Rebuilding heads

Chris Dolmeth

I see a lot of talk about people rebuilding their gear.
Making coils with Kanthal wire and certain types of wicks.

What are they on about specifically?

I use mainly a Protank, a Puritank, iClear16 and a Vivi Nova.
Can the Protank and Puritank heads be 'rebuilt'? How?

What about the iClear16 and Vivi Nova?

Where would I start and is it worth it? heads aren't expensive so what's the advantage to faffing about at that level of modification?

Sorry for all the questions but I feel like I'm missing out on something lol

Vaperus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FFhFYDd2Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSP-8EIjOsM

csi vegas

Rebuilding clearos is simple, the eVod and Protank (both Kanger) possibly the easiest of all.
Put it this way "if you can wrap a thread around a biro that's rebuilding" so said Grindle recently.
Almost 100% of clearos made today are rebuildable.

Something like RDA's (rebuildable dripping atomizers) are trickier which is why so many Boards vets swap tips and info on their latest tweaks. It's something to avoid for a while and start off with clearos first instead but it's nothing to fear either.

For starting off materials you need (the recommended) .32 Kanthal A1 (wire/coil) and silica wick (not exactly sure what milimeter I even have but think it's 2mm). Those are the essentials.
You can use cotton pads and Ekowool as wick but stick with the silica at first.

Essential hardware: something thin to wrap the wire/coil around (such as a blunt syringe needle), a sharp pair of scissors and a little nail scissors.
Pliers, especially mini 'needle nose' pliers are used by all. You really need these to pull out tightened posts etc.

The advantages? The cost of a replaceable head is around €2 but DIYing it comes in at around 10c. Saves having to keep 'sending away' too.
The clearos etc that you buy are not always flawless either - some people prefer to take them straight apart to wash out (and often rebuild) - it takes the oiliness and gawd knows what else out of the assembly and apparently the 'build' part (wick n coil/wire) is rumoured to be done by hand, by their thousands :eek: so human error will somethimes account for a brand new device burning out within minutes - you will take much more care rebuilding your own few at home.

Chris Dolmeth

OK I've tried this a few times now and they work for about a second and then... nothing.
5-8 wraps of 0.2mm Kanthal on cotton wick.
I don't know if they're burning out or shorting out or what.

Question: One wire is off to the side and the rubber bung is replaced.
Does the second wire go through the centre of the pin?

How do you guys work out the resistance of the resulting head?

Is there an obvious place I'm screwing up?

grindle

Chris Dolmeth wrote: »

OK I've tried this a few times now and they work for about a second and then... nothing.
5-8 wraps of 0.2mm Kanthal on cotton wick.
I don't know if they're burning out or shorting out or what.

Question: One wire is off to the side and the rubber bung is replaced.
Does the second wire go through the centre of the pin?

How do you guys work out the resistance of the resulting head?

Is there an obvious place I'm screwing up?

I'd work out the resistance by the length of wire.

.20 Kanthal = 43ohm/m = 0.43ohm/cm

5cm of that is 5 x 0.43 = 2.15ohms (the legs having to go a little past the connections would probably make it 1.9 to 2ohms).
4cm = 1.72ohms (probably around 1.6ohms with connection taken into account).
So on, so forth, etc etc.

One wire off to the side held in by the rubber, the other in between the rubber and the centre pin, held in by the centre pin. If the wire going from the centre pin touches the side wall on the way up to the coil you're creating a short and the coil will melt almost instantly and be totally unresponsive after that because it's broken.
Try to make sure wires aren't crossed and nothing touches the wall.

Edit: Hope you're trying this on the Protank or Vivi, the iClears are meant to be next to impossible to rebuild, I see very few success stories with them on the web.

was.deevey

Something like RDA's (rebuildable dripping atomizers) are trickier which is why so many Boards vets swap tips and info on their latest tweaks. It's something to avoid for a while and start off with clearos first instead but it's nothing to fear either.

Only thing I'd disagree with, IMHO Rebuilding an RBA like an Era or Igo is a billion times easier than trying to rebuild a Clearo Head.

