Self Wicking Atty!

[Hawk52501]

Some say I have "too much time on my hands"...which this proves they're right....and its a great song too!
So I finally broke down and bought some 510 cartomizers, have been wanting to try them for a while. Long story short, one of them finally started producing less vapor, so I had to tear it apart and take a look see. After removing the tube, and the polyfill, I noticed the heating coil was vertical, or completely opposite compared to an atty. As soon as I noticed this, a great idea popped into my head! Why not have a wick running vertical from the coil.....straight to a cart. The only downside to this would be if you wanted to change out carts for a different flavor.

So I just had to try it out. I ended up taking a Zippo lighter wick, removing the wires, and string from about an inch or so from one end. Then I desoldered the center coil connection, wrapped it around the bare end of the lighter wick, soldered the coil wire back, and cut the rest of the wick to the proper length. I then made one of Scottyballs ZFM plugs, for the other end of the wick in the cart.

So far its been working great, been vaping off of it for quite a while now, no leaks, and no burn't taste as of yet.

A better way I think, would have been to use some correct diameter silica rope from McMasters...as i'm sure those little wires and strands of string holding the cart end together, may not be be very safe soaking in the liquid...but a Zippo wick is all I had at the moment.

 

[v1John]

How long were you able to vape till you needed a refill, and have you tried the longest cartridge possible? Maybe a 2 inch, reservoir cartridge that could hold waay over a milliliter?

I also wonder if the wick could work if it's enclosed in a rigid structure, like one of the relatively large basting flavor needles which are hollow inside, and even have two big holes in them? Also, what if it had even more holes? This would allow changing flavored reservoirs with more simplicity, because the 'needle could poke through a seal in a reservoir cart as it is pushed into the ecig.

 

[Hawk52501]

One cart lasted considerably longer than using the stock system of wicking via a bridge/small wick. Once the cart was inserted the 1st time, I had to almost immediately refill it, as the length of the wick absorbed most of the liquid. This was all tested using a standard size 510 cartridge.

Very interesting idea with the basting needle. Similar to something I was thinking of for a juice box mod. Have a wick running from the atty coil...through the battery connector, and into a bottle, with the wick enclosed in some sort of tubing.

 

[v1John]

Keep experimenting, you're doing great work.


I wouldn't necessarily need a bottle. Even a small, 2.5 ml rubber tipped vial would suffice.

The turkey flavor basting needle really is large, maybe smaller ones could be made, and what about the wick? I mean it's great that it's long, but would it still work if it was half as thick as it is right now? Or is it really a problem that the resrvoid had to refilled in the beginning... I mean as long as the atomizer has about 2 ml. or more on the way, would it really matter that it's actually 'in' the wick?

(The mouthpiece could be modded so that it screws in, as the user requires more juice to be pushed out of the vial, the user would simply turn the mouthpiece clockwise one turn, which could then put pressure on the vial's outer end? The reservoir in the mouthpiece, in this case, would work almost like a syringe, but this may not be necessary, if the wick works well enough.)

 

[Extremeodd]

Well you could do a juice box style thing and only have to juice the heck out of it every once in a while. Or some how run the wick through straight to the bottle.