Finally, a great working setup

Boogietime

Hi there cloudmakers!

I'd like to share a short vaping story and how I got to be finally happy with an easy-to-make, clean setup. So grab your popcorn flavor and enjoy...


I've been into vaping for a while now. Heard it was the "healthier" option for smokes and after riding the white cancer sticks I decided to give it a go... What was there to loose?
So, I started with an iMist and gradually reduced the number of smokes a day. I was burning through Marlboro-flavored juice, and boy, was it great for a while! But then, as I found out all this I started looking more into it, wasn't satisfied with the amount of vapor and the lack of modifying the iMist so this year I ordered an eVod kit since it seemed like a noob's dream.

So I started doing silica wicks myself after a short while but I didn't like the heavy "non-organic" taste it produced.

And then I moved on to stainless steel mesh, rolled more than a few wicks out of that but they were struggling to give a decent vape. And then I heard about some dreaded Cr IV possibly being eliminated from ss mesh when heated (huge thread on another forum about this, people are still trying to find out if that's the case).
...and many more issues with that mesh that I won't bore you with.


That's when I was considering rebuildable atomizers and fancy battery mods, only to be disappointed that most of those attys need to be kept in an upright position and aren't ideal for carrying around (I bring my stuff to work).


I wasn't a happy man, wanted a single setup that would give me what I needed without too much fuss but simply couldn't find that!

So there I was... after months and months of trying to fix stuff like gurgling, shorts, burnt rubber grommets, clogging, dripping and many more, it seemed that all the issues of the vaping world were on my arse and I was about to give up, I was at my wits end.

And then, as I was about to give up and stick with the unsatisfying ss mesh, I said I'll give cotton a try. So I went ahead and bought me a big bag of cotton balls from a pound shop, got home, boiled a couple of them for about an hour and then wrapped a wick....


Since then I'm in clouds of vape, greatest and cleanest taste I ever had and with loads of vapor, even when the battery goes weak.

Besides, it's cotton. Not silica (cases reported where silica gets loose from the wick and being the sharp fexxer that it is, it stings your lungs and stays there for a long time), not ss mesh (don't get me started on that one...), but the aul simple and clean cotton.


So the current setup I have is:

eVod clearomizer with cotton wick - atomizer wrapped on 5/4 wraps.
standard eVod battery (3.7 throughput, 650mAh) as a back up and an eVision Spinner as my main battery (1300mAh - much longer battery life and variable voltage to find the sweet vaping spot - usually set for 3.6-3.7v)
Liqua juice or any other VG/PG mix (as usually VG clogs up any kind of wick since it's too thick and leaves solid residue after burning)


Now if you're new to this whole vaping experience, don't be afraid of the numbers and terms, you'll pick them up in no time or, if you don't care much and you just want it to work, you won't even have to.

So....
If anyone on this forum has an eVod or a ProTank (identical system) and would be curious on how to setup a cotton wick, contact me and I can make a video or photo tutorial.
The numbers are too good to be true too:
10m kanthal roll - €5
cotton balls - €3-4 for a large bag, depending on where you buy it from (the cotton amount in there compared with how much you'll be using for a wick that lasts you weeks is unbelievable, I'd say that one bag will hold for many years to come).
+whatever juice you're using (sorry guys, haven't found the wick that would work without any juice but will still look for it)


I'm not affiliated to any company that sells/produces anything related to vaping but as months and months grew, I wish I could find the all-working shortcut that'll leave me in clouds of vape with the littlest of hassle... So now that I'm so happy on my discovery, I'd like to share it with the vaping community - give something back from where I learned loads so far...


This wouldn't be directed to an experienced user, they probably know how to wrap their own wicks and can leave me in a cloud of vape with fancy mods.

It's just a workaround so that someone that's into this and doesn't want to spend too much can get the equal amount of vape that fancy modders are with a fraction of the price.

dePeatrick

Yep.....ten weeks vaping and now using a dripper and a mod....with cotton...Thanks to Grindle for that one as he has always sang it's merits and it does give a better vape no doubt. Have to do a lot more rebuilding with it as I like tobacco flavours but it is definitely worth it....:)

Also very easy to slip a cotton wick out and re wick compared to silica.....and cheaper if it mTters too....no IDE how much cheaper as a bag of organic cotton...well.....goes on forever...and ever...and then a bit.....

Fratton Fred

So you boil a cotton wool ball and then what? Tease a bit out so it's 2mm ish thick, wrap a coil around it, reassemble the head and trim?

grindle

Fratton Fred wrote: »

So you boil a cotton wool ball and then what? Tease a bit out so it's 2mm ish thick, wrap a coil around it, reassemble the head and trim?

