First Coil Making Advice Please

[pava]

Hi apes, my apologies if this is long winded, but I thought I'd try and give as much information as I possibly can in order for you to be able to give me the best advice. Well that's my logic anyways.

As the title says, I'm looking for advice on making my first coils and I'm a mouth to lung vaper at present, with the following kit:

Smok Guardian II
Smok XPRO BT65
istickTC60W
Aspire Nautilus x2
UD Zephyrus x2
Tobeco Velocity Clone
Bridgeless Atomiser
RTQ RBA Coil Designer Kit

I run all my mods at around 13W with a 1.6ohm coil in the Nautilus. The Zephyrus came with 4 x 0.5 ohm OCC coils and 4 x Ni 200 0.15ohm coils (unused), but was bought for its re-buildable deck (included). The istick will fire Kanthal coils from 0.15 - 3.5ohms and the Smok 65 from 0.2 - 3.0ohms.

I'm looking at building duals coils on both the Zephyrus and the Velocity decks (unless you advise differently that is) and have the following Kanthal wire. 0.2, 0.25 & 0.32 (stealth vape) and LTQ Kanthal A1 24 gauge (came with my coiling kit). I also have 3 samples of Japanese cotton for wicking.

I currently vape liquids with no nicotine (not sure if this has any affect on the coils) and at 60/40 PG/VG. I am however, considering lowering my PG level, to ascertain if the higher PG is/has been contributing to the bronchial irritation problems I've been experiencing recently.

I'm looking to get the best possible flavour from my juices, as I'm not a cloud chaser at present and the main reason for that is, I have to be extremely discrete when vaping at work. The down side of decreasing my PG and increasing my VG, is it's cloud producing potential, so I could run into a few problems with that one.

My questions are:
1. Should I be looking to keep my coil builds around the 1.6 ohm mark?
2. Which gauge of Kanthal is generally best for newbies to get to grips with, if there is one?
3. Is the best production of flavour affected by the resistance and /or number of wraps of the finished coil?
4. I hope to explore the TC side of my istick in the near future, would I be correct in thinking I will need Titanium wire coils to achieve this?
5 What are the pro & cons of dual coils over single coils and quad coils over dual/single coils?
6. Is it possible (should I feel the need and acquire the skill) to build quad coils on the Zephyrus and the Velocity.

I did say it was a bit long winded at the start and if you've read this far, thank you. Over to you guys and gals and thanks in advance.

 

[parkerfresh]

I downloaded 'vape tool' on my android phone... There are other apps too, but I find this one works for me.

It includes a coil calculator which asks you to input certain info such as single, dual, coil type (Clapton, parallel etc) , wire gauge and size bit used for wrapping... It calculates the amount of wraps needed and works out pretty accurate.

As for single vs dual, I don't find a massive amount of difference other than its harder for me to hit my desired ohm and my battery dies faster with dual coil.

I generally run singles wherever possible, just makes life easier, I'm loving my dual setup in the Griffin at the moment though.

 

[ronzza]

Got a griffin too, but its leaking, not sure what I've done wrong..
done the usual wick to just above the juice hole, primed, close juice flow and air flow to fill up tank, open them all, vape and leak. lol

now i'm playing with the atty3 and freakshow and my god.. I cant think of a reason not to use rda at home lol

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

1. Should I be looking to keep my coil builds around the 1.6 ohm mark? If that is what works for you yes.
2. Which gauge of Kanthal is generally best for newbies to get to grips with, if there is one? 0.4mm is a good blend of useful and easy to wrap, some say 0.3, but it is more delicate, 0.4 is more ofrgiving.
3. Is the best production of flavour affected by the resistance and /or number of wraps of the finished coil? Yes, and no, but this comes with experience and what you want from a vape. juice is also a factor
4. I hope to explore the TC side of my istick in the near future, would I be correct in thinking I will need Titanium wire coils to achieve this? Nickel - Ni200 or the far more fun and useful NFe30 from the divine @stealthvape is better than Ti
5 What are the pro & cons of dual coils over single coils and quad coils over dual/single coils? Again, depends on what you want from a vape. Some drippers are dual only, some are single and dual. I run fused Claptons as single coils due to space and amp draw, but straight Claptons as dual coils in the Velocity is as much fun
6. Is it possible (should I feel the need and acquire the skill) to build quad coils on the Zephyrus and the Velocity. Quads are unnecessary, unless you have 'Leet skillz' in coiling. Until you can consistantly produce decent dual coil builds, don't worry about quads.

 

[scrumpox]

Speak up a bit, @EmbraSewerRat we can't hear you at the back

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

Speak up a bit, @EmbraSewerRat we can't hear you at the back

Gorram quote thing, haven't got the hang of it.
Fumblethumbed technophobe I is...

