XC-116 or Ekowool
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Just passing on what I know to the Biggest place I can...Got my sample yesturday Thank you...now if I can Just decide what rba to get...or learn how to fix the cheap EVODS i got from FT
and Thank Tiny
)
Just passing on what I know to the Biggest place I can...Got my sample yesturday Thank you...now if I can Just decide what rba to get...or learn how to fix the cheap EVODS i got from FT
and Thank Tiny
for great VTF, ease of build and, hands down best portability/reliability that would be a the kayfun Lite IMHO. i haven't touched a genny in over a month now ....
Very cool read. Just purchased my first RBA (Diver) for trying on my Billet Box. Unfortunately the place I bought it from only carries the standard silica wicks. So I am new and learning, but will try and order the good stuff. Can anyone pass on a little knowledge about the wire for me? Don't really understand the different one used and why. I mean electrical and instrument is what I do for a living, and understand wire, but not it's context for the RBA format. My only choice at the time of order was 28-30-32 gauge kanthal. Anyway, appreciate the knowledge on this forum and the time you folks take to pass it on!
Thank you,
-=J
Thank you,
-=J
Wow, the ECIG10 coupon did not last long. So just FYI for anyone trying, it no longer works. But 15FREE does.
But thanks, order placed.
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Wire. Generally speaking, in RBA trends, you'll want 30g if you are vaping on a regulated/variable voltage device, and 28g if you're doing mechanical. Lotsa variation in preferences; but that's the "mean" or trend. When I first started (or soon after), I got 10' each of a lot of gauges and, looking back, that was a good idea. (say, 26,28,30,32)
Thanks, I did buy the three sizes they offered (28,30,32). Very anxious to get started. Hopefully all my stuff will be in by weeks end as I start vacation for two weeks....SWEET! Plan on chillin' and vaping (with a good microbrew of course).
-=J
-=J
Well, I have to say that I have a varied assortment of goodies coming to experiment like a mad scientist this weekend. Even found some hemp and bamboo wicks to play with. That sounds so cool. Yeah, I am vaping on a hemp wick.....hahaha. We shall see. Thanks all.
-=J
-=J
And it wicks exceptionally well at 1/16" and 1.75mm threading by hand easily into those Ø. I've been testing it in an informal scientific study for almost four months and it is superb.
I've posted on the subject on the http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ank-microcoil-discussion-29.html#post11506140 thread and further links at
Post #374: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ank-microcoil-discussion-38.html#post11654180
Happy Holidays! Good luck.
I would give the xc-132 a shot but I still have almost three feet of xc-116 to use, though the smaller diameter would be nice in my immortalizer.
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3M Ceramic Textiles & Composites - Nextel(tm) Braided Sleeving
3M Ceramics and Textiles - Request a Sample
I just received a confirmation e-mail stating that 1 foot samples of 312 & 440 sleeving are being sent in 1/8" & 1/16" sizes.
If you want to request the same sizes, (when filling out a sample request form), leave the "Samples" field drop-downs as they are, check mark the "Fabrication Assistance" field box, check mark the electrical box in the "Market Segment" field and explain the criteria you're using it for along with the grade levels and sizes needed, as follows:
Looking for Nextel 312 & 440 1/8" & 1/16" sleeving. Will be used for propylene glycol wicking and Kanthal wire coil wrap inside of a personal vaporizer atomizer.
3M Ceramics and Textiles - Request a Sample
I just received a confirmation e-mail stating that 1 foot samples of 312 & 440 sleeving are being sent in 1/8" & 1/16" sizes.
If you want to request the same sizes, (when filling out a sample request form), leave the "Samples" field drop-downs as they are, check mark the "Fabrication Assistance" field box, check mark the electrical box in the "Market Segment" field and explain the criteria you're using it for along with the grade levels and sizes needed, as follows:
Looking for Nextel 312 & 440 1/8" & 1/16" sleeving. Will be used for propylene glycol wicking and Kanthal wire coil wrap inside of a personal vaporizer atomizer.
But that's untreated. Then what? As I understand, you should not use untreated ceramic sleeve, it can make you sick.
