blademansw
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- Apr 3, 2014
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This guide will show you how to recoil a KangerTech coil head. The Kangers are a bottom coil, with either single or dual coil iterations. The latest generation heads are covered with a protective metal shield and this guide does not cover how to recoil these heads as I have not yet seen one.
So what do you need to recoil a KangerTech coil head?
Materials
0.25mm A1 Kanthal
Organic Cotton Wool
Old KangerTech head
For a dual coil head, you will require a spare rubber chimney grommet.
Tools
Sharp scissors
Nail clippers
Tweezers
1.5mm drill bit or allen key
Resistance meter, multimeter or an APV Mod that measures resistance such as an MVP2
Blowtorch, or gas stove.
Calculating your coil
First of all we need to calculate what resistance we require for this coil. In this instance as I will be using this coil head on an EVOD battery I decided on 1.6 ohms.
There are several online calculators you can use to work out your coil windings, and several phone apps.
For my mobile phone I use "Vapers Toolbox". For this example, I will use "Steam Engine".
Head over to Steam Engine, and click the [Coil Wrapping] button.
Fill out the various boxes with our values:
Material/Profile = Kanthal A1 / APM Round
Diameter of wire = 0.25mm
Setup = Single coil
Target resistance = 1.6 ohm
Inner diameter of coil = 1.5mm
Leg length = 5mm
This will automatically calculate, and tell us that our wire needs to be 54.2 mm long, and we require an 8/7 coil.
This terminology means that from the coil side we will see 7 wraps, and from the leg side we will see 8 wraps as the legs are viewed as an additional wrap. This confused me for ages when I first started making coils.
For a pre-filled out example of this calculation, click here.
Dismantling your old head
Carefully remove the rubber grommet which covers the chimney. If you are like me, you will immediately throw this on the floor and it will land up in a pile of dog fur under the washing machine. Retrieve the rubber grommet and wash it off.
Next remove the chimney from the coil head to expose the coils and wick.
Withdraw the metal pin from the base of the head
Carefully pull out the internal rubber leg insulator from the head.
Pull out the old wick and coil and dispose of.
Building your coil.
Cut off sufficient Kanthal to make our coil using the nail clippers. I normally allow about another 5 cm for stupidity as I am bound to mess it up. So in this case cut off around 105mm of Kanthal.
Using your tweezers, hold the Kanthal in the flame of a blowtorch or gas hob until it glows, and move it over the whole length. The purpose of this heat treatment is to soften the Kanthal and make it less springy and easier to work with.
Be warned, if you touch the Kanthal before it has cooled completely, it will leave a beautiful burn line across the tips of your fingers. Don't ask me how I know!
Once the Kanthal has cooled, hold your coil former (allen key for me), and carefully wrap 7 coils around the former.
Keep them fairly close together but don't worry about making them perfect.
You can see in this picture that we have 7 wraps but from the leg side it will appear that we have 8, hence the 8/7 notation above.
Trim the legs off to an equal length (and save your offcut of Kanthal)
Now squeeze the coil wraps up together so they are neat and tidy.
Remove the coil from the former, and squeeze them tight in a pair of tweezers.
Now hold the coil in the gas flame of the stove or blowtorch until the whole coil is glowing cherry red.
Once the coil is glowing cherry red, remove the heat source and keep holding the coil tight until it has cooled. This may take several minutes.
Once the coil has cooled, slide it back onto the coil former. You will notice that you have a nice tight coil now!
Slide the former into the two slots on the KangerTech head with the coil legs coming out of the bottom of the head. Center the coil in the slot.
Whilst holding the coil former with the coil centered, bend one of the legs at right angles as shown, tight to the coil head. This is your ground (negative) terminal.
Now slip the rubber base grommet over the leg that sticks out.
Carefully push the rubber grommet home into the coil head.
Bend the other leg flush with the grommet at right angles, keeping the coil centered. This is your positive terminal. Carefully slide the metal pin into the grommet.
Push the pin fully home, whilst keeping the coil centered. Trim the legs off flush with the side of the head using the nail clippers.
This is very important, if you do not cut the legs off very close, your coil will short out.
Now withdraw the former from the coil, and make sure its all nicely centered.
Now we can check the resistance of our coil, either using a multimeter, APV, or resistance meter.
If you are going to start building coils, I highly recommend that you get a proper resistance meter as it makes rebuildable devices a lot easier later on!
As you can see, this coil came out spot on the required resistance @1.62 ohms. If its wildly different, you either have a short, or the legs are not making contact correctly.
Wicking the coil
Take your offcut of Kanthal, and fold it in half and twist the bottom as shown. We are effectively making a device similar to a needle threader.
Peel off a small piece of organic cotton wool, around 25mm long, and about 5-6 mm wide, you need to roll it between the palms of your hands to consolidate it into a wick.
You want to make it reasonably tight, but not too tight as it will not wick correctly. This is very much trial and error, and you will soon get the knack.
Thread the end of the cotton wool through the Kanthal loop as shown and squash the Kanthal down, not forgetting that we have to get this through a 1.5mm hole to give an ideal of scale.
Now thread the Kanthal loop through the coil, and use it to pull the cotton wick through the coil. Be very gentle as you do not want to displace the coil.
You can twist the wick to make it tighter as you are pulling it through.
Now using your scissors, trim off the wick level with the outer edge of the base of the coil head. Insert the chimney.
In this example, a dual coil head, you can see the large gap above the wick.
If you have a single coil head you do not need to do this extra step!
Extra step
Slice the spare chimney grommet in half using a sharp knife, and slip it onto the coil head. If you do complete this extra step on a dual coil head, your head will gurgle and leak. You have been warned.
