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Coil builds and wicking for flavor chasing!

RodThaVapenRat

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It says its a wider grane or bigger juice fibers ......I guess its like different noodles some skinny some thick .......or that's how I see it
 

martinelias

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I wanna try it.
 

Mike H.

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Not a super sub ohmer here but ,i hear KoJenDo cotton is pretty good..picked up some along with a 30ft roll of kanthal 26g to try my subtank nano when it gets here.

My kayfun and Taifun are my best flavor tanks so far...ive found using alot of watts kills taste despite what ohm coil you use.

In the end you are either using more volts with less watts or more watts with less volts...somewhere along the lines they cross like a motor does with torque and horsepower.

Ive built coils with instant ramp up..coils with slower ramp up (either thicker gage wire or higher ohms with more wraps) but in the end i always go back to the happy medium on either tank.

28g on 2.4mm i.d. 5/6 wraps for high 1.2 low 1.3ohm coils and true raw organic cotton for wick.
 

mike_eternal

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ok. hope im posting in the right place....i have mastered low ohm builds....well to my satisfaction anyway.... i can get great flavour at low ohms, but im thinking its got to be a way to get that same flavour in say a .5 ohm range, just cant seem to get the right combination....any ideas? what im i missing or am i just too used to loads of flavour from lower ohms?
 

Swerved

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ok. hope im posting in the right place....i have mastered low ohm builds....well to my satisfaction anyway.... i can get great flavour at low ohms, but im thinking its got to be a way to get that same flavour in say a .5 ohm range, just cant seem to get the right combination....any ideas? what im i missing or am i just too used to loads of flavour from lower ohms?

Tell us a little about your coil(s), your RDA, and your mod for starters. I'm sure someone here will have some insight as to what you could do once they know what you're working with.
 

KeyserSoze

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Whats different about it?

It's exactly 1.0 better! Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Not a super sub ohmer here but ,i hear KoJenDo cotton is pretty good..picked up some along with a 30ft roll of kanthal 26g to try my subtank nano when it gets here.

My kayfun and Taifun are my best flavor tanks so far...ive found using alot of watts kills taste despite what ohm coil you use.

In the end you are either using more volts with less watts or more watts with less volts...somewhere along the lines they cross like a motor does with torque and horsepower.

Ive built coils with instant ramp up..coils with slower ramp up (either thicker gage wire or higher ohms with more wraps) but in the end i always go back to the happy medium on either tank.

28g on 2.4mm i.d. 5/6 wraps for high 1.2 low 1.3ohm coils and true raw organic cotton for wick.

I'm still trying to break the coil code. I know it depends on the juice and atty but I keep thinking that if I pay enough attention to heat flux and heat capacity (and keep wrapping more coils) that I'll find something that is a great balance. High-ish heat, quick-ish ramp and lots of flava!

@mike_eternal I think @Swerved nailed it. Let us know what you've been doing (wick material and a description of how you use it is helpful too). We can at least throw some ideas at you and see if anything helps.

For 0.5ish ohms I do 26ga dual coils. 7/64" or 1/8" 6 wraps IIRC. In my Hobo and derringer it has decent flavor but I like 25ga same coils at ~0.4 better.
 

mike_eternal

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Ok. For instance on my smok m80 I done a single coil buil at .58 with I beleive it was with 24g kanthol in the pineapple atty, vaping at around 35 watts seems to do pretty good.... I got lots of mods and atty been trying different things, I'm actually thinking it may be the juice itself being inconsistent. Beards no 5 3mg. Doesn't seem to taste the same when I get it in the bigger 30ml bottles
 

mike_eternal

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But what I'm soothing for is to get a good build to vape at around 20-25 watts
 

RodThaVapenRat

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Well I built a 26g loosely twisted 5 wraps around a 3mm bit...0.5. It likes the low 20s
 

KeyserSoze

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Ok. For instance on my smok m80 I done a single coil buil at .58 with I beleive it was with 24g kanthol in the pineapple atty, vaping at around 35 watts seems to do pretty good.... I got lots of mods and atty been trying different things, I'm actually thinking it may be the juice itself being inconsistent. Beards no 5 3mg. Doesn't seem to taste the same when I get it in the bigger 30ml bottles
Inconsistent juice is a real thing. I got a 5ml sample of a well-known brand and loved it. Bought a 30ml, loved it. Bought 120ml and it was disgusting. Thought maybe it was just me having too much of it and getting burnt out on it so I started giving it away to friends. All of them had had the same flavor before and came back and said that mine was no good.
But what I'm soothing for is to get a good build to vape at around 20-25 watts
I like 26ga Kanthal dual coils. 2.4mm 6 wrap or so. Depends on the atty but it works pretty well at 20-30 watts.
 