Agreed. It's been discussed extensively on various threads here. I had a substantial legacy supply from BTV I have used for five months now extensively conducting wicking tests on a variety of atomizer form factors, resistances and coil config's across the spectrum. It is an amazing wicking medium. I cannot attest or comment pertaining the safety aspects of the latter either. I've seen little beyond anecdotal postings regarding anything less than the 3M recommended stabilization process. Presumably, the physical nature or attributes (pliability, threadability) of heat treated and heat cleaned material differ substantially. The latter becoming stiffer and more manageable for winding, perhaps insertion of certain other wicking materials like mesh or ceramic. However, it becomes utterly useless for wicking material if you intend to thread it as it splays or de-braids instantly on cutting. I believe, not having participated in either process that simple heat clean is augmented by torching; and that this more than anything changes the normally flexible characteristic of the wick to an overt stiffness. Even brief torching will destroy the braid flexibility of virgin unprocessed Nextel.
What I can attest to is that presumptively heat treated XC-132 is an exceptional wick for closed tank atomizers requiring miniature or micro coils. Personally, except for dry hits I encounter routinely in the voluminous build tests I do, I have suffered not at all with use of the Nextel wick as opposed to silica. Nextel inserts effortlessly into a coil with rotation pressure in the direction of rotation of the wind. It is intuitively simple to use even for the uninitiated, and outstanding in performance even when winds are sloppy. As a dripper media though it lacks the saturation of Ekowool; but, it's ability to flow is incredible. It will drain your dripper quickly producing abundant flavor in the process; but, for most builds in my experience not as abundant a flavor with vapor output as silica, Ekowool and certainly not cotton. It's advantage is remarkable durability and ease of maintenance. SnG's excellent torching video is spectacular to see (on their website) and I commend them for their education on this matter.
But please all note here very carefully, at present it is unclear whether either of the two present vendors (SnG, RBA) intend to carry or deliver an XC-132 product that does not splay when cut (presumably heat treated). I have been in the process of discussions with owners of both firms and they appear receptive and responsive. Their cooperation is appreciated. However, as of this date I have not seen a final product (or commitment) that would seem to conform to that requirement. In the case of RBA, to resume their offering (as I seem to recall they had it briefly at the outset of their operation).
I continue hopefully more encouraging conversations this morning as they both are available.
Wish us luck.
Happy Holidays all.
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New kiln batches are up at SnG Vapor. I have a supply from recent production and first build today is solid with the wick media exhibiting good vapor and flavor production. All indications of adequately proper preparation.
Please be aware though that SnG has their own proprietary process for heat cleaning. This process requires that the material be boiled by the user for a substantial period before use. Speaking with Casey, one of the principals, he said its a matter of preference. However, I explained as I am here that without this process the material is unsuitable for introduction into any coil wick diameter in which it may useful. However, it may be perfectly adequate for hand-winding, for those of you who are still doing that.
How much boil time to condition the braid precisely may vary. I live at sea level. My cook time initially was 45 mins with moderately boiling water. This proved inadequate and material splayed when cut dry although appearing more manageable. A further boil of 45 minutes improved both the flexibility and insertion potential of the braid. It simply can't be threaded if it splays when cut.
I was able to feed the XC-132 braid into an installed 9-turn wind (Protank 2) of 1/16" (1.58 mm) with a bit of difficulty and patience in one pass without degradation of the wick. A bit less effort to do so into 3/43" (1.77 mm) with better results. As typical of XC-132 some minor splaying occurred with insertion into the smaller wind but small segments of braid fold back under the coil permitting the braid to continue pass through as it's rotated. This is truly one of the excellent attributes of this material.
My talk with the Jeremy, the owner of RBA Supplies, was encouraging today as he still maintains an interest to add XC-132 to the inventory of XC-116 (1/16 i.d., almost 3mm in Ø) he already sells after the new year.
Hope this info is helpful to those of you who like myself have found XC ceramic to be an excellent thread-able wicking material.
Happy Holidays! Good luck.
