Need some coil help

[Lonely Raven]

I'm sure this comes up a lot. I've done some searching and watched a bunch of videos, and I must clearly be doing something wrong.

I picked up an IGO-L RBA to use on my #19B Mod along with some 32g K1 wire and 2.5mm silica wick.

The minute I got it all working, I built a coil by wrapping the wire around a screw driver, and feeding the wick in doubled up (sorry no photos of it). Worked OK, no issues, but my Kanger Protank killed it on vape and flavor.

So I watched a bunch of videos and read through the forums here, and tried sub-ohm coils (which I burned up), micro-coils which I couldn't keep tight together, tried spinning a coil on a titanium toothpick as a form...I've done 8 different coils and managed to ruin every one either installing on the posts, or threading the wick through. Granted, my eyes aren't what they used to be for close up work, but I have skilled hands...I'm baffled by how I keep messing up these coils.

Am I building an RBA that's maybe a little difficult for a beginner? Was 32g too thin of a wire to start with? (I feel it is for micro-coil for sure).

Is there a really good guide for beginners I should be reading/watching? I'm just getting a bit frustrated and not wanting to mess with RBAs anymore...but I *really* want more than my Kanger Protank is giving me.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[REOfanatic]

are you checking hotspots? the igo-l is really user friendly it also helps to torch the coil to make it wrap easier.

 

[Jeremy Evans]

When trying for a micro, keep the toothpick in while you mount to the posts, then slide it out and fire the coils till they turn red and then gently press them together, once you do that carefully slide your wick in, but honestly if you are going to use a micro skip the silica, it wont keep up, try using some rolled cotton instead. Good luck

 

[super_X_drifter]

Check out this tutorial bro
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9421933

Those principals apply to a dripper too.

 

[Lonely Raven]

When trying for a micro, keep the toothpick in while you mount to the posts, then slide it out and fire the coils till they turn red and then gently press them together, once you do that carefully slide your wick in, but honestly if you are going to use a micro skip the silica, it wont keep up, try using some rolled cotton instead. Good luck

I didn't realize cotton could handle the heat better than silica. Thanks for the tip!

Check out this tutorial bro
RM2 / RBA 2.0 / Reomizer 2 Rebuild Tutorial

Those principals apply to a dripper too.

Thanks for that!

So, I made some progress tonight as soon as I got home from work. I did a 4 fold silica wick with 3 wraps of 32g which gave me 1.56Ohms at 3.6v - pinned the top wire to the center screw and lower wire to the negative post. Finally got some big vape, but the flavor was lacking. At least it's a step in the right direction.

Doing some more research, making some more coils!

 

[CloudZ]

I didn't realize cotton could handle the heat better than silica.

Well, silica can handle much much more heat than cotton. It has to do with wicking speed and holding capacity. Cotton beats silica in these regards, but if you fire the coil when the cotton wick is even slightly dry, it will burn. Silica can withstand a direct flame, which will actually just clean it and stiffen it up a bit.

Also, 32 gauge is not the greatest wire for any RBA unless you can pull off a microcoil (with cotton). Or if you twist it to essentially make it a lower gauge wire.

 

[StaircaseWit]

Don't try to thread silica into a coil; just double it up and wrap on it. You can wrap fairly tightly. Silica is very forgiving. Four wraps on the 2.5mm should give you about 1.6 ohms (it's 1.4 ohms on 2mm doubled so I'm guessing); three wraps will be probably 1.3 ohms. Make sure the legs of the coil going to the terminals are of equal length and you'll avoid hot legs.

Other than that, there's no real trick to setting up the IGO-L other than how you direct the rest of the wick to fill the bottom "cup".

 

[Thrasher]

when making normal coils take the wick and a paperclip and wrap the wire directly on the wick, the paperclip holds it stiff and when you pull it out its just loose enough.

or like stair said just wrap on the wick some of it is pretty solid.

then just make sure the air is coming in as close to the coil as possible. sometimes the air hole is slightly off to the side of the coil this way but it works. also too high or too low with the coil will kill the vapor or flavor it needs to hit the coil not just enter the chamber for best results.