Wire Rope for Wick?

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Ec!g

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Use one of these wire cutters(it says channel lock 85 on it) to get perfect cuts every time with no taping required, as much effort to cut as cutting cardboard with scissors and 0 fraying.
Not sure where one can be acquired since as u can see I've had this one for ages but I'm sure it can be found.
hy2esebe.jpg

5azyhe5u.jpg

ta3erezu.jpg
 

johni

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Use one of these wire cutters(it says channel lock 85 on it) to get perfect cuts every time with no taping required, as much effort to cut as cutting cardboard with scissors and 0 fraying.
Not sure where one can be acquired since as u can see I've had this one for ages but I'm sure it can be found.
hy2esebe.jpg

5azyhe5u.jpg

ta3erezu.jpg
Fencing pliers. Can be found at Orschelns, Tractor Supply, other farm stores.
 

Ec!g

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Btw
Thanks to everyone making a contribution on this subject.
I don't know if my current vaping experience would be anywhere near as good(and it is quite good) without all this great help.

Here's my small contribution:

If anyone is interested in the size needed for the a did clone(called cobra by fasttech) it is 5/64. However 3/32 7x7 fits SUNGLY

To PIF:
if anyone wants to sample some 3/32 7x7 please feel free to PM me
 

cowboy6591

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okay here are some pics of what i described earlier
View attachment 215876
This is the wick cut, it it the height of the wick hole in the aga


View attachment 215870
This is it disassembled to remove the string (mcmaster carr stuff has a string in the middle)


View attachment 215871
this is wick, re-assembled, with the center core pulled out to one side aprox .32"



View attachment 215873

And this is the finished wick, with cotton wrapped around the .32" center core. The cotton is from a towel i found at walmart
100% Cotton flour sack cloth. I just cut a small strip, and wrapped it like you would a SS mesh.

Sweet !!! Gonna try it.
 

cowboy6591

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okay here are some pics of what i described earlier
View attachment 215876
This is the wick cut, it it the height of the wick hole in the aga


View attachment 215870
This is it disassembled to remove the string (mcmaster carr stuff has a string in the middle)


View attachment 215871
this is wick, re-assembled, with the center core pulled out to one side aprox .32"



View attachment 215873

And this is the finished wick, with cotton wrapped around the .32" center core. The cotton is from a towel i found at walmart
100% Cotton flour sack cloth. I just cut a small strip, and wrapped it like you would a SS mesh.

Ya I know 2 replies to the same post BUT???
This post about the center string solves a real important problem. In screwing around with this whole wire-rope wick I have had a fowl odor in my mouth from the get go [pun intended]. This heat sinking problem is NOT to be reckoned with if you want an all day smoker without a recharge. Battery life will ALWAYS be a top priority with me. I refuse to charge batteries other then when I go to bed; THAT'S IT!!!. If I can't get 16 hours out of 1 charge game over. I'm not strapping a motorcycle battery to my hip either.

It's hard to explain in a quick forum thread the problem with Mass versus Heat needed to vape. But believe it or not a 3/32
steel rope can take up to 20 watts just to begin to act like a 8 watt carto tank when it comes to full cloudy, flavorful Throat Hit etc...

I zero'd in on the 3/32 with 1.5ohm to run on a mechanical MOD straight [no electronic chip control]. After all I am in full "Dooms-day" mode right now gearing up for the possible BAN on the hardware [don't kid yourselves this can happen]. So 1.5 ohm with a 4 volt battery lets see 4 squared = 16 divided by 1.5 = 10.666 watts. 10 watts can not and will not heat up the fat wire wick enough to produce steam. It will sizzle, pop and shoot shards of molten juice on your tongue but forget about getting a smooth flavorful smoke out of it. I had to run .8 ohm coil witch almost doubles the watts in order to give the BTU [British Thermal Units] required to raise the degrees of the massive wick to a steam producing point. The mass of the resistance wire also plays a huge role in proficiency versus BTU's here as well. It's no surprise to see a lot of people in here using 28 gauge instead of the more humble 30 and 32 Kanthal wire, and yes the extra wide ribbon type wire is helping out here also. But this all means one thing, and thats the battery pumping out 3 amps minimum to keep up with the BTU [British Thermal Units] demand. It's easy to get a 32 gauge [one of the thinnest in here] to glow red. Twice the energy [amps x volts] is needed to make that fat ribbon 28 gauge [0.5?] wire glow the same red. More mass needs more power to glow witch seems to be our focal point on achieving enough heat when dry burning.

