Working with Titanium wire.

[Tubbyengineer]

Thanks, good to hear. Is that an indication that it's true what they say about TC coils working better with less wicking than kanthal coils?

It certainly fits with the actual experience, First one was a steady even temperatured vape, more wick and it was colder, weaker and didn't seem to wan't to behave...

 

[Beastie]

Have been having a crap time with titanium until recently and just wanted to share an observation especially for less experienced builders like myself (and sorry if this has been posted elsewhere). my Ti 0.5 6 wrap build on a lemo 2 coming in at 0.1 ohm, vapes great on my smok x cube II @410f initially but after a few hours tails off and hits temp protection almost immediately. Fiddling with temperature settings doesn't help and the coil seems to be expanding to the point that the wick is just not keeping up. Stuffing a bit more cotton works for a while but then I get a similar problem fairly soon after. After watching how Tubbyengineer builds his twisted nickel microcoils I reinserting my mandrel and pulled the coil tight again, rewicked and the coil seems to be a lot more stable. For any relatively new temp control vapers having trouble with Ti stability don't scrap your build, it's worth giving this a bash as apart from the video mentioned above I've not heard or seen many people advising to do this and Ti seems to be one of the more springy metals to work with! Thanks again Tubbyengineer as I now am getting a satisfying and consistent TC experience!

 

[Tubbyengineer]

Have been having a crap time with titanium until recently and just wanted to share an observation especially for less experienced builders like myself (and sorry if this has been posted elsewhere). my Ti 0.5 6 wrap build on a lemo 2 coming in at 0.1 ohm, vapes great on my smok x cube II @410f initially but after a few hours tails off and hits temp protection almost immediately. Fiddling with temperature settings doesn't help and the coil seems to be expanding to the point that the wick is just not keeping up. Stuffing a bit more cotton works for a while but then I get a similar problem fairly soon after. After watching how Tubbyengineer builds his twisted nickel microcoils I reinserting my mandrel and pulled the coil tight again, rewicked and the coil seems to be a lot more stable. For any relatively new temp control vapers having trouble with Ti stability don't scrap your build, it's worth giving this a bash as apart from the video mentioned above I've not heard or seen many people advising to do this and Ti seems to be one of the more springy metals to work with! Thanks again @Tubbyengineer as I now am getting a satisfying and consistent TC experience!

Yep, I've been doing the same thing, I wrap it with a coil master type tool, then grab both ends in pliers and pull it tight, put the coil in then fire at 300c and use the mandrel to pull it tight again, It's Titanium, it loves to be manhandled a bit - in fact it seems to need it...

 

[disk0vape]

I have 2 TC mods at the moment and some Ti wire from stealthvape.

The Joyetech Evic VT works really well, I have a build in a kanger subtank mini performing really well.

0.44 ohm 8 wrap build - 2mm ID 0.40mm wire - currently running that at 45w and temp set at 430f - really nice smooth vape with a good clean flavour.

I am only vaping some mint/methol/anise blend through it and after a couple of tanks the coil is still really clean.

The coil was only initially dry burned by pulsing at 20w, until it stopped smoking and I was happy any impurities were gone.

I have tried the same tank on an IPV3 Li and it's really poor for Ti, works ok with Ni coils but is practically unusable for Ti unless you like the taste of burnt wick. It just seems to fire it really hot and totally ignore normal range temp setting (350 to 430f). I found the resistance really varies. I did lock it in, had a few pulls at really low temps, however I put it down and went back to it an hour later and the resistance had changed from 0.38 to 0.44.
Definitely a dodgy mod and that has an SX330V3SL chip in it.

I do have a railbox clone, from a group buy, it has a DNA40 chip but afaik it does not do Ti. To be honest I have not even tried it with Ni as its a clone I didn't want to risk it.

Anyway, there are my findings so far.

I am saving for a DNA200 device, but waiting to see a few more reviews just yet. The only mod that I'm interested in is Hcigar VT200.

 

[Tubbyengineer]

I have 2 TC mods at the moment and some Ti wire from stealthvape.

The Joyetech Evic VT works really well, I have a build in a kanger subtank mini performing really well.

0.44 ohm 8 wrap build - 2mm ID 0.40mm wire - currently running that at 45w and temp set at 430f - really nice smooth vape with a good clean flavour.

I am only vaping some mint/methol/anise blend through it and after a couple of tanks the coil is still really clean.

The coil was only initially dry burned by pulsing at 20w, until it stopped smoking and I was happy any impurities were gone.

I have tried the same tank on an IPV3 Li and it's really poor for Ti, works ok with Ni coils but is practically unusable for Ti unless you like the taste of burnt wick. It just seems to fire it really hot and totally ignore normal range temp setting (350 to 430f). I found the resistance really varies. I did lock it in, had a few pulls at really low temps, however I put it down and went back to it an hour later and the resistance had changed from 0.38 to 0.44.
Definitely a dodgy mod and that has an SX330V3SL chip in it.

I do have a railbox clone, from a group buy, it has a DNA40 chip but afaik it does not do Ti. To be honest I have not even tried it with Ni as its a clone I didn't want to risk it.

Anyway, there are my findings so far.

I am saving for a DNA200 device, but waiting to see a few more reviews just yet. The only mod that I'm interested in is Hcigar VT200.