Please be aware though that SnG has their own proprietary process for heat cleaning. This process requires that the material be boiled by the user for a substantial period before use. Speaking with Casey, one of the principals, he said its a matter of preference. However, I explained as I am here that without this process the material is unsuitable for introduction into any coil wick diameter in which it may useful. However, it may be perfectly adequate for hand-winding, for those of you who are still doing that.
How much boil time to condition the braid precisely may vary. I live at sea level. My cook time initially was 45 mins with moderately boiling water. This proved inadequate and material splayed when cut dry although appearing more manageable. A further boil of 45 minutes improved both the flexibility and insertion potential of the braid. It simply can't be threaded if it splays when cut.
I was able to feed the XC-132 braid into an installed 9-turn wind (Protank 2) of 1/16" (1.58 mm) with a bit of difficulty and patience in one pass without degradation of the wick. A bit less effort to do so into 3/43" (1.77 mm) with better results. As typical of XC-132 some minor splaying occurred with insertion into the smaller wind but small segments of braid fold back under the coil permitting the braid to continue pass through as it's rotated. This is truly one of the excellent attributes of this material.
My talk with the Jeremy, the owner of RBA Supplies, was encouraging today as he still maintains an interest to add XC-132 to the inventory of XC-116 (1/16 i.d., almost 3mm in Ø) he already sells after the new year.
Hope this info is helpful to those of you who like myself have found XC ceramic to be an excellent thread-able wicking material.
Happy Holidays! Good luck.
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I've actually been testing the XC-116 in three Immo's, a comparison with Ekowool. So far with my ribbon builds it takes a while to break it in, wicks too fast and stays in the sweet zone too short a time after I open them up. I've been increasing the amount of wick and this seems to help. But Ekowool has better saturation and far less flow. To that extent it seems a better choice for this device. But the call's still out spaceman. My tests have been limited to .5x.1 TEMCO ribbon on 2mm 4/5 and 5/6 winds, rather high resistance, because of this issue. Cotton in these winds, outstanding.
If you're going to build straight wire, I'd love your input on any micro's you build with XC-132!
Thanks for the comeback.
Happy Holidays! Good luck.
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Am I understanding you correctly, cotton performs comparable to xc116 or xc132?
Hmmm, don't think I've ever said that exactly…but would love it to be true. As well as durability. But, sadly no.
Durability, in scale and order: XC ceramic, Ekowool, cotton, silica.
Flavor: Cotton/XC ceramic, Ekowool, silica [has a a distinctive cardboard like palate to me].
All introduce some level of coloration to juices as I've seen reported and agree with. And I'm sure that there are those that will insist Ekowool has the lowest marks there. While I believe that XC is more akin to solid ceramic wick in its neutrality of coloration. There are exceptions i've noted for certain dense juices, for example, that may be difficult for a dense wick to handle under certain circumstances. Coil inefficiency is one that can mute flavors for otherwise efficient wicks. And if one of those juices is all or most what you use, I can see how a bad effect with a flavor product with either ceramic would lead one to believe that rope or mesh or silica might be better. The build matters here with high performance wicks. Discount this and we flatten the curve and everything is equal, tastes the same. Another example of this is resistance where at lower most fruity flavors do well with less power, tobacco not. It's favored by high power.
Conclusion: Temperature can wrongly affect perceptions about the performance of wick media, if you tend to prefer lower res./power vaping. The challenges of robust flavors is really what tests the margins of a wicks potential.
Strictly my opinions however. I don't think there's a definitive consensus on wicks, except we all seem to know…
that silica s*cks.
Happy Holidays. Good luck.
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Hmmm, don't think I've ever said that exactly but would love it to be true. As well as durability. But, sadly no.
(Snip)
Flavor: Cotton/XC ceramic, Ekowool, silica [has a a distinctive cardboard like palate to me].
(Snip)
Happy Holidays. Good luck.
I guess that's what I understood from your post...flavor wise. In my opinion flavor is the most important, wicking second, durability has not been much of an issue, since I catch myself changing builds often since I'm learning and enjoying doing it.
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