Mohawk coils, tips?

[Synphul]

Okay so I've tried my luck at mohawks using 26ga cores and 36ga wraps. Any tips? Far as I can tell a lot of it comes down to the stretch on the decore. Not enough and it wants to wind up as-is, too much and it won't mohawk the way it's supposed to and fold around the cores. Is there a key to determining how much to stretch it?

I tried not prestretching it and just doing it as it goes figuring it doesn't need stretched as much though that didn't turn out well. How does one go about getting a consistent stretch on the decore so the middle isn't coiled tighter than the ends (the tendency when stretching out a coil, the two ends stretch first and the middle is left all but unstretched). I got a few places about an inch, inch and a half long to finally fall into rhythm and layer nicely before it screwed up again. My cores are usually around 16-17" long, is it easier working with shorter runs?

Naturally Murphy's Law made its appearance. Most of the time I make tricore fused claptons and the pain in the ass is keeping the cores flat without bunching. Hey, mohawks are essentially a collapsed alien so easy right? I mean the cores always want to collapse anyway. Nope, not when making mohawks. All the sudden the cores want to lay nice and flat with no keepers whatsoever. At this point I think the wire is just fucking with me and having a laugh. lol.

 

[VAPEROXX]

Did someone say Mohawks?! Mohawks are 99% prep and 1% building. I get my core wires into a triangle position and wrap them 15 times at the end with 36 gauge wire. Your decore must be off the same gauge wire your cores are or it will not spin correctly (26g cores/26g Clapton decore). Then stretch your decore. Don't analyze this part to death. If you're an Alien spinner, the best I can tell you is that it's a "feel" thing, but in an attempt to put it into words: whatever you stretch an Alien decore to; stretch a Mohawk decore 60-75% of that. A Mohawk by builder's definition is an under stretched Alien variant. Next is the spin. Get your cores in the drill where you wrapped the 36g around them. How do you keep them in that triangular position you ask? Well, you have 3 wires in a triangle shape and 3 jaws in the drill chuck. See where I'm going here? The drill chuck will hold them in position by default. At least there at the beginning. Start wrapping your decore slowly until the "Mohawk" wrap takes shape. Then, as hard as this may be for you to believe, throttle up that drill! Mohawks spin the easiest and cleanest at high speed. Low speed invites error, mostly human error. Finally, the grip on the decore. Less is more here. Light but confident grip, allowing the decore to slide through the finger and thumb without stuttering or chattering. The cleanliness of the wrap can easily be controlled on the fly, by increasing or decreasing the tension on your grip. Now...your last question is: how do you keep the cores in that perfect triangle shape all the way to the swivel at the other end?! Simple answer: hou don't! If your prep, speed, decore stretch, and grip are as I stated; the wrap of the Mohawk will maintain the cores' relative position automatically by default. No different than spinning an Alien. Many people compensate for their own building technique errors on Alien coils by using clamps or legos or sliders of some sort. Remember: on any Alien variation, if you're doing it absolutely correctly, all you need is a drill, some type of rotating support device (such as fishing swivels), wire, and fingers. No tape, legos, clamps, sliders, raw potatoes or any other crutches.

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/wts-wtt-aspex-performance-coils.434798/

 

[Synphul]

T

Did someone say Mohawks?! Mohawks are 99% prep and 1% building. I get my core wires into a triangle position and wrap them 15 times at the end with 36 gauge wire. Your decore must be off the same gauge wire your cores are or it will not spin correctly (26g cores/26g Clapton decore). Then stretch your decore. Don't analyze this part to death. If you're an Alien spinner, the best I can tell you is that it's a "feel" thing, but in an attempt to put it into words: whatever you stretch an Alien decore to; stretch a Mohawk decore 60-75% of that. A Mohawk by builder's definition is an under stretched Alien variant. Next is the spin. Get your cores in the drill where you wrapped the 36g around them. How do you keep them in that triangular position you ask? Well, you have 3 wires in a triangle shape and 3 jaws in the drill chuck. See where I'm going here? The drill chuck will hold them in position by default. At least there at the beginning. Start wrapping your decore slowly until the "Mohawk" wrap takes shape. Then, as hard as this may be for you to believe, throttle up that drill! Mohawks spin the easiest and cleanest at high speed. Low speed invites error, mostly human error. Finally, the grip on the decore. Less is more here. Light but confident grip, allowing the decore to slide through the finger and thumb without stuttering or chattering. The cleanliness of the wrap can easily be controlled on the fly, by increasing or decreasing the tension on your grip. Now...your last question is: how do you keep the cores in that perfect triangle shape all the way to the swivel at the other end?! Simple answer: hou don't! If your prep, speed, decore stretch, and grip are as I stated; the wrap of the Mohawk will maintain the cores' relative position automatically by default. No different than spinning an Alien. Many people compensate for their own building technique errors on Alien coils by using clamps or legos or sliders of some sort. Remember: on any Alien variation, if you're doing it absolutely correctly, all you need is a drill, some type of rotating support device (such as fishing swivels), wire, and fingers. No tape, legos, clamps, sliders, raw potatoes or any other crutches.

