Lowpro top cap short

[clouded judgement]

Hi guys, not sure what's going on here! My lowpro has started to short on the top cap occasionally. The coils are clear of the cap, not by much though as it's a small deck.

The (poor) pics below show the build, dual coil @ 0.4ohms with China grass wick.

Hopefully you can see the discoloured spot where the heat occurred. There's a spot on the deck in the same place. Any ideas why this might be happening?

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

My first build on the low pro melted the top cap, genius here made it 2.5 mm Id.
Next build was with flattened nichrome wrapped on a 2mm screwdriver and I also slightly flattened out the coil with pliers so it was more oval-ish and it fitted in fine, well away from cap and bottom of the well.

Might try smaller diameter coils next time and see if that works as the deck is gorram teensy. And a bit of a pest to build on!

 

[clouded judgement]

Haha yep my first build did the same! Melted the spit guard all over the coils!

I mainly use it as a squonker so the decks brilliant if a bit of of a sod to rewick.

These are 2mm and leave a fair bit of space so I don't think the coils are shorting on the deck or cap. I wondered if a coil leg was causing the issue but they all seem ok.

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

Haha yep my first build did the same! Melted the spit guard all over the coils!

I mainly use it as a squonker so the decks brilliant if a bit of of a sod to rewick.

These are 2mm and leave a fair bit of space so I don't think the coils are shorting on the deck or cap. I wondered if a coil leg was causing the issue but they all seem ok.

Depends on how the legs go round the screws, or are trapped by the screws.
My initial build with round wire, I wrapped the wire round the screws, with the flattened wire, well, it was a let us hope this works.
I'd take everything out, strip down the atty and give it a good scrub. See if there is any other sign of burning/scorching or the like round where the coils get trapped.
Where that has burned i'd assume that, aye, one of the legs is poking thro' where it damned well shouldn't, wee bastard!, then next time you build, try make wee hooks for the screw to trap the wire.
Or get really good wire clippers and get as close as you can when trimming.

 

[clouded judgement]

Cheers, sounds like a good plan! I think I just clamped the wire down with the screws and snipped them off tight. Looping it round the screw might solve it.

Bit odd though as the burn is nowhere near the wires!