Wire size vs. ohms in coil performance.. Noob revalations.

[Smithereens]

Eh, so I finally got an assortment of wire sizes to try out. The guys at my local vape shop were really cool and donated a little 30 gauge! (Plug for Vape On! in JC, TN.! )

I'm a little surprized at what I've found... nothing new to anyone but me, I'm certain. But I'll pass it along anyway.

Every coil got wicked with Peaches and Cream cotton ecru yarn, doubled over and threaded through. The coils were all wound on one of those little screwdrivers you get with some Chinese drippers. The atties are all drippers, two are the small 14mm diameter single coil type and the other is a Trident clone that I just bought (not figured out the best build for it yet).

My first build was with some 24 gauge Kanthal. Laugh if you want, but I wound an .8 ohm coil. Needless to say, the coil is HUGE.... big fat wire and looooong. (wound tightly, micro style, around 9 turns) In one of the 14mm RDAs.

It sucks. There is so much mass the coil heats very slowly even with a freshly charged IMR battery. Vapor production is low. But I'm thinking this coil would be very well suited for a short wave communications antennae or quite possibly it could be used to deliver that final, life giving, megawatt jolt to my still incomplete Frankenstein monster I've been working on these last few months.

Next build I used 30 gauge Kanthal, same style dripper. Just goofing around, I built a 2.2 ohm coil, partly I wanted a coil close to the same length as the 24 gauge. Surprizingly enough, this coil didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would. It heats up quickly and evenly. With 4.082 volts showing on the battery, vapor production was not that bad... I'd say at least twice as good as the .8 ohm 24 gauge coil. This will probably be a starting point for dual coiling the Trident, 1.1 ohms with all that air flow... it has my attention.

The last build is a special build. You see the wire I used is highly unusual and, as far as I know, extremely rare. It fell to earth from an orbiting Chinese military spy satellite. It must be true as that is the only explanation I can come up with as to how it appeared so suddenly in my vape box. Wire always comes in 1m, 5m, 10m and so on lengths... this is a mere 22cm in length which is completely non-standard. It's diameter is 0.18mm, not too unusual, but in light of it's sudden appearance and odd length I think there is something significant about the diameter. I just cant pin down what it is.
At any rate, I proceeded to coil this bit of mysterious wire via the same method used with the others. I got three turns in and 1.2 ohms... again, this is freaky, I always build 1.2 ohm coils and this one just happened to come out at my favorite resistance despite the low number of turns. This makes me think that we sorely underestimate Chinese spy technology! If they weren't really, really good, how did they know to drop just enough wire for me to build a coil with exactly the right resistance?
But I digress.
I find it odd that this coil's performance in my Trident (also Chinese BTW...) turned out to be less than I am accustomed to, but I think the reason is that I haven't waited for the satellite to pass overhead again and beam down an attenuation signal to my mech. Before I tear down this build, I'll go outside, vape and wait for the signal to arrive. I wonder how it will vape then....

 

[jersey_emt]

I agree with you on the thicker wire taking too long to heat up. The lowest I've gone is 26 gauge, and even that takes a second or two to really get going.

I've found that 28 gauge wire works best for me on a mech. For regulated mods I like 30 gauge.

And be sure to keep an eye out for those black helicopters. Also HAARP. And water sprinkler rainbows.

 

[Smithereens]

Well. I waited and waited and vaped and vaped. I saw several satellites pass over, but there was no significant change in the coil's performance. I'm a bit perplexed by this as I though for certain the Chinese would be in contact with my vape gear. On the other hand, it makes sense that a highly advanced Chinese spy satellite would not be visible when it passed overhead as they do have Romulan style cloaking devices. Still, I am disappointed. I fully expected my grape e-juice to momentarily burst into a wonderfully exotic Mandarin Orange... at least during the data sync anyway... Maybe it's still too soon after Chinese New Year. I'll hang onto the wire and try again later.

Dissapointed, I proceeded to rip out the spy satellite wire and rebuild with the 30 gauge Kanthal for a dual coil, 1.3 ohm build. This time I used a thinner form to wrap my coils and a single strand of cotton yarn cut down to just lay on the deck and no more. With some tweaking to get everything heating evenly and finally lifting the coils a couple of mm off the deck I finally have a decent vape going.