Got one, arrived yesterday - Seems to be spot on, working nicely all day long with a new titanium build in it running at 410f, 25w in the Heron, resistance seems nice and stable, temperature too. Very few features to speak of on the mod so it's easy to use, You get - Normal or stealth mode, Power lock, Device lock, Resistance lock, Power / Temp adjust, Profile selection. Everything else is done through Escribe - and I really would recommend running through the Training tutorial in either Video or interactive mode.

 

[stevoknevo]

I do have a railbox clone, from a group buy, it has a DNA40 chip but afaik it does not do Ti. To be honest I have not even tried it with Ni as its a clone I didn't want to risk it.

I had a railbox clone, worked really well in temp control, although it wasn't accurate - I put a twisted ni200 build in a UTA2 after following Tubbyengineer's ni200 tutorial.

The railbox read 0.08 higher than my meter, but considering the highest resistance I could get on that coil was 0.02, it meant the railbox would fire it okay at 0.1 in power mode to heat and stretch the coil, and it would work in TC also (think 0.06 was it's minimum?)

Temp also seemed way off as 300f was a perfect warm vape - worked perfectly until I sold the railbox, zero issues with the chip day to day, and when there was no vapour I knew the tank needed filled.

I'd recommend giving it a bash, as temp control on a railbox is meant to be used so you don't have to worry about an empty tank

 

[disk0vape]

Got one, arrived yesterday - Seems to be spot on, working nicely all day long with a new titanium build in it running at 410f, 25w in the Heron, resistance seems nice and stable, temperature too. Very few features to speak of on the mod so it's easy to use, You get - Normal or stealth mode, Power lock, Device lock, Resistance lock, Power / Temp adjust, Profile selection. Everything else is done through Escribe - and I really would recommend running through the Training tutorial in either Video or interactive mode.

How's the battery life on the hcigar?

 

[Tubbyengineer]

How's the battery life on the hcigar?

Based on the fact that I've just refilled the Heron, even with it's 1300mah pack I'm getting about double what I'd get get on the SX Mini M class with an LG HE2

 

[lewisss]

How's the battery life on the hcigar?

I got one too and life is good but just short of an ipv4s with 2 x1865 2800mah batteries in, but wipes the floor on power, consistency,build quality,and with the 8 profiles th ability to change rda/tanks with ease. I recommend it

 

[Tubbyengineer]

Titanium wire build tips.

So after a fair amount of experimentation and not a little trouble, strife and disappointment I have now arrived at what seems like the ideal type of build for my style of vaping.

Considering that my go to ADA is a Heron It was pretty much always going to be a microcoil type build, in fact it's almost identical in it's basic methodology to the Nickel microcoil build.

I've used 0.5mm Ti01 from Stealthvape, done 7 wraps and used pliers to pull the wire tight on my coilmaster type tool (any mandrel will work as log as it's strong enough to take the punishment you're about to dish out to it).

Wrap the coil on the tool and at this point don't be too worried about whether the wraps touch or not, once you've got it wrapped grab the ends of the wire in pliers or trap them in a vice and pull the coil tight, really tight, I mean swing from it like Tarzan tight. Once you've got it tightened up the first thing you'll notice is that the instant you released it, it expanded somewhat, that's OK and what you do next depends on the Atty you're using and just how much the coil expanded.

Fit the coil into the atty still using the mandrel for support - It will make everything easier and you can be fairly brutal about tightening down the post screws. Now the coil is in place check how much the coil has expanded, if it's still pretty tight on the mandrel thats good, if not don't panic. Turn the Mod up to 300c or 600f - whatever the max temp is for your device and after removing the mandrel fire the coil, you'll see the wire change colour - that's good, at this point re insert the mandrel and if you've still got a fair amount of slack you can pull the coil tight again and adjust the legs to fit the coil in it's final position, remove the mandrel and fire one more time.

Now it's time to fine tune the coil - You'll need to reinsert the mandrel and using a pointy tool or very thin flat screwdriver move the wraps into their final spacing. The mandrel will allow you to be pretty rough on the coil without destroying it's shape. I've found that anywhere from a half to a whole wire thickness of separation between wraps works perfectly. Take your time doing this step, Titanium is tough stuff and once you've got the coil in there if you've ever rewicked a coil then you'll have nothing to fear about rewicking this one - It will stand most reasonable treatment, certainly anything you'd do with a Kanthal coil.

Once you're happy with the coil's physical characteristics then all that's left to do is to wick it up, as with Nickel - less is more, the cotton should be fairly loose with only slight resistance as you pull it through. If you've got the spacing right (no wraps touching anything) and haven't overstuffed it with wick you should get gratifying results.

I've found that now the weather is getting colder it sometimes takes a draw or two to get right up to temperature but the Heron I use has a lot of mass that has to be heated and that takes a little time, something with less mass or a more "insulated" deck will be far quicker to heat up...

A final note on dry burning - Dry burning Titanium is pretty dangerous - It can and will burst into flames and even if it doesn't burst into flames heating it too much can cover it in a layer of Titanium Dioxide which is considered extremely unpleasant to inhale. Theres a little on that earlier in this thread so read up on it. That said I have experimented - extremely carefully (In a container made of insulating refractory brick) and have found that you can safely dry burn Titanium if you stay at the very dull red end of the temperature range. You do this at your own risk and I will accept no responsibilty if you burn down your house, melt your face or any other body part, or just ruin your atomiser.

Happy Vaping...