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/wts-wtt-aspex-performance-coils.434798/

That's part of my problem, at least when doing tricore fused claptons (similar issue for aliens). I do use legos to keep the 3 cores nice and flat. Even with 3 ball bearing swivels in line over a 16"+ length of wire the swivels don't keep up. Shit likes to twist on me. I do use the same size core for the decore, ie 26ga clapton core originally, then 3x 26ga cores for the mohawk.

I tried spinning it up faster but I must be slow to react to tension. What ended up happening, not enough tension and the curly phone cord looking decore started winding around like a whole coil around a set of cores looking some coilwars shit. Not at all what I was after. Or they catch on each other and instead of falling into nice neat rows once they're off and one curve of the decore catches wrong it wants to wrap backward on itself. Seems there's no fixing it once that happens so anything up to that point is trash. That's even with giving it a slight lead angle it wants to go ass backwards when they get bound up.

I don't mind a slight twist down the length, that I can sort out when wrapping around a jig. It's getting the stretched decore to lay properly that doesn't seem to want to play nice except every once in awhile. I need more than an inch and a half lol. I'll try binding the ends of the cores with wrap wire to see if it helps.

 

[Synphul]

Welp that was a rat's nest. Better but no cigar (or mohawk). lol.. I'll try attacking it later.

 

[VAPEROXX]

Sounds like cheap swivels to me. Don't cheap out on swivels. Reputable ball bearing swivels only. I only use SPRO. A good swivel will prevent twist. Plus, until you master the craft, start with shorter cores. Build one coil at a time if you need to. Length comes with practice and experience.

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/wts-wtt-aspex-performance-coils.434798/

 

[ShiftSwiftly•GetSchwifty]

Watch squirmingcoils tutorial on them on YT that’s how I got em down. I would always stretch it less and just add a little more tension than stretching too much don’t worry you’ll get the hang of it in no time.

 

[Synphul]

Watch squirmingcoils tutorial on them on YT that’s how I got em down. I would always stretch it less and just add a little more tension than stretching too much don’t worry you’ll get the hang of it in no time.

Thanks I'll do that. I watched a couple of them but don't think I saw that one. The first ones I dicked up and I know why, I think I was reading how to do it (not watching anything) and either it was poorly written or I misunderstood. Thought it was done with 2 cores and the 'mohawk' portion was just an extra freestanding loop of wire that formed. lol.

Haven't braved them again just yet, did manage to get some ok-ish aliens. Part of my problem too is the decore. I'm not really set up with a decent build space so don't prestretch all the decore at once just bits at a time. Naturally as it's winding up a bit it turns the decore until the unwrapped portion has twirled around itself like one of those old phone cords with the added length on it. Yea that's fun to untangle and gently unwind to detangle without catching it on itself and pulling (overstretching). Apparently wadded up in my lap isn't the way to go. I've heard some people lay it out behind them and run it over their shoulder or something but I just don't have that kind of room. So it's stretch a little, wind a little, stretch a little, wind a little. Needless to say it's not overly uniform and the stopping/starting isn't doing me any favors.

 

[ShiftSwiftly•GetSchwifty]

Thanks I'll do that. I watched a couple of them but don't think I saw that one. The first ones I dicked up and I know why, I think I was reading how to do it (not watching anything) and either it was poorly written or I misunderstood. Thought it was done with 2 cores and the 'mohawk' portion was just an extra freestanding loop of wire that formed. lol.

