under 1.8 ohm. - so that is why I want to be careful .

 

[vdice]

hate to see my favorite thread die, so i thought i would post my current setup here.
using vivinova mini,and vv lavatube. i take a 3/32 screw and put 5 wraps 32 kanthal. it gets around 2.8 to 3.0. the ohms change on the novas while u use them. they usually come down after a little use. then i take 3 strands of boiled white cotton yarn(peaches and cream from walmart), and wet them and carefully thread them thru the coil. after assembling the head, i take the two uppermost strands and cut the off just outside the head. the idea here is to get a larger burning surface. one strand is enough for wicking. i have been vaping at 4.8 to 5.0 volts. been getting huge volume. would love to be able to get ceramic cups for the nova, without cannibalizing a bauway. that way i could make them fatter yet, without the worry of touching the walls of the head. hope i explained it correctly. any other ideas or improvements are welcome,,,forgot to say to notch the silicone cup a little to allow for the 3 strands to fit without crushing them. i just eyeballed it.

 

[blackwater]

Love this thread too. As of now the winners for me in my Penelope are:
#1) aunt Lydia's #10
#2) Martha Stewart cotton/hemp thread

Again, this is just so far.

Chris

 

[BJ43]

I just lucked into a great coil wrap for a vivi nova with aunt Lydia's 10 and 28g. Figure if I could make an oval shaped coil, long up and down with flat sides I could get more 28g in that small space. I took two round wooden toothpicks side by side and wrapped 6 wraps of 28g tight on the toothpicks and pressing the sides so they would be flat. The oval is about 4mm by 2.5mm. I then took a thread of Lydia's and threaded thru the coil. I took each end of the thread and wrapped it 4 times around each led to keep them wet. After wrapping the legs I passed the threads back thru the coils. I proceeded to thread 6 more strand of #10 thru the coil. The thread around the legs seems to isolate the legs from the sides because it checked out a 1.8 ohms which is great for 28g in that small a space. Breaking it in at 3V and wow it is awesome.

 

[Quigsworth]

I just lucked into a great coil wrap for a vivi nova with aunt Lydia's 10 and 28g. Figure if I could make an oval shaped coil, long up and down with flat sides I could get more 28g in that small space. I took two round wooden toothpicks side by side and wrapped 6 wraps of 28g tight on the toothpicks and pressing the sides so they would be flat. The oval is about 4mm by 2.5mm. I then took a thread of Lydia's and threaded thru the coil. I took each end of the thread and wrapped it 4 times around each led to keep them wet. After wrapping the legs I passed the threads back thru the coils. I proceeded to thread 6 more strand of #10 thru the coil. The thread around the legs seems to isolate the legs from the sides because it checked out a 1.8 ohms which is great for 28g in that small a space. Breaking it in at 3V and wow it is awesome.

That's a good idea, never even thought about doing that...more air flowing past more wick/coil surface area...I like it

Sent via subspace communication

 

[vdice]

oval......hmmmmmmmm

 

[BJ43]

That's a good idea, never even thought about doing that...more air flowing past more wick/coil surface area...I like it

Sent via subspace communication

You actually end up with 9 threads in the coil because the first thread goes thru once then each end back thru after wrapping the legs, so there you have 3 plus the six more you put straight thru.

 

[MikeE3]

I just lucked into a great coil wrap for a vivi nova with aunt Lydia's 10 and 28g. Figure if I could make an oval shaped coil, long up and down with flat sides I could get more 28g in that small space.

Sa-weet! So many variations to try ... I getting overwhelmed ... Nice going!

 

[Quigsworth]

You actually end up with 9 threads in the coil because the first thread goes thru once then each end back thru after wrapping the legs, so there you have 3 plus the six more you put straight thru.

Running 8 little Lydia's in my DUD with a 1.8 coil, awesome...these DUD's are pretty cool...take it apart, take 2 ft of Lydia's, fold in half, fold in half again, slip your kanthal through the wick hole loop it around the 4 threads in the middle and pull it through, which gives you 8...wind the rest around the center tube then put the DUD back together again...jam 2 needles into the wick hole (one on either side of the Lydia's) then wrap your coil...so far so good, I guess when it goes bad, I'll simply tug some new wick into the coil and snip off the old...

Sent via subspace communication

 

[bluegrasslover]

So I got to thinking about how much everyone is enjoying the bamboo yarn. However, it sure is highly processed. Is there a way to enjoy bamboo wicks but not wonder about the manufacturing process? Why not make your own bamboo wicks?

