To micro or not to micro?

[Saltraker]

I have been building pretty much standard res (1.8 to 2.2) coils in my IGO-L, using it on an MVP V2. I've only used 30g Kanthal, maybe 8 to 10 wraps. I've been very happy with the vape. However, I keep seeing and reading about micro coils and am wondering if I'm missing out on something. From what I've read, micros provide better flavor, and better TH. My first question: are those the major reasons to build micros? I guess I'm looking for an advantage to building micros. Second, can I simply build the standard coil (with spaced wraps), scrunch it together so the wraps touch and, voila!, have a micro? Or is there something else involved? Thanks for your input.

 

[Ryedan]

I've been using micro coils for a while in my IGO-L and I find them better performing than 'regular' coils. It's easy enough to try and you can see for yourself if you like them too. I use a small eyeglasses screwdriver with a diameter of just under 1/16" to wrap around. You don't want to go bigger than that. Super_X_drifter has a great video on making these coils here.

I do about 10 wraps of 27 gauge wire for about 0.6 ohms. You'll have to experiment with the number of wraps of 30 gauge to get 2 ohms. I wouldn't worry if you had to use up to 15 or 16 wraps. More than that and I think it will start becoming an issue.

It is important to keep the coils close together. Touching is fine. What I do is take the wrapped coil gently in tweezers and heat it to a slight glow once to help it stay put. Might be more important for your thinner wire.

Have fun and vape on.

 

[nj1001]

The closer/tighter you wrap it to start the easier it will be to get them touching when you're done. Aim to get them as close as possible touching without overlapping. After I wrap mine I plug it onto the deck and fire it a few times and press them together with tweezers as soon as a pull my finger off the button and hold the tweezers gently but tight in place keeping them on for a few seconds & repeat this until they're all nice and touching. The coil should glow from the inside out when dry firing it before you're done.

If you were to lets say intentionally wrap a coil as spaced out as possible and try to scrunch it together after the fact, the coil will not be as good or tight in the end and it will cause inconsistencies in the entire coil. Therefore, the closer they are from the get go the better. They don't have to be absolutely perfect because they can be compensated for by heating and pinching them tight but the closer they are from the start the less you'll have to play with it.

I use 28 gauge and the advantage over 30 is that its thicker wire and thus higher conductivity so more wraps is necessary to achieve the same ohms you would with 30. Having more wraps is ok in my book because it means more heated surface area on a wick which equates to more vapor which is a bit warmer. The other benefit is thicker wire will hold its shape better than thinner. 28 gauge is a lot more hardy than thin flimsy 30 gauge. This is key both when making a coil and when changing out wicks.

Advantages to micros in my book are 1) no hot spots, 2) easier to make with less fiddling required (since there's no hot spots) & 3) a coil made on 28 gauge lasts me easily well over a month if not longer. All you have to do is switch out the wick, dry burn a few times to burn off any built up gunk before replacing with a new wick & then its as good as new and ready to be re-wicked. I imagine trying this with 30 gauge could be done but you'd have a much greater risk of ruining the coil in the process because its just not as hardy of a gauge This is also not something you can do nearly as easily with a spaced out coil.