Newbie to RDA's questions, questions, questions

[Vaping Hamster]

Ok. For the cap to heat up is normal- it just happens. Were you getting the burned taste with the other cap though?

Forgot to ask what VG/pg juice you were using too?

Fair enough, that makes sense seeing how close the cap is to the coil. same taste with both caps. Juice is 70/30 - its my all day juice and figured I would use that as I know what it normally tastes like if that makes sense, I have some 80/20 at home that I may try later if that might make a difference.

 

[SirLugg]

Fair enough, that makes sense seeing how close the cap is to the coil. same taste with both caps. Juice is 70/30 - its my all day juice and figured I would use that as I know what it normally tastes like if that makes sense, I have some 80/20 at home that I may try later if that might make a difference.

70/30 will be fine buddy- 80/20 too.

I think, for what it's worth, that you're running some fairly meaty coils with just top airflow and there isn't enough air getting to the coils.
I don't own a Druid but the top airflow only option looks to be designed for small coils at low wattages and the side airflow cap for larger coils. You've got the latter so I don't think there's enough air getting to them and they're getting too hot and smoking your juice.

How're you getting on with the Buddha? I've got that.

Caps getting hot when the cap itself is the chuff cap is par for the course I'm afraid. You can get delrin chuff caps that eliminate a lot of it for you though.

 

[SirLugg]

Like these:

 

[Vaping Hamster]

70/30 will be fine buddy- 80/20 too.

I think, for what it's worth, that you're running some fairly meaty coils with just top airflow and there isn't enough air getting to the coils.
I don't own a Druid but the top airflow only option looks to be designed for small coils at low wattages and the side airflow cap for larger coils. You've got the latter so I don't think there's enough air getting to them and they're getting too hot and smoking your juice.

How're you getting on with the Buddha? I've got that.

Caps getting hot when the cap itself is the chuff cap is par for the course I'm afraid. You can get delrin chuff caps that eliminate a lot of it for you though.

Im getting the same issues with the Buddha but that was the one I made the coils for myself so had put it down to user error. The Clapton coils (Ni80 core I think) are fairly chunky with 9 wraps each, I have some Kanthal A1 in 24ga and 28ga as well, would using these with a few less wraps help?

Its all very much a learning curve at the moment but figured it made sense signing up here and asking these kind of questions before wasting loads of wire on guessing.

 

[SirLugg]

Im getting the same issues with the Buddha but that was the one I made the coils for myself so had put it down to user error. The Clapton coils (Ni80 core I think) are fairly chunky with 9 wraps each, I have some Kanthal A1 in 24ga and 28ga as well, would using these with a few less wraps help?

Its all very much a learning curve at the moment but figured it made sense signing up here and asking these kind of questions before wasting loads of wire on guessing.

Very much so.

Ni80 or nichrome heats up much quicker than kanthal hence a lot of mech mod users prefer it. I use it too but it's a different animal to kanthal.

The idea behind coiling, for me anyway, is to get as much surface area as possible to vapourise as much juice as possible at any one time. Claptons and the like are designed to heat up the outer, smaller wire first which in turn heats up the inner wire quicker. If you were to use a round wire and Clapton build with both the same diameter then the Clapton would have much less ramp up time.

The Buddha is very, very airy. As long as your airflow holes are aligned with that you should be good. The post screws don't usually back out either, but check your resistance once you've fired and pinched, then again one you've wicked and again when you're juiced. Check the post screws at these points too, then again when you re wick. It could be a short or a nick in the wire too.

Nichrome and the way it behaves is a little more adavanced than kanthal. If I were you I'd fire for a 6/7 wrap of your kanthal wire on each side and get that working well before you play with the nichrome as your resistance will be much lower too if it's nichrome wire. That's why I use it- I can, for example, do an 8 wrap nichrome and get the same resistance as I would a 5 wrap kanthal. Thus increasing my surface area and staying at the kind of resistance I want it to be at.

Keep experimenting, shoot for around a 0.5 resistance once both coils are in place and see how you go.

 

[Vaping Hamster]

Very much so.

Ni80 or nichrome heats up much quicker than kanthal hence a lot of mech mod users prefer it. I use it too but it's a different animal to kanthal.

