I've only just twigged!

[jevans]

I'm a little slow on these things, but I have just discovered that by inserting a large sewing needle length ways down the middle of Silica Wick it makes it ridged, thus enabling easy coil winding.

No doubt this has been mentioned a 100 times, but it's new to me!

Jim

[Ron]

jevans You only need to lay it alongside your wick and build on that then as you withdraw your needle or safety pin you know that the coil will not have strangled the wick

[jevans]

Ron
Good idea, have you got any for threading the wick through pre-wound coils?

[Richard46]

Dec 16, 2014 13:49:57 GMT jevans said:

Ron
Good idea, have you got any for threading the wick through pre-wound coils?

I presume we are talking about silica/eckowool etc here rather than cotton wool.
Push a loop of thin wire through the coil. Pass the wick through the loop and use the wire to pull the wick through the coil. Trim as required.

[Ron]

They do say make a thread puller(needle threader) from a discarded bit of Kantha but I think this would work better with cotton wool

[jevans]

Dec 16, 2014 14:30:14 GMT Richard46 said:

I presume we are talking about silica/eckowool etc here rather than cotton wool.
Push a loop of thin wire through the coil. Pass the wick through the loop and use the wire to pull the wick through the coil. Trim as required.

Yes indeed I am!
Cotton wool is easy, but it soon burns through.
I'll give your method a shot, thanks for the idea.

Jim

[Richard46]

Jim here is a vid

[Ron]

Richard46 sorry I wasn't dissing you but I think if you are putting a 3mm wick into a 3mm bore doubled over its 6mm

[Richard46]

Dec 16, 2014 14:57:34 GMT Ron said:

Richard46 sorry I wasn't dissing you but I think if you are putting a 3mm wick into a 3mm bore doubled over its 6mm

I mostly use 3mm coils with 2.5 silica and 2.5. doubled over can be pulled through. The stuff is not very compact.

[jevans]

Thanks for the vid Richard46 , to give me a better idea, what were the dims of both the coil and the silica?
As has been said, 3mm silica won't go into a 3mm I/D coil!

Sorry, our posts crossed!

[Richard46]

Actually double checked and I am mostly using 2mm eckowool but that certainly goes through 3mm coil doubled over it takes a little twisting

[Deleted]

jevans not silica but same principal:

[jevans]

@scooby and Richard46
No wonder I'm struggling, what I thought was a 3mm coil former is only 2mm!!!