Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

[hildicat]

Back on topic...
Would love to get some 'expert' opinions about this...
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/362182-next-big-thing-porous-ceramic-wicks.html

 

[hildicat]

While I'm at it Quiqs, any chance you could do a video about making an oval coil? Every time I try to make one it ends up springing back and I lose the consistant oval shape. No matter if I pre-fire the wire or not, both 28 and 30 kanthal. The coils look nice around the toothpicks but once removed it gets all wonky. Been sticking with just a single toothpick making cylindrical coils, but I know some more coil area would be nice.

 

[TomCatt]

Funny how some had smoked the same stinkies day after day for 10, 20 ,30, 50 years Now we struggle vaping with different taste sometimes on a hourly basis. Sometimes I struggle with the taste of cotton with one flavor and switch to bamboo. It's ok for a while then i have to switch back to cotton. I think in a nutshell squonk or not, different wicks with different flavor on different days will always taste different to different vapors at different times.:>)

Hmmm, I've been vaping the same DIY peppermint for the past year or more.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[JazzyTech]

Same here Tomcatt. (not a year yet!). I mix a base of peppermint, then add other various flavors for a change of taste occasionally.

Back on topic, I have a question for those of you using cotton wick:
I've noticed that #1/0(approx 2mm) square braid is perfect for this Ody clone I'm using. That said, I've now realized there are some inconsistencies in the diameter of the wick. Anyone else noticing this? I wondering if I should store it in a particular way; I wrap it around a 4" bottle. Perhaps the boiling changes it? Thoughts?

 

[Quigsworth]

While I'm at it Quiqs, any chance you could do a video about making an oval coil? Every time I try to make one it ends up springing back and I lose the consistant oval shape. No matter if I pre-fire the wire or not, both 28 and 30 kanthal. The coils look nice around the toothpicks but once removed it gets all wonky. Been sticking with just a single toothpick making cylindrical coils, but I know some more coil area would be nice.

Keep meaning to do a vid on how I do the ERA and A7 with the BJ oval/Lydia's...house will be quiet tomorrow hmmm...but just a tip, I dropped the toothpicks, too much grab and hard to slide out...I use a couple toothpick sized cheap drill bits that are taped together (tape the spiral ends together, all you want are the smooth shanks), wrap your coil around them and install while still wrapped on the drill bits then slide the drill bits out or ya, you're right, the coil turns into some double helix DNA looking thing when you slip it off.

 

[Cyrus Vap]

So I beat the crap out of that hemp (A7) for a little over a week, it held up real nice. Somehow it seems to be way more burn and nasty resistant than cotton and bamboo. Good thing and a bad thing. I can vape the hell out of it closer to the dry side for scary long without realizing its dry, because I don't get the immediate off taste of burning fiber. Or maybe its just holding more back up juice. Anyway, the wicks/coil looked more cooked than my bamboo set ups after similar amount of time, I attribute this to the above.

Also ran 4 threads doubled over (IIRC the hemp is 7 strands twisted together) through a CE2 stock coil. It was kind of strange. My VG DIY (20% DW) just kind of sat there, wouldn't soak in even after hours and loads of shaking etc. Like water off of a ducks back. (My apartment does tend to be cold though). Took the thing apart and mashed the liquid into the wicks with my hands lol. Re assembled and vaped a few mls through it, still never really started wicking, 2-3 second horizontal hits before a nasty scorch.

In good news I started playing with an Imist2 i have sitting around, couldn't get it to vape at all. Pulled the POS fiber wick out and stuffed some baton in there, pulled the plug out of the tank and now its kicking like a mule (4.2 volts on 2.0 ohms). Only reason I'm doing this is I want to see if I can get used to these 'tank atty' systems, I want to invest in something low profile for outside of home, possibly an eroll or ego c. Though I have my doubts about ego voltage cutting it for my tastes...

 

[roadrash]

reply, edit, delete. I was gonna poke fun at the porous ceramic wick thread but I figured they suffered enough.
Now back to our regularly scheduled cotton program. :>)

 

[Cool_Breeze]

It's good to see a post pop up here at the Smooth Jazz thread. Things haven't been going too well at the Heavy Metal and Rock 'n Coil threads.

