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Stitched Alien Coil Build Advice???

ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I'm having one hell of a time trying to figure this build out and figured it would be a better use of my time to cast a line here and see if I can't find some help rather than burn through all of the rest of my prepped materials in vain (again).
I'm following my typical alien coil build that I always use and my technique is pretty good (3x26ga core wires, 36ga de-cored clapton) so I'm just completely dumbfounded on why I just can't get this build to work since it's essentially the same damn thing except that I'm inserting a 40ga wire into the decored 36ga prior to stretching it out.
I can't seem to catch a groove on the "re-wrapping in the opposite direction the Clapton was done" step and can't get the de-cored section with the stitch to lay flat against the core wires...it just keeps turning into a tangled knotted mess or pulls my cores into the dreaded triangle configuration rather than staying flat and parallel.
I always prep 10 sections of de-cored clapton and straighten out 30 pieces of wire which I then tape together in 3's for my prep work and I'm getting tired of burning through all of that prep work and not having a single useable coil to show for the effort and was wondering if maybe someone knows a trick or some bit of info that could help me correct this issue.
Any help at all would be a great help...thanks in advance!
Oh, and this is the tutorial I've been going off of for this build with the only difference being that I free hand rather than use a swivel system setup, so, this is the technique I'm using...maybe there's another one that I don't know of that works better?




You're not drinking water are you?! You realize that stuff is found in antifreeze!?!
 

mach1ne

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I free hand rather than use a swivel system
im gonna guess that this is most of your problem...its so much harder making aliens with no swivel.

the other thing that got me with this build is that i usually under stretch my decore for regular aliens, and then apply a little tension while im wrapping it up to get it 'dialed in'. the problem with stitched aliens is that when i do what i normally do, the remaining decore twists around a little from the tension i apply...when there is a stitch in the middle that gets all tangled up in there. i find that i can just carefully slide my hand down the length of decore every time i stop the drill to move my sliders, and that will fix it up...but they still look a tiny bit uneven. its much better if you can get your stretch perfect, and then wrap it up (with the stitch) with no tension at all.
 

ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
im gonna guess that this is most of your problem...its so much harder making aliens with no swivel.

the other thing that got me with this build is that i usually under stretch my decore for regular aliens, and then apply a little tension while im wrapping it up to get it 'dialed in'. the problem with stitched aliens is that when i do what i normally do, the remaining decore twists around a little from the tension i apply...when there is a stitch in the middle that gets all tangled up in there. i find that i can just carefully slide my hand down the length of decore every time i stop the drill to move my sliders, and that will fix it up...but they still look a tiny bit uneven. its much better if you can get your stretch perfect, and then wrap it up (with the stitch) with no tension at all.

I figured part of it was from free-handing, and I have set up a swivel system before, but I still get that rush and excitement from being a bit more hands-on with it and perfecting my technique and the awesome feeling of being really on my game and getting through entire strands with little to no mistakes...I also seem to be able to get much tighter spacing when free-handing, but part of that is probably because I never sat and messes with a swivel system long enough to get proficient at it.
I've kind of moth-balled the stitched alien idea (for the third time) and am just happily popping out regular aliens again...though I have been thinking of using this 40 gauge for my decor rather than the 36 gauge I was using, but the few times I've tried have been beyond disastrous...with my technique, there is just no way for the 40 gauge to hold any semblance of shape or "kink" while passing through my fingers...during the re-wrapping process any type of catch that occurs (even something as small as the ridges of my fingerprint) snag that 40 gauge and straighten it out quicker than I can stop the drill.
So, moving from stitched Alien advice to higher gauge wire advice...anyone got any tips or tricks to using 40 gauge for decor? I was thinking of maybe stepping my core wires down to 28 gauge rather than 26 gauge or going with a 2-strand core rather than three-strand so that I can keep the decor less stretched to begin with and seeing if I can catch a groove like that. Questions or comments? Feel free to chime in...


You're not drinking water are you?! You realize that stuff is found in antifreeze!?!
 

mach1ne

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
imo stitched aliens dont vape as good as regular anyway. its good to learn how to do all of the different techniques, but some of them are for looks and not performance....

i totally feel you on the free hand builds. i was so eager to start building that i was up in the middle of the night trying to do that stuff before i even got all my wire and tools together to 'properly' start building. my first set of aliens was made from decored geekvape 26/32 clapton wire with no swivels. at first i found regular and fused claptons to be easier freehand (just pinch the wires together properly and its like a clapton jig as wide as your arm span), but i started using swivels and found they balance out when you get into harder builds. i highly recommend getting used to using them. most builds passed aliens are going to be impossible without them.

i have only tried 40g aliens on 30g cores. the only difference is how gentle and careful you have to be. the process is the same, but its a bit harder making a perfect decore at first (unless you are already practiced at 40g and smaller), and you have to be much softer on all your tension re-wrapping it back on. under stretch your decore to compensate for the frailty of the 40g (it seems like the force of the drill alone can break it sometimes). just do everything a bit slower and be as gentle as possible. youll learn a lot about tension and 'feeling' things, and likely get better at making aliens with larger wrap too.

dont forget to post your builds :cheers:
 

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