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Wire selection

AvaOrchid

Member For 4 Years
I guess I'll preface this by saying that I am on a budget. Stocking up based on changes that have been happening in other states and nationally has wiped me out financially I don't mean to say that I'm spending my bill money or anything like that just my non essential spending and vape budget. So I just recently started building coils and I started with some stainless steel and some Kanthal wire just very basic round wire. It works but I'm not thrilled and I can't afford to buy a spool of every wire on the market just to find the one that I like. I've seen on Amazon that they have like little pre-wrapped coil setups like a selection but I don't know how much that's going to work for me as I'm not a super low ohm girl and wrapping it myself helps for that and while I could probably tack on an extra wrap or two it's still $10 $15 plus shipping to find the one coil I might like... does anyone know of anywhere/ anyone that will send you a sample selection of wire for the cost of shipping/ cheap or even a single coil of prewrapped basic stuff so that you can try it out and find out what you like before you buy? Maybe even someone that sells like scrap vape wire. Thanks in advance
I'm in the USA, Florida to be exact
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
Hook up with TEMCo. You can buy the lesser length spools of wire, or even some mid range bulk lengths from them for some reasonable prices. They offer Free Shipping on most products too.

Don't be afraid to buy a little bulk regarding wire, cotton/rayon/wicking material. It is a good investment for the long haul.

Resistance Wire -~- Look here for Kanthal A1, NiChrome 80, Stainless Steel (too)
Non-Resistance Wire -~- Look here for Stainless Steel, Titanium, Nickel

You might also look through some youtube videos on how to create Clapton wire, and other assorted wires. Often, find I'm happy using simple parallel builds, or twisted. I though prefer 0.30 to 0.50 ohms for builds. Have used 1.20 ohm builds though and done fine. :)

No, I am not an agent, affiliate of TEMCo. I am simply a happy customer of theirs glad to pass along good word of them to others. :) Their service and delivery speeds cannot be beaten. They sent me an order once that beat PayPal's nearly instantaneous payment processing. They read my mind actually, got me wired in. :)
 

AvaOrchid

Member For 4 Years
Hook up with TEMCo. You can buy the lesser length spools of wire, or even some mid range bulk lengths from them for some reasonable prices. They offer Free Shipping on most products too.

Don't be afraid to buy a little bulk regarding wire, cotton/rayon/wicking material. It is a good investment for the long haul.

Resistance Wire -~- Look here for Kanthal A1, NiChrome 80, Stainless Steel (too)
Non-Resistance Wire -~- Look here for Stainless Steel, Titanium, Nickel

You might also look through some youtube videos on how to create Clapton wire, and other assorted wires. Often, find I'm happy using simple parallel builds, or twisted. I though prefer 0.30 to 0.50 ohms for builds. Have used 1.20 ohm builds though and done fine. :)

No, I am not an agent, affiliate of TEMCo. I am simply a happy customer of theirs glad to pass along good word of them to others. :) Their service and delivery speeds cannot be beaten. They sent me an order once that beat PayPal's nearly instantaneous payment processing. They read my mind actually, got me wired in. :)
That is an awesome suggestion that's actually the two kinds of round wire I currently have and I do find it to be quality the free shipping was awesome their prices were good and you can get it on an affiliate like thru Amazon which I had a gift card for LOL. I prolly will try eventually to figure out how to make something like Clapton wire but I think it would be helpful to know if that's what I like or to have used a few Clapton coils that I didn't wrap myself first for comparison to make certain that if I don't like it it's not because I messed up :) you're absolutely correct about that company being awesome though and I highly recommend them I think it took three days to get my product and I think they're located in California while I'm in Florida!
 

Just Frank

Platinum Contributor
Member For 5 Years
I guess I'll preface this by saying that I am on a budget. Stocking up based on changes that have been happening in other states and nationally has wiped me out financially I don't mean to say that I'm spending my bill money or anything like that just my non essential spending and vape budget. So I just recently started building coils and I started with some stainless steel and some Kanthal wire just very basic round wire. It works but I'm not thrilled and I can't afford to buy a spool of every wire on the market just to find the one that I like. I've seen on Amazon that they have like little pre-wrapped coil setups like a selection but I don't know how much that's going to work for me as I'm not a super low ohm girl and wrapping it myself helps for that and while I could probably tack on an extra wrap or two it's still $10 $15 plus shipping to find the one coil I might like... does anyone know of anywhere/ anyone that will send you a sample selection of wire for the cost of shipping/ cheap or even a single coil of prewrapped basic stuff so that you can try it out and find out what you like before you buy? Maybe even someone that sells like scrap vape wire. Thanks in advance
I'm in the USA, Florida to be exact
This guy makes amazing coils. I'm not sure how busy he's been but maybe he can help you out.