mike_eternal

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Imma gonna do a build tonight. I'll try the 26, 2.4, 6 wrap. See what happens... I'm also gonna get a new bottle of juice
 

Swerved

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After a bunch of different builds for me, so far I've had the best flavor out of a 8 wrap, dual coil with 29 gauge kanthal (that's the only gauge I have right now). That's on the cheap little atty I'm using; it comes in about .8 ohms and the flavor so far is beautiful around 40-50 watts on my MVP 3.0 pro (60w). Seems to be just the right amount of surface area without having too much metal to heat since the wire is kind of small.
 

mike_eternal

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That reminded me, on the pineapple atty, the wire holes are too large... 26g and up won't lock in I have to use the set screw heads instead
 

outwest

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I always was kind of leery about readyxwicks,because of the amount of fibers that are created when you cut the stuff. it almost turns to powder and I was always worried about inhaling it.
I torched some to clean it up and fingers ended up covered with shiny dust particles. Made me leery about using it after torching. The amount when you cut is is bad enough, but after torching it's terrible.
 

pulsevape

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I torched some to clean it up and fingers ended up covered with shiny dust particles. Made me leery about using it after torching. The amount when you cut is is bad enough, but after torching it's terrible.
Yeah I vaped porous ceramic wicks for a long time,and a few of us ceramic guys tried readywick.....it never really stuck.it doesn't carry flavor as well as porous ceramic and I don't think it performs particularly well either....but that dust turned me off to it immediately.
 
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johntheawe

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What makes a clapton fused? And what's the difference? What can I get with 26 gauge wire and a counterclockwise-only spinning dremel? I can't really build a clapton because the dremel is too fast.
 

KeyserSoze

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What makes a clapton fused? And what's the difference? What can I get with 26 gauge wire and a counterclockwise-only spinning dremel? I can't really build a clapton because the dremel is too fast.
My understanding is that a clapton with more than one wire in the center is "fused". It started as a parallel coil of large wire wrapped in small wire but I call anything with multiple inner wires "fused" now. I might be wrong though. Happens all the time.

You could just twist the 26 with the dremel but I'm not sure what else.
 

johntheawe

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Yeah, you can only twist, but the lowest speed is too fast and with a drill I can press the trigger real lightly to go real slow.
Also it takes less than 2 seconds to twist it :D
 

KeyserSoze

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Agreed. IMO, a drill is what I would have bought before buying my second RDA, had I not already had a nice one. Nowadays mine actually gets more use straightening Kanthal than it does any other purpose.

I still need to order that 38ga Nichrome and see if @scarecrowjenkins really is the Mr. Miyagi of flavor coil building. :D
 

scarecrowjenkins

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I just shared this in the "post your builds" thread, but it applies here as well. You could use a kanthal core for a higher resistance build. I buy my 36g Nichrome clapton wire from twistedmesses.com, i think it's $20 for 250ft. Regardless, it is the BEST for claptons. This build is one of my favorites for flavor ever. Even if you're not ready for claptons yet, put this in your back pocket because it's simply amazing.
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I used a 22g N80 core, with 36g & 38g wraps. The two different sized wraps were just for looks, there is very little, if any, difference between using just either one. But the large core and small clapton wires work AMAZING for both flavor and vapor (see video for performance). They also heat up instantaneously, as opposed to 28-32g wraps like commonly seen. Flavor on this build is just nonsensical, it's so good.
I'm a flavor chaser myself, and i cannot say enough good things about working with nichrome. Surface area helps dramatically with flavor, so using a lower resistance wire lets you add a few wraps to achieve the same resistance compared to kanthal. If i had the same selection at my disposal i would start with 24g zipper coils. Zipper coils for me achieve the best flavor aside from claptons. I can post a link to an awesome tutorial on zipper coils if you want. Flavor chasing is just that-a chase haha. One that never seems to end :p
 

johntheawe

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I just really need a build that I can do with not too much work, and have sexy flavor. I also wanna find a build that will compensate the lack of flavor in the doge v2 lol, my favorite comp rda, but I want mah flavz too. But I love my tugboat v2 and my patriot, and I use my 454 big block for kratom since it's too much for me to even manage, and anyone who has vaped kratom no exactly why I would use my least used rda ;D
 

statseeker

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Single twisted 26g coil on a box at 30watts. Flavor on a Mutation X is nice.
 

