Wicking for TC

[Beastie]

OK sooo after finally getting used to delicate nickel builds and hulking out to fit titanium I've now arrived at the inevitable Road block of TC. I'm pretty sure that my coils are as finessed as I'm going to get them so after experimenting with all sorts of builds I reckon this is all down to my wicking. Have tried a variety of different cottons from muji to cotton bacon, tried a normal kanthal "eye it up" and wick it, itheo wicking, pancake wicking with various lengths of tail, and always seem to find that my power levels are exceeding the wicking abilities of my build resulting in poor vapour production. On the rdna it's simple, I dial back the wattage and the vape is restored, problem is the smok x cube 2 where it automatically ramps up and atm in my lemo 2 it hits up to 80 watts in the first second (regardless of min/soft/normal/hard/max setring) and then after a second or two the wicking restores some semblance of vapour production.... But I tend to favour longer pulls so want to suss this out. I'm sure with my next purchase of a dna 200 I'll be able to dial in the power to balance the wicking but I really want to improve this aspect of my build. So apes, how do y'all thread your coils?

 

[Mr Numpty]

OK sooo after finally getting used to delicate nickel builds and hulking out to fit titanium I've now arrived at the inevitable Road block of TC. I'm pretty sure that my coils are as finessed as I'm going to get them so after experimenting with all sorts of builds I reckon this is all down to my wicking. Have tried a variety of different cottons from muji to cotton bacon, tried a normal kanthal "eye it up" and wick it, itheo wicking, pancake wicking with various lengths of tail, and always seem to find that my power levels are exceeding the wicking abilities of my build resulting in poor vapour production. On the rdna it's simple, I dial back the wattage and the vape is restored, problem is the smok x cube 2 where it automatically ramps up and atm in my lemo 2 it hits up to 80 watts in the first second (regardless of min/soft/normal/hard/max setring) and then after a second or two the wicking restores some semblance of vapour production.... But I tend to favour longer pulls so want to suss this out. I'm sure with my next purchase of a dna 200 I'll be able to dial in the power to balance the wicking but I really want to improve this aspect of my build. So apes, how do y'all thread your coils?

It seems to me that for whatever reason, what they say about using less tight wicks with TC than with kanthal builds, holds true. My own experience is that even minimal resistance to pulling the wick through the coil can adversely affect its performance. What has worked best, and I've had to force myself to do it, is no resistance whatsoever. You might want to try a wick that looks and feels way too thin and just see how it performs.

 

[Beastie]

Well so far using a combination of a lot less wick in the coil with a bit of pancaking seems to take the cake running fine at 40w on rdna with nickel 0.14ohm at 420f with no drop off in vapour production. The Smok x cube II is just a pain as whenever I increase my wicking ability it over shoots the preheat and undoes any tinkering lol really thinking the dna 200 is what I need atm I think I'm more of a granular control type of vapour and don't trust the board's perception of how I like to vape!

 

[Tubbyengineer]

Well so far using a combination of a lot less wick in the coil with a bit of pancaking seems to take the cake running fine at 40w on rdna with nickel 0.14ohm at 420f with no drop off in vapour production. The Smok x cube II is just a pain as whenever I increase my wicking ability it over shoots the preheat and undoes any tinkering lol really thinking the dna 200 is what I need atm I think I'm more of a granular control type of vapour and don't trust the board's perception of how I like to vape!

It would be difficult to get more controllable than the DNA200, short of direct neural interfacing...

 

[Beastie]

It would be difficult to get more controllable than the DNA200, short of direct neural interfacing...

We've gotten chimpanzees to fly jets.... Why the hell not? (neuroscience and medical background so don't tempt me!)

 

[longy01]

Well so far using a combination of a lot less wick in the coil with a bit of pancaking seems to take the cake running fine at 40w on rdna with nickel 0.14ohm at 420f with no drop off in vapour production. The Smok x cube II is just a pain as whenever I increase my wicking ability it over shoots the preheat and undoes any tinkering lol really thinking the dna 200 is what I need atm I think I'm more of a granular control type of vapour and don't trust the board's perception of how I like to vape!

My 1st foray into temperature control has been with the x cube 2. I was so close to giving up on TC altogether, After similar problems as yourself, seemingly going around in circles with my wicking and nickel builds, I decided to have a play with the settings on the device.

What I have found is that if I change the initial ohms up on my builds (.02 for single coils, and .01 for dual coils) and alter the TCR to 0.00625 the bloody thing wakes up.

Give it a go buddy and let me know how you get on.

 

[Tubbyengineer]

We've gotten chimpanzees to fly jets.... Why the hell not? (neuroscience and medical background so don't tempt me!)

Because some git would find a way of streaming impossible to ignore adverts directly into what ever interface it was...

 

[Beastie]

Because some git would find a way of streaming impossible to ignore adverts directly into what ever interface it was...

Combined with "one thought purchasing" and we'd all be in serious trouble!

 

[Beastie]

My 1st foray into temperature control has been with the x cube 2. I was so close to giving up on TC altogether, After similar problems as yourself, seemingly going around in circles with my wicking and nickel builds, I decided to have a play with the settings on the device.

What I have found is that if I change the initial ohms up on my builds (.02 for single coils, and .01 for dual coils) and alter the TCR to 0.00625 the bloody thing wakes up.

Give it a go buddy and let me know how you get on.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one playing with these settings! I do tinker with them but them and try calibrate it to a cotton dry burn test. I think the consistency of wire and internal resistance of the circuitry from the mod to 510 and the atty itself plays a large part as well but will continue to tinker! Just wish they gave me an option on the smok to programme the boost even if it's in that unstable app!

 

[longy01]

Thank goodness I'm not the only one playing with these settings! I do tinker with them but them and try calibrate it to a cotton dry burn test. I think the consistency of wire and internal resistance of the circuitry from the mod to 510 and the atty itself plays a large part as well but will continue to tinker! Just wish they gave me an option on the smok to programme the boost even if it's in that unstable app!

100% agree. When I 1st got the x cube I did a cotton burn test. Smok certainly played it safe with this one. All I got was a slight bit of charing at 600f. My conclusion was that if this is the case with the temperature maxed out, how is it going to vaporize e juice at 420f.

The way I see it now is that if I attach my atty at room temperature at 0.11 ohms, then raise it to 0.13, I'm sort of cheating the x cube to do what it should be doing in the 1st place. Does this make sense or am I barking up the wrong tree? Lol