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/free-coils-for-postage-or-donation.462682/
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
That is an awesome suggestion that's actually the two kinds of round wire I currently have and I do find it to be quality the free shipping was awesome their prices were good and you can get it on an affiliate like thru Amazon which I had a gift card for LOL. I prolly will try eventually to figure out how to make something like Clapton wire but I think it would be helpful to know if that's what I like or to have used a few Clapton coils that I didn't wrap myself first for comparison to make certain that if I don't like it it's not because I messed up :) you're absolutely correct about that company being awesome though and I highly recommend them I think it took three days to get my product and I think they're located in California while I'm in Florida!

Haha! don't let them fool you. I know from some of the shipping labels they have a distro center in TX, and I believe one in MA. I live in WV, rarely does a shipment take two days via post. It is most often a case of order, sent out that day, arrives next.

Now, comprehending better what you're "after" I might suggest Fast Tech's selection of coil packs. Some might decry using Chinese "crap wire". I've not had any real issues out of what I've got via Fast Tech though. You'll want to look up the MKVS brand of coil packs. Pirate Coils brand from them also seems to do well. Shipping via Fast Tech isn't too costly to downright expensive depending on how you choose going.

Here's a link to a search.

These are some of the more affording options without getting dirty ass cheap that I wouldn't suggest for enemies. Yes, they are affordable but they still seem to be made with some quality control in place and seem clean to use.
 

gbalkam

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reddit Exile
Try fasttech, i've tried their wire and it all seems good so far. You can even buy spools of fused clapton or alien wire. To build your own, 28ga kanthal and 26 ga kanthal are your go to core wires. 32-34ga stainless steel to wrap. Oh, some will tell you higher ga.. but the higher the ga, they harder it is to wrap.
You can also invest in a Daedalus Coil Jig kit. (buy the one WITH the 'drill' to save on headache meds... ) I use mine all the time for making 3+ core coils.
 

gbalkam

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reddit Exile
Not really surprising, I broke my kit. Turned out alright though. Got a battery ran drill. I don't do up a lot of the multi-core wires.
yeah, that works too, I find it ok for single and double core, but 3+ is a hassle with a drill. I generally use 3x28ga kanthal in 34ga SS wrap.
 

Synphul

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Anything is worth a try. However I can attest to premade complex wire prespooled from china like mkws being pretty much garbage. I have a small spool of half staggered fused clapton made of supposedly ss316L. I primarily use ss316L and taking a length of wire, doubling it by folding in half and simply twisting it up gives better flavor than that mkws. It wasn't dirty wire, I wiped it with alcohol and a cloth. Just muted, no flavor, the coils got hot and made for a hot flavorless vape. I'm not using any fancy wire either, no kidney puncher or pure atomist. Lightning vapes, coil society. Even UD (cheap chinese wire) came out better than mkws.

It's not that I'm out that much money, was only a few bucks from FT. The issue is if I didn't know any better and just assumed oh, this is what complex coils taste like? Well screw that. And end up ignoring them. Not because half staggered fused are shitty coils but because what I got was garbage. It's hard to find out if you like something if all you've had is a junk version. Imagine the only pizza you ever had was like that weird school cafeteria 'pizza'. You're like yuck. Someone asks if you like pizza or you see pizza places and totally skip them because you think it's nasty. You'd be potentially missing out on good pizza even from chains or great pizza from chicago or ny style pizza joints.

I've seen a lot of cheap chinese premade coils or premade wire on a spool (like a spool of fused clapton or alien wire you spool off, cut, wrap yourself). Stuff that's not even what it claims to be. A piece of ribbon wire claptoned with thinner wire called an 'alien'. Yea, no. Not even close. Does it mean it'll vape poorly? Not necessarily but that's not an alien. Loosely wrapping a piece of ribbon wire around a core wire isn't a 'fused clapton' or 'caterpillar track'. They do weird shit sometimes and it's like coil mystery meat.

Wish I could help with what have worked well for me, as with most stuff seems like it falls back to 'want it done right, gotta do it yourself'. I just build whatever I want to try (or give it a go, doesn't always pan out) lol. Looking at just the specs, coilology coils look decent. You can get specific builds in like 10 packs or get a 7 in 1 kit that has 6 coils, 7 different varieties so 42 coils total for like $12-15 from a lot of places. They make a ss316L kit and a ni80 kit, some places have one or the other, some have both options. Wotofo coils specs don't look half bad either. Some places have gotten better but usually chinese wire say you're getting a clapton it's common (or was) to find like 26-28ga core wrapped with 30-32ga wrap. Just my opinion, I think those chunky wrap wire gauges are meh. All it does is kills performance (and allows them to use less wire so they're cheaper to crank out). I prefer thinner wrap wire gauges, 36ga and thinner (38, 40). They ramp up faster, give good flavor, more responsive coils.