I did experiment with lower ohm builds in the .7 ohm range, different wire gauges and coil diameters, but I just couldn't get them to vape smoothly... always started developing a dry hit even when the wick was fully saturated. I tried wicks that were increasingly looser inside the coil, but I just never got it quiet right.

You know, I've been at this for hours? Ugh...

 

[SkvLTD]

I thought 28g anything would be about right, but, it's harder to work with than 32g and definitely not for regulated batteries/warm-up time. I'll now try to seek 30/32g spool and play further with that.

Needless to say that 26g I have will seldom be used if ever.

 

[jersey_emt]

I thought 28g anything would be about right, but, it's harder to work with than 32g and definitely not for regulated batteries/warm-up time. I'll now try to seek 30/32g spool and play further with that.

Needless to say that 26g I have will seldom be used if ever.

Do you torch the wire before wrapping the coils? Doing so reduces the "springiness" and makes it much easier to work with.

I've gravitated towards 3/64" microcoils, wrapped to 0.8 - 1.0 ohms with 28 gauge Kanthal on a mechanical mod, and 1.8 - 2.0 ohms with 30 gauge Kanthal on regulated mods.

 

[Rule62]

I go by the number of wraps I want, in order to determine the wire size I'll use for a particular build. With micro coils, I like at least 8 wraps. With conventional type coils on ss mesh gennys, I like 4 or 5. Generally, I can get what I want with 30, 28, or 26. But being the OCD type that I am, I have some 29 and 27 gauge coming (on back order) to fill the gaps.

 

[jamesfarrell]

What size drill bits do you guys use? I don't have metric sizes. I saw 3/64 above. Is that the drill size? Any other sizes?

 

[Ben C.]

I use a 5/64" bit, which is for all intents and purposes, 2mm.
9 wraps, 30g = 2.2 ohms for me, on an Origen (longer legs, horiz coil), 10 wraps = 2.2 ohms for me on an IGO-L (shorter legs).

And just while I'm on this topic of bits and coiling, I can get extremely tight, uniform wraps with no torching simply using the drill bit and one of these (cost about $1.50):

(remove the plastic covering from the clampy bits)

Cut length of kanthal, secure one end with the clamp to a drawer or cabinet lip, pull tight and wrap the coil around the bit with tension, perfect. I still pulse it on a mod and do the squeeze, but there's no room for them to really compress. And this is with just 30g. No weird techniques with erasers, no jigs, just a $1.50 clamp and a bit from my kit.

 

[Smithereens]

I go by the number of wraps I want, in order to determine the wire size I'll use for a particular build. With micro coils, I like at least 8 wraps. With conventional type coils on ss mesh gennys, I like 4 or 5. Generally, I can get what I want with 30, 28, or 26. But being the OCD type that I am, I have some 29 and 27 gauge coming (on back order) to fill the gaps.

This is the part I've not figured out yet. I'd like to get a decent number of turns on my coils while hitting the right diameter and resistance. 30~34 gauge wire seems to get really close most of the time.

Right now the biggest mystery to me is getting the flavor to really come out. I have a small V3 dripper, it's kinda crappy as it screws together and leaks like mad, but it tastes so good with a cotton wick and a microcoil that I keep it in rotation. My 14mm RDAs also produce really good flavor, even with silica wicks.

I'd like to get the same flavor out of the Trident. I know the Trident's chamber is bigger, but there must be some other form of VooDoo I can use to bring it's taste out of the Netherworld and into the land of the living. Lifting the coils up and reducing airflow helps, but it's still not where it should be.

 

[Crunktanium]

The way to go is blunt needle tips then you get perfect inner diameter always. I use green for higher ohm or pink for sub ohm. Then I use kosher organic wick that is sold on amazon. You can get the needles at most diy juice supply site.

It works in every type of coil I build just the right thickness and it rolls down tight if you wet it a bit. No threading no hassle nothing else to buy and no need to treat.

I run this wick in a .6 coiled ego-l that hits like a truck with twisted 28g. This coil gets super hot and no issues. Tried the cotton yarn but it did not work all that well for me.

