Question about your q-tips and coils, jifjifjif

[six]

Parallel coil of 28 gauge Kanthal 3 wraps around a Q-Tip shaft and wicked with 3mm Ready Xwick.

Ohms in at .45 and is a beast.

Did you ever figure out the exact diameter of your q-tips? Digging around in places I probably don't belong under the bathroom sink, I discovered three boxes of q-tips and one is an off brand. All three have different gauge shafts, even the ones that are the q-tip brand. The biggest one is just over 2.5mm which seems too small for 3mm readyxwick. I found a few long wooden shafted q-tips (gun cleaning devices) with exactly 3mm diameter shafts, but I'm pretty sure I read that 3mm readyxwick needs to be in a coil that is slightly less than 3mm inner diameter.

In the mean time, I did parallels with 6 wraps on the 2.5mm shaft with 29 ga and wicked with cotton. It came out to .8 ohms and is performing very well.

What q-tip do I need to have the right shaft size to handle 3mm readyxwick?

I've been wanting to try parallels in my RM2 since the first time I saw you post about it. I appreciate it.

 

[Spydro]

Back when the Jifster suggested Q-Tips, I drug out my big box of them and the shanks averaged .998" or slightly over 2.5mm. Was close enough to others that have said they used #38 or #39 drill bits, so I tried them. The Q-shank worked OK for 3mm RxW. I've heard of others using 7/64" bits, so I tried it and IMO they are too big for good contact with the wick. So I settled on using either a 2.5mm mandrel for micro coils, or a .055" drill rod blank speared down the center of the wick for support and hand wrap a fairly tight ugly coil on them, pull the rod out, they settle in and are ready to go. Both work very well for my uses with 3mm RxW anyway.

 

[jifjifjif]

Hey, guys.

Mine are Q-Tip brand and the size of the box is the big one that has like 500 of them or whatever. It's the biggest box you can buy at walmart.

I don't have calipers and so I don't know the shaft diameter. It's probably the 2.5mm one. When I put the RxW in there, I have to snip the wick to a point on one side and then screw it in. It seems a bit tight going in, but wicks well. I probably get 5 or 6 good blasts before I need to resquonk.

I'm using 28 gauge and I think 3 wraps gives me .43 or so.

I hope it works out well for you!

 

[jifjifjif]

I also straighten a large paperclip out and run it through the rxw after I insert it into the coil. I like to open the wick up like a straw, then screw on rm2 top cap last.