I am once again a happy vaper!!!! Ecstatic to be exact.
Graduation number one:
I have just very successfully rebuilt my first Nautilus BVC coil. Wasn't even as difficult as I thought it would be and didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. I am now a forever rebuilder! I was a little worried because I didn't have any wire or filler material here, or so I thought. However, as I posted in the wick and coil section I literally tripped over an old hair blow dryer in my bedroom and did some research and discovered that the heating elements in them are nichrome wire.
I tore that sucker apart and uncoiled all the nichrome wire in it and discovered two things. One, there was actually three different gauges of nichrome in this particular hair dryer, all three kind of close in gauge. Second, different strand of gauge came out to about 20 feet or more each, so I ended up with over 60 feet of nichrome free. Below is a pic of the three strands, the strands go from the thickest gauge on the left to the thinnest on the right:
So I had my wire but needed filler. I was gonna use this medical gauze I have here but wasn't sure if it was pure cotton or not as there was nothing on the box that said what it is made of. But then my cute little neighbor knocked on my door and asked to borrow a screw driver. I obliged her and on a hunch, her being female and all, I asked if she used those round cotton pads to remove her makeup. She does and gave me a partial pack of about 50. Wooo Hooo, off the the races....
So I queued up Hawkeye's Aspire BVC Rebuild video on Youtube and got to work. I very carefully took apart the 1.8 ohm head that came with my Nautilus and saw what I believe was the problem with it. See the pic below:
OK, I'm a newb and all.... But that black wick doesn't look right, it looks like it's been burnt. I may be wrong and someone can correct me if so. I only used this once and only got maybe 2 vapes on it before I got the flashing dashes. Plus, while the coil is stretched out here, I did that after disassembling it. I carefully removed the wick from the coil and it was in the two pieces as shown in the epic. They were kind of touching each other inside the wick, but it seems like the wick burnt out and separated or maybe they had broke during manufacturing, or packing, or whatever... At any rate, it does indeed look like a defective coil.
So, I watch Hawkeye's video and build along with him and am very proud to say I believe I rebuilt this coil pretty damn well, you can tell me from the pic:
Is it just me, or is that one sexy looking rebuilt BVC? I used the thinnest gauge nichrome from the pic above and followed Hawkeye's method with the exception of giving my coil three extra wraps. I should have taken a pic of it.... Oh well.
So, with the coil rebuilt I grabbed a beer, put my Nautilus back together with the new rebuild, filled my tank and fired it up. BAZINGA!!!! She fired up at 2.1 ohms!!!! I was aiming for 1.6, but the three extra wraps probably added the extra from what I've read here on amount of ohms to coil wraps and wire gauge. I've now been happily vaping away for the past two and a half hours and the ohms are sticking between 2.0 and 1.9 with the odd jump to 1.7.
I gotta say here too, this is even better than the original Nautilus BVC. Now I understand why people rave about cotton and DIY rebuilds and such. I'm getting a lot more flavor, a much better throat and lung hit, and an awesome natural draw, and I'm not getting that sizzling/gurgling noise I was getting with the stock heads. Which leads me to my second graduation.....
I have broken the Tootle Puffer barrier and am now vaping at 28 watts. Hey, I don't mind Tootle Puffing, but I do like the bigger hit I get with the higher wattage. Been hitting this thing pretty hard though LOL. I never broke down and went back to the stinkys while my unit was down, and a big part of that was because I actually missed my vaping more than the stinkys.... I think a small part was also because I got so preoccupied with solving the issue with my hardware I didn't have time to think about stinkys.
Again, I want to thank everyone who helped out in my original thread about the problem. I love this place man!!!! I'm now a lifer both here and to vaping. Now I can't wait to get more equipment and also start doing DIY juices.
I'm only on day nine with my new MVP3 and Nautilus tank (started out with the 1.6 BVC) and I'm down here... Yesterday as I was vaping my MVP shut down and wouldn't turn back on. I had just full charged it but tossed it on the charger anyway and it came back on. Took a couple of vapes and BAM, down again... Put it on the charger again and it came on again but this time the display was flashing two dashes in the ohms section.
So, I switched out to the other head that came with it, had a few vapes and WAMO, down again. Plugged it in, came back up, couple of vapes and down again and again this other head now flashes the two dashes in the ohms section. Now here's the weird thing... When I popped the second head on it read 2.3 ohms. I didn't think anything of it at the time, being new and all, but when I just went to confirm which head I used first and second I read the stamp on the second and it says it's only a 1.8 ohm head.... Another strange thing is that as I was vaping on this second head I changed the watts to improve the vape after a couple vapes and I noticed it read 2.5 ohms, then after a few more vapes it went down with the flashing dashes.