Love bamboo and always have some pieces laying around. I got my cabinet scraper (any knife will do) and scraped through the outer layers of the bamboo to get to the fibrous meat underneath. I collected a bit and played with it while watching tv...rolling it, pulling it, etc. to get it broken down to smaller fibers. I rolled a test wick to check for wicking performance. Very nice.

Here are some of the raw fibers prior to a real test.

The first wick in. It rolls into a wick surprisingly well.

How did it produce?

Had that same type of taste that cotton does at first but it was completely gone in 2 draws. It's really nice but don't yet know about its longevity since I literally did this 15 min ago.

Now, the important question is is it safe? I can't imagine it being any worse than cotton but you never know. Thoughts?

 

[vdice]

Running 8 little Lydia's in my DUD with a 1.8 coil, awesome...these DUD's are pretty cool...take it apart, take 2 ft of Lydia's, fold in half, fold in half again, slip your kanthal through the wick hole loop it around the 4 threads in the middle and pull it through, which gives you 8...wind the rest around the center tube then put the DUD back together again...jam 2 needles into the wick hole (one on either side of the Lydia's) then wrap your coil...so far so good, I guess when it goes bad, I'll simply tug some new wick into the coil and snip off the old...

Sent via subspace communication

let me get this rite. do you wind the wire that u used to bring the wicks thru, around the center tube?

 

[BJ43]

A pic of the vivi nova 28g oval wick with Lydia's #10

 

[Big Screen D]

Running 8 little Lydia's in my DUD with a 1.8 coil, awesome...these DUD's are pretty cool...take it apart, take 2 ft of Lydia's, fold in half, fold in half again, slip your kanthal through the wick hole loop it around the 4 threads in the middle and pull it through, which gives you 8...wind the rest around the center tube then put the DUD back together again...jam 2 needles into the wick hole (one on either side of the Lydia's) then wrap your coil...so far so good, I guess when it goes bad, I'll simply tug some new wick into the coil and snip off the old...

Sent via subspace communication

Sounds like a good way to wick a DUD. I do it completly different, but this method seems like it works good.

I've had zero success pulling up the wick to a new spot. The gunk build up and sticks the wick to the coil and I wind up disfiguring the coil. Perhaps if I use 30ga?

 

[Quigsworth]

Sounds like a good way to wick a DUD. I do it completly different, but this method seems like it works good.

I've had zero success pulling up the wick to a new spot. The gunk build up and sticks the wick to the coil and I wind up disfiguring the coil. Perhaps if I use 30ga?

I've yet to have to pull up any new wick, but you're probably right...I did use 30 (my favorite Kanthal atm re: 500 mesh thread) but I think pulling in new wick may be wishful thinking on my part

Sent via subspace communication

 

[blackwater]

Just going through some old link and thought I had tried these out but I don't think I did. Unbleached 100% cotton oil lamp wick. Think I might have to buy a hank.

http://www.wickstore.com/Products/10-Yards-Round-Cotton-Oil-Lamp-Wick-116__1271-4-10.aspx

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Just going through some old link and thought I had tried these out but I don't think I did. Unbleached 100% cotton oil lamp wick. Think I might have to buy a hank.

Ten yard hank of #1271/4 round braid cotton wick. Diameter is approximately 1/16". Used for oil lamps. - WickStore.com

I've seen it mentioned as good. I have some...but it's about 1/8" or larger in diameter. Let us know how it does for you.

 

[blackwater]

Hi cool,

I forget if you have a Penny or Ody or neither.

Chris

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Hi cool,

I forget if you have a Penny or Ody or neither.

Chris

...neither. I rebuild CE4s and a Smoktech rebuildable atty. ...budget sort of fellow at this time.

 

[blackwater]

...neither. I rebuild CE4s and a Smoktech rebuildable atty. ...budget sort of fellow at this time.

Right on.
I Hear ya.

 

[skrumzy]

So the bamboo thread was a no go for me. Just couldn't get it to wick properly in my Vivi Nova. Ran into a lot of flooding issues. So I have stuck with cheese cloth for now until my DID clone gets released from being hostage at the USPS office due to the holiday. I have about 4 heads that I wrap all at once and I kept getting L0 errors on my provari and a nice bright light on the coil. It was starting to really piss me off. After scratching my head for a bit I started to look harder at the heads, specifically the rubber gasket. I guess I have used an abused them too much and it was causing the wire to short or something. So I rebuilt the one that was operational in my tank and it ohm'ed out just fine the first try. Rebuilding these heads are childs play I think, super easy. Anyone know of or have seen someone using a different material for this gasket? I would love to use something that's a little more durable.