Nope - thread the cotton through the coil. Wrapping a coil around cotton is like wrapping barbed wire around a baby's neck. Chokey and unwicky.

dePeatrick

Fratton Fred wrote: »

So you boil a cotton wool ball and then what? Tease a bit out so it's 2mm ish thick, wrap a coil around it, reassemble the head and trim?

Do boil the cotton though....and stir and swirl.....it makes a difference.....there is still something left in the organic cotton...probably bleach that goes away after a few vapes....but is not there at all if you boil it first....:)

Threading the cotton is very easy, it is soft and malleable so it kinda resizes itself to the shape of the coil and as Grindle has told me less IS more......!

Mr. Chrome

I nicked some cheap tesco 100% cotton make up pads off herself, I presume these would work? Also I was getting out the decorations today and I found a huge piece of surgical cotton that was used as snow last year, its still pretty clean so I might boil it up.

Probably a stupid question but would sera wool work? I got loads of that stuff.

dePeatrick

Mr. Chrome wrote: »

I nicked some cheap tesco 100% cotton make up pads off herself, I presume these would work? Also I was getting out the decorations today and I found a huge piece of surgical cotton that was used as snow last year, its still pretty clean so I might boil it up.

Probably a stupid question but would sera wool work? I got loads of that stuff.

I avoid the make-up pads, they have a small amount of glue, probably just starch to help them retain their shape IMO Also they have a taste if cotton for the first few drags even after washing for some reason, may depend on make too...

I picked up a bag of organic cotton balls and gave them a good boiling and they are the best I have used so far.

They are really easy to remove from coils without damaging the coil and surprisingly easy to manoeuvre once you get the hang of it.....

Mr. Chrome

Cheers for that, yeah the pads seem a bit dense alright. I wouldn't mind but I was in tesco and I saw the 100% organic cotton balls and was about to buy them and thought 'nah, I'll nick them off the OH instead'..
BALLS!!

Wiggy

dePeatrick wrote: »

I picked up a bag of organic cotton balls and gave them a good boiling and they are the best I have used so far.

.....

Thanks!

Where did you get the organic cotton balls?

Fratton Fred

grindle wrote: »

Nope - thread the cotton through the coil. Wrapping a coil around cotton is like wrapping barbed wire around a baby's neck. Chokey and unwicky.

So how do you do that? Could I just dry burn a coil, take it apart, pull out the wick and stuff in cotton?

Or make up a coil around a small nail and slide out the nail?

grindle

Fratton Fred wrote: »

So how do you do that? Could I just dry burn a coil, take it apart, pull out the wick and stuff in cotton?

Or make up a coil around a small nail and slide out the nail?

If there's a coil already in place that you want to use leave the coil there and slip the silica wick out.
Then dry-burn the coil to get the gunk off, then insert cotton.
Here's the original thread GH posted, pictures might help you get the idea.

To wrap a new coil you wrap the wire around a small screw or a mini screwdriver, then insert cotton.

Boogietime

For my eVod, wrapping the coil around a normal sized toothpick does the trick. Or whatever you wish to use, a small screw or a tiny screwdriver or drill bit.

To make sure it'll be ok with the eVod, as it has limited space inside the atomizer head (and you'll want to avoid a short for sure), try and put the toothpick/drill bit/screwdriver in the little space where the wick goes. If it fits just good, you're good to go so wrap a tight coil and do light it up (lighter or torch) - except that if you're using a toothpick, you should light it up after you remove it.

Also I'd be interested in getting myself organic cotton (though the cotton balls I got from the pound shop have no sort of weird taste whatsoever after being thoroughly boiled), but I'd stay away from cotton pads as they have some sort of glue there, as suggested by dePeatrick.

Also cheers for the stir&swirl tip!

Fratton Fred

I presume on the evod heads you just roll up a bit of cotton to sit above the coil?

Boogietime

Here's a short tutorial on how to wrap cotton ball wicks:

1. Purchase cotton balls or any sort of loose-unglued cotton (better to go with organic though I'd still boil it as it may be bleached; organic means it was grown without chemicals but they can still bleach it afterwards)

2. Boil a couple of balls in a kettle for about 30 minutes - stir and swirl (thank you dePeatrick), then boil again in fresh water for around 15 minutes

3. In the meantime, roll your normal wire around a thin nail/drill bit/screwdriver (whatever fits in the wick grooves of your protank atty) and then torch it to oxidize

4. Install the wick in the eVod/protank head while keeping the screwdriver in, it's easier to push inside as the wire may become deformed if you insert it without the hard "fake" wick support

5. Take a small bit of the cotton ball (about 3 times wider than the size that would fit in the roll) and roll it into a long thin strip that will fit inside the rolled wire. Make sure the cotton is dry when you insert it - you can use a blow dryer if you're in a hurry.