KeyserSoze

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I just shared this in the "post your builds" thread, but it applies here as well. You could use a kanthal core for a higher resistance build. I buy my 36g Nichrome clapton wire from twistedmesses.com, i think it's $20 for 250ft. Regardless, it is the BEST for claptons. This build is one of my favorites for flavor ever. Even if you're not ready for claptons yet, put this in your back pocket because it's simply amazing.
0f3562022c248bb48faddb5b34b81048.jpg
dc03dbe7f6065418fa7093f45fa3228c.jpg


I used a 22g N80 core, with 36g & 38g wraps. The two different sized wraps were just for looks, there is very little, if any, difference between using just either one. But the large core and small clapton wires work AMAZING for both flavor and vapor (see video for performance). They also heat up instantaneously, as opposed to 28-32g wraps like commonly seen. Flavor on this build is just nonsensical, it's so good.
I'm a flavor chaser myself, and i cannot say enough good things about working with nichrome. Surface area helps dramatically with flavor, so using a lower resistance wire lets you add a few wraps to achieve the same resistance compared to kanthal. If i had the same selection at my disposal i would start with 24g zipper coils. Zipper coils for me achieve the best flavor aside from claptons. I can post a link to an awesome tutorial on zipper coils if you want. Flavor chasing is just that-a chase haha. One that never seems to end :p

Gorgeous build as always. You just dropped a new concept on me (again). Paralleling the small wraps. Someone stop me when my BS gets out of control but wouldn't paralleling those wires help with ramp time and lower resistance? Even if you use two pieces of the same gauge? Why only use two? Three is better than two. When will it stop?! I'm going to parallel 24ga then triple parallel wrap that with 38ga. I guess that would be a fused triple clapton? Double fused triple wrapped clapton duals? But I usually get mine scattered smothered and covered.... :confused:

And yes we want you to post the zipper tutorial! That's another one I haven't tried. I agree that flavor is much like the dragon I've heard of people chasing. What a tasty pursuit though! Do you usually run single coil setups?

My latest build is 28ga Kanthal triple parallel dual coils in my MutationXv1. 1/8" 6 wrap (18 per side, 36 total) @ 0.21 ohms. It busts nuts for a simple build. Ramp? What ramp?

I'm off to buy some Nichrome now. Thanks a lot SCJ. Like my bank account needed you giving me excuses to spend money. :mad: ;)
 

KeyserSoze

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Well, I saw that TM was out of 38ga 250ft rolls so I checked LightningVapes. Just ordered 100ft each of 24, 26 and 28ga N80. Also grabbed 500ft of 38ga for $15 before the discount... :eek:

I almost got some 22ga but I'll see how the 24-28 does first. I like my 24ga Kanthal and occasionally use my 23ga. I hate the 22ga Kanthal though. I know N80 is different but I like faster ramp times and will figure out a way to get the extra surface area with the smaller wire. :)
 

scarecrowjenkins

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Happy to help :p The dual outer wraps was just for looks, the clapton wraps have very little affect on the resistance. It's the core wire/wires that dictate the resistance. I don't understand the science entirely. I used to run mostly single coils when i was building kanthal. I've since become a huge fan of nichrome 80. I can use more wraps to hit my target resistance which gives me much better flavor. The extra vapor is just a plus.
A fused clapton will have two or more cores, that's where the "fused" part comes in. I haven't noticed any performance improvements from using more than one wire to wrap the cores, only aesthetic improvements like the coil above. It's tricky lingo haha, but it all makes sense eventually. Fused claptons hold more juice in the coils themselves, which helps with overall wicking and seemingly with flavor as well. Hang on and i'll scare up that zipper coil tutorial :)
 

scarecrowjenkins

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Here ya go:
I would highly suggest giving his videos a watching, they're all immensely informative and in-depth. I've learned a lot of what i know from Twistedmesses' tutorials :D
 

steven7010

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Here ya go:
I would highly suggest giving his videos a watching, they're all immensely informative and in-depth. I've learned a lot of what i know from Twistedmesses' tutorials :D
Have u seen anything on titanium wire idk about that i know that it will oxidized and I haven't seen too many people running titanium wire
 

