Can we talk wick and wire?

[djs]

I got a lovely little envelope today from the Vape Mesh company. Beautifully packed, clearly labelled, cheaper than certain suppliers.

(So, a review Dave?)

No. I have decided to face my demons and return to re-wick/coil some stuff. Also, in about March next year, I may get my Silica atomiser from Fasttech.

OK - so I can rebuild a Vivi Nova. Check. I can do an iGo or RDA, no problem. Check

Can I do an evod or protank? Not consistently.

I've heard so many stories about preparing wick and/or wire, my head is spinning.

So, what stuff do you do?

Torch it? Torch both? Burn just the wire? Boiling? or just wrap n go?

Any methods gratefully received.

[DiscoDes]

I ALWAYS torch silica to reduce the "funky" taste and heat wire with a lighter to soften it (the torch is too hot and wire melts).

[djs]

Great Des! - so torch the wick, lighter the wire. Excellent. No.1 (check )

[keepitgoin]

I THINK you build your coil to suit, then heat the coil using a Gas flame (to preserve your Battery power) in order to help maintain the shape of the coil and also to remove any surface impurities.

[DiscoDes]

Nov 20, 2013 22:49:48 GMT djs said:

Great Des! - so torch the wick, lighter the wire. Excellent. No.1 (check )

You have got a Greigster Coil Buddy have'nt you?

[keepitgoin]

I've also been reading about using Cotton Wool as a wick. Cheap, easily available and enables you to use the same coil, swap the cotton wool for a new bit and change Flavs with not much hassle. I reckon check What type of Cotton Wool though as some is bleached and might not do lungs any good

[djs]

Nov 20, 2013 22:56:23 GMT keepitgoin said:

I've also been reading about using Cotton Wool as a wick. Cheap, easily available and enables you to use the same coil, swap the cotton wool for a new bit and change Flavs with not much hassle. I reckon check What type of Cotton Wool though as some is bleached and might not do lungs any good

I use cotton wool on a smok octopus. Marvellous it is too. Tried it on an evod.... jury's out.

[Greigster]

One of the main reasons for torching the wire is to take out the tension of the wire, it allows you to wrap the coils without them springing out of shape. I use just ordinary cotton wool from Boots. Considering the rubbish you used to inflict on your lungs when you smoked, vaping with cotton wool is infinitely better. If you can get hold of organic then great, but I don't bother.

[giles]

I recently started using cotton in a microcoil on a protank and cotton mesh hybrid on an aga-t. You use organic cotton balls (Boots sell them). I pretty much followed the videos.

I don't use cotton in my nautilus (oddy type). Partly I'm not sure about getting the right amount of cotton down the sides of the ceramic, but mostly because while I think it wicks and tastes great, COTTON BURNS. You can have a burn taste from silica if you run out of juice or whatever, but it usually recovers once you put some juice through it. In my experience, cotton doesn't recover, you have to replace it. And I find the nautilus relatively a PITA to recoil. With the protank you can just pull out the old cotton, maybe dry-burn, put in some new cotton, and off you go.

My microcoil wire is .28 A1 Kanthal. other sizes have their adherents.

Has anyone tried hemp? It would be nice to have something which tastes and wicks like cotton but doesn't burn as easily.

So far I've found evods easy to recoil - what happens to yours? I haven't microcoiled them as yet. I use 3mm ecowool, doesn't seem to need a flavour wick. I always burn it first, then it is firm enough to wrap .15 kanthal round without using a pin or anything as a former. I use the gas hob - I don't own a blowtorch. Sometimes I remember to heat the wire before using it. Microcoils have to be heated after you build them.

So far I've oxidised the mesh for the aga-t before rolling it, but some folks say that's wrong - just do the outside of the roll.

[blakey]

Torching silica does remove any funky taste from the wick and is fine when using tobacco of menthol flavours but you may find that it changes the flavour of some of the subtle desert flavours, I found that it removes a lot of the depth of flavour from my cocomel so I don't bother. Boiling the wick also removes the funky taste but no where near as effectively as torching. The funky taste only lasts a short while so it doesn't really bother me.
Torching the wire though is something I do religiously, it burns off any chemicals left from the machining process and reduces the tension in the wire and removes its springyness making coil winding a much easier task.

[Dan]

I boil all of my silica and ekowool for 15 minutes when it first arrives. Keep in airtight bags and its all good

Tried just using a jet lighter on the wire and it tasted horrible.. torching it not only takes the springyness out but also burns off any oil from production.. because it is a nice hot flame it only takes a few swipes to give a nice orange glow and it's done..

[emmita]

I tried to make a wick and coil yesterday, and failed miserably, I followed instructions on this You Tube video, but there was nothing about heating the coil, is this the reason I failed?

[tominmids]

This is a great thread for someone just starting to recoil
Built my first yesterday for my Evod and it seems ok, won't win any beauty prizes tho
Using 2mm ekowool and .2 kanthal. awaiting delivery of a multimeter to check them better.

one question though. Does it matter if the coil touches the sides of the wick holder ? I struggled to get the wraps really close together

[blakey]

Nov 21, 2013 10:29:43 GMT tominmids said:

T

one question though. Does it matter if the coil touches the sides of the wick holder ? I struggled to get the wraps really close together

If the side of the wick holder is ceramic then no

[tominmids]

Nov 21, 2013 10:36:13 GMT blakey said:

Nov 21, 2013 10:29:43 GMT tominmids said:

T

one question though. Does it matter if the coil touches the sides of the wick holder ? I struggled to get the wraps really close together

If the side of the wick holder is ceramic then no

Ah. These are definitely not ceramic. I'll just have to practice a lot harder. thanks blakey