6. Remove the screwdriver and insert the thin roll of fresh cotton. Once you're satisfied with the positioning, unravel the cotton to fluff it (so that it covers the grooves for the wick) and clip the ends of the wick to match the atty side.

7. Prime the wick by adding as much juice as it can take and reassemble

8. Enjoy your vape!


If you feel after a while that the cotton wick isn't delivering good vape, just remove it from the atty and insert a new one. If the draw is weak and the battery is charged, make a new coil - prolly it's the wire that failed, though it's going to be a while before that happens.

Handy tips:

*I use .2mm kanthal, wrap a 5/4 coil and leave it on 3.6-3.7 volts, it's the sweet spot for me
*Anytime the cotton stops delivering a fresh vape, just remove it from the coil and add a new one - I still have to find that my cotton has gone bad after 10ml on each coil I've made
*Make new heads from time to time, the kanthal can go bad as well
*Fiddle with a pin underneath the coil wrap if the draw is blocked, sometimes the wick can cover up the tiny airhole underneath it and block the draw
*If you want to make a fresh coil right after you boiled the cotton, you can use a blow dryer for a small bit of a cotton ball and then set the rest of the cotton on a clean piece of tissue or aluminum foil on the heater and cover it with more tissue so that you keep it nice and clean while it dries. Or you can press it if it tickles your fancy.
*Don't trim the wick too long or it'll be caught in the threadings below and will unravel from the wire, ending in shorts, burned rubber grommet and other what-have-you-not's.
*Always Rembember NOT to dry burn the cotton wick or you'll ruin it - that's why it's key to always keep it juiced-up

later edit - 2mm seems to be the desired amount for your "fake" wick, so any 2mm drill bit or nail or anything else will do just fine.

Boogietime

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I presume on the evod heads you just roll up a bit of cotton to sit above the coil?

I didn't need to do that on my liquids and I'm vaping 70pg/30vg, which means it's quite "watery" (so on a normal silica wick I would have to add a full 2mm silica extra on top just to cover the gap well enough).

Just unravelling the cotton after inserting it in the coil makes it go really fluff so it covers the small wick gap entirely. Even better than that it'll keep on wicking good until the liquid is gone (seriously, the gurgling on low amounts of juice just doesn't happen anymore) so make sure you keep an eye on that tank so it doesn't run out and you dry burn the cotton.

Boogietime

Mr. Chrome wrote: »

I nicked some cheap tesco 100% cotton make up pads off herself, I presume these would work? Also I was getting out the decorations today and I found a huge piece of surgical cotton that was used as snow last year, its still pretty clean so I might boil it up.

Probably a stupid question but would sera wool work? I got loads of that stuff.

Someone stated somewhere that sera wool is spun polyester? Can't say for sure but I'd go the healthy way and use cotton.

rickyjb

Boogietime wrote: »

Here's a short tutorial on how to wrap cotton ball wicks:

1. Purchase cotton balls or any sort of loose-unglued cotton (better to go with organic though I'd still boil it as it may be bleached; organic means it was grown without chemicals but they can still bleach it afterwards)

2. Boil a couple of balls in a kettle for about 30 minutes - stir and swirl (thank you dePeatrick), then boil again in fresh water for around 15 minutes

3. In the meantime, roll your normal wire around a thin nail/drill bit/screwdriver (whatever fits in the wick grooves of your protank atty) and then torch it to oxidize

4. Install the wick in the eVod/protank head while keeping the screwdriver in, it's easier to push inside as the wire may become deformed if you insert it without the hard "fake" wick support

5. Take a small bit of the cotton ball (about 3 times wider than the size that would fit in the roll) and roll it into a long thin strip that will fit inside the rolled wire. Make sure the cotton is dry when you insert it - you can use a blow dryer if you're in a hurry.

6. Remove the screwdriver and insert the thin roll of fresh cotton. Once you're satisfied with the positioning, unravel the cotton to fluff it (so that it covers the grooves for the wick) and clip the ends of the wick to match the atty side.

7. Prime the wick by adding as much juice as it can take and reassemble

8. Enjoy your vape!


If you feel after a while that the cotton wick isn't delivering good vape, just remove it from the atty and insert a new one. If the draw is weak and the battery is charged, make a new coil - prolly it's the wire that failed, though it's going to be a while before that happens.