So strike the band, I got my megawatt vapor machine to roast a half an ounce of metal and blow clouds, YIPPEE HOORAY HA HA.

Two days later we will be in here starting a thread on how to build a BOX MOD that will hold a 5500 MaH Lithium Ion battery with a 20c output rating and must be non-protected. I use these in my electric Remote control [RC] Helicopter, you like spending 110 dollars for one battery?

OK you guys see where I am going with this buy now. As our BTU demand goes up or batteries soon become our week link in our systems, then after we start running 5500 Mah as the new norm, we will work on 40 Watt Genny tanks and begin the cycle all over again? [Think about it]. If 15 watts can't blow clouds of flavorful vapor then there is something wrong in the engineering dept.

SuperDave68 stumbled on the sleeping giant gorilla in the corner about to wake up any time now. His "Stem-Wick" can certainly help us stave off the short battery life woes. I hold no patents on the term "Stem-Wick" I just made it up, free to public domain.

Now if I can only build in my Remote Control unit a 510 regulated connector so I can Smoke And Fly RC-Helicopters at the same time I will jump for joy!!!

I do want to mention , Insulating properties of cotton, Wire Mesh, Silica wrap on the wick helps, but don't fool yourselves it is far from 100%. If your tank is getting warm you can consider that as a scale of efficiency. The more warm the tank the less efficient your system is. Another thing I am not subscribing to is this preburn carbonize insulation. Get out a resistance meter and experiment here. Bare SSWick and Steel mesh bra wrap even after burn and dunk then pulse burns x 5 CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY!!!
It just doesn't conduct it as well as bare metal on bare metal. Carbon deposits ARE conductive!! I will bet my salary that we are losing 5 to 20 % of our battery life to the in-efficiency of "Cross Conductivity" of our positive end of coil to the wick to the ground of our tanks be it top or bottom [ I can measure this on an Ohm Meter] Woooops!!! All that energy is wasted from your battery before it gets around to heating your coil. It may be miniscule when cold, but when that coil heats up that carbons resistance takes a dive, so the problem is almost invisible at first. Through a little layer of conductive VG [Vegetable Glycerin] and yes PolyGlycol and you have a significant conduction from the top positive coil lead-in resistance-wire to the negative grounded wick in most but not all cases.
So I insist on a Silica , thicker cotton or ceramic wrap between the coil and the wick to solve this loss. My setup with "Thin" cotton that burned off and Wire mesh on the other trial yielded a very short battery life. So some sort of insulation between the wick and the hole going to the bottom of the well and making sure it doesn't go all the way down is moved up to the front burner of my priorities write now, an integrating that care with coil to wick conductivity being kept at a minimum also. Shoot for both, if one fails the success of the other will save your battery.

Lets put "Efficiency" back on the map folks!!!