When I took out the second head I notice there is juice in the very bottom of the bottom hardware, where the head is screwed into. I'm assuming this means it was flooded, but being a rookie I could be wrong. At any rate.... I'm not happy vaper right now In hind sight I realize I should have bought some extra heads, but again... Rookies make rookie mistakes right In my defense though, the guy at the shop said I should have been good for a month with what I had bought so I thought I'd be good. I uploaded a quick video to show the MVP3 display and the bottom hardware in case it was needed. You can see it he
So now the questions... What would cause two new heads to die like that, or are they dead? Would it be a head problem or a problem with the MVP3? Am I correct regarding the fluid in the bottom hardware being a result of flooding, and if so what would have caused the flooding and could this have been the cause of the dead heads? And finally... What type of wire can I use to rebuild the heads? I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of videos on rebuilding over the past month or so and hear about nichrome, kanthal, and caplan... Does it need to be a specific type of wire or can I use some wire that I have here that I used for other purposes? Maybe an old guitar string? LOL
I'm desperate here.... I need my vape!!! I don't have the cash to buy new heads until around the 18th of the month and there's a carton of stinkys in the fridge and I do NOT want to resort to them if I start going bonkers Any assistance at all is greatly appreciated.
I never used anything but Kanthal and Nichrome wire to build my coils.
All things being 100% equal (wire gauge, coil type, coil diameter, ohms, etc) do SS coils require more power to run to get the same vapor as the exact same coil/resistance made from Kanthal or Nichrome wire?
I am trying to get the best flavor with the best single coil build.
Objectives:
Flavor
Smooth Vapor
Materials:
Kanthal Wire
35mg Nic Salts
I have noticed that either depending on the diameter of the coil or the spacing of the coil wraps You get a different kind of vape hit. It seems like higher gauge wire produces a smoother hit. And then couple that with a small diameter coil build, plus squishing the coil together to remove all coil spacing results in the smoothest possible vapor.
Can anyone confirm my findings? Or does anyone have any tips because I have still to replicate the smooth hit from clearomizer sub tank cartridge's that are non mesh. I am starting to think this is because the cotton is wrapped around the outside of the coil instead of being shoelace through the middle of the coil.
Just a little warning to all who have purchased the Lemo 2- Do not use the wire included in the box.
I was a little worried when i was using the stock coil and noticed it had been turning a green color after a few days of use, not sure if this is the case with all Lemo 2's, but if you notice your wire is turning greenish, just throw it out and replace it. I don't believe this is kanthal, it could possibly be nichrome, but it's properties are not matching up with those of kanthal. My worries were confirmed when I decided to put a parallel 5 wrap coil on my rda with that wire because of my lack of other 24 gauge... Well today when I took out my cotton and dry burned the coil a little to rid it of excess juice, the coil actually deformed and somewhat melted on my rda . I don't know what kind of metal this is, but I'm positive it is not kanthal, this has never happened to me with kanthal, and this wire seems to be of a lower resistance than kanthal. Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know to be careful with that wire, or just throw it out altogether. Otherwise, the Lemo 2 is a fantastic tank
Hi, despite all the info on the internet these days, I ve been unable to find an answer to what is the life use of a wire on a rta coil (not the cotton or liquids) before it gets exhausted and become a bad element to health, maybe to the point of releasing metal particles that could go into the lungs... I know this is highly relative and depends on what kind of wire, liquids and vaping frecuency, but if I give you a straight case, maybe I ll make a good relation between other materials and their durability. It happened that during 2020, with the pandemic on full first impact, importations were very slow and in some cases, closed for long periods of time, I was trying to get some imported wires but I didn't have enough luck to find those I needed, just very thin wire for mtl equipment, which I didn't have. All was sold out from vaping websites... I ve managed to get a Zeus X rta and with it, the included premade coils (I think these are Nichrome)... Thing is, I used the same (and only) metal coil for almost 6 months, obviously replacing the cotton when needed (I had all the other materials, bags of cotton Bacon, tools, fresh liquids, etc), the liquid I ve been using is Don Juan sweet tobbaco and reserve, from King Crest. In those six moths I didn't vape all days or weeks, since finding or importing liquids were also a problem, so confinement and the lack of products, push me to smoke again, sadly, but I didn't give up and I start to build again the coil meanwhile the purchases arrive from other countries. The metal coil doesn't seems to be exhaust in plain view, it gets datk or black, as normally should be after several days of use and when tasting a bit burnt, but once I clean up with a brush, water and some short dry burning when building again, it gets back its grey metal color, not the same shine as a new one, but close. My vaping frequency was sometimes in chain, due to anxiety, but not all day or days and I was careful to rebuilt often. Mods are one Aegis X and one Smok P3, wattage I use is between 40 and 60 because even if the coils can be auto detected and suggestion is 75w, this is always overrated and burning taste triggers in 3 days. Only thing I did notice was sort of a metal taste for a period of time, that after went away and never got back. If someone wants to drop an answer, be welcome please, thank you all...
I've been using only twin-18650 mods for some time, and before the shipping ban came into effect, I bought a backup of my most-used mod (a Geekvape Aegis X), but since the 100W single 21700 / 18650 Voopoo Drag X Plus was only $35, I also picked up one of them as another backup.
I vape exclusively on RDA's, typically with a 3mm dual coil twisted build with 24 or 26 gauge Kanthal or nichrome-80. 5 or 6 wraps with 24 gauge, 6-8 wraps with 26 gauge. I typically vape these between 90 and 110 watts.
