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Having a really hard time with my builds recently

Hello everyone!

I have a Smok Baby Beast Tank with an Smok Baby Beast RBA and everytime I test fire it on my minitab or my Smok Alien Box Mod, one of the coils always gets hotter faster than the other one. It's always the one on the left side of the deck. I am getting really frustrated as I do not know what is going on. Also I am having a really hard time building coils recently. I can never get the right number of wraps to correspond to the calculated ohms on my ohm calculator. I have been trying to build a 24 gauge Kanthal dual coil build with an inner diameter of 3.0mm with a predicted ohm reading of around 0.253 and I always get something much higher. The calculator says to do 6 wraps, but I am having a hard time making identical coils. I place the wire on the wrapping jig and make 6 complete revolutions, but like I said one of the coils always heats up much faster on my Baby Beast RBA, and I do not know why. It's always the coil on the same left hand side. I have built dozens of coils in the past few weeks and the one on the left hand side always heats up faster than the other one. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Do I have a bad deck, are my coil building skills still very bad, or what am I doing wrong?? I am getting very frustrated. Last night a made a build and got it to read 0.301 ohms and after I took a puff I could hear sizzling after I released the fire button. I think I might have wicked that coil wrong, and kept getting dry hits, but It's the exact same one that always heats up much faster than the other one. I am looking for any help! Do you guys have any recommendations on better kanthal wire than the 24 gauge am using? I was thinking of using a thicker gauge kanthal wire. Or should I buy a new RTA? Any help and advice would be immensely appreciated. Attached is the picture of the build I made last night that read at 0.301 ohms, the one that heats up faster would be the one on the right hand side in the picture.
 

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MrMeowgi

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Clean the shit out of the rba. May have some funk on the post holes causing a bad connection. Not sure on an rba but some tanks and rdas have a negative screw as well on the bottom of the tank. Make sure everything is tight.

Sent from a pile of wood chips
 

Carambrda

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Usually it's just dirt buildup between the screw threads in the post holes and post screws. An ultrasonic cleaner is the fastest solution for that, but you can always do it like this:

 

nadalama

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When I wrap coils for a dual coil build, to be sure they are the same, I wrap them as one parallel coil.

If you don't cross the wires, you can just unwind the coils from each other. Then you have two identical spaced coils.

I can't see your build in a way that I can tell what's wrong with it. Maybe if we could see it from the sides?
 
Thanks for the advice! @Carambrda and @MrMeowgi I am going to do a very thorough cleaning of my mod and RBA, as per the video, I will be ordering some sodium percarbonate, thank you so much!!!

@nadalama That is a great idea!!! Thank you!!!, and I don't have that build anymore, I tried to make a better one, but ended up just using a prebuilt coil for my smok baby beast tank instead.
 

gopher_byrd

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From the picture, the coil on the left was 6 wraps and the one on the right was 8 wraps. They need to be the same otherwise they will not heat up equally. Electricity will always take the path of least resistance so more power was going through the coil on the left.

This also explains why the resistance didn't match your calculator.
R(total) = (R1+R2)/2
 
Thanks for noticing that! Do you have any tips on how to count wraps? I use a wire jig, and I think I make the same amount of wraps each time, but something always ends up being off. I try to count the wraps when I'm done with a coil, but my eyes aren't what they used to be and I find it very difficult. I've looked all over YouTube for tutorials but I always end up messing up somehow.
 

gopher_byrd

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I have old eyes as well. A magnifying glass or strong reading glasses help. If you're using a Coil Master or something similar just count the times the little screw that guides the wire comes back over the top. Also, after making them place them side by side. If they don't match it will be obvious.
 

Carambrda

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From the picture, the coil on the left was 6 wraps and the one on the right was 8 wraps. They need to be the same otherwise they will not heat up equally. Electricity will always take the path of least resistance so more power was going through the coil on the left.

This also explains why the resistance didn't match your calculator.
R(total) = (R1+R2)/2
They're both 6 wraps. What you are seeing on the bottom right is just the bottom part of the inside of the coil because both coils seem to be not horizontally flush nor accurately centered above the airflow holes.
 

gsmit1

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From the picture, the coil on the left was 6 wraps and the one on the right was 8 wraps.
Beat me to it. I've had builds on occasion where I accidentally had an extra wrap on one side. That will definitely make one side heat faster than the other.
 
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Rooster Cogburn

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Only thing I got is strum them coils until they heat evenly and definitely give the deck a good cleaning especially if you’ve been using it awhile without an ultrasound bath or even some boiling water and a toothbrush scrub. It only takes a tiny bit of crud to effect the build. Also you may want to consider an rta/rda. They are made solely for rebuilding so they tend to perform better and make it easier then RBA decks, which are shoehorned into the dimensions that work in place of their factory coils. A dedicated rebuildable isn’t held down by that restraint which allows it to be purpose built for performance and ease of building rather then being able to rebuild within the dimensions of the factory coil for which the tank was tailored to.
 
Hello everyone! I cleaned my RBA really well, and I am getting better readings and results. I soaked my RBA and everything else in vinegar and then in some vodka and gave everything a very good scrub with a new toothbrush. How do you guys clean your rebuildables? Is sodium percarbonate good, or should I buy an ultrasound cleaner?
 

Carambrda

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Hello everyone! I cleaned my RBA really well, and I am getting better readings and results. I soaked my RBA and everything else in vinegar and then in some vodka and gave everything a very good scrub with a new toothbrush. How do you guys clean your rebuildables? Is sodium percarbonate good, or should I buy an ultrasound cleaner?
Sodium percarbonate does work extremely well if you just let it soak for a little while, but be sure to get it in pure form, then mix it with water, and rinse thoroughly after the cleaning. People have been using it for ages to clean beer brewing installations and stuff like that.
 

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