How to know if you have a short or not?

[eightbitraptor]

The surge in squonking.
Simply a way to circumvent the 2ml restriction on atomisers.
A 6-8ml mech squonker isn't covered by the TPD.
Super cheap to manufacture, even by Chinese standards.
Loads of profit.
Sadly this equates to loads of people using mechs without a good understanding.
Buy a pack of premade coils, screw them in the atty, fire up and vape......

Fair.

 

[Vape lord]

The surge in squonking.
Simply a way to circumvent the 2ml restriction on atomisers.
A 6-8ml mech squonker isn't covered by the TPD.
Super cheap to manufacture, even by Chinese standards.
Loads of profit.
Sadly this equates to loads of people using mechs without a good understanding.
Buy a pack of premade coils, screw them in the atty, fire up and vape......

I agree that the people who do that and don't even try to understand about building are stupid. At least im making effort though. I now know the basics of how ti stay safe out there.

 

[Chris K]

Well this thread is just scary.

I'm a user 95% of the time of mechs. I just prefer them.

Few absolute beginner basics:-

Know your batteries actual amp limits. I mean exactly the limit. Not 'between X & Y', know it perfectly and never exceed it. If you have a rewrap, dispose of it safely and buy a known battery.

Never and I mean NEVER under any circumstances fire a new build on a mech without testing it first for the resistance and possible shorts. To do so is just inviting a disaster. Make sure you also dry fire the coil on a regulated or reader to make sure the resistance doesn't move into unsafe territory once hot.

Test your build every few days on a reader or regulated device to make sure coil is still reading a suitable resistance and is safe.

Make sure battery and battery wraps are in perfect condition.

Regularly clean contacts on the mod as residue can create a complete circuit and cause an autofire.

If you are in doubt of any of the above, using mechs isn't for you and I'd strongly suggest using a regulated device only or staying along way away from me if you want to use a mech as I'm not getting bits of burnt flesh on my clothes.

 

[Vape lord]

Well this thread is just scary.

I'm a user 95% of the time of mechs. I just prefer them.

Few absolute beginner basics:-

Know your batteries actual amp limits. I mean exactly the limit. Not 'between X & Y', know it perfectly and never exceed it. If you have a rewrap, dispose of it safely and buy a known battery.

Never and I mean NEVER under any circumstances fire a new build on a mech without testing it first for the resistance and possible shorts. To do so is just inviting a disaster. Make sure you also dry fire the coil on a regulated or reader to make sure the resistance doesn't move into unsafe territory once hot.

Test your build every few days on a reader or regulated device to make sure coil is still reading a suitable resistance and is safe.

Make sure battery and battery wraps are in perfect condition.

Regularly clean contacts on the mod as residue can create a complete circuit and cause an autofire.

If you are in doubt of any of the above, using mechs isn't for you and I'd strongly suggest using a regulated device only or staying along way away from me if you want to use a mech as I'm not getting bits of burnt flesh on my clothes.

ahhaha nah mate i agree. It was just a dumb spur of the moment thing. Deep down my mind was saying "wait for your damn ohm meter to arrive" but i just ended up firing it. At least i didnt loose my teeth but may not be so lucky in future so shall always check before firing and follow your instructions.

 

[the_atomic_fart]

I blame the Runt and the Frankenskull and the wild popularity of expensive 3D printed stuff personally. Chinese manufacturers jumped on that craze to make a fast buck.

Maybe.
3D printing is an expense hobby. It's also quite niche. The Runt et al were never huge sellers in their original format. Hell, squonking wasn't even a big thing. I wouldn't see much money in saturating a small well informed market sector with absolute shit.
Within the year all the big manufacturers have gone from high power 2 to 4 battery mods to single battery mech squonkers.
I think they were caught on the back foot. It's only now we're seeing dual regulated squonk mods.
This is what 'most' vapers want, or at least to what they are used to.
4.2v single 18650 mechs, squonk or not, is just not what the market wants.