I did not expect to get a 'true' 90-100 watts out of the Drag X, so I set a target of around 60 watts. I mounted a 3mm dual coil twisted 28 gauge build with 6 wraps, which on my Aegis X vapes great at 60 watts, and very good at 50 watts. It measures at 0.45 ohms.
But on the Drag at 60 watts, it only vapes at what feels like 30 watts on my Aegis. Setting it higher makes no difference either, it seems to 'top out' at ~30 watts regardless of the setting. 60 watts @ 0.45 ohms is only around 11 amps, so I doubt I'm hitting an amperage limit.
I am using 18650 batteries (VTC5A), and it is about time to replace them, as I am only getting around 70% the battery life as I did when new. I will be picking up some 21700 batteries at the same time, which hopefully help with things on the Voopoo.
Does anybody have any good experiences with ~60 watt builds on a Drag X Plus?
I have been using an evod for two years now. Yeah, I know, minor leagues, but it gets the job done just fine for me.
For the first 18 months I was constantly buying new coils. I work from home so I can basically vape all I want and I vape A LOT. I use Swagger as my ADV and it will destroy a coil in just a couple days. It was becoming difficult to even find coils to buy and it was getting expensive, so I did some research on rebuilding my own coils. At first I tried to build them with silica wick, but I could never get them to work right. Using 1mm silica wick wrapping around a stick pin the wraps would always be too big and there was lots of leak/gurgling. So I went the cotton route and would wrap around a 1/32 drill bit and then slide the cotton through the coil. Works great, perfect ohms, great flavor. I've been doing this for the past six months. In the first 18 months of vaping I never got sick once. Since I've been using the cotton wicks I've been SEVERELY sick twice (probably a respiratory infection but never went to the Doc), and now I feel like I'm getting sick AGAIN.
I've noticed that I can see little flecks of what looks like cotton building up on the mouthpiece, and I'm assuming, going into my lungs. I think this is what is making me sick--the buildup over time. Anyone else had issues with this? I think I may have reached the end of my rope with vaping and now maybe I'll do what my original intention was (quitting altogether after vaping for a short period of time).
Anyone have any tips on rebuilding coils with silica? I've watched a million Youtube videos and replicate the process perfectly, but the wraps end up being twice the size they should be and I've been unable to slide silica wicks into the coil like I do with cotton because even at 1mm it's too big to fit through the hole. Thanks for any help.
8/9 wraps of AWG 29 Kanthal on 2mm bit should give you around 1.8 ohms, right? At least that is what it has always given me. This evening I was rebuilding a Nautilus BVC like I have done so many times before. Lo and behold I put the coil on the ohm meter and it's reading 0.18. I look for sticking out bits of wire. None. I throw out the coil and start over with exactly the same build as always. Again I get 0.16 ohms. I test it on all my regulated mods... same result on all of them.
How is this even possible?!
Two issues I wanted to fix. The first is the battery run time using the low ohm coils. Second is when the e-liquid gets to the top of the sub ohm coil housing in the Kangertech I've noticed a lot of dry hits when heavy vaping, ( I like a higher VG juice. ) I would find myself closing the air intakes and sucking hard to get the wick saturated, ( a real pain in the ***. )
NOTE: I like an airy hit and run the air intake ports full open.
So here's what I did.
I've drilled the wick holes out to 3.5mm in the Kangertech coil housing. Then built a 1.1 ohm coil with 4 strands of 32ga. kanthal, ( twisted together first ), 5 wraps around a 3.47mm screwdriver. The coil was very springy to work with but got a bit stiffer after torching t closed to 1/4" width using adjustable tweezers. I used regular ball cotton for the wick in this experiment. The coil came in at 1.1 ohm.
Primed the wick and filled tank with a little bit of juice, just below the top of the coil housing.
All I can say is WOW. The first 10 hits taste a bit crappy but after the break in, WOW.
Taste and vapor production are great. There's a bit of crackle but no pops. Crackle I don't mind, Pops I mind. The ClouporT8 counted 75 hits and now the e-juice level is just above the wicking ports by a hair and still working great with full open air intake ports.
I will add post after I've used this set up for awhile.
Curious what other think!
VapeOn
Ok I'm hoping I don't get heat for these questions/statements but educating ones self especially with something that is still very new is important to me.
1. Read some articles on how there is second hand vape similar to cigarettes (99% better mind you) what are your thoughts? Vaping may not be as safe as smokers think, research suggests | Society | The Guardian
2. Formaldehyde found in builds running at high watts/voltage? But 0% at low/normal builds, what i can't seem to find is whats considered to high for a Mechanical Mod or even for a V/W, V/V Setup? My normal build for a mech mod is twisted single coil 24 gauge 6-7 wraps, usually gets about 0.28 ohms and single coil 8 wraps of 24 gauge puts out 0.73 ohms on my flavor builds.
Before You Vape: High levels of Formaldehyde Hidden in E-Cigs - NBC News