Wotofo's tricore fused claptons for example are 26ga x3/38ga. They got away from those 30-32ga thick wrap wires. A pack of 10 coils is $7 from them. Coilology tricore fused claptons are offered in 3x26ga or 3x28ga wrapped with 36ga, a 10ft spool is like $8 at myvpro (may be cheaper elsewhere). 4-6" should be plenty for a single coil so you could easily get 20 coils off that spool. At least the specs look decent, looks like something I'd make for myself. Quality of the wire, how do they actually taste or perform, no idea.
 

AvaOrchid

Member For 4 Years
Anything is worth a try. However I can attest to premade complex wire prespooled from china like mkws being pretty much garbage. I have a small spool of half staggered fused clapton made of supposedly ss316L. I primarily use ss316L and taking a length of wire, doubling it by folding in half and simply twisting it up gives better flavor than that mkws. It wasn't dirty wire, I wiped it with alcohol and a cloth. Just muted, no flavor, the coils got hot and made for a hot flavorless vape. I'm not using any fancy wire either, no kidney puncher or pure atomist. Lightning vapes, coil society. Even UD (cheap chinese wire) came out better than mkws.

It's not that I'm out that much money, was only a few bucks from FT. The issue is if I didn't know any better and just assumed oh, this is what complex coils taste like? Well screw that. And end up ignoring them. Not because half staggered fused are shitty coils but because what I got was garbage. It's hard to find out if you like something if all you've had is a junk version. Imagine the only pizza you ever had was like that weird school cafeteria 'pizza'. You're like yuck. Someone asks if you like pizza or you see pizza places and totally skip them because you think it's nasty. You'd be potentially missing out on good pizza even from chains or great pizza from chicago or ny style pizza joints.

I've seen a lot of cheap chinese premade coils or premade wire on a spool (like a spool of fused clapton or alien wire you spool off, cut, wrap yourself). Stuff that's not even what it claims to be. A piece of ribbon wire claptoned with thinner wire called an 'alien'. Yea, no. Not even close. Does it mean it'll vape poorly? Not necessarily but that's not an alien. Loosely wrapping a piece of ribbon wire around a core wire isn't a 'fused clapton' or 'caterpillar track'. They do weird shit sometimes and it's like coil mystery meat.

Wish I could help with what have worked well for me, as with most stuff seems like it falls back to 'want it done right, gotta do it yourself'. I just build whatever I want to try (or give it a go, doesn't always pan out) lol. Looking at just the specs, coilology coils look decent. You can get specific builds in like 10 packs or get a 7 in 1 kit that has 6 coils, 7 different varieties so 42 coils total for like $12-15 from a lot of places. They make a ss316L kit and a ni80 kit, some places have one or the other, some have both options. Wotofo coils specs don't look half bad either. Some places have gotten better but usually chinese wire say you're getting a clapton it's common (or was) to find like 26-28ga core wrapped with 30-32ga wrap. Just my opinion, I think those chunky wrap wire gauges are meh. All it does is kills performance (and allows them to use less wire so they're cheaper to crank out). I prefer thinner wrap wire gauges, 36ga and thinner (38, 40). They ramp up faster, give good flavor, more responsive coils.

