New to building, a little lost. You lot have the knowledge i need!

[MarlDaeSu]

So I have an iStick 50w which i will be using as my mod for the immediate future (got a Nautilus and an Atlantis Mega as my current attys). I am a little overwhelmed by all the different RDAs, resistance wire types, wick types... you know how it goes, i'm sure you were all in my position at one point.

Two affordable drippers that caught my notice (not interested in crazy >£100 elite setups...yet) were the Mutation X V4 and the Doge X V2, both can be purchased for under £40 and are reasonably well liked, from what I can see, by the community. Are these any good? Any other suggestions?

Which brings me to coil type. There seems to be a myriad of different types, Nichrome, kanthal, titanium etc etc, and each of those come in various gauges. What are the different pros and cons of the various wires and guages? What's a good starting point for a noob such as myself?

I realise this could all be googled, but I much prefer to have a dialog with real live people!

Thanks!

 

[UncleRJ]

First of all, Welcome to the Underground!

I suggest as you are new to the wonderful wacky world of building, you adhere to what is known as the K.I.S.S. princaple.

Also known as Keep It Simple Stupid

I suggest 28 gauge Kanthal to start. If you make a coil out of that correctly, it should last you a good long while doing just dry burns and replacing the wick when needed.

That being said, I only use RTAs so I will leave the rest up to the RDA types.

Good Luck!

 

[MarlDaeSu]

Thank you friend, i will be getting an RTA too, but i love the option of changing flavours every few vapes when i am sitting at home, so the dripper seems perfect. Can you tell me what range of gauges you use? why use bigger or smaller? do the different metals make a big difference?

Thanks!

 

[UncleRJ]

I use 27 gauge Kanthal because I like working with the stuff. It's IMHO the best to use unless you are working with Temp Control devices which are a whole different critter.

I can change the coil diameter and number of wraps to get the resistance and surface area I want for each build.

And once properly built, with care the coils can last for weeks or more!

 

[Zamazam]

Mutation X V4 and the Doge X V2

Those attys have a huge amount of airflow and are really designed for hi watt coils, if you get them, use 24 Gauge Kanthal wrapped around a 3 to 3.5mm mandrel. I have found that the builds just around .2 to .3 Ohms produces massive amounts of vapor, The iStick 50 is up to the job powering these builds, but you will most likely be running the iStick wide open while using the lower builds. Higher resitance builds take longer to heat up, and that's the trade off with cloud busting RDA's, more clouds, or a cooler vape and less clouds, but more flavor. It's all up to how you build them.

 

[iLiptiKal]

I don't have either of the RDA's you mentioned, but I've seen many people happy with them both. My first was the Troll, and I like it still even after adding 4 other atty's to my growing collection.

I'd also look at the Stro RDA's because I like the two post design, similar to the velocity, but in your price range. I'm planning to grab the mini soon.

As far as coils, I'd recommend starting with 26 gauge Kanthal and build something in the 0.5-0.8 range. Try a dual coil, wrapped around a 2.5mm screwdriver, using 8 wraps. That's the first thing I built and found it a good starting point; should come out to 0.6 ohm.

Use the coil wrapping section at www.steam-engine.org to calculate the specs of your coils and play with the numbers to see how the resistance and heat flux change.

Titanium is only "safe" in a temp control setup, and even then I have my doubts. Do a little googling and you can find some scary shit. Similarly Nickel is only used in temp control.
Nichrome has a slightly lower resistance than Kanthal, allowing you to get an extra wrap or two for more surface area and flavour, but is a bit softer, won't last as long before requiring replacement, and doesn't hold up as well to dry firing as Kanthal does.

Organic cotton seems to be the most popular wicking material, but personally I like rayon. To me it performs as well if not a bit better than cotton and doesn't have a funny taste when new.

The thing with building your own is that you'll mess around a lot as you figure out what your preferred setup is, but that's all part of the journey. I only started building 6 weeks ago, and am by no means a professional builder yet, but I hope this helps.

Welcome and Vape On!