Handy tips:

*I use .2mm kanthal, wrap a 5/4 coil and leave it on 3.6-3.7 volts, it's the sweet spot for me
*Anytime the cotton stops delivering a fresh vape, just remove it from the coil and add a new one - I still have to find that my cotton has gone bad after 10ml on each coil I've made
*Make new heads from time to time, the kanthal can go bad as well
*Fiddle with a pin underneath the coil wrap if the draw is blocked, sometimes the wick can cover up the tiny airhole underneath it and block the draw
*If you want to make a fresh coil right after you boiled the cotton, you can use a blow dryer for a small bit of a cotton ball and then set the rest of the cotton on a clean piece of tissue or aluminum foil on the heater and cover it with more tissue so that you keep it nice and clean while it dries. Or you can press it if it tickles your fancy.
*Don't trim the wick too long or it'll be caught in the threadings below and will unravel from the wire, ending in shorts, burned rubber grommet and other what-have-you-not's.
*Always Rembember NOT to dry burn the cotton wick or you'll ruin it - that's why it's key to always keep it juiced-up

later edit - 2mm seems to be the desired amount for your "fake" wick, so any 2mm drill bit or nail or anything else will do just fine.

You're not torching the coil to oxidise (that's only for SS mesh where conductivity is an issue) you torch it and squeeze it with a tweezers or pliers to make sure that all the coils are touching.

This is by far the best video to follow for protank/evid heads. I know I've mentioned it on here a few times but it's super easy and the results are great. And Grindle is right (no surprise there), less really is more when it comes to cotton wicks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIoH-mOXKsc&list=TLhkzu6UVvvI_45xE0uwAWCuH50P0jdy4p

You need something small to wrap your coils around, the best shop sell blunt syringe tips that are perfect or a small nail would probably be fine either. If you're using a dripper a 2mm drill bit is about the right size for a micro coil. Oh and get the thickest kanthal (A1) you can get, 0.32mm is the best or 0.28mm if you can't get 0.32.

dePeatrick

rickyjb wrote: »

You're not torching the coil to oxidise (that's only for SS mesh where conductivity is an issue) you torch it and squeeze it with a tweezers or pliers to make sure that all the coils are touching.

This is by far the best video to follow for protank/evid heads. I know I've mentioned it on here a few times but it's super easy and the results are great. And Grindle is right (no surprise there), less really is more when it comes to cotton wicks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIoH-mOXKsc&list=TLhkzu6UVvvI_45xE0uwAWCuH50P0jdy4p

You need something small to wrap your coils around, the best shop sell blunt syringe tips that are perfect or a small nail would probably be fine either. If you're using a dripper a 2mm drill bit is about the right size for a micro coil. Oh and get the thickest kanthal (A1) you can get, 0.32mm is the best or 0.28mm if you can't get 0.32.

Thanks for that, the best and clearest video I have seen for making the coils for the Protank

Boogietime

rickyjb wrote: »

You're not torching the coil to oxidise (that's only for SS mesh where conductivity is an issue) you torch it and squeeze it with a tweezers or pliers to make sure that all the coils are touching.

You need something small to wrap your coils around, the best shop sell blunt syringe tips that are perfect or a small nail would probably be fine either. If you're using a dripper a 2mm drill bit is about the right size for a micro coil. Oh and get the thickest kanthal (A1) you can get, 0.32mm is the best or 0.28mm if you can't get 0.32.

Thanks for the tip! I'm still a noob in this stuff but a happy one, nonetheless, since I found my sought-after setup.

Wouldn't though what you described above be in relation to a micro-coil? In a regular set up, having coils touching equals bad shorts.

Btw, thanks for the tutorial! I'll have a look at it later for handy tips and glad that it's already out there

grindle

Boogietime wrote: »

Wouldn't though what you described above be in relation to a micro-coil? In a regular set up, having coils touching equals bad shorts.

I think microcoils are the norm now, regular spaced-coil builds have been usurped judging from almost every build on any forum I've browsed.
Making the old-style coil nowadays equates to choosing worse performance.

Boogietime

grindle wrote: »

I think microcoils are the norm now, regular spaced-coil builds have been usurped judging from almost every build on any forum I've browsed.
Making the old-style coil nowadays equates to choosing worse performance.

...and just when I thought I was done with finicking... Here we go again.

I currently have only .2mm kanthal, can I ask how many wraps would you recommend for a microcoil on this one?

I will be purchasing whatever higher gauge kanthal you would recommend in the future but at the moment I've only the .2mm, two rolls of it to be precise.

grindle

Boogietime wrote: »

...and just when I thought I was done with finicking... Here we go again.

I currently have only .2mm kanthal, can I ask how many wraps would you recommend for a microcoil on this one?