Wotofo's tricore fused claptons for example are 26ga x3/38ga. They got away from those 30-32ga thick wrap wires. A pack of 10 coils is $7 from them. Coilology tricore fused claptons are offered in 3x26ga or 3x28ga wrapped with 36ga, a 10ft spool is like $8 at myvpro (may be cheaper elsewhere). 4-6" should be plenty for a single coil so you could easily get 20 coils off that spool. At least the specs look decent, looks like something I'd make for myself. Quality of the wire, how do they actually taste or perform, no idea.
Wow thank you for so much information! That is a really good point. If you end up purchasing something let's just say fused Clapton wire and the product that you got isn't a real fused Clapton or it is poorly made or cheaply made you might assume that you hate fused Clapton's when if you had gotten the right stuff you may love fused Clapton's :) that makes a lot of sense. The little package of pre wraps that I got gave me an idea on some things that I might like to try but even as a beginner I know that they're mislabeled and also it's a complete mystery as to what metal they're made of. Right now I'm pretty happy just using some 26 gauge round wire in kanthal and stainless steel depending on what I'm building for. I am glad that I purchased it just so I have an idea on what's possible. And for the price I have found a couple coils in my little multipack that work pretty well though I'm a hundred percent sure that they're not what they're labeled as. Just in this brief amount of time that I have been building and since I originally posted this I feel like the super simple things that I'm turning out are better than the things that I purchased already coiled but that both of them are better than commercial coils for sub tanks. I'm certainly not Advanced or even a moderately good Builder but there is something really nice to be able to build a coil for what I want that day or that week rather than have to select a pre-wrapped coil close enough to what I'm looking for. I definitely don't regret getting any of the stuff that I've gotten and I recently did purchase a thing of coilology Clapton wire to play around with. :) thanks again for your detailed reply! Now that I'm not as concerned about messing something up and I realize just how forgiving a lot of this can be so long as you can check the resistance I'm pretty satisfied with my results and probably will try making a more advanced coil since right now all I'm doing is just wrapping single wires
 

Synphul

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Safety is still a good idea but with regulated mods they're a lot more forgiving. With mech mods the coil determines everything. The resistance, the wire mass. So if you put a coil in and the vape is too weak or too hot the only solution is a new coil. Using different gauge wire, an extra wrap, one less wrap, maybe different coil diameter to get it just right. On regulated so long as the coils are within the resistance range if you've been vaping 60w and the new coil feels a bit cool at 60w.. just bump it up to 65 or 70w. Or vice versa if it's too hot. I realize they hit differently and there's a variety of pros and cons to each (regulated vs mech) but for me that's a big pro and why I prefer regulated. And sometimes I just want something different. Middle of the day or colder days I might want more power, a hotter coil. First thing out of bed I may want a more mild vape, I can tone it down on the fly. My coils I still shoot for a sort of target though I pretty much know what I prefer now. But if they're not perfect I can adjust the power to get what I want which makes it easier for me.

Nothing against trying cheaper coils. I don't have a snobbish opinion, my dislike for funky coils is personal dislike, subjective. I find some snack cakes to be completely disgusting but some people buy them and like them. So whatever works for someone. If you get a batch of cheaper coils, even if they're not 'proper' aliens or something but they give you enjoyable flavor then by all means, go for it. I can't taste what you do when vaping and what I taste doesn't matter. Not when you're the one vaping it. It's a real personal experience so you're your own best judge. It's worth trying a variety of things, if you don't try it for yourself you'll never know. I hate to discourage people from things, like don't use that coil it's pure shit like it's a known fact or something. People need to take their own journey. A lot of people like alien coils but it's not worth vaping on them to impress others if you feel you get better flavor off simple roundwire coils. There's several users on these forums who prefer basic roundwire coils, if that's what tastes and works best for them who is anyone else to tell them what they enjoy or experience is wrong.
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
I can attest to premade complex wire prespooled from china like mkws being pretty much garbage. ... I primarily use ss316L and taking a length of wire, doubling it by folding in half and simply twisting it up gives better flavor than that mkws. It wasn't dirty wire, I wiped it with alcohol and a cloth. Just muted, no flavor, the coils got hot and made for a hot flavorless vape. ...

My apologies for not responding to this any sooner. I had a lot compelling and deep thought about it. First, I am not going to argue, or debate over opinion. People can get so lost doing that the cows won't go home, and ultimately opinions are not worth the wipe, not pro or con.

Nothing against trying cheaper coils. I don't have a snobbish opinion, my dislike for funky coils is personal dislike, subjective. I find some snack cakes to be completely disgusting but some people buy them and like them. So whatever works for someone. If you get a batch of cheaper coils, even if they're not 'proper' aliens or something but they give you enjoyable flavor then by all means, go for it. I can't taste what you do when vaping and what I taste doesn't matter. Not when you're the one vaping it.

You even come back around to the point of it being subjective as well. Please know I was not avoiding responding. I did though see there was a point to not do so with antagonism, as we're discussing opinions, subjective matter. Why argue over nothing essentially?

That's why I abstained from response. I knew better despite perhaps what many call a knee jerk reaction. That was a lot of thought process too. It kept focus on if there was a need to respond at all. Glad I read your latest post here too. It let me see you were not tossing out baited hooks in conversation. Thank you for that. :)

And to clarify my statement regarding hooks. I do not state that to infer, imply, say that you do cast baited hooks. I do know others that do though. It is refreshing and pleasant to find people that do not. :)
 

Synphul

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
My apologies for not responding to this any sooner. I had a lot compelling and deep thought about it. First, I am not going to argue, or debate over opinion. People can get so lost doing that the cows won't go home, and ultimately opinions are not worth the wipe, not pro or con.



