MTL RTA Coil Gauge

[Superuser187]

That’s what I aim for, but I just can’t fit a 10 wrap spaced coil easily.

That low of watts? I use steam engine, but they suggest 120-350 mW/mm² heat flux, and I never thought to go lower for some reason.

U can vape at lower heat flux but in my experience I don't get flavour with soooo cold vape....and ofc different temps give different taste....some juices taste soooo bad to me when vape is hot but others taste better...i use always 28 wire kanthal or ss....but if u adjust your wicking and your juice u can vape 26also at low watts and temps.....depends ofc if u want to go tighter airflow and the way u puff....it's soooooooooooo many variables I wonder also how some people vape soooo low in wattages but it's what u like in the end u can do anything u want...

 

[thanswr1]

I use 29 gauge wire and wrap it around a 2.5 mm screwdriver. I don't sub-ohm so I tend to stay within 1.3 - 1.6 ohms. I also still use the old school tube mech mods with an 18650 battery and a kick.

Seven full wraps for posts in different directions (Brunhilde) and 7 1/2 wraps for the usual.

I tried using those coil jigs. I went through more wire than I could count because I could not get the hang of it.

I went back to the basics of wire and a screwdriver.

 

[Mordacai]

And one major thing that we completely forgot about was that you said that the airflow seems too tight to your preference.

So it could be the airflow pin you're using may be a smaller an ID than you may have used or have a preference for.

So may we ask if you have all the airflow pins @MichaellMcCoyy?

If so, on your next rebuild you could try the other airflow pins without coiling and wicking the RTA to see which one is more near your preference.

And if you've got SS316L 27 and 28 AWG lying around, I'd say you could try making up a 2.5mm ID 6.5 wrap spaced coils as that really is another sometimes forgotten thing that is needed to wield TC effectively.

But I think that the 28 AWG may be the better option to try first, the heat capacity looks interesting at around 22+.

 

[AngeNZ]

Lmao I know. I will say I feel a little ridiculous - I’m just used to the flavor in my pod systems. It’s such a cool, wet, sweet vape, and I really just can’t emulate it in an RTA.

The fused claptons are the best I’ve had to date, but I don’t want to buy premades when I purchased a coil jig.
I ended up just buying a roll of the fused Clapton wire. I read some reviews about it being hard to coil, but I guess I’ll find out.

If you find the fused clapton wire too hot, knock your wrap count down to 4 or 5 wraps. Plain clapton wire 30/38 will be even cooler.

With your RTA, the airflow hole is 1mm. Even if you tried an airier hole of say 1.8mm. You get flavour from air hitting the bottom of your coil. So with your small airflow holes you don't need a lot of wraps to acheive that.

Plus, the more wraps you use, the more metal there is to heat up and cool down.

I'd still get a spool of 32g and make some twisted coils from it. It will be a cooler vape than a clapton coil.

Have a look at the difference in these coils from the Steam Engine Wire Wizard.

All are using SS316L, have a 2.5mm id, and are 6 wraps. In terms of coolness, the lower the Heat capacity, the cooler the vape.

This is using ss316L 28g. Heat capacity is 20.80 mJ/K

This is using a twisted wire coil of 32g. The heat capacity is 20.47 mJ/K.

This one is using a 30/38 clapton coil. It has a higher heat capacity of 35.45 mJ/K

Also look at the Surface area in the 3 coils. The more Surface Area, the better it is said to be for flavour. But of course there's a trade-off for heat

But that's where the twisted coil of 2*32g may be better than a single 28g coil, as it has more surface area, with a similar heat capacity to the single 28g coil.

 

[Mordacai]

@AngeNZ, BP mods Pioneer is one of those and 1/2 wrap decks. Both build posts are on the same side.

Also another thing that you didn't point out in your screenshots of different types of coil is the Mass, and as Mass goes up the time it takes to reach temperature is increased.

And it's finding balance of course, but I'm thinking of keeping the heat capacity around the 20's somewhere as around there with SS316L an MTL RTA gets interesting. As I've noticed a lot of change when using different coils and keeping heat capacity in the 20's keeps the ramp up time to a reasonable length.

 

[vaper1960]

I agree with most of the advice so far. I had very good flavor from 26 ga 3mm coils but there was more room for those in my RTA (28 ga 2.5 mm would fit better in your RTA) I do agree about making 32 ga twisted wire (simple but good surface area) A drill really makes that easy to do. Spaced coils are great ( to avoid hot spots) but hard to fit in small builds. I like both spaced and contact depending mostly on the space between mounting posts and/or how many wraps I want to use (I know that doesn't help much... just saying both are good for different reasons) I really like single core MTL claptons. I've moved on to restricted DL now but did MTL for quite awhile (personally like looser MTL myself) There is also the issue of coil position (up/down, side to side) Every RTA is different with what works best but it can be important. And (of course... wicking) So many variables (I talk like I know what I'm saying but still learning myself) Higher mass coils can have higher ramp-up time... slow to heat up, slow to cool down (this can work against you) Keep it simple. I have no experience with TC so can't help with that. Oh, almost forgot... I do like Rayon but good cotton is fine too.

 

[MichaellMcCoyy]

And one major thing that we completely forgot about was that you said that the airflow seems too tight to your preference.

So it could be the airflow pin you're using may be a smaller an ID than you may have used or have a preference for.

So may we ask if you have all the airflow pins @MichaellMcCoyy?

If so, on your next rebuild you could try the other airflow pins without coiling and wicking the RTA to see which one is more near your preference.

And if you've got SS316L 27 and 28 AWG lying around, I'd say you could try making up a 2.5mm ID 6.5 wrap spaced coils as that really is another sometimes forgotten thing that is needed to wield TC effectively.

But I think that the 28 AWG may be the better option to try first, the heat capacity looks interesting at around 22+.

I do have all the pins, that’s just the one I prefer. I usually do 7 wrap spaced and it just doesn’t work out well for TC. Strangely enough, I wrapped two 28ga wires together with my drill, and that worked very well in TC (still spaced)

 

[Mordacai]

But you did say in your initial post that the airflow was tight, even for you. But okay, no worries.

And the BP mods Pioneer has both posts in one side of the build deck, so coils always have to be half a wrap extra to fit the build deck.

So try 6 spaced wraps of 28 AWG SS316L with a 2.5mm ID, as hopefully this will be somewhere near what you're looking for.

And TC can be a pain at times, one thing that can mess things up in style is when you wick the coil. As it's really easy to get wraps to contact each other and that messes up the resistance, then TC cannot work properly.