Haven't braved them again just yet, did manage to get some ok-ish aliens. Part of my problem too is the decore. I'm not really set up with a decent build space so don't prestretch all the decore at once just bits at a time. Naturally as it's winding up a bit it turns the decore until the unwrapped portion has twirled around itself like one of those old phone cords with the added length on it. Yea that's fun to untangle and gently unwind to detangle without catching it on itself and pulling (overstretching). Apparently wadded up in my lap isn't the way to go. I've heard some people lay it out behind them and run it over their shoulder or something but I just don't have that kind of room. So it's stretch a little, wind a little, stretch a little, wind a little. Needless to say it's not overly uniform and the stopping/starting isn't doing me any favors.

That’s part of your problem right there you need to stretch it all at once the way you’re talking about doing it is just asking for trouble you need to stretch it all at once hook the end to something or put it in a vice and grab the other end with pliers or your hand and slowly stretch it that way your stretch is even and consistent across the entire length of Decore you can find somewhere to stretch it even if it’s outside and if you can’t or don’t feel like it make a shorter decore or cut it in half you don’t need an insanely long decore to wrap enough for a coil or 2 and you can wrap the stretched decore CAREFULLY AND LOOSELY around an old spool preferably a larger one or get a piece of pvc pipe and have it laid horizontal somewhere up high or a few feet off the floor at least and a bit away from your build desk and drape the decore over It so it will not get tangled up or hung on anything and fuck up your stretch and always remember you can stretch it out more or add more tension but you can’t unstretch it tans I’m sure a lot of people on here myself included have screwed up their share of decores one way or another and they know the struggle lol

 

[ShiftSwiftly•GetSchwifty]

Alternatively you could just go the no stretch method although that might prove difficult with Mohawks I’ve never tried it. I fortunately have a huge bedroom and a ton of space to stretch out decores and my building setup has a ton of completely unnecessary OCD level stuff I’ve added on or rigged up over time for the sake of convenience lol

 

[ShiftSwiftly•GetSchwifty]

Here’s the link for the YT tutorial I mentioned by the way

 

[ShiftSwiftly•GetSchwifty]

Oh and try hot glue to keep your cores in that nice pyramid shape! I think that would help you a ton

 

[Synphul]

Yea I think that was one of the vids I'd seen before. Watched it again and something else I noticed. His cores spin a lot smoother so some of my trouble could be my swivels. Even wrapping up basic fused claptons with similar length cores, maybe a touch longer. Somewhere around 16-18" or so. By the time I'm around 1/3 of the way in and nearing the center of the cores there's a lot of hopping going on. Enough I can feel it in the drill as a slight vibration (besides the drill motor) and the cores flex around a good 1/2" deflection or slightly more. Like strumming a rubberband and watching it vibrate until it stops.

Guessing the brand is what's listed on amazon, thkfish. #3 coastlock ball bearing, they were like $10 for a 30pk. I'd list the link but it's one of those mile long amazon marketplace links. Either the swivels or I'm starting to wonder about my base the swivels are attached to. It's a couple pieces of 2x3, a short piece laid flat with a vertical piece mounted creating a sort of J or backwards L shape. Leaving a ledge to clamp to the edge of my desk. The vertical piece is turned so the swivels and wire pull against the long edge giving it more stability from swivel to drill.

The issue (I just noticed fooling with it) is the cut on the end of the vertical 2x3 isn't perfectly flat/square. A little pressure forward and back (side to side perpendicular to core wires) and that vertical piece has some wobble in it. I don't remember it having that much play when I first used it so maybe a screw toenailed into it would suck it down tight. I feel like a moron for not checking it but hell, guess before I go blaming the swivels maybe I should make sure the anchor point is at least solid. FML. lol. At this point I'm surprised anything comes out.

Also wish the chuck on my drill was straight. It angles up some sitting on the battery back flat on the desk. Just the way the drill's made and works well for keeping the battery away from most surfaces while using it as a drill. Not sure if you can see it has an upward pitch so even when the cores are centered there's a slight angle that's constantly in rotation. Wondering if that has anything to do with the chatter. Not sure what to do about that, not looking to buy a new drill. Maybe rig some sort of angled base to tilt the chuck forward a bit and get it more straight.