Podunk Steam

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Okay here's a curveball away from RDAs.
I triple twisted some 32 gauge Ni200 and found it to be pretty delicate but manageable. This coil is on a Ivogo Kayfun mini with the AFC screw removed, it's 9 wraps and was built on a 3/32" drill bit, it rings out at 0.13 ohm on both my tester and the DNA40.
IMG_20150212_230319_zpspvbnrjtf.jpg

I prepped the coil by heating it on a mechanical mod and pinching like any contact coil although I quenched the coil with cold tap water after each heating.
IMG_20150212_230408_zpsaw7qkt9i.jpg

It's wicked with Cellucotton and I had to hold one side of the coil with a fingernail while pulling the Cellucotton through from the other.
IMG_20150212_230240_zpswmrszoqb.jpg

I was hitting the coil with 22.5 watts at 440F and I liked it a lot, not the longevity of a spaced coil but but real close to RDA flavor from a tank. A slightly warm vape even with the length of the mini and loads of vapor with really good flavor. I vape 50/50 most of the time.
I cut the wick even with the top of the chimney, soaked it, pushed the ends down into the liquid channel area, made little channels down through the with with a needle to the liquid channels, closed it up, filled it up and vaped.
 

Podunk Steam

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I posted the Kayfun mini because it surprised me, the little chamber really seems to works for it. One of these days I was hoping to hear a report on the build from someone.

Come in Tokyo
IMG_20150605_115136_zpsfvvq72ca.jpg
 
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KeyserSoze

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Okay here's a curveball away from RDAs.
I triple twisted some 32 gauge Ni200 and found it to be pretty delicate but manageable. This coil is on a Ivogo Kayfun mini with the AFC screw removed, it's 9 wraps and was built on a 3/32" drill bit, it rings out at 0.13 ohm on both my tester and the DNA40.
IMG_20150212_230319_zpspvbnrjtf.jpg

I prepped the coil by heating it on a mechanical mod and pinching like any contact coil although I quenched the coil with cold tap water after each heating.
IMG_20150212_230408_zpsaw7qkt9i.jpg

It's wicked with Cellucotton and I had to hold one side of the coil with a fingernail while pulling the Cellucotton through from the other.
IMG_20150212_230240_zpswmrszoqb.jpg

I was hitting the coil with 22.5 watts at 440F and I liked it a lot, not the longevity of a spaced coil but but real close to RDA flavor from a tank. A slightly warm vape even with the length of the mini and loads of vapor with really good flavor. I vape 50/50 most of the time.
I cut the wick even with the top of the chimney, soaked it, pushed the ends down into the liquid channel area, made little channels down through the with with a needle to the liquid channels, closed it up, filled it up and vaped.
Crazy build! I bet it is flavor city. It took me a minute to wrap my head around a 0.13 ohm coil being fired at 22.5W.
 
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Nothing wrong with some 26ga duals. That's my favorite size wire. Have you noticed a difference between 2mm and 3mm coils when related to flavor? I wrap a little smaller in my Derringer and hobo (2.4mm) so they will fit but I usually default to 1/8" or a little bigger than 3mm in my other attys. It's just easier to wrap and wick for me.
dude smaller diameter gives you better flavor, no doubt about it
 
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KeyserSoze

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View attachment 23786
dude smaller diameter gives you better flavor, no doubt about it
I'll have to give it a try. I've wrapped nanos before and it didn't blow me away. I'll try something like 2mm with wick inside the coils and see what's up. Thanks for the advice.

@scarecrowjenkins if your ears were burning last night its because I was cursing your name. Wrapping that 38ga is a monumental PITA! I was using a magnifying glass and still couldn't see it very well. Managed to get enough to wrap 2 coils though. Hoping to get them mounted tonight but we'll see.

Ended up doing 24/38ga 6 wrap 7/64".
 

KeyserSoze

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I gotta say SCJ, the 24/38 Clapton is pretty sweet. Mine came out to 0.2 ohms. Works pretty well on a mech mod. Going to check it out on the IPV3 tomorrow or the next day. Runs pretty warm and its a tad laggy but so far I'm digging it. It's not bad lag, it's pleasant. Feels (rightly) like a "heavy" coil compared to any straight coil. Just gotta give it a second between drags or it's gets way hot.

Also, did I mention that it was a total pain in my ass? I'm not sure I'm cut out for the flavor chase.
 

KeyserSoze

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Ok so I still have a little PTSD from wrapping @scarecrowjenkins ' Clapton suggestion but it really does rock the fuck out. My juice went from "meh on strength and a little boring in profile" to "a little overflavored and I can taste every single one of the 7 flavorings I used". I'm sold. As soon as I can get one of those visor/magnifying glass things I'll be wrapping lots of them.