Sorry for the long post But SuperDave68 tripped over one of my pet peeves with this Steel wick engineering business.:)
 
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SuperDave68

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thanks for the praise cowboy :) I like the name stem-wick it's catchy LOL.
I also hold no patents on this idea and have no plans on such, it is open source for all to use :)

I have not experienced the overwicking problems others have described, I tend to run higher VG juices that don't wick that well to begin with, but for those that have this problem, this should help with that as well.
 

cowboy6591

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:toast: Just thought I would reply to the Thread in general. I've tried alot of things but my fussiness with battery life low heat transfer efficiency and still a thick cloud and good flavor with the Watts below 15 the 1/16 cable wins with the cotton bra so far and I added a 1/8 inch piece of heat-shrink tubing to the wick where it passes through to the bottom tank [Call it the top platform]. Ya ya ya I might contaminate the juice with the heat shrink, well I will take my chances till the silica mesh wrap comes in, it's leak resistant [not proof] and so far I have not had to vent it, and I am chain vaping. The top platform is getting a touch warm after a 50 puff session [and I mean 50] but we are talking 100 degrees not Sizzling red hot. The tank has not darkened [yet] and the tank is not getting warm at all.
Now let’s see if I can get 15 hours out of this battery charge. 18650 protected 2250MaH battery.

I'm running 1 Ohm doubled up Kanthal 32g. I am waiting on flat wire and 28 kanthal, but I have my doubts about efficiency and speed with that stuff. The doubled-up 32 gauge is producing the fog rapidly and I am running it on a Hoosier vapes Lava Tube Knock-off. At 3.3 volts to break it in. I tried it on my GG clone 4.1 volt same battery and pulsed with my thumb the 4.1 volts to avoid burning the cotton, I figured one ohm coil and some thumb switch discipline [pulsing] will get me a good smoke and when the battery wears down to 3.9 volts or less I won’t need to pulse it. Then of course at 3.3 volts game over time to charge. But my "Dooms Day" setup is coming along just fine.
Last but not least I bought the 1/16 ss cable from Tractor Supply Company [TSC] in Lebanon Tennessee and it's 304 NOT 316 :( but it is wicking like a champ. Did the drano test and it passed, but the stuff was greasy so I burned it thoroughly full length and washed . Did a sterile cotton ball [thick] wrap on the tip. After the thick wrap I wet it with Glycerin and rolled it hard with my fingers and made my coil tight and skinny 5/4 wind and Wala!! smoke away hey hey.
One thing I don't like is this thing is suckin gas [e-juice] like a 1966 Cadillac with 2 blown valves and a four barrel carb. Jeesh good thing I bought a thousand bucks worth of nicotine concentrate and make my own juice. I seem to be quite satisfied with no more than 10 mg/Ml nicotine level, so I will be dead before I run out of that stuff. The carto tank system is best for hassle free non-.... e-smoking but the genny stuff with this wire-wick is LOADED with flavor big time improvement.
No "Wet-Socks" grungy taste and no metal taste so far just a rich Coffee Latte' flavor, but I haven't had a Ceramic wick to compare so I wouldn't know any better. Sold on the smaller wick and smaller coil with extra windings.
:vapor:
 
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Gummy Bare

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I've got some Wire Rope Wick & Nextel XS Silica Sleeving showing up today from Kidney Puncher. This will be my first time giving it a shot to see if it lives up to the hype. Can someone give a newbie a few tips? Like how long\much am I supposed to torch the rope &\or Silica Sleeving?

I've never used the nextel or the rope before. Only used SS Mesh and fishsticks so far in my gennys, so this is all new to me.
 

SuperDave68

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I've got some Wire Rope Wick & Nextel XS Silica Sleeving showing up today from Kidney Puncher. This will be my first time giving it a shot to see if it lives up to the hype. Can someone give a newbie a few tips? Like how long\much am I supposed to torch the rope &\or Silica Sleeving?