I will be purchasing whatever higher gauge kanthal you would recommend in the future but at the moment I've only the .2mm, two rolls of it to be precise.

For your VV battery I'd build a 2.6ohm coil using 6cm of that .2mm wire (with a half-cm added onto each side as legs).
How many turns depends on what the diameter is of whatever you're wrapping around. A 1.5mm screw or mini screwdriver should be around 8 wraps.
For your evod battery a 3.5cm length would be good but you won't get too many wraps from it. Either way it should hit around 1.5ohm which is ideal for the evod batts.
.32mm kanthal is great but might take up too much room in a clearo? Long enough since I've opened one up.
Bit of a warm-up time but good coverage.

csi vegas

Boogietime wrote: »

In a regular set up, having coils touching equals bad shorts

I thought the same. Seeing so many vids on microcoils I was :eek: at the pinching together and torching of them. I too had learnt to space them out, that they must never touch.

Thanks Grindle and while I'm here praising you: Is it ok to microcoil for the likes of eVod so? (seems like such a basic question but for all my meticulous rebuilding I've had a very low success rate of well working heads - due to 'minding those gaps' no doubt).

grindle

csi vegas wrote: »

Is it ok to microcoil for the likes of eVod so?

Yarrrr, 't'would be an ideal course of action so it would.

Neil_Sedaka

Loving this thread! Rebuilt a couple of Evod heads today with cotton and I'm V happy with them.

Thanks all for the input.

Boogietime

csi vegas wrote: »

for all my meticulous rebuilding I've had a very low success rate of well working heads - due to 'minding those gaps' no doubt

I passed my exams in coil wrapping with a hard stainless steel mesh, that'll teach you more than anything else. Though I haven't been successful with the 3.7 throughput of the eVod battery.

Try and experiment on a screwdriver or something, that'll give you a good place to start and as kanthal is dirt cheap you can try as much as you wish.

grindle wrote: »

32mm kanthal is great but might take up too much room in a clearo? Long enough since I've opened one up.
Bit of a warm-up time but good coverage.

Thank you for the tip, I'll be back on the workbench so...

Neil_Sedaka wrote: »

Loving this thread! Rebuilt a couple of Evod heads today with cotton and I'm V happy with them.

Thanks all for the input.

Glad to know it's worth something for someone. I wouldn't imply that I discovered 'murica (so you get way better advice and tutorials from others that know way more *ahem* grindle *ahem* ) but I just wanted to tweet about the happy setup I had no idea why I avoided for so long...

georgia010

I'm confused - on a "normal" coil for the evod, around 2.0 ohms, should the coil wraps be touching each other or not? Also, what is the difference between a normal coil and a microcoil?

grindle

georgia010 wrote: »

I'm confused - on a "normal" coil for the evod, around 2.0 ohms, should the coil wraps be touching each other or not? Also, what is the difference between a normal coil and a microcoil?

On one that's bought? No, they come built the old way, spaced.

We were taught to do that because having one or two coils touching another or even having more coils closer together on one side than another resulted in the heat concentrating in that spot creating an unpleasant "hotspot" which meant burnt-juice-taste.
A microcoil kind of follows the same basic principle - keep every coil at an equal distance from one to another, it just goes about it the opposite way (which perplexed everybody for a while) - having them pushed together concentrates all the heat into a solid tube of deliciousness.
It's still easier for electricity to pass through the centre of the wire than it is for it to jump coil-to-coil.
Microcoils are usually made with thicker wire to get more turns on the coil for a given resistance, and they're meant to be small in diameter too (1.5mm or less, wrapped around a screw or needle or toothpick) but most UK builds ignore that and everything from 2-3mm diameter builds are called microcoils.
They're usually used with cotton rather than silica as a wick too as it's very easy to slip the cotton out and replace with new cotton. 30 second job-type-thing. Much convenient.
And cotton tastes better than silica. Definitely. No backsies.

georgia010

Thanks for that. I'm learning so much basic science since I started vaping.:)
Just one further thing, using thicker wire and more turns, is it not more difficult to avoid touching the metal of the post with the coils?

grindle

georgia010 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm learning so much basic science since I started vaping.:)
Just one further thing, using thicker wire and more turns, is it not more difficult to avoid touching the metal of the post with the coils?

The metal at the sides? A little, but the thicker the wire the sturdier it is - build it and install it so it doesn't touch the walls.
Depending on what battery you're using it with and what diameter you want the coil to be different wires are suitable. 0.25mm to 0.32mm if you're using limited devices, thicker can be used if you're into other rebuildables, mechs or DNA20s.

georgia010

Thanks again