Tried my hand at my first fused clapton. Started out ok, then wraps got spaced. Want happy with it at all. Sadly I can try again atm. I have to get a drill key, my drill is old school LOL. Will have to wait till I can get one in Thursday before I can try again.
Any suggestions on what I can do to fix the spacing issue? I really want to get this down. Been wanting to try a small fused clapton in my Thereom. Am trying to make a 2×28g/38g for my first one.
Fuse tension and angle are everything. Fuse tension directly affects angle. If the tension changes then level of the cores will change which changes the angle at which the fuse is contacting the cores. So ... CONSTANT EVEN tension is key!! This applies to your drill hand tension as well.
Best tips I can think of for starting out-
-If you don't have swivels ... my first suggestion would be get some swivels lol. You can make perfect claps without them. It's just SO MUCH easier with swivels. You can get a 25 pack of cheapo walmart
ball bearing swivels for like $2-3 (usd). If you don't have/want swivels let me know and we can talk about how you fuse and I'll throw some tips out for yah. I spent a while on the drill before I picked up my first set of swivels. I know others here have done free hand as well.
-First and foremost (and this will apply to almost everything you ever decide to do with wire), don't try to force the wire to do what you want it to do. Well spooled wire typically wants to lay all nice and neat. It just needs guidance and coaxing.
-Hold your fuse wire a good 8+ inches away from the cores. When I'm doing claps I set my fuse hand on my leg. It's at least 1'6" away. The further away it is the less moving your hand affects the angle. This leaves a lot more room for error while you move down the stick.
-Soft hands. This has 2 applications. 1)More than likely you need to lighten up your grip on the fuse wire (or spool if you fuse from the spool) a bit. The tighter you hold the wire the harder it is to keep even tension. 2)Smooth skin means the wire/spool has a smooth constant surface to slip through. You can use a plastic baggy, or a little juice, to achieve this as well.
-Where the fuse and the cores meet should be a damn near perfect "T" to make a 90 degree angle.
-Practice!! This is a learned skill. Just like with any learned skill the more you do it the better you get at it.
-Be ready to get frustrated. If you want clean and pretty coils then you'll have to put some work in to learn. That includes all coils both "simple" and complex. Imperfect coils vape just fine. Even ugly fuse jobs vape just fine.
We are here to help. Any questions will be answered!!