Have I coiled this RSST right ??

[markus]

Swapped some bits with fred for this RSST rba (and a load of other bits he threw in, so I think I got the better deal...or perhaps the centre section on the m16 clone was gold & not brass & fred knew that!..lol)

Anyways...Feel a tad guilty because fred was nice enough to coil it before he sent it to me & after trying it I had to re-coil it because the cotton wick wasnt drawing the juice up quick enough & I was getting dry hits, I think it was because the juice I make is usually high VG percentage.
As its the first one Ive ever done Id like some opinions on it as im questioning my handy work (I like to be a bit of a perfectionist....or pain in the arse depending on how you see it)
Im getting good flavour & no dry hits now, Im also finding it works better with alot more vapour if I put the air hole next to the coil (dunno if thats right)
Used a piece of the mesh that fred gave me (dunno what grade it is but its super fine weave) 50mm x 35mm & found that to be the perfect size as I didnt need to cut it after :-)
I managed to pulse it on an IPV2 with no problems & got the coil glowing evenly (watched Todds & Twisted420 videos) One of the things that concerns me is the space between the mesh & the positive post? Is that too far gap? Or not wide enough?
Also the mesh, Ive got about a 1mm hole in the middle & some people say no hole & some say have it like a straw, is it better to have no hole or a bigger one ?
Another thought that came into my head was....would there be any benefit if I put cotton wool in the middle of the mesh before I roll it? would that improve wicking even more ?
On the plus side Im getting loads of vapour & great flavour but I had to drill the hole bigger as I found the draw a bit tight (might even drill it a bit bigger yet)
Anyways....Opinions appreciated...

[seniorphil]

That looks pretty good mate.
I use steel rope inside the mesh, but some loosely rolled cotton should do the trick, or even silica. Steel rope and mesh lasts for ever and you can turn the watts right up.

[fred]

That looks better than any I did with it!
+ve post looks really good distance.
Yep, the air hole was stock, but if you've drilled it for improvement, good on ya.

Tube down the middle of mesh - you might be able to plug the fill hole with the rubber thing.
Cotton/silica down the middle - might wick better?

What res is the coil? Looks mighty fine to me (after all, its designed for mesh, not cotton )

You can get a delrin volume reducer for the chamber, but can also make one from an old beer tin (or I think markm filled his with pg soaked cotton?) to improve the flavour or vapour or something.

And yes, the air hole in the cap wants to be bang on in line with the coil!

Cracking first build, if you ask me.

[fred]

Forgot to say, deffo not gold, mate, not even sure if its genuine brass

But it is branded “Grand Vapc“ 



Please excuse Pernod in the background - any excuse for a photo shoot!

[decoy]

if you get dry hits with the mesh(you shouldent but i managed it lol)try rolling some cotton in the center ,helps out no end

[VapingBad]

markus that looks good. Your earth screw and washer look a bit corroded wick can give a funky taste. A tip for using ribbon is to wrap the lose end around the top leg as a heat sink (pic). I never had a winking problem with 2.5 or 3 mm rope even with the fill plug in, you can remove the centre strand of rope if you do, so the rope is more of a tube.

[fred]

Sept 3, 2014 8:39:11 GMT VapingBad said:

markus that looks good.. Your earth screw and washer look a bit corrodedwick can give a funky taste. A tip for using ribbon is to wrap the lose end around the top leg as a heat sink (pic). I never had a winking problem with 2.5 or 3 mm rope even with the fill plug in, you can remove the centre strand of rope if you do, so the rope is more of a tube.

Think that's juice in the screw, and the 'washer' is actually wire.

Don't remember any corrosion, and certainly no washer as I built it Sunday night!

Think markus has a spare screw along with the 'nutted' centrepost, if it is.

What size is that ribbon, VapingBad and what resistance is the coil, please?

Edited to put pertinent bit of vb's post back in! Somewhoe it got replaced by a bracket

[VapingBad]

fred 0.8 x 0.01 ribbon on a 3 mm wick, showing just under an ohm, but it's cold and hasn't been used for months so maybe a bit lower. I always add a washer so as not to pull the coil as much when tightening and the screw in the photo looks a little dull for stainless. I once had a FT Pluse-G that tasted of metal because the bod was such poor quality metal it rusted in the ultrasonic and I believe that I can taste non stainless washers in the Kraken (it might be placebo).

[VapingBad]

I posted my DIY volume reducer in Feb here which works very well and improves the flavour density loads.

[fred]

VapingBad - thanks for that. I sent him some 0.6 and 1mm ribbon, so although he's got no 0.8, its another pointer for him!

Now you mention it, that screw may look a different colour, and there's always the possibility that markus added a washer to trap the ribbon better?

Its not the taste of metal he'll need to worry about - its the rhubarb and custard remnants that my yts cleaning monkey might have left behind -,don't have ultrasonic, and there's only so much a denture tablet can do. Still, I think markus had had something fruity in the protank?

[markus]

Phew!....Well thats a relief.....Bit dubious about comming back to this thread....Half expected to come back & find comments like..."wtf have you done?....looks like its been in an accident!"
Atleast I know im on the right road now, so thanks for all the replies so far :-)
Thanks for those ideas Phil & fred I might have a play with the cotton & wire rope on future builds to see how it goes, Im so tempted so strip it down & try something new but at the moment its working so well my sensible side is saying "leave it the feck alone for now"....lol
Im glad I got the air hole bigger as I think its improved it, seemds like it was alot of effort for hardly any result before, Im also glad I got the air hole in the right place as none of the videos ive watched mentioned anything about the best place to have it.
The coil is reading 1.1ohms with that ribbon wire fred....just chose that one because ive never used ribbon before & wanted to try it...Also Im sure I recalled others saying that more wire being in contact with the mesh makes it better ?
I might give that chamber reducer a go if it improves vapour, I like doing stuff like that, might find something else to make it from though, not sure if I wanna mess around with a beer can though, I'll look like ive had afight with edward scissor hands!
lol @grand Vapc...good old chinglish there fred
VapingBad....no washer there mate...is it better to have one ? I did notice the brown, not sure if its corrosion or just old burnt fluid, I did take the screw out & shove some tissue down there & clean it all out, if it is corrosion thats not a problem, I could chuck it through my cleaner & then either silver or gold plate it (I make rings & guitar plectrums out of coins & silver/gold plate them) & like fred says it came with a new screw & few other bits ;-)
Thanks for that tip about wrapping the loose end I'll try that next time I coil it....Nice job youve done there on yours, very neat & tidy, makes mine look like its been in a house fire!...I took the fill plug out as I found it helped with the wicking as it could have been causing a slight vacum in the tank, perhaps ive got the mesh wick a bit big & didnt leave enough of a gap ??