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Resistance wire safety guide

advancedvapesupply

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I bought a small propane torch and just kind of quickly run it back and forth over it without holding it in one spot too long....If they end up getting too hot they start to bend on me. I am not familiar with dry burning and still have issues when cleaning ss coils.....I can only really tell when the lights are off but that gunk on the last row or two of wraps never gets burned off. What would be the safest compound of SS wire to dry burn?
Well, they are all safe to dry burn, just not to the extreme degree of a torch, or like most people do kanthal. Just a dull orange glow. It's not like titanium or anything, you can dry fire it. That said, 430 contains basically no nickel so that would be my best guess for the "safest", although I'd still argue that there is not really a risk in dry firing if you do it safely and not excessively for all the other kinds. 316L is by far the most common SS.

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Scott12579

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It isnt so much I cant I just dont like to go trying out different or newer sites that arent reputable. I cringe at all the people who go from site to site buying stuff and putting their credit card info into different sites......I buy online, just prefer paypal so I can limit the chance of my info being stolen. I really want to buy wire that is clean and ready to vape on as I will most definitely not be using single strand coils and cleaning it is a time consuming pain anyway. I do enjoy BSing at my local B&Ms with the staff as I used to frequent a lot and rarely have since starting DIY and rebuilding. I always check but I was just mentioning it is harder to find for me anyways and hoping we could agree that it was newest on the shelf. It also has the least vaping background as its most recently introduced to the market which was why I wanted to wait and hear about how it is working out before I try it out.
Temco industrial, super clean wire, good prices ,fast shipping and reputable
 

suDnd3th

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I bought a small propane torch and just kind of quickly run it back and forth over it without holding it in one spot too long....If they end up getting too hot they start to bend on me. I am not familiar with dry burning and still have issues when cleaning ss coils.....I can only really tell when the lights are off but that gunk on the last row or two of wraps never gets burned off. What would be the safest compound of SS wire to dry burn?
Dry burning ss in general is safe. Unless you start turning it into liquid you aren't changing any of the properties of it and even then it unless it starts to give a brown sugar effect and bubble your not taking any of its properties out of it. I've welded with stainless steel for years and unless you weld it wrong with tig or your welding it with stick there is little to no harm to the body and lungs.

The heat will make it more brittle tho in some classes of SS.

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VAPESWAPSHOP

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Dry burning ss in general is safe. Unless you start turning it into liquid you aren't changing any of the properties of it and even then it unless it starts to give a brown sugar effect and bubble your not taking any of its properties out of it. I've welded with stainless steel for years and unless you weld it wrong with tig or your welding it with stick there is little to no harm to the body and lungs.

The heat will make it more brittle tho in some classes of SS.

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Im curious is that a compund ss or straight ss or does it make a difference in results? Ill be honest ss coils are tricky to get that metallic taste out of if you scorch em a lil too much. I usually end up dripping on the coil directly and burning off juice or wicking and burning juice then rewicking once it dont smell funky any more. I cant stand that initial taste though (316L is what im using right now btw).
 

suDnd3th

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Im curious is that a compund ss or straight ss or does it make a difference in results? Ill be honest ss coils are tricky to get that metallic taste out of if you scorch em a lil too much. I usually end up dripping on the coil directly and burning off juice or wicking and burning juice then rewicking once it dont smell funky any more. I cant stand that initial taste though (316L is what im using right now btw).
All SS is some form of a compound each number variation is a different compound type. Some are primarily nickel others are high chromium content and some are a mixture of both mixed with other metals.

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VAPESWAPSHOP

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All SS is some form of a compound each number variation is a different compound type. Some are primarily nickel others are high chromium content and some are a mixture of both mixed with other metals.

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O ok and pretty much the same burn off on the diff types then too... or do you notice some compunds have cleaner qualities than others?
 

conanthewarrior

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I do tend to dry burn my SS 316L coils when I change wicks to get the gunk off. I find them to last a fair time and work well for me in TC mode.

I have switched to using SS316L for nearly all my builds now, including mech builds. It is easier for me to just stick with one wire type. I will use Ni200 and Ti for older mods that only support these wire types in TC mode.
I know I could just use it in standard power mode, but that is what I use my mechs for and older plain regulated power mods. If the mod does TC well you might as well use it.

My question is, is it worth changing from SS316L to SS 430 due to its higher TCR? SS316L is smooth on the majority of my mods, but wondered if it was worth switching to this for better performance. If I do, it will become my main wire type and be used for mechs too, so am unsure if it is best to stick with what I am already using so it works best across everything?

EDIT: I do also have some SS 317L (Gplat- I didn't buy it as Gplat though, that is stupidly overpriced for welding wire). I hardly use this though as its TCR is even less than 316L- I haven't actually tried using it in a mech though so I will have to see what it is like.
 