The idea behind coiling, for me anyway, is to get as much surface area as possible to vapourise as much juice as possible at any one time. Claptons and the like are designed to heat up the outer, smaller wire first which in turn heats up the inner wire quicker. If you were to use a round wire and Clapton build with both the same diameter then the Clapton would have much less ramp up time.

The Buddha is very, very airy. As long as your airflow holes are aligned with that you should be good. The post screws don't usually back out either, but check your resistance once you've fired and pinched, then again one you've wicked and again when you're juiced. Check the post screws at these points too, then again when you re wick. It could be a short or a nick in the wire too.

Nichrome and the way it behaves is a little more adavanced than kanthal. If I were you I'd fire for a 6/7 wrap of your kanthal wire on each side and get that working well before you play with the nichrome as your resistance will be much lower too if it's nichrome wire. That's why I use it- I can, for example, do an 8 wrap nichrome and get the same resistance as I would a 5 wrap kanthal. Thus increasing my surface area and staying at the kind of resistance I want it to be at.

Keep experimenting, shoot for around a 0.5 resistance once both coils are in place and see how you go.

Cheers SirLugg, I will have a play around over the weekend and see what I can come up with using the Kanthal, if you get a spare moment or have one handy would you mind putting up a pic of your Buddha?

Cheers, Hamster

 

[SirLugg]

Cheers SirLugg, I will have a play around over the weekend and see what I can come up with using the Kanthal, if you get a spare moment or have one handy would you mind putting up a pic of your Buddha?

Cheers, Hamster

Yup no probs. Mine is the Buddha mini (22mm) version but the principle is the same.
I've got twisted 26awg kanthal in there, 6 wraps, 2.5mm inner diameter. Sitting the coils fairly low works better on the Buddha in my opinion.

Excuse the shitty iPhone camera which doesn't quite focus.

 

[Vaping Hamster]

Yup no probs. Mine is the Buddha mini (22mm) version but the principle is the same.
I've got twisted 26awg kanthal in there, 6 wraps, 2.5mm inner diameter. Sitting the coils fairly low works better on the Buddha in my opinion.

View attachment 98958View attachment 98959

Excuse the shitty iPhone camera which doesn't quite focus.

Good man it was the coil positions I was curious about. I have been trying to build my coils tightly packed together but I see yours have reasonably gap (especially the right leg on the bottom pic. I take it if I am using Kanthal at say 28ga I can wrap it slightly looser so there is a small gap between each coil or do they all need to be touching?

 

[SirLugg]

Good man it was the coil positions I was curious about. I have been trying to build my coils tightly packed together but I see yours have reasonably gap (especially the right leg on the bottom pic. I take it if I am using Kanthal at say 28ga I can wrap it slightly looser so there is a small gap between each coil or do they all need to be touching?

You can do either really. I prefer the wraps of the coils to be in contact with each other- the only time I don't is if I'm using Nife or SS for a temp control build which hardly ever happens.

The negative legs on both of these coils are bent out slightly so I can keep the coils as central as possible with the airflow hence the negative is much longer than the positive.

It's all dependant on how the airflow works too as to how I position them. The Buddha I have wide open so it doesn't matter, but in the Goon for instance I like to close the three holes down to two most of the time so I'll offset the coil just a little to compensate for it.

 

[Vaping Hamster]

Success!!!

Got back this evening and stripped the Clapton build out of my Buddha.

Made two 9 wrap coils of kanthal 24ga, spent ages fiddling to get them as aligned as my meatloaf fingers would allow, fired, squeezed, jiggled and adjusted until both were firing evenly from inside out. Wicked up, juiced with my every day juice, lined up the air holes to the coils and got a good flavour hit - not the amazing experience I was hoping for but a bit more than my tank so I call that a success.

On a side note I tried the other juice I tested yesterday and it still had a slight burny taste so think that one was the juice though the claptons definitely burnt my everyday juice which the kanthals didn't.
Also threw some element fresh squeeze orange in there which I couldn't get to work in my tank, glad I kept it as it was amazing.

Cheers for all your help, pics below and open to criticism or advice.

Cheers, Hamster