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[MarlDaeSu]

Those attys have a huge amount of airflow and are really designed for hi watt coils, if you get them, use 24 Gauge Kanthal wrapped around a 3 to 3.5mm mandrel. I have found that the builds just around .2 to .3 Ohms produces massive amounts of vapor, The iStick 50 is up to the job powering these builds, but you will most likely be running the iStick wide open while using the lower builds. Higher resitance builds take longer to heat up, and that's the trade off with cloud busting RDA's, more clouds, or a cooler vape and less clouds, but more flavor. It's all up to how you build them.

I was a little worried i would end up with a setup that the iStick 50w might not be able to handle but it's good to know it can, even if just about haha.

I don't have either of the RDA's you mentioned, but I've seen many people happy with them both. My first was the Troll, and I like it still even after adding 4 other atty's to my growing collection.

I'd also look at the Stro RDA's because I like the two post design, similar to the velocity, but in your price range. I'm planning to grab the mini soon.

As far as coils, I'd recommend starting with 26 gauge Kanthal and build something in the 0.5-0.8 range. Try a dual coil, wrapped around a 2.5mm screwdriver, using 8 wraps. That's the first thing I built and found it a good starting point; should come out to 0.6 ohm.

Use the coil wrapping section at www.steam-engine.org to calculate the specs of your coils and play with the numbers to see how the resistance and heat flux change.

Titanium is only "safe" in a temp control setup, and even then I have my doubts. Do a little googling and you can find some scary shit. Similarly Nickel is only used in temp control.
Nichrome has a slightly lower resistance than Kanthal, allowing you to get an extra wrap or two for more surface area and flavour, but is a bit softer, won't last as long before requiring replacement, and doesn't hold up as well to dry firing as Kanthal does.

Organic cotton seems to be the most popular wicking material, but personally I like rayon. To me it performs as well if not a bit better than cotton and doesn't have a funny taste when new.

The thing with building your own is that you'll mess around a lot as you figure out what your preferred setup is, but that's all part of the journey. I only started building 6 weeks ago, and am by no means a professional builder yet, but I hope this helps.

Welcome and Vape On!

Yeah titanium is explosive under the right conditions, but I assumed that it was some sort of stable alloy, the fact that people use pure titanium coils is just silly to me. This was the sort of stuff I was looking for. Kanthal does sound like the wire metal for me I had forgotten that I was told this before until you mentioned it, but someone else once told me rayon is much superior and that Japanese cotton is both a bit of a fad and a clever marketing trick to the "natural is always better" crowd. I'll probably start with something around 0.8, as i have heard of the grape vine the super low resistance coils can be a little dangerous for your battery if you don't know what you are doing fully.

I use 27 gauge Kanthal because I like working with the stuff. It's IMHO the best to use unless you are working with Temp Control devices which are a whole different critter.

I can change the coil diameter and number of wraps to get the resistance and surface area I want for each build.

And once properly built, with care the coils can last for weeks or more!

This confirms it for me. Thanks bud! There was a few different suggestions for the gauge of the kanthal wires, so I'm a little bamboozled on that front but i'll get to the bottom of it

Thanks everyone who replied, this is all gold. And yes, I ordered an ohm-meter

edit: how big is the difference between 24, 27 and 28 AWG Kanthal. Is it more a preference thing or is there a vivid difference?

 

[iLiptiKal]

Really play with the coil calculator on steam engine and you'll get a good feel for how gauges change up the number of wraps you'll need for your coils.

There is quite a difference in size between everything. 24g is 0.5mm thick, while 30g is 0.25mm thick.



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[MarlDaeSu]

Time to get stuck into steam engine, with gusto!

Thanks for the help everyone, really, it is VERY appreciated!

Just bought the Mutation X V4, (and some Ben Jonsons to review mmmmmmmmmm) and I've got some Japanese cotton (couldn't find decent bloody rayon wick on amazon), and ohm meter and some BVCs for my Atlantis in my basket, awaiting my discoverys from steam engine before i purchase them all along with the Kanthal

edit: Bloody hell steam engine is incredible! According to it, with all my stats in 28AWG 0.32 round Kanthal is the one for me. All in all I just purchased: the Mutation X V4 RDA, Alice in Vapeland's April Moon e-juice, an ohm-meter with build in 510 connector, a coil wrapping mandrel, 5x BVC atlantis 1 ohm coils, a pair of wire cutting pliers, 28AWG round Kanthal wire and Japanese untreated cotton. My poor bank account, on the plus side... gonna be a good month, thanks again for the help everyone.