 

[Quigsworth]

Smooth Jazz thread, I like that...I admit, playing with these things with a little Diana Krall in the background is very relaxing...

plus it's nice to give a shout out to my local girl

 

[roadrash]

I once blew a vape cloud that looked like Jesus...or was it Kurt Cobain?...I don't know, I always get those two mixed up

did the vape cloud smell like teen spirit? RIP Kurt.

 

[Quigsworth]

did the vape cloud smell like teen spirit? RIP Kurt.

More like Pennyroyal Tea...ah Kurt...why buddy?...don't even want to think what he could've been let alone was...

 

[BJ43]

Just did a 30g 2.4 ohm oval coil in a CE5 with two 1mm hemp wicks. 100 % VG menthol diy. Really unbelievably great vapor and flavor. The TH is almost as if it had nic and I am at 6 watts.

 

[bluegrasslover]

Question/observation on Aunt Lynda's. Do those of you that use it do you use the yarn as is? IOW, I find that it works much better if I loosen the threads first. Makes it a little puffy and work much better IMO. I do this a couple of different ways. One way is I hold down 1 end then use a large sewing needle stuck into the middle of the yarn then pull it the entire length. The other way I do this is pulling it across the blade of scissors, the same way you make gift ribbon curly.

 

[bluegrasslover]

reply, edit, delete. I was gonna poke fun at the porous ceramic wick thread but I figured they suffered enough.
Now back to our regularly scheduled cotton program. :>)

I've been trying to vape with the ceramic wick but I'm just about done with it. I love the idea behind it but it's a pain to make them, they break if you even look at them wrong and flavor is not consistent. I have enough stone left for a few more wicks and if I don't get something I love then it's goodbye air stone. Too much of a pain if you ask me. YMMV.

 

[TomCatt]

I may try the ceramic (air stone) wick, but I'll have to wait for good weather. Don't think this one would be good in the KLS*























*KLS - Kitchen/Lab/Shop

 

[TomCatt]

I've been switching between my S-Body BO-6 with rolled cotton and a CE5 (I think I called this a CE4+; but I think it's a CE5. Anyway it's one with changeable heads) with stock silica wicks the past week or two. Tried a couple of times to recoil a CE?? head with cotton but kept getting shorts Oh well, that's life (at least mine ).

 

[Quigsworth]

I watched Dan's YT vids last night on the ceramic stick wicks...I've watched a lot of his vids over the last year and he's a pretty enthusiastic guy...but on the ceramic wicks...I don't know, it seems a little forced...maybe it's just me...

Blue, I boil the sh** out of my Lydia's, not to so much get rid of impurities but to loosen the fibers. I'm running almost 100% ERA's now. I do a 28 awg BJ oval with 20 strands of Lydia's. I wrap the Lydia's around an 18xxx batt 10x, I do a "back twist" with my fingers as I do...you know how you roll up an extension cord and you twist the cord as you roll it so it doesn't figure 8 on you?, well, do the opposite of that...it can be a fluffy little mess to build until you get the hang of it but....

I can honestly say that this set-up, either bf'd, tf'd or when Cy sends me a dozen sampler flav's I drip, (throw in the odd A7 on mesh/silica for those "special" juices)...it's taken a year (and $1000's of dollars) but unless there's some crazy "gotta have it" paradigm shift in vaping I think I'm lucky to have discovered my personal vaping nirvana (pun intended)...about the only issue I have with this set-up is that it just works, all the time, no messing with it, no blown coils, no anything...I have nothing to really play with now...so I bought Far Cry 3 and have gone back to being a computer game nerd

 

[BJ43]

I watched Dan's YT vids last night on the ceramic stick wicks...I've watched a lot of his vids over the last year and he's a pretty enthusiastic guy...but on the ceramic wicks...I don't know, it seems a little forced...maybe it's just me...

Blue, I boil the sh** out of my Lydia's, not to so much get rid of impurities but to loosen the fibers. I'm running almost 100% ERA's now. I do a 28 awg BJ oval with 20 strands of Lydia's. I wrap the Lydia's around an 18xxx batt 10x, I do a "back twist" with my fingers as I do...you know how you roll up an extension cord and you twist the cord as you roll it so it doesn't figure 8 on you?, well, do the opposite of that...it can be a fluffy little mess to build until you get the hang of it but....