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suDnd3th

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O ok and pretty much the same burn off on the diff types then too... or do you notice some compunds have cleaner qualities than others?
They are all different. 316 is marine grade ss and has a small amount molybdenum in it with chromium and Nickel being it's 2 highest properties. The L in it stands for low carbon content around less than 2% if my memory serves me right since 316L is a very common vape wire.

304 if I remember correctly is food grade ss and is commonly found in ovens and other things in your house. Also headers in vehicles and screws. It has a higher chromium content and lower nickel.

309 is a high Nickel ss and I'm not sure what it's used all in all I know for welding is its used for welding other SS to carbon steel.

They are all different alloys mixed into normal steel in small ways. Main reason is for corrosion resistance in a variety of different environments all based on its grade. If you really want to know exacts and uses for it you best bet is to wiki them. There are high carbon steel and low carbon steel alloys of it.

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VAPESWAPSHOP

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They are all different. 316 is marine grade ss and has a small amount molybdenum in it with chromium and Nickel being it's 2 highest properties. The L in it stands for low carbon content around less than 2% if my memory serves me right since 316L is a very common vape wire.

304 if I remember correctly is food grade ss and is commonly found in ovens and other things in your house. Also headers in vehicles and screws. It has a higher chromium content and lower nickel


I may have to see about some 304, that sounds like something that would likely be cleaner and stay clean a while longer. Also looks like its a higher tcr as well. Thanks for sharing, interesting info!
 

Wingsfan0310

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My favorite SS for TC ios SS430 that I buy from Unkamen. It's rel.atively inexpensive (200 feet for $10) ships from Missouri, is high quality and works great. The best thing is the TCR is almost 50% greater than SS316L (.00138). It's what I mainly use in my RTA's for TC.
https://www.creatingunkamen.com/col...e-nickel-free-introductory-sale-100-guarantee

qDpbMVR.jpg


Cheers,
Steve
 

VAPESWAPSHOP

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My favorite SS for TC ios SS430 that I buy from Unkamen. It's rel.atively inexpensive (200 feet for $10) ships from Missouri, is high quality and works great. The best thing is the TCR is almost 50% greater than SS316L (.00138). It's what I mainly use in my RTA's for TC.
Cheers,
Steve

I saw that I was just on that site, 430 is nickel free maybe thats the trick?
 

suDnd3th

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That would help in some ways. Reason why SS316L doesn't have a metal taste is due to its low carbon content. I was way off on the numbers for it. It's less than 0.03%. 304SS definitely isn't the way to go tho. It has quite a higher carbon content.

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VAPESWAPSHOP

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That would help in some ways. Reason why SS316L doesn't have a metal taste is due to its low carbon content. I was way off on the numbers for it. It's less than 0.03%. 304SS definitely isn't the way to go tho. It has quite a higher carbon content.

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I DO have problems with 316L tasting metallic in early stages of use and after dry burning. Especially if it gets too red hot when im cleaning it.
 

suDnd3th

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That's weird. I've used 304 when I first tried out SS wire and it definitely had a metallic taste. Less than kanthal that's for sure but it was still there.

Moved to Titanium wire and their was a huge difference. But it was a pain to work with when making anything more than a simple staple coil. So I was told about SS316L tried it and never looked back.

I have a hard enough time getting SS316L here in the wire sizes I want here in Canada especially the small sizes. So I'm kinda stuck with Lightning vapes wire since trying to get the good stuff is near impossible here. I've tried emailing temco for orders and other companies and never get any response back. Tho temco I know will charge me an arm and a leg just for shipping. Stores around here also don't stock anything smaller than 28ga in SS316L which drives me nuts cause all its good for is core wires.

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VAPESWAPSHOP

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That's weird. I've used 304 when I first tried out SS wire and it definitely had a metallic taste. Less than kanthal that's for sure but it was still there.

Moved to Titanium wire and their was a huge difference. But it was a pain to work with when making anything more than a simple staple coil. So I was told about SS316L tried it and never looked back.

I have a hard enough time getting SS316L here in the wire sizes I want here in Canada especially the small sizes. So I'm kinda stuck with Lightning vapes wire since trying to get the good stuff is near impossible here. I've tried emailing temco for orders and other companies and never get any response back. Tho temco I know will charge me an arm and a leg just for shipping. Stores around here also don't stock anything smaller than 28ga in SS316L which drives me nuts cause all its good for is core wires.

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Have you heard of cwi-canada(central wire industries)? I just found 304L from them 12$ a lb....I thought Ti had a funny break in too but easiest to work with. AND although its a pain to work with, nickel never tasted that way to me on fresh coils and I have thought of going back but SS outlasts ALL. Im gonna likely try the 304L and go to trying 430 if I get the same issue.
 

suDnd3th

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Have you heard of cwi-canada(central wire industries)? I just found 304L from them 12$ a lb....I thought Ti had a funny break in too but easiest to work with. AND although its a pain to work with, nickel never tasted that way to me on fresh coils and I have thought of going back but SS outlasts ALL. Im gonna likely try the 304L and go to trying 430 if I get the same issue.
I'll have to check them out.