 

[skinku]

 

[scrumpox]

1. Should I be looking to keep my coil builds around the 1.6 ohm mark?
As you're starting out with rebuildables you ought to practice building coils using a variety of wire thicknesses and working within a reasonable range of 0.5-1.5ohms
Use Steam Engine's calculator to learn the effects on resistance of adding wraps, multile coils and different wires.
I assume that you've watched endless building vids on youtube already ... watch loads and watch some more ...

2. Which gauge of Kanthal is generally best for newbies to get to grips with, if there is one?
It's easier to work with thicker wires to wrap your first coils, and then use thinner wires ... as above use a variety.
I would say 0.4mm, 26g, is pretty much ideal for first wrap practice

3. Is the best production of flavour affected by the resistance and /or number of wraps of the finished coil?
The coil build is only one of many factors involved ... power settings, wicking and airflow are also vital and totally interrelated. Also study your atty carefully - how does the airflow work, where should the coil be placed, how large a coil would be optimal ... where are the constraints and risks of shorting. Once you've decided on a build you can then play with the variable airflow settings on the atty and the power delivery to the coil to balance the vape and optimise the vapour/flavour production.

4. I hope to explore the TC side of my istick in the near future, would I be correct in thinking I will need Titanium wire coils to achieve this?
I would assume that your iStick supports Ni200 and Titanium ... but have YOU read the manual and have you researched TC wires? If your mod supports Ni200 then it's likely that you can also add the option of Stealthvape's NiFe30 wire ... this beats both Ti and Ni200 for me.
Before you start out with any TC builds, read the stickies in the temperature control forum here, there are major safety aspects you need to understand about these wires.

5 What are the pro & cons of dual coils over single coils and quad coils over dual/single coils?
Multiple coils mean more metal in contact with wicks which should mean more vapour production. Dual coils half the overall resistance of a single though and there's a learning curve involved in balancing them. More metal on the deck also requires more power to ramp up the heat, which means you'll run your batteries harder.
As in 1, analyse the effects of multiple coils using Steam Engine ... check the effect on your batteries too for safety.
Quad coils IME are fun and challenging to build, you should get your dual coils nailed down first. There's some narcissim involved as quads rarely actually outperform a good set of duals ... but they make for great coil porn.

6. Is it possible (should I feel the need and acquire the skill) to build quad coils on the Zephyrus and the Velocity.
See 5.

 

[pava]

Thank you @EmbraSewerRat & @scrumpox for your replies. I don't have 0.4mm 26g, so it looks like I'll need to order some. I've been so busy this week, that I've not had time to start playing, but that should change after today. Plus the fact I thought I'd give it a few days to see what advice my piers advised to my queries.

I've taken on board that I need to read and understand what is involved with TC before deciding of going in that direction, and to be honest I wasn't considering getting into that until I've "mastered" making my own coils. I'm a firm believer that one has to learn the basics, because if one can't get the basics correct, the more complicated is going to be a complete failure. When I get the chance I read as many of the posts regarding rebuilding as I can to improve my knowledge and understanding. One thing I keep hearing about is Clapton coils, of which I no absolutely zero, other than it is a heating element for liquid. Be sure that this is on the long list of things to research.

Once again, thank for your advice and input and I hope to be posting pics of my first build for you to offer constructive criticism on, by the weekend.

 

[scrumpox]

Thank you @EmbraSewerRat & @scrumpox for your replies. I don't have 0.4mm 26g, so it looks like I'll need to order some. I've been so busy this week, that I've not had time to start playing, but that should change after today. Plus the fact I thought I'd give it a few days to see what advice my piers advised to my queries.

I've taken on board that I need to read and understand what is involved with TC before deciding of going in that direction, and to be honest I wasn't considering getting into that until I've "mastered" making my own coils. I'm a firm believer that one has to learn the basics, because if one can't get the basics correct, the more complicated is going to be a complete failure. When I get the chance I read as many of the posts regarding rebuilding as I can to improve my knowledge and understanding. One thing I keep hearing about is Clapton coils, of which I no absolutely zero, other than it is a heating element for liquid. Be sure that this is on the long list of things to research.

Once again, thank for your advice and input and I hope to be posting pics of my first build for you to offer constructive criticism on, by the weekend.

Great reply and a good attitude. Learn the fundamentals before getting into the complex.

Clapton wire very simply is a straight wire forming a core, around which a thinner wire is wound ... producing "one" thicker wire with the heat and resistance characteristics of the 2 wires used. The benefits are slightly staged heating and the small spaces in the wire for more juice to be evaporated in. The more complex the wire is the more of these spaces there are, the wire aids the wicking process. After claptons comes fused claptons ... this time there are two core wires wrapped with a third, thinner wire ... and so it goes on.