Aga-t2 what have i done wrong

[emba]

ok so im pretty sure ive got myself reasonable at making coils now, they seem to heat fairly evenly anyway, what i am struggling with is getting it to taste anywhere near good. im assuming its something to do with the wick, at first i assumed i hadnt oxidised it properly so i just made up a new one. now no offence to those that make them but im a bit old fashioned git and as such i dont like video guides, i like written ones and theyre pretty thin on the ground it seems so if im doing something wrong its possibly down to the fact that it hast come up in the limited written info ive found. anyway heres what i did:

washed the mesh in water
heated it well over the gas ring on the cooker
did it again 3 times getting it red hot then dunking in a cup of cold water
rolled the wick into a tube so it fit the hole perfectly

tested

smells awful so try again, maybe the wick should be a bit more solid.

re-rolled the wick as tight as i could and re-tested

still smells terrible (i didnt bother tasting it, i did that last time and it was that bad it nearly made me sick! the smell was the same so i didnt bother)

so what have i done wrong? as i say im sure its the wick but could it also possibly be something like the coils being too far from the wick or even that its just too hot?

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Are you burning any of the juice ONTO the wick?

Meaning, dripping a lil bit and setting it alight to get the lil fireworks show?


For my AGA (i just successfully wick and coiled it last night)

I used 400 grade mesh and wound it up as tight as I could with NO center hole.

I heated it to red a few time just to rid it of any nasties and such, did a few juice burns on it then coiled it up outside of the AGA.

I put the wick in, slid the coil down, attached the end bits, pulsed it a few times. Drenched the wick in juice and then filled it up via the filler hole.


I am in Vanilla cupacake heaven at the moment.


What juice are you using?

Mesh wicks and coils tend to give a very true representation of a juice, if you were using vivi's or filler cartomisers before, and they tasted fine, the juice might NOT taste good on the mesh wick.

I also found VG heavier juices do better (for me) on the wick and coil.

 

[emba]

yeah i put some on the wick, in fact i did pretty much what youve said here except that there was a small hole in the center of the wick as i dont have enough mesh to make it solid without it rattling around in the hole. ive tried several juices (maple syrup, black cherry, apple) all diy stuff as i dont actually have any pre mixed, soaked the coil in juice and theres plenty of vapour but no matter what juice i use the unpleasant smell/taste is the same, its impossible to distinguish what the flavour should be, its just "burning ick" my juices are PG heavy but i dont know that it would be that bad, you certainly cant taste any of the flavour and even smelling it feels like its burning the inside of your nose, toxic i think is the word!

maybe i should wait until i get some more mesh and wire and start again fresh and see how it goes with another attempt, im sure ill get it eventually. id make up a VG heavy juice as ive been meaning to play with some more VG heavy mixes, but yet again the postie has not brought my VG and ive run out so have to wait for that one too

 

[Purplefowler]

I had an epiphany yesterday! I've been having the exact same problem to the extent that I was chucking loads of tainted juice away as it turned nasty in a very short time. I came across a little gem from the same bloke who came up with the dripbit method. Basically make a coil using the dripbit method. Then you need to make a wick but not like normal. I was using a slice of mesh approx an inch wide but this type uses a square approx 1cm/1.5cm. It needs to be rolled into a tube. Then burn it evenly just once and pop it in. Good to go! Obviously make sure the wick was a nice cherry red all over. I was really sceptical as I've always burnt and dowse 3 times in water and then another 3 times in juice so doing one good dry burn seemed just wrong but I've put a couple of tanks through and it is still full of flavour and I also had the least amount of hotspots. I think I was just over preparing the wick or something!

 

[emba]

thanks that will be first up to try when i get some more mesh in

 

[jimsie33]

Isn't that a bit small Purplefowler? Surely it doesn't reach the bottom. Have you any pics or a Linky?

 

[Purplefowler]

Lol, I didn't really explain that very well! The idea is that you have a hollow wick with very thin walls (long enough to reach to the bottom )Everything says logically it should wick or keep up and it should short out but it works a treat

 

[jimsie33]

Ah I see, a bit like the u-wick then Cheers Purplefowler.

 

[Ssscrudddy]

Well I just cleaned mine, which was working fine before. I pulled out the wick & blow torched it. I dry burned the coils without a wick in & blew really hard to get rid of the build up on the coils. Put the wick back in (after rolling it a bit tighter) & it tasted not nice.
I believe the taste was from the coils not getting enough juice.
Bear in mind this wasnt a new wick or coil, just the existing ones that were tasting really nice before.

So I pulled out the wick again, unrolled it, then re-rolled it, making it slightly bigger. When I put the wick back in after this it was very tight to the hole, & closer to the coils. Tastes lovely again.

For the record I use the drill bit method to make the coils, & then the wick can be slid in.

I say make the wick looser than you need, then if it is too big, you can easily roll it tighter by just rolling it a bit more (without having to undo it first). Trying to unroll it & make it bigger is a pain in the arse.

Also for the record, I dont bother quenching & I dont bother setting light to juice on the wick either. I do oxidise the wick before I roll it, & then again after I've rolled it.

Edit, there seems to be 2 trains of thought about the wick. 1 saying have it hollow, 1 saying have it full up. I havent noticed a difference really, but I also havent rolled enough wicks to tell either.
The only thing I have noticed, was when I used a pre-made Hangsen juice, it was really thick & didnt wick properly, so didnt work properly in my AgaT+ (same juice worked lovely in a dripping atty). But the same wick & coil without doing anything to it worked lovely with my own mixed juices which are a lot runnier (50/50 PG/VG although the VG is Voldemorts AqueousG which is apparently VG mixed with water to make it as runny as PG)

 

[compactdan]

Thanks this info helped me a lot.