You even come back around to the point of it being subjective as well. Please know I was not avoiding responding. I did though see there was a point to not do so with antagonism, as we're discussing opinions, subjective matter. Why argue over nothing essentially?

That's why I abstained from response. I knew better despite perhaps what many call a knee jerk reaction. That was a lot of thought process too. It kept focus on if there was a need to respond at all. Glad I read your latest post here too. It let me see you were not tossing out baited hooks in conversation. Thank you for that. :)

And to clarify my statement regarding hooks. I do not state that to infer, imply, say that you do cast baited hooks. I do know others that do though. It is refreshing and pleasant to find people that do not. :)
Lol, I'm not usually one to be subtle. So if I start crap with someone, for one it's usually for good reason and two it's usually blatant as all hell. :p

I only try to share my own experiences. Everyone has different experiences or opinions. If someone doesn't do things my way, doesn't matter. So long as it works for them. Even subtank factory coils vs rebuildable or handmade. I got burned on the unreliable nature of factory coils, getting shit coil after shit coil burning out on me in a day or two and paying top dollar for them. A pack of x amount of coils I was planning to last me 3 weeks would last me 4 days, that was an issue. Proprietary coils being out of stock was a pia. Paying a premium for that pia was insult to injury, so my personal opinion the concept of factory made coils is, 'they suck'. Some people love them. They can't be bothered with wicking, dicking with coil wrapping, grabbing a screwdriver. I get that. Whether they're just about simplicity or maybe they have arthritis. Whatever the case, if they're enjoying it then that's all that matters. That's how I see it.

Friend of mine and I were talking, she likes internal battery mods. I hate the thought of tossing a whole unit when mod or battery dies. Also not keen on having a whole mod down for recharging, I prefer the ease of swapping external batteries. I've had a few rip, I've rewrapped them. Some people see it as a real pain or real challenge. Rarely do I have battery issues, apparently she's had nothing but problems with batteries, torn wraps and shit chargers. So she has her reasons for preferring what she does. I imagine if I'd had that experience and wasn't at least somewhat handy (dangerous) with tools or fiddling with crap - I'd have a whole different outlook.

One of the best helpful approaches I found oddly enough was from a guy who runs a mattress forum. He would help folks, provide opinion or suggestions. But that's it. He wouldn't say 'get this', as if his pick were the only way. He'd be like 'these are all good options, choose'. I liked that approach and to me it came off as helpful. So I've tried to adopt it as much as possible. Help isn't shoving something in someone's face, more like nudging them down a path where they're more likely to find success. Which is the whole point of helping in the first place. I can't pick what will taste better to someone else any more than I can pick a color they'd like. I've seen some fugly colors out there but someone likes them. Everyone's happy place is a little different from the next guy or gal.
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
I hate the thought of tossing a whole unit when mod or battery dies. Also not keen on having a whole mod down for recharging, I prefer the ease of swapping external batteries. I've had a few rip, I've rewrapped them.

I've had a few batteries try venting on me. Been fortunate I realized it and got them out of a mod, set them to aside safely to either explode responsibly, or cool down and go to a "not using that any more" pile. We need to take them for recycling in Parkersburg. We're not always up that way and it is a bit of a special trip, 40 miles one way. I put the batteries in empty pill bottles.

Agree with you though despite that. Rather have swappable batteries than toss away a device once a battery goes belly up.

One of the best helpful approaches I found oddly enough was from a guy who runs a mattress forum. He would help folks, provide opinion or suggestions. But that's it. He wouldn't say 'get this', as if his pick were the only way. He'd be like 'these are all good options, choose'.

That is indeed a very good way. I try to not shove stuff in people's faces either. If it seems I do it's been unwittingly.

Lol, I'm not usually one to be subtle. So if I start crap with someone, for one it's usually for good reason and two it's usually blatant as all hell. :p

I'm one not subtle either. Try being fair, give someone three strikes for nine innings. After that, I stop playing ball with them. I'm not going to be around people I need to constantly apologize to because it's not possible I'm always wrong, nor anyone. And I won't be around people that are jerks simply to be jerks.

If there's some kind of valid beef with someone and I can "get it" okay, maybe being a bit of jerk might be needed. Yes, sometimes it is a need unfortunately. That noted someone being that for no valid reason and I walk away. No point wasting my energy, or being drug by theirs. People see jerks too so I don't say anything. Not my circus or monkey. :)
 

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