Having a Bit of trouble....

[CockneyVaper]

Hey Guys,
I seem to be having trouble with micro coils 
I'm OK actually coiling them, but when it comes to squeezing the coil between the tweezers and heating it up so it stays nice and tight, with the coils touching ech other, it all goes pear shaped.

I let go of the tweezers and bam, the coil opens up again, (admittedly not as much as before heating). I tried heating up for a longer period of time with the chef's torch, and it all, quite literally, falls to pieces


I am dying to try one of these with cotton, and am always left feeling very disappointed and frustrated - please, can someone help, and tell me where I am going wrong?  

[VapingBad]

They only have to be even and very close and you don't need to squeeze hard just hold them in position, are you torching in tweezers or pulsing on a mod then squeezing?

[CockneyVaper]

Torching on the tweezers

[VapingBad]

Do you keep them held until they cool, maybe do it a couple of more times letting it cool each time.

[Roscopecotrain]

Agree with vapingbad above. I usually heat them up 3 times and keep them squeezed together until they have cooled each time.

Sent from me from some far away land.

[ruffdog]

Do you torch the wire to anneal it first before coiling (this takes the springiness out of it to start with) ?

[VapingBad]

I don't torch or anneal at all anymore, I wipe the kanthal clean with IPA a few times then wind the coil under as much tension as I can turning the coil former and holding the reel between my knees then just pulse it on the atty trying to not go beyond dark red, never orange or yellow.

[hijack]

What diameter wire are you using CockneyVaper?
And are you heating it so that it glows red hot?

[smarties]

I use a chefs torch and some light plastic coated tweezers and give the coil about 10 secs in total, 5 secs a side so it glows orange then keep it squeezed gently between the tweezers until it cools a bit, the light tweezers are so they don't act as a heat sink, works for me.

[CockneyVaper]

I am heating before coiling, and am also keeping closed for 30 secs or so in tweezers once heated then too. I am using .24 gauge, (maybe this is the wrong size?)
I am heating until it glows nicely as well

[CockneyVaper]

Perhaps just a little more effort is required. . .

[hijack]

.24mm should be ok, the thinner wire tends to be more springy and harder to squeeze without crushing the coil in the process, but I have some .25mm that I have used ok

I have some pics, but I don't know if they will help see to where you are going wrong
After winding


heating


after heating



Its strange that they are springing apart after being heated as ive never had that happen after they were heated red hot.
Silly question but it is defiantly A1 Kanthal ?

[blakey]

Aug 26, 2014 15:24:16 GMT CockneyVaper said:

Perhaps just a little more effort is required. . .

24 guage is a thick wire, it would benefit from torching it first with a blue flame before coiling it until you gain some experience.
When you fit the coil to the mod, hit the fire button till the coil glows orange and then let the power off and pinch the coil with tweezers and hold it till the coil cools.
you should only need to do this a couple of times and it should all then stay together.
Also when wrapping your coil try to wrap the coils as tight together as you can which will make the final tweaking a lot easier.
Make sure that when you fit your coil that you aren't stretching the legs to get them to the terminals because if there is too much tension pulling the coils apart then no amount of pinching with tweezers will bring them together.

[hijack]

You could be right blakey i don't think you can get .24mm wire. The next down from .25 is .23

Just to be clear for the O.P. 24 gauge is .5mm and is very thick wire if you are using it to recoil something like a kanger head. Its good for building sub-Ohm coils but you would need about 13 wraps to get above 1 Ohm with it.

[spikus]

Sounds like some dodgy wire to me .....