One wire off to the side held in by the rubber, the other in between the rubber and the centre pin, held in by the centre pin. If the wire going from the centre pin touches the side wall on the way up to the coil you're creating a short and the coil will melt almost instantly and be totally unresponsive after that because it's broken.
Try to make sure wires aren't crossed and nothing touches the wall.

Because of this crap .. I dont miss those days

Fratton Fred

grindle wrote: »

I'd work out the resistance by the length of wire.

.20 Kanthal = 43ohm/m = 0.43ohm/cm

5cm of that is 5 x 0.43 = 2.15ohms (the legs having to go a little past the connections would probably make it 1.9 to 2ohms).
4cm = 1.72ohms (probably around 1.6ohms with connection taken into account).
So on, so forth, etc etc.

One wire off to the side held in by the rubber, the other in between the rubber and the centre pin, held in by the centre pin. If the wire going from the centre pin touches the side wall on the way up to the coil you're creating a short and the coil will melt almost instantly and be totally unresponsive after that because it's broken.
Try to make sure wires aren't crossed and nothing touches the wall.

Edit: Hope you're trying this on the Protank or Vivi, the iClears are meant to be next to impossible to rebuild, I see very few success stories with them on the web.

On a clearo there are. (I think) three wicks. The heating wick and two flavour ones. Would 2mm silica be ok for all three?

csi vegas

Chris Dolmeth wrote: »

OK I've tried this a few times now and they work for about a second and then... nothing.
5-8 wraps of 0.2mm Kanthal on cotton wick.
I don't know if they're burning out or shorting out or what.

Question: One wire is off to the side and the rubber bung is replaced.
Does the second wire go through the centre of the pin?

How do you guys work out the resistance of the resulting head?

Is there an obvious place I'm screwing up?

What clearomizer or atomizer are you working with? Certain types seem to dictate the number of wraps to make, eg; T3 (2.5ml) - should be around 4-5 wraps but a Vivi Nova (3.5ml) - 8 wraps, in almost all videos I've seen of their rebuild.
You really need to know what's 'best' for your particular device - what works well for one may not work for another.

You say they 'stop working' - sounds like they are shorting. In almost all of my rebuilds mine have burnt out after a few days (they work, not shorting, just burn) and I know it's because the Kanthal I've been using is too thin (.15)
So your problem is likely that you're leaving too much wire exposed on the end-side.

As an example, the pic below shows the unit just before the wires get clipped.
Even just a tiny fraction of a mm left over can short the battery and stop it all from working.



Also as Grindle explains, if your coils are touching off the sides of the clearo heads, a short can happen there too. You need to ensure they never touch the sides.
Below is an example - the left hand side looks too close to the edge to me.

csi vegas

Fratton Fred wrote: »

On a clearo there are. (I think) three wicks. The heating wick and two flavour ones. Would 2mm silica be ok for all three?

There are indeed usually three wicks but some people will remove one flavour wick if the draw is too stiff.

The mm of silica would depend on the clearo/atty you're using.
In my case (with mainly T3's and eVod's ) 2mm is what's generally recommended as 'best'.
But for the flavour wicks I seperate/pull strands off the 2mm in two,
to make two 1mm pieces. This is what I've learnt from Youtube.

However, that said, leaking can occur if the flavour wicks have one or both removed/are too thin (sometimes 2x1mm won't be 'sturdy' enough)
OR
as said, the 'draw' is too hard/stiff because the flavour wicks are too thick.

Fratton Fred

csi vegas wrote: »

There are indeed usually three wicks but some people will remove one flavour wick if the draw is too stiff.

The mm of silica would depend on the clearo/atty you're using.
In my case (with mainly T3's and eVod's ) 2mm is what's generally recommended as 'best'.
But for the flavour wicks I seperate/pull strands off the 2mm in two,
to make two 1mm pieces. This is what I've learnt from Youtube.

However, that said, leaking can occur if the flavour wicks have one or both removed/are too thin (sometimes 2x1mm won't be 'sturdy' enough)
OR
as said, the 'draw' is too hard/stiff because the flavour wicks are too thick.

Thanks CSI, I will be operating on evod and T3s coils this week. It looks like six winds of .2mm wire gives about 2ohm. So I'll be trying that.

