How to wrap with silica?

[MooseMan]

Hey all, been building coils on my protank heads and an IGO-L with silica for a while now. Pretty happy with my protank heads (five wraps of 32 ga. on 2.5 mm silica) but my rba coils seem to be lacking.

I usually wrap 30 ga. around a 1.5 mm wick 8/9 wraps coming in at 1.4-1.5 ohms. I notice that the silica is 'broken' a lot on either side of the coil. Is this normal? What could I do to improve my coils? I have 1.5, 2, and 2.5 mm silica and 28, 30, and 32 ga kanthal.

Thanks for any advice.

Moose

 

[M5amhan]

by broken do you mean fraying? that may be normal if it keeps happening since there is a lot more room for the silica to come apart in an rda. maybe try using a drill bit to wrap the coils and use some organic cotton for your rda. or if you are set on a silica type experience try some readyxwick, it doesnt fray like silica from what ive seen

 

[bbybee]

I too am an Igo-L lover. Using one as I type. Simple and tasty.
I would second the organic cotton, as I use it exclusively now, but used silica for over a year before making the switch.
To help with cutting the silica as you wrap, easy to do btw, I started using 2 pieces of silica and a straightened paper clip. Put the paper clip on the side away from you, this will help with the cutting on the back side. You can still wrap snugly then when the clip is removed it gives room for proper wicking. You can trim each piece of silica on opposite sides of the coil if you find it too hard to keep in place before putting the cap on.

 

[MooseMan]

yes i did mean fraying. Thanks for the responses, I have been wanting to try readyxwick but still have quite a bit of silica left.

 

[joowan]

still have quite a bit of silica left.

Might as well as just just throw it out, cotton is better than silica in every single way possible. More flavor, more absorbent, super easy to work with, and cheaper.

 

[jae]

I use the readyxwick and swear by it. It lasts just about forever. Just torch it clean and it's as good as new, although the wire will of course still need replaced.

 

[MrScaryZ]

Go to 28 gauge that will fix and cotton


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[Jimi D]

I get all my silica from the Vape Mesh co. from the U.K. High quality stuff.

 

[70414]

If I didn't use cotton, I would have nothing to do. Coils last forever.

 

[P1NkY]

...I notice that the silica is 'broken' a lot on either side of the coil. Is this normal?...

Yeah, that's pretty much par for the course for silica. Especially when you dry-burn it. It doesn't "like" bending, movement or expansion/contraction of the coils. Hence, it frays (it splinters, really, evident if you look at it under a microscope).
That's one of the reasons I changed over to cotton.
I do still use silica occasionally, but then again, I used to set fire to tobacco leaves and paper and godknowswhatelse and proceed to inhale the gases and particles produced by said combustibles.

 

[dmska]

Go to CVS and pick up a roll of the sterile cotton. Taste is much better than silica and pretty easy to work with. If you can find it, the Japanese cotton is even better.

 

[Zombiewoof]

IGO-L, 28ga. and Cotton like Mrscaryz said. One thing about cotton, pre-fire (pulse) your atty (completely wetted of course ) a few times, even then you'll notice a bit of a "fresh" cotton taste for the first few vapes, at least that's been my experience. After that, it's all good.