 

[Chris K]

ahhaha nah mate i agree. It was just a dumb spur of the moment thing. Deep down my mind was saying "wait for your damn ohm meter to arrive" but i just ended up firing it. At least i didnt loose my teeth but may not be so lucky in future so shall always check before firing and follow your instructions.

I get that, we have all made daft mistakes. First time I ever built an RBA many years ago I fed the cotton onto the airholes by mistake and ended up with a mouth full of ELiquid at about 180°, took a while for the burns to heal!

Just need to be very careful mate, mechs are a completely different beast from regulated devices, one tiny mistake, lapse of judgement or even misplacing a coil 1mm can cause very serious life changing injuries. The safety is all on you, no electronics to bail you out.

The vape shop I help out at won't sell a mech to anyone unless they can demonstrate they know what they are doing. They'd rather lose a sale than risk someone getting injured.

 

[Vape lord]

I get that, we have all made daft mistakes. First time I ever built an RBA many years ago I fed the cotton onto the airholes by mistake and ended up with a mouth full of ELiquid at about 180°, took a while for the burns to heal!

Just need to be very careful mate, mechs are a completely different beast from regulated devices, one tiny mistake, lapse of judgement or even misplacing a coil 1mm can cause very serious life changing injuries. The safety is all on you, no electronics to bail you out.

The vape shop I help out at won't sell a mech to anyone unless they can demonstrate they know what they are doing. They'd rather lose a sale than risk someone getting injured.

Hi there. Yeah i completely get why they would do that! Can you just give re iterate to me the main steps as to what to do to be safe once i have my coil reader which is obviously a must have!

 

[speedfreek67]

Hi there. Yeah i completely get why they would do that! Can you just give re iterate to me the main steps as to what to do to be safe once i have my coil reader which is obviously a must have!

You just made post number #57. Chris K gave you the main steps in post #53. Eightbitraptor also gave you the main steps in post #42.

This is a wind up, isn't it?

 

[Vape lord]

You just made post number #57. Chris K gave you the main steps in post #53. Eightbitraptor also gave you the main steps in post #42.

This is a wind up, isn't it?

nah mate, i genuinely have OCD so usually have to have thins repeated. If it angering you, just leave.

 

[Chris K]

Hi there. Yeah i completely get why they would do that! Can you just give re iterate to me the main steps as to what to do to be safe once i have my coil reader which is obviously a must have!

Sure mate. I'll run through the steps I take.

1/ Use Steam-engine.org to work out roughly the resistance if the coil you want to build if you are building your own from scratch. If you have bought a premade coil, ignore.

2/ Give your RDA deck a good clean and make sure no stray bits of wire and no gunk on it.

3/ Attach deck to your reader (turned off) and fit your coil. Make sure post screws are tightened down and that the coil isn't touching anything it shouldn't be (deck, pin, top cap)

4/ Switch the reader on and take a look at the resistance. It should read a solid number (0.32 for example) if it is blank or showing 0.00, the coil is faulty or shorting out. Make sure the resistance is within the amp limits of your battery.

5/ If coil is showing a solid number, fire the coil if your reader had that ability, the good ones do, I usually pulse fire so I don't risk breaking the coil. Strum the coil using ceramic tweezers until it is heating evenly from the centre outwards.

6/ Once it is heating correctly, check the resistance again and make sure the post screws are still tight. It should still be showing a solid number though that may have changed from the original number as the coil is now warm. Make sure that number is within the amp limits of your battery.

7/ If you follow all those steps and everything appears fine, at that point I'd fit it to the mod, wick and use. Check it again every few days just to make sure it's still reading a suitable resistance. If you ever drop or knock the mod hard enough to potentially move the coil, check it immediately before using it again, can't risk the coil shifting and touching something it shouldn't.

May seem like a faff but it's one of the safest methods and realistically takes minutes to do.