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Rookie questions

Nameste

Bronze Contributor
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Hey everyone
I am extremely new to building coils and all rta stuff..

I got 24ga kanthal A1 wire and Japanese cottons to play around rta. I watched bunch of videos but I still can't figure out things

Like how ID makes difference?
How does wrap counts effects the ohm you end up getting with coil?
How does wire Ga effect the coil?
Etc..

Thanks in advance
 

zephyr

Dirty Pirate Meg
VU Donator
Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Unlisted Vendor
Bigger inner diameter (ID) will let you use more cotton, and thus coils can soak up juice from the cotton faster, a 3.5mm ID coil will also have a higher resistance (ohm) than a 2.5mm ID coil made with the same gauge wire and same number of wraps.

More wraps will increase the ohm (resistance)of a coil. Be sure you can fit as many wraps as you're wanting to use into your rebuildable atomizer! Same goes for ID, there is definitely such a thing as "too big"

The lower gauge a wire is, the lower its resistance is. For example, if all three coils have a 3mm ID and 6 wraps, the 24awg one will have a lower resistance/ohm than 26awg or 28awg. However, the 24awg will also take longer to heat up than 26 or 28awg because it has more mass. Gauge is measured in both AWG (American Wire Gauge) and in millimeters.

Another thing to note is there are different types of wire -Kanthal (A1, FeCrAl are other names) has the highest resistance, all other things being equal, than Nichrome (N80), and N80 has higher resistance than stainless steel - SS316 or 317 etc.

Be sure to know battery safety and how much power (amp rating) your batteries Really have, and try something like this to get an idea of how many wraps will turn into what resistance, etc
http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.html?

This tool will also tell you what AWG a wire is if you only know it's width in mm
 
Last edited:

MrMeowgi

The Vapin' Drummer
VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Hey everyone
I am extremely new to building coils and all rta stuff..

I got 24ga kanthal A1 wire and Japanese cottons to play around rta. I watched bunch of videos but I still can't figure out things

Like how ID makes difference?
How does wrap counts effects the ohm you end up getting with coil?
How does wire Ga effect the coil?
Etc..

Thanks in advance
Wow so much to answer. The id of the coil determines the length of material need. Get on steam engine.org or get a good app. I use vape tool app. Input what material you have and tell you the amount of wraps you need to get to the desired ohms. Also give you the surface area and heat index of your coils. Sound pretty new to this so ohms law is a must. You can't build lower than your battery can perform.hopefully others jump in with advice.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 

pizzadave80

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Biggest helper as stated is to get s good app like vape tool or hit up the steam engine site. This way you can basically "build a coil" before building. It'll show you what resistance you have with the I'D, material, amount of wraps, and amount of coils. Then be sure not to go too low and have amps that exceed a safe level. Keep in mind that larger coils need more power to heat up but they generally perform better since there is more surface area heating along with more cotton within. More cotton also helps reduce dry hits. Perfect the basic builds with round wire, and then you can start looking into mor3 advanced stuff. Advanced builds tend to produce more flavor than standard round wire builds mostly sue to surface area of all the wires and within the advanced builds. Lots of info....and I'm sure alot of other builders will step in too. Biggest piece of advice.... learn ohms law, and stay safe....the more you build the better the coils get...and the better vape you get.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

mach1ne

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
there is lots of good advice in here already. ill just focus on steam engine here because understanding these tools and experimenting with building will answer all your questions better than we can...

wire wizard and the coil wrapping tool @Pegleg Meg linked to both will help you calculate a coil at a resistance. they do it in similar ways, and mostly tell you the same info. wire wizard is more suited to complex coils, but try to learn how both of them work because they both have strengths and weaknesses. experiment by inputting different builds and seeing how the resistance changes as you change the metal types, coil size/wraps, wire gauge, and coil composition. a good build is a balance of coil mass (the amount of metal per coil) and the power you apply to it to get it to heat up fast enough and to the right temp (for you). that balance will be difference for everyone, so it can take a bit of effort to find yours.

the ohms law calculator will help you figure out how your build will actually effect your setup. once you have a build, you can put your resistance into the calculator, and the output power (in watts or volts) in to find your amp draw. this is important for mech mods with fixed output and no battery protection (if you go over the battery's amp rating it can reduce their overall life span/performance or otherwise damage them/you), and not as big of a deal for regulated mods with variable output and battery protections in them. if you only use regulated mods, this tool will be less useful to you, but its good to know how to use it regardless of its usefulness. if you plan to try a mech mod (highly recommended imo), or if you already use them, this is a very important thing to understand (before you use a mech mod btw ;))

its a good idea to learn how to use the tools so that you can build what you want/need and understand how and why...you might find yourself needing to build for an unregulated series box, or an istick30w or something out of your normal range. its also good to try other stuff, its easy to find great vapes in every 'style' (mtl, restricted lung hits, direct lung hit/cloud chasing, low/medium/high power, all manner of different mech mod configurations).

welcome to the forums :cheers:
 

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