Stainless steel mesh coils build

[Giraut]

So, since the incredimazingly innovative Taifun BT atomizer was unveiled at Hall of Vape 2017 in Stuttgart, the entire planet of the vapes has been all atwitter about it. Of course, I, like everybody else, wanted to try one very badly.

Trouble is, I don't like tanks (much less genny tanks), I don't like the price of the Taifun BT, and most importantly, it's just about impossible to get one right now.

So, being the impatient type, I found an RDA that lends itself pretty well to a SS mesh coil build: the Augvape Druga RDA. Shitty name, but great RDA. The SS mesh build doesn't look as neat as on the Taifun BT, but it works very well indeed! Check it out:

1/ I mounted a single 7mm-wide #400 SS mesh strip all around the deck of a Druga RDA, and "crushed" it as evenly as possible inside the posts. It comes out at 0.11Ω (it goes up a bit after being dry-fired). Then I flattened the "roots" of each half-strip - where they come out of the posts - with tweezers:

2/ Dry-firing the strip. The resistance rose to 0.13Ω:

3/ Wicking: I packed 2 small strips of cotton against the inside surface of each half strip, making sure they make good contact against the entire surface, especially where the mesh meets the posts - just like in the Taifun BT. I then packed as much cotton as possible in the middle to press the outside cotton strips against the mesh as hard as possible:

4/ Juicing it up:

Vaping it: I find it works best between 60W and 80W in power mode. The only drawback is, the atomizer and the entire mod get quite hot, and at 80W, they get VERY hot VERY fast. I had to stack a heat sink under the atomizer to be able to chain-vape somewhat comfortably.

Even at 60W, it chucks very nice clouds and yields pretty good flavor. But just like the Taifun BT, it requires a lot more power than you'd need with regular coils to get the same amount of vapor and flavor.

Being stainless steel, the mesh should increase in resistance when it gets hot - meaning it should be vapeable in TC mode. But the resistance doesn't seem to increase more than a few milliohms. Strange... So TC is out for now, but I'm working on it: I have other brands of mesh that I'll be trying out when it's time to redo this build.

Finally, the build holds 12 to 15 drops of juice, which is less than I expected, but pretty much in line with most smaller RDAs I use. I suspect it would hold more if I had packed more cotton under and over the SS mesh strip, or if I had installed a longer strip. Best of all, it doesn't leak whatsoever, even if the RDA is full and I tilt it sideways, because all the juice is contained in that big blob of cotton and retained by the strip.

So there ya go. That's all there is to it. No need to buy the Taifun BT: that there build works just as well!

UPDATE: it does work in TC mode - sort of: I used a mod with a DNA board, set it in SS316 mode at 60W and 350F, and the power goes down to 40W when the wick gets dry. If I insist, I still get a dry hit, but I feel it coming long before it happens. So with a sensitive enough board and the right settings, it buys me time to recharge the atty before I do get a dry hit.

I'll try to create a custom material profile and see how that goes. But at least with standard material settings, I'm pretty happy with it.

UPDATE 2: SS316 is almost at the limit of sensitivity for DNA boards. The lowest TCR Escribe allows in custom materials is 0.0008, which is almost identical. So no joy there. However, I redid the build with much better balanced strips and tighter-packed cotton, and that seems to help TC a bit.

All in all though, TC is pretty hopeless with SS mesh. Maybe that's why SmokerStore made a tank that uses this system, rather than a dripper: with a tank, you don't really need TC...

 

[ben73]

Clone will be out start of june sites say ,so you be able to try it , before deciding on the Authentic most will probably go this way to see if they like or it its still hard to buy authentic , dont know how this will pay out in EU with TDP in uk over 2ml isnt allowed any more

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

[Giraut]

I don't really want a tank. So I think I'll wait till someone (or SmokerStore) comes out with a dripper with the same deck as the Taifun BT, to make a cleaner build than with the Druga. But functionally, the SS mesh build works just as well in the Druga. So in the meantime, it'll do fine

 

[Giraut]

I did a new build that works even better: the strip is narrower and longer, making the final resistance compatible with a mech mod at 0.22Ω. As it turns out, it also works better in SS316 TC mode on regulated mods, and it seems to generate less unwanted heat at 60W.

Here's how to do the complete build:

That's definitely a keeper

 

[r055co]

Interesting

 

[Giraut]

I finally got TC working pretty good!

It works best on the unlikeliest of mods: the Smok G-PRIV. Unlike DNA boards, the firmware on that thing has no lower limit for the the TCR setting, and the electronics seem just good enough to read tiny variations in coil resistance reliably enough for meaningful temperature control.

The best setting for me seems to be with TCR at 0.00055, preheat at 60W and temperature at 530F. TC is not progressive at all: one toke it works at full pelt, and the next, preheat quickly coughs once and then the power drops almost to nothing - still enough to produce vapor, but not enough to get a dry hit. So it's pretty much on/off, but it's working TC nonetheless.

A Smok board working better than a DNA board... whodathunk it eh? At least that confirms my theory that DNA electronics aren't vastly superior to more mundane Chinese productions. If this Smok board can perform okay in such a difficult application, its design must be at least as decent as Evolv's.

 

[Giraut]

Update:

I redid the build with a shorter and narrower strip (50 mm long and 3 mm wide). The shorter strip isn't as close to the bell, so the atomizer and mod don't get crazy hot anymore. The resistance reads at 18Ω, so it's still usable with a mech. But TC doesn't work at all anymore.

The vapor and flavor it produces are better than with a longer strip, but still need way more power than an ordinary coil would require for the same performances.

So, all in all, SS mesh builds work very well in power mode, and they're a good conversation piece at vape meets. But for worry-free vaping enjoyment and decent battery life, I think I'll stick to more conventional builds. End of the experiment

 

[xpen]

By any chance, have you tried w/o the cotton?
Mesh is supposed to sport some capillarity, and I'm wondering if it can be made 'fish' in the well on its own... Geez, I need to dust off some long-forgotten mesh...

 

[Giraut]

By any chance, have you tried w/o the cotton?
Mesh is supposed to sport some capillarity, and I'm wondering if it can be made 'fish' in the well on its own... Geez, I need to dust off some long-forgotten mesh...

Yes, I did try it years ago and it doesn't work.

The problem is, one layer of mesh doesn't hold enough liquid: it dries up almost instantly. Mesh wicks that are (were?) commonly used in gennys only work because you roll them into a thick mass of mesh that can hold enough juice to last an entire toke before "recharging" for the next toke.

In this case, the mesh is also the heating element, and more than one layer would make its resistance unacceptably low. That's why I didn't even try to make a mesh wick-cum-coil this time.

It's probably possible to roll a separate mesh wick that sits inside the mesh "coil", so that everything is mesh. But this build's configuration makes it so damn easy to change the cotton that it's not really worth the trouble. It's not terribly easy to make a mesh wick that doesn't short a regular coil in a genny, so it'd be even more finicky with a mesh strip, considering the surfaces in contact.