Now to complete your head, slide the chimney grommet down onto the head. (Note the extra grommet piece on this dual coil head)
Prime the wick, insert into your tank of choice, and enjoy!
(@Purplefowler OccultScientist)
So what do you need to recoil a KangerTech coil head?
Materials
0.25mm A1 Kanthal
Organic Cotton Wool
Old KangerTech head
For a dual coil head, you will require a spare rubber chimney grommet.
Tools
Sharp scissors
Nail clippers
Tweezers
1.5mm drill bit or allen key
Resistance meter, multimeter or an APV Mod that measures resistance such as an MVP2
Blowtorch, or gas stove.
Calculating your coil
First of all we need to calculate what resistance we require for this coil. In this instance as I will be using this coil head on an EVOD battery I decided on 1.6 ohms.
There are several online calculators you can use to work out your coil windings, and several phone apps.
For my mobile phone I use "Vapers Toolbox". For this example, I will use "Steam Engine".
Head over to Steam Engine, and click the [Coil Wrapping] button.
Fill out the various boxes with our values:
Material/Profile = Kanthal A1 / APM Round
Diameter of wire = 0.25mm
Setup = Single coil
Target resistance = 1.6 ohm
Inner diameter of coil = 1.5mm
Leg length = 5mm
This will automatically calculate, and tell us that our wire needs to be 54.2 mm long, and we require an 8/7 coil.
This terminology means that from the coil side we will see 7 wraps, and from the leg side we will see 8 wraps as the legs are viewed as an additional wrap. This confused me for ages when I first started making coils.
For a pre-filled out example of this calculation, click here.
Dismantling your old head
Carefully remove the rubber grommet which covers the chimney. If you are like me, you will immediately throw this on the floor and it will land up in a pile of dog fur under the washing machine. Retrieve the rubber grommet and wash it off.
Next remove the chimney from the coil head to expose the coils and wick.
Withdraw the metal pin from the base of the head
Carefully pull out the internal rubber leg insulator from the head.
Pull out the old wick and coil and dispose of.
Building your coil.
Cut off sufficient Kanthal to make our coil using the nail clippers. I normally allow about another 5 cm for stupidity as I am bound to mess it up. So in this case cut off around 105mm of Kanthal.
Using your tweezers, hold the Kanthal in the flame of a blowtorch or gas hob until it glows, and move it over the whole length. The purpose of this heat treatment is to soften the Kanthal and make it less springy and easier to work with.
Be warned, if you touch the Kanthal before it has cooled completely, it will leave a beautiful burn line across the tips of your fingers. Don't ask me how I know!
Once the Kanthal has cooled, hold your coil former (allen key for me), and carefully wrap 7 coils around the former.
Keep them fairly close together but don't worry about making them perfect.
You can see in this picture that we have 7 wraps but from the leg side it will appear that we have 8, hence the 8/7 notation above.
Trim the legs off to an equal length (and save your offcut of Kanthal)
Now squeeze the coil wraps up together so they are neat and tidy.
Remove the coil from the former, and squeeze them tight in a pair of tweezers.
Now hold the coil in the gas flame of the stove or blowtorch until the whole coil is glowing cherry red.
Once the coil is glowing cherry red, remove the heat source and keep holding the coil tight until it has cooled. This may take several minutes.
Once the coil has cooled, slide it back onto the coil former. You will notice that you have a nice tight coil now!
Slide the former into the two slots on the KangerTech head with the coil legs coming out of the bottom of the head. Center the coil in the slot.
Whilst holding the coil former with the coil centered, bend one of the legs at right angles as shown, tight to the coil head. This is your ground (negative) terminal.
Now slip the rubber base grommet over the leg that sticks out.
Carefully push the rubber grommet home into the coil head.
Bend the other leg flush with the grommet at right angles, keeping the coil centered. This is your positive terminal. Carefully slide the metal pin into the grommet.
Push the pin fully home, whilst keeping the coil centered. Trim the legs off flush with the side of the head using the nail clippers.
This is very important, if you do not cut the legs off very close, your coil will short out.
Now withdraw the former from the coil, and make sure its all nicely centered.
Now we can check the resistance of our coil, either using a multimeter, APV, or resistance meter.
If you are going to start building coils, I highly recommend that you get a proper resistance meter as it makes rebuildable devices a lot easier later on!
As you can see, this coil came out spot on the required resistance @1.62 ohms. If its wildly different, you either have a short, or the legs are not making contact correctly.
Wicking the coil
Take your offcut of Kanthal, and fold it in half and twist the bottom as shown. We are effectively making a device similar to a needle threader.
Peel off a small piece of organic cotton wool, around 25mm long, and about 5-6 mm wide, you need to roll it between the palms of your hands to consolidate it into a wick.
You want to make it reasonably tight, but not too tight as it will not wick correctly. This is very much trial and error, and you will soon get the knack.
Thread the end of the cotton wool through the Kanthal loop as shown and squash the Kanthal down, not forgetting that we have to get this through a 1.5mm hole to give an ideal of scale.
Now thread the Kanthal loop through the coil, and use it to pull the cotton wick through the coil. Be very gentle as you do not want to displace the coil.
You can twist the wick to make it tighter as you are pulling it through.
Now using your scissors, trim off the wick level with the outer edge of the base of the coil head. Insert the chimney.
In this example, a dual coil head, you can see the large gap above the wick.
If you have a single coil head you do not need to do this extra step!
Extra step
Slice the spare chimney grommet in half using a sharp knife, and slip it onto the coil head. If you do complete this extra step on a dual coil head, your head will gurgle and leak. You have been warned.
Now to complete your head, slide the chimney grommet down onto the head. (Note the extra grommet piece on this dual coil head)
Prime the wick, insert into your tank of choice, and enjoy!
(@Purplefowler OccultScientist)