My conclusion after building many coils is wick itself is crucial. The best coil is useless with poor wicking. So quit fooling with wire and coils get 28g and some kosher wicks so you can spend more time enjoying your builds.

 

[jersey_emt]

The way to go is blunt needle tips then you get perfect inner diameter always. I use green for higher ohm or pink for sub ohm. Then I use kosher organic wick that is sold on amazon. You can get the needles at most diy juice supply site.

It works in every type of coil I build just the right thickness and it rolls down tight if you wet it a bit. No threading no hassle nothing else to buy and no need to treat.

I run this wick in a .6 coiled ego-l that hits like a truck with twisted 28g. This coil gets super hot and no issues. Tried the cotton yarn but it did not work all that well for me.

My conclusion after building many coils is wick itself is crucial. The best coil is useless with poor wicking. So quit fooling with wire and coils get 28g and some kosher wicks so you can spend more time enjoying your builds.

Absolutely right about wicking. People with factory-built clearomizer heads will often find that vaping at 10 watts or higher results in severely burnt taste, then wonder how the heck people can vape at 30+ watts on a mechanical mod and RBA/RDA. And the answer is wicking. As long as your wick is capable of moving the juice super quickly and keeping the coil wet, everything works fine at high power levels.

I've tried twisted 28 gauge wire, and even at 0.5 ohms (theoretical maximum of 30 watts on a fully charged battery), it took a good 1.5 - 2.0 seconds to get the coil up to temperature. The same goes with single-strand 26 gauge wire. This is fine for me, since I like to take long vapes anyways -- less than 5 seconds is rare for me -- but people who prefer shorter hits might want to use less turns of a higher resistance wire. Single-strand 28 gauge or twisted 30 gauge Kanthal at the same 0.5 ohm resistance heats up quite a bit quicker.

 

[jamesfarrell]

I ordered some of this, as I didn't like the cotton I tried. Ekowool Silica 2mm. I like this guy here and his ideas. Wrap the coil around a 3m screw and use this technique for wrapping the coils.

M3 MICROCOIL with COTTON WICK on a KAYFUN - TUTORIAL - YouTube

'STEAM SANDWICH COIL' for KAYFUN - REBUILD - YouTube

 

[nostinkies]

I wonder if Andrew in those videos has ever seen a REAL cloud? I like how there is hardly any visible vapor and he tells you how great the flavor is. Oh really?
His steam sandwich looked a little more impressive. But I dont do silca.

Today I am running a triple twisted 32g coil, 1.2ohm 2.5mm coil at 8watts on an EVIC with 50/50 juice and I cant see out the windshield of my car while vaping it.

 

[mackman]

I use a 5/64" bit, which is for all intents and purposes, 2mm.
9 wraps, 30g = 2.2 ohms for me, on an Origen (longer legs, horiz coil), 10 wraps = 2.2 ohms for me on an IGO-L (shorter legs).

And just while I'm on this topic of bits and coiling, I can get extremely tight, uniform wraps with no torching simply using the drill bit and one of these (cost about $1.50):

(remove the plastic covering from the clampy bits)

Cut length of kanthal, secure one end with the clamp to a drawer or cabinet lip, pull tight and wrap the coil around the bit with tension, perfect. I still pulse it on a mod and do the squeeze, but there's no room for them to really compress. And this is with just 30g. No weird techniques with erasers, no jigs, just a $1.50 clamp and a bit from my kit.

Here's a foolproof way for supertight micro coils that you can make in about less than a minute
Amazon.com: Artistic Wire Coiling Gizmo(R) Deluxe Winder for Jewelry Making: Arts, Crafts & Sewing

 

[Ben C.]

Here's a foolproof way for supertight micro coils that you can make in about less than a minute
Amazon.com: Artistic Wire Coiling Gizmo(R) Deluxe Winder for Jewelry Making: Arts, Crafts & Sewing

Can do it faster and just as tight with just 1 clamp, thanks

 

[VaperInMaine]

I found my sweet spot in my Kayfun tanks. I do 8 wrap micro coils around a toothpick. A quick torch and a squeeze after removing from the toothpick. Nice, tight 1.2ohm coils, wicked with cotton. Vaping Nirvana. I make 10 coils at a time in about 20 minutes.

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