I can honestly say that this set-up, either bf'd, tf'd or when Cy sends me a dozen sampler flav's I drip, (throw in the odd A7 on mesh/silica for those "special" juices)...it's taken a year (and $1000's of dollars) but unless there's some crazy "gotta have it" paradigm shift in vaping I think I'm lucky to have discovered my personal vaping nirvana (pun intended)...about the only issue I have with this set-up is that it just works, all the time, no messing with it, no blown coils, no anything...I have nothing to really play with now...so I bought Far Cry 3 and have gone back to being a computer game nerd

Ditto on the coils and wicks, have 5 vivi novas and 5 CE5s with oval coils and hemp and/or Lydia's, a couple have a combo of both, anyway it is hard to beat and takes away all my desire to experiment. I stare at a drawer full of genesis and can't seem to get around to them. Maybe by next Christmas we will have the mini scuba gen and I will try it. Still vaping my first oval coil, must have rewicked it 20 times.

 

[BJ43]

By the way Quig using two drill bits to make the oval is much easier than my toothpicks.. Thanks

 

[hildicat]

I watched Dan's YT vids last night on the ceramic stick wicks...I've watched a lot of his vids over the last year and he's a pretty enthusiastic guy...but on the ceramic wicks...I don't know, it seems a little forced...maybe it's just me...

Blue, I boil the sh** out of my Lydia's, not to so much get rid of impurities but to loosen the fibers. I'm running almost 100% ERA's now. I do a 28 awg BJ oval with 20 strands of Lydia's. I wrap the Lydia's around an 18xxx batt 10x, I do a "back twist" with my fingers as I do...you know how you roll up an extension cord and you twist the cord as you roll it so it doesn't figure 8 on you?, well, do the opposite of that...it can be a fluffy little mess to build until you get the hang of it but....

I can honestly say that this set-up, either bf'd, tf'd or when Cy sends me a dozen sampler flav's I drip, (throw in the odd A7 on mesh/silica for those "special" juices)...it's taken a year (and $1000's of dollars) but unless there's some crazy "gotta have it" paradigm shift in vaping I think I'm lucky to have discovered my personal vaping nirvana (pun intended)...about the only issue I have with this set-up is that it just works, all the time, no messing with it, no blown coils, no anything...I have nothing to really play with now...so I bought Far Cry 3 and have gone back to being a computer game nerd

I feel ya.
I'm running four Reos, two with ERA's, one Chalice, and one 'Crapomizer'.

I never mastered the oval coils. Instead I build my coils around a single toothpick with 30g Kanthal. I've settled on 7/8 coils for about 2.3v on the VVG's and 4/5 coils at 1.5v for the Grand. What I realized, and what seems counter to everything I had heard about making coils, is that I prefer my coils to be as close together as possible. So much so that after I build them and have them installed I use a pair of needle-nose pliers to squeeze the coil together so its as dense as possible. I've read that the coils should never touch each other, but these have been kicking .... for me for the last month.

I get on average about two weeks of use from a coil, though I have one that's going on four weeks. It only ever sees a light simple DIY juice, but it also get the most use. The most I ever have to do to these is pull the wicks and give them a dry burn and maybe a light scraping with a toothpick to remove some of the more stubborn crud.

And speaking of wicks, my favorite is rolled cotton (baton). To me its the best tasting, meaning it has no taste, and the best wicking. I used to have to change wicks daily, but since I've been running my 'compressed' coils I am getting three to four days on darker sweeter juices, and over a week on my lighter juices.

Its almost too easy. Tear off just a tiny bit of cotton, roll it between my fingers to create a little cotton rope and feed the pointy end through the coil. Squonk p) and vape!

I'm extremely satisfied with this setup, but I kinda miss the days when I knew there was something better. I sorta wish I was still chasing a better vape, but I just can't see it getting much better than this, and that kinda makes me sad...

I find myself watching every review, reading all the modding threads, looking through the classifieds, looking for that next great revelation when I'm perfectly happy with what I have. Real first world problem, I know. Time to find another hobby.