I've never used the nextel or the rope before. Only used SS Mesh and fishsticks so far in my gennys, so this is all new to me.

not sure about the XS sleeving torching. the rope however shouldn’t need to be torched with the silica sleeve as an insulator. some have torched the rope just to ensure there are no lubricating oils left on it.

i don't like the taste of oxidized stainless, so i didn't torch mine, just washed in soapy water, then followed with a few PGA rinses.

not sure where you got the rope from, but some have a polymer thread in the middle and this should either be removed or torched out.
there is a video earlier in post showing the dis-assembly, thread removal, and re-assembly procedure for this.

and, not to toot my own horn, I came up with what is being called the stem-wick approach, to reduce heat loading issues with the wire rope, you might want to check that out as well
 
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cowboy6591

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I've got some Wire Rope Wick & Nextel XS Silica Sleeving showing up today from Kidney Puncher. This will be my first time giving it a shot to see if it lives up to the hype. Can someone give a newbie a few tips? Like how long\much am I supposed to torch the rope &\or Silica Sleeving?

I've never used the nextel or the rope before. Only used SS Mesh and fishsticks so far in my gennys, so this is all new to me.

Go here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/375999-wire-rope-wick-91.html

and read, it's a tad more work but it rides on the fact that less can be more, keep the coil small in diameter and the tip of the wick insulated and small. I'm having better luck with the skinny 1/16 wire rope for the same reason SuperDave68 is having good luck with his stem-wick method on 3/32. "The coil me lad keep it narrow me lad, walk into the light and vape on me lad. :vapor:
 
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cowboy6591

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i also just use the 1/16 wire rope.
i find it makes no difference accept for the amount of heat required to get a good vape.

That's the target point, Less heat to get the same equates to longer battery life as compared to high watt yada yada yada , I see a lot of 25 watt hand warmers out here in the vapor world 15 of it goes to making vape and 10 goes to warming up your hand !!
 
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SuperDave68

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I totally agree with cowboy, I used to run a 100% cotton U-wick in my aga, but it had problems wicking my thicker juices, especially from close to an empty tank.
i was running around 7 to 8 watts with that setup. The stem-wick idea i came up with for two reasons, i don't need a hand warmer for one, and i wanted to be able to re-wick without destroying my coil. I am running 9.8 w on the aga with a 3/16 7x7 stem-wick and a 1.8 ohm 4/5 wrap .5x.1 ribbon kanthal currently and it vapes clouds of vapor.
 

Gummy Bare

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not sure about the XS sleeving torching. the rope however shouldn’t need to be torched with the silica sleeve as an insulator. some have torched the rope just to ensure there are no lubricating oils left on it.

i don't like the taste of oxidized stainless, so i didn't torch mine, just washed in soapy water, then followed with a few PGA rinses.

not sure where you got the rope from, but some have a polymer thread in the middle and this should either be removed or torched out.
there is a video earlier in post showing the dis-assembly, thread removal, and re-assembly procedure for this.

and, not to toot my own horn, I came up with what is being called the stem-wick approach, to reduce heat loading issues with the wire rope, you might want to check that out as well

Yea, I don’t want to torch for oxidation... just to get out any oils. I guess it would make more since to boil it and wash with soap. It looks like my rope doesn’t have the polymer in the middle, so I’m good in that area. The Nextel I heard to torch for various reasons. I guess the main is to help it from unraveling, which apparently is a big issue with it. Haven’t tried it yet, so I hope it goes easy.

Were can I get the 411 on the stem-wick approach your talking about?
 

Gummy Bare

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Go here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/375999-wire-rope-wick-91.html

and read, it's a tad more work but it rides on the fact that less can be more, keep the coil small in diameter and the tip of the wick insulated and small. I'm having better luck with the skinny 1/16 wire rope for the same reason SuperDave68 is having good luck with his stem-wick method on 3/32. "The coil me lad keep it narrow me lad, walk into the light and vape on me lad. :vapor:

i also just use the 1/16 wire rope.
i find it makes no difference accept for the amount of heat required to get a good vape.

That's the target point, Less heat to get the same equates to longer battery life as compared to high watt yada yada yada , I see a lot of 25 watt hand warmers out here in the vapor world 15 of it goes to making vape and 10 goes to warming up your hand !!

aww man, I didn't order any 1/16th!

I just got 3/32nd & 1/8th
 
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