Chris Dolmeth

Sweet. I'm mainly using the Protank and Puritank at the moment.

I was doing a few things wrong by the looks of it.
1. Didn't ensure the coil wasn't touching the head.
2. Didn't ensure the 2 'stems' weren't touching in the stem.
3. Trimmed the 'bottom' wire and then pushed in the bottom pin.

Thanks for the updates.
This evening, I shall mostly be surrounded by various pieces of wire, wick and choice language !

rui1000

It would be worth it to make an experience: after that wick is all.gunked up.... Pull it out and roll a bit of cotton and slide it inside the coil... I find it a better replacement for silica

Fratton Fred

Just rebuilt my first evod head. It has come out at 4.1 ohms!

Too many winds?

grindle

Show a pic, how much wick are you wrapping it around?

I wouldn't get 4ohms with 6 wraps of .15 and that's almost twice the resistance of .20.

Did you not cut it to length?

Fratton Fred

grindle wrote: »

Show a pic, how much wick are you wrapping it around?

I wouldn't get 4ohms with 6 wraps of .15 and that's almost twice the resistance of .20.

Did you not cut it to length?

I just wrap it around a 2mm wick 7 times, put it back in the body and trimmed it to length.

Will 4 ohms work, or will it burn out the battery?

grindle

If you have a mod that goes past 5v up to 6v it'll work dandy.

A 6/7 wrap of .2 at 4ohms though? Maybe I'm too used to wrapping smaller coil diameters and always measuring the wire so I know what the resistance is.
4.1ohms is...a 9.3cm length of .20! That's a good bit of wire.

Green Hornet

For me, I fold a 2mm wick once and wrap 4 turns of 0.2 kanthal and that gives 1.8-1.9 ohms every time no matter what attie I'm using.

Never wrapped a single strand of 2mm. It'd dry out too quick I'd imagine, even if you had the right voltage for a 4 ohm coil?

Fratton Fred

It was a doa head, so I thought I'd try that first. I'll take it apart tomorrow and measure the wire/try again.

On a better note, I dry burned and put new flavour wick in two other heads and they're good as new. I have just changed the head in my T3s, so I will bung some cotton in that tomorrow as well.

This month clearo heads, next month juice, then it's on to the big boy stuff!

Pique

Interested in this meself and looking at Lidl specials spotted a couple of things tht might be handy for the slightly more adventurous of you.

Rebuilding heads but you have hands like a gorilla and bad eyesight? Fear not, the Mega Handy Magnifying Mate + is your friend.

No air channels in your mod? The Super Mod Enhancer 3000 is what you need.

Enjoy

Ionised

Pique wrote: »

Interested in this meself and looking at Lidl specials spotted a couple of things tht might be handy for the slightly more adventurous of you.

Rebuilding heads but you have hands like a gorilla and bad eyesight? Fear not, the Mega Handy Magnifying Mate + is your friend.

No air channels in your mod? The Super Mod Enhancer 3000 is what you need.

Enjoy

What's quite sad is that I have versions of both of those

scamalert

anyone here has killer clone by any chance ?
as i got to try one,but i keep running into couple troubles and it really frustrates me :cool:
Firstly i always end up making perfect omhs coil which is between 1.8-2.2 as i use readily prepared wire that is oxidized in the middle,but when putting coil onto tank half of the time i break bottom side of the cup while trying to push it onto the middle of the metal stem.As the fitting is really tight,the only solution i found is to use thinner wire.
Secondly once tank is set up and is firing i do get a lot of dry hits,its constant battle,ive tried using 4-5 wraps around the coil,using silica wick from 1mm up to 3mm,using factory loop to make coil,prime the coil before putting in juice,experimenting with loose end wicks-two wicks,raising cup higher,stuffing wicks into the bottom,leaving space for juice etc-but it always comes up to dry hits eventually that are nasty taste to get rid of.
and once set up i have to use minimum voltage and omhs its usually between 3.0v-3.3 and 5.2 Omhs at most otherwise i get straight burnt taste.
I know its most likely due to wicks not getting enough juice,but after taking every coil apart it seems its wet enough,but device cant catch up with feeding it,although juice control is open to the full.