Take three foot long strands of the 26 gauge.
Clamp them down individually in your drill and straighten them out good.
Put all three together, clamp them down and get them pulled tight. Triple twist.
Use this wire and wrap it around the largest bit you have, 3mm-4mm is ideal. 4-6 wraps, I recommend doing two coils.
Install and wick.
This should give you a pretty low resistance build that can kick out both flavor and vapor. Just make sure you're using proper high-drain batteries and your mod can do at least 75W+. I know you said you wanted 1.2-1.7, but honestly this is way higher than anything most people are vaping. .5 and below is what you want these days, juices are made to be basically blazed off coils now and lower power vapes are struggling to keep up.
And no, thinner wire is for higher resistance, low wattage, mouth to lung (usually) vapes. Seeing that you're twisting wire and using a dripper, I doubt that's the kind of vaper you are. Thicker wire is what you want for drippers that take higher wattage vapes. You do not have to keep your builds above 1 ohm, keep them above 0.1 ohms.
BUT IF YOU INSIST on keeping your resistance high, buy some 32 gauge and triple twist it.
