Beadalon SS Wire

[Chris863]

Is this stuff suitable for vaping? I want to get some 304 and some 316L SS in 24 gauge(since I use 24g with Kanthal)

I normally buy my Temco Wire from Amazon and when I searched for 304 and 316L wire I found this Beadalon brand. It is described as an artistic jewelry type wire and want to make sure this is suitable for vaping. I know there are other manufacturers of 304 and 316l wire like UD builders choice or something that sounds good too but not sure if for all intensive purposes it is the same wire you'd be getting with Beadalon.


Thanks

 

[Froth]

While I have looked at it in the store, I have not tried it nor will I ever. While some of it may work for vaping I personally don't trust it, Beadalon makes a ton of copper based wire which is something you don't want in a vape wire at all.

Take a close look at the label of this "Artistic wire" which says "Stainless Steel"

http://www.amazon.com/Beadalon-Gauge-Artistic-Stainless-10-Yard/dp/B0063DH2J0

Huge resolution picture here: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71YSBtJT4RL._SL1500_.jpg

It says "Permanently colored copper wire" even though it's described as Stainless, if you do try Beadalon you MUST ensure the product is 100% stainless wire with no other additives.

 

[Chris863]

So I ended up getting some Builders Choice 28 gauge 316L wire and should of went with my original instinct and gotten the 24g! I feel confused with this stuff right now. The wire itself is alot softer and less stout than Kanthal.

Anyway I think I may have gone a little too thin. But reason I changed my mind is I searched for builds and I found most people using the 28G... Im used to 24G Kanthal but I thought if I got 24G SS wire since the resistance is half you know Id have to do some monster coils and my thinking was it would be hard to get all the wraps to fit in the chimney with the thicker SS.

I did 5 wraps of the 28G SS around a 3mm bit for two coils(dual coil Billow v1)and at first it came out to .35 ohm, but then im pretty sure one of the coils broke because now it is reading .83 LOL

This wire seems a lot less durable than Kanthal I guess im just new to it but I also tried Temp Control mode on my XCube II with the SS and man am I out of my depth even more there. One of the Coils just flew off the deck after overheating so much just broke off and flew right in my lap... hot potato LOL

Need to learn the proper coefficient for SS 316L for starters and find out if I need to order some thicker SS wire as well although I think I may be able to get the 28G to work I know from experience that anything thinner than 26G on the Billow and Orchid traditionally hasnt worked well with Kanthal at least.


On the positive side I was able to Activate the TC Mode for SS and Ti today on the XCube II and it wasnt quite as challenging as I thought it might be. Also got the newest firmware the 1.093 so I can now go up to 180W!

 

[Froth]

SS can definitely be more delicate with a smaller gauge of wire, especially when first firing it during the initial heat up stages, you need to kind of pulse the current so it doesn't have a hot spot form and snap/pop the coil. Personally I use 22G so it has never been much of a problem, I do have to be mindful of the resistances and battery safety though as it is roughly equivalent to building with 20G Kanthal when it comes to resistance.

 

[Chris863]

Nice Froth. Yeah so I ordered some thicker SS.

I understand better now the gauges of the SS in relationship to Kanthal, so ordered some 24G and 26G SS wire in both 316L and 304 SS. Also some 24G titanium wire although probably wont use that for quite some time as I want to figure out SS in TC mode before making the leap to titanium or nickel just because they are more dangerous metals to use, and I need more experience.


Speaking of TC mode on the XCube II I am confused on how to use it but right now in Wattage mode with SS 15 Watts is really hitting me hard like 20 watts would with Kanthal.

The fact that I switched to Rayon and SS all in the same week means Im really feeling the nicotine more and tasting the juice better which is great... for now using some smaller coils with the 28G wire(diameter wise)using 2mm coils gave it 8 wraps each for the dual coil. That way the coils have more length and I didnt bother squeezing the wraps of the coil together to make it a contact coil they are sort of spaced seems to cover more surface area which is important that the rayon wick gets enough heat to create vapor. Think the dual coil reads about .5 ohm on the Billow V1 which is alittle high ohms wise for me but decent enough to try out SS.

Probably need to wait until I get the thicker wire to build something lower which is what I prefer around .2-.3 ohm although with this new Xcube II capable of going much lower than that I may have to try something super low, I have Sony VTC4 and VTC5 batteries which I believe are the best for super sub ohming.

 

[Smeef]

While I have looked at it in the store, I have not tried it nor will I ever. While some of it may work for vaping I personally don't trust it, Beadalon makes a ton of copper based wire which is something you don't want in a vape wire at all.

Take a close look at the label of this "Artistic wire" which says "Stainless Steel"

http://www.amazon.com/Beadalon-Gauge-Artistic-Stainless-10-Yard/dp/B0063DH2J0

Huge resolution picture here: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71YSBtJT4RL._SL1500_.jpg

It says "Permanently colored copper wire" even though it's described as Stainless, if you do try Beadalon you MUST ensure the product is 100% stainless wire with no other additives.

If you read a little more they state that it is in fact NOT copper wire. This is why so many people are sheeple in this industry. I wasn't going to try the wire because of what I saw you posted. Until I read a little further.

 

[Froth]

If you read a little more they state that it is in fact NOT copper wire. This is why so many people are sheeple in this industry. I wasn't going to try the wire because of what I saw you posted. Until I read a little further.

You're more than welcome to do or not do whatever you like, if you feel that it's worth it to grossly overpay for a small spool of wire with unknown origins then nobody is going to stop you. Personally I prefer to get wire from known good sources with pricing for standard wire and not inflated pricing for "jewelry wire".

 

[Rangertrix]

Beadalon has a line of wire that states that it is 316l. I have seen it in 20g at my local craft store and was considering trying it myself.

 

[Haadkoe]

I bought a bag of it from Michael's art supply a while back. Labeled as stainless, but no gauge listed on the bag. Looks very close in diameter to the spool of 22ga kanthal I have though.

Attempted to wrap some coils and found that it was super difficult to wrap around the mandrel. Very stiff, very springy, and almost destroyed my precision wire clippers as it was so hard. Pulsed it a few times and all of the stiffness and springiness disappeared. I'd imagine torching the wire before wrapping would take care of those issues.

I'm a true temp control believer though and my ipv3 Li doesn't have a ss mode, so I ended up choosing Titanium for my everyday needs. Some had said that ss can be run in Ti mode, albeit at a lower set temp, but even with the temp set to the minimum tc never kicked in. Literally held the button until the mod showed "Too Hot" which means it fired it to the point that the board in the mod hit it's safety limit. No bueno.

Ymmv, of course.