In other news, braided some 28ga last night... The first run was a fail but was some good practice for round 2. I think this is too loose and the 4 wrap single coil was 0.16 ohm... Need a tighter braid and another wrap. Might flatten it too. Then, of course clapton that with parallel 38ga. o_O

20150706_225833.jpg
 

KeyserSoze

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Oh and my biggest coil failure to date was night before last. Tried a zipper coil (only the beginning of the fail, just wait, it gets worse). All was going well until I tried to flatten the first piece and accidentally overtightened it. It kinked a little.

Ok so screw a zipper coil, I still have this one sweet piece of triple twisted 28ga. Came up with a badass plan B. Let's loosely twist some 38ga and clapton it around the triple twisted 28ga!!! Talk about a hot mess. Good thing wire is cheap when you buy it at Lightning Vapes!

Oh well, gotta break some eggs. :shrug:
 

djk8280

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Best flavor atty IMO, Veritas FTW. Old one but excellent one. Everyone wants to put vertial coils in it and thats fine but the best vape (IMO) comes from a single horizontal coil directly in front of the airflow. Intense flavor decent vapor production but flavor is out of this world!!!
 

KeyserSoze

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Best flavor atty IMO, Veritas FTW. Old one but excellent one. Everyone wants to put vertial coils in it and thats fine but the best vape (IMO) comes from a single horizontal coil directly in front of the airflow. Intense flavor decent vapor production but flavor is out of this world!!!
C'mon now! I don't need excuses to buy more RDA's. My mixing table looks like a RDA graveyard already. Some of them just laying there cock-eyed, uncapped, still wicked. There's so many I can't even take the time to properly bury them cleanly back into the box whence they came.

PS - I see those badges. They shouldn't have given your opinion more sway, but they did.
 

TwistedWires

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derringer dual clapton 40ga on 25ga kanthal(yes it was rather annoying to build after 2 hours messin with the 40 i finally go it on the 25 right) 0.4 i run it at 4v 40w and im using 100% cotton balls for wicks pretty standard. vapes my max vg and 100vg custard juices orgasmicaly . my new exthermal has pretty good flavor with 36 on 25 dual clapton same setup as before just 36ga instead of 40. vapes good also but flavor isnt as pronounced as the derringer. doesnt matter what coils i put in it it just always tastes better than other rda i guess the chamber size im not sure but i dont question it i love it.
i want to make a dual rda adapter for my istick but ive been low on $$ lately but hopefully soon i can get it together so i can smoke both my derringers at the same time
 

TwistedWires

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Ok so I still have a little PTSD from wrapping @scarecrowjenkins ' Clapton suggestion but it really does rock the fuck out. My juice went from "meh on strength and a little boring in profile" to "a little overflavored and I can taste every single one of the 7 flavorings I used". I'm sold. As soon as I can get one of those visor/magnifying glass things I'll be wrapping lots of them.

In other news, braided some 28ga last night... The first run was a fail but was some good practice for round 2. I think this is too loose and the 4 wrap single coil was 0.16 ohm... Need a tighter braid and another wrap. Might flatten it too. Then, of course clapton that with parallel 38ga. o_O

20150706_225833.jpg
what rda is that? i like how center is dual and the grubs are triangular bet those would be hard as fuck to strip out the grub heads
 

KeyserSoze

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what rda is that? i like how center is dual and the grubs are triangular bet those would be hard as fuck to strip out the grub heads
It's a MutationX v2. I hated those screws for the few hours I lost the screwdriver for them but those and the #2 phillips screws in my MX v1 are the ONLY screws I haven't stripped. I really like the triangle screws but this RDA is the only one I've seen them on. I actually chipped the corner of the screwdriver off , screws are still fine.
 

Professor Snape

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Just want to thank everybody here for their input, and proving even old dogs can learn new tricks. Even though I've been into DIY for about a year, I never realized that coil diameter affected flavor. Now I'm wrapping 26g around a 2mm screw driver, and rebuilding all my tanks; even rebuilt the Goblins that I have given up on. Enjoying more flavor! Thanks again.
 

Schmucko

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May sound boring but 7 wraps, 2mm, 26g kanthal. No frills. Great flavor.
Hey, not boring if it works. That's my choice setup right there. I run dual verticals. Seriously thought this was something I posted at first....
 

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