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conanthewarrior

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I will be honest- I have never actually noticed a difference in taste between wire types, such as Ni200, Titanium, Kanthal or SS. I just really can't detect a difference so use what is best for the mod in question.

@Wingsfan0310 , do you recommend me to try SS430? I have settled on SS316L as my main wire type, for builds on mods that support SS temp control, and also for my Mechanical mods.
I find it to give a smooth TC experience, but feel I may be missing out on something even better. It's a shame we don't have unkamen or Temco available cheaply here in the UK- I like the sounds of a pound of SS.
That would last me forever, and if a new wire type became popular for temp control I could always donate it to mech using friends.

EDIT: I did laugh at this though "No Nickel! This 430 Grade Stainless Steel does not contain any nickel at all, while many other types contain nickel which is bound and nonreactive, this is ideal for those with VERY sensitive skin as well as customers in the EU." - why is it ideal for people in the EU? Does everyone there have a nickel allergy lol?
 
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Wingsfan0310

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I will be honest- I have never actually noticed a difference in taste between wire types, such as Ni200, Titanium, Kanthal or SS. I just really can't detect a difference so use what is best for the mod in question.

@Wingsfan0310 , do you recommend me to try SS430? I have settled on SS316L as my main wire type, for builds on mods that support SS temp control, and also for my Mechanical mods.
I find it to give a smooth TC experience, but feel I may be missing out on something even better. It's a shame we don't have unkamen or Temco available cheaply here in the UK- I like the sounds of a pound of SS.
That would last me forever, and if a new wire type became popular for temp control I could always donate it to mech using friends.

EDIT: I did laugh at this though "No Nickel! This 430 Grade Stainless Steel does not contain any nickel at all, while many other types contain nickel which is bound and nonreactive, this is ideal for those with VERY sensitive skin as well as customers in the EU." - why is it ideal for people in the EU? Does everyone there have a nickel allergy lol?
If you are happy with SS316L and getting good results, I'd keep using it. I'm leery to recommend SS430 to you because I tried some from Crazy Wire in the UK and didn't like it at all. The TCR was way off so I'm not sure what the wire really was. I like to know what I'm vaping. If you were in the USA I'd definitely say try some of the Unkamen SS430. I've also heard Advance Vape Supplies has very good SS430 (I've never personally tried it though because I'm happy with the Unkamen and have a lot of it). Once I find wire that I feel is high quality and produces the results I like, I tend to stick with it. Wish I could be of more help. :cheers:

Cheers,
Steve
 

skt239

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If you are happy with SS316L and getting good results, I'd keep using it. I'm leery to recommend SS430 to you because I tried some from Crazy Wire in the UK and didn't like it at all. The TCR was way off so I'm not sure what the wire really was. I like to know what I'm vaping. If you were in the USA I'd definitely say try some of the Unkamen SS430. I've also heard Advance Vape Supplies has very good SS430 (I've never personally tried it though because I'm happy with the Unkamen and have a lot of it). Once I find wire that I feel is high quality and produces the results I like, I tend to stick with it. Wish I could be of more help. :cheers:

Cheers,
Steve

Hello Steve, good to see you around...

I actually tried some 430 pre-mades claptons from AVS and they worked just fine in TC mode. Im not sure if they are doing spools of 430 but I'd say it's worth trying. Hope all is well!
 

conanthewarrior

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If you are happy with SS316L and getting good results, I'd keep using it. I'm leery to recommend SS430 to you because I tried some from Crazy Wire in the UK and didn't like it at all. The TCR was way off so I'm not sure what the wire really was. I like to know what I'm vaping. If you were in the USA I'd definitely say try some of the Unkamen SS430. I've also heard Advance Vape Supplies has very good SS430 (I've never personally tried it though because I'm happy with the Unkamen and have a lot of it). Once I find wire that I feel is high quality and produces the results I like, I tend to stick with it. Wish I could be of more help. :cheers:

Cheers,
Steve

I completely understand that, especially with Crazy wire. If they published the TCR like stealthvapes did, it would be much better. Stealthvapes unfortunately don't sell 430, so I will stick with the SS316L unless I find somewhere of good quality that sells the SS430.

It is a shame we don't have things like Unkamen over here, a whole pound of wire is amazing value. It also is quite funny that companies like Gplat were selling standard SS316L and SS317L welding wire as some amazing new wire, at a ridiculous price.
They must of made a killing!

No worries there, you are always helpful when you can be, and I am thankful for the help you do give me and everyone else here :)
 

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