I believe it causes spaces to form where the coil is too close. With the spaces the power has to wind through all the coils in the wire.
On a non spaced coil you want the electricity from the lead to uniformly arc across all the coiled wires evenly, pressing them closer together closes the gaps and allows the current to flow sideways.
One final thing that is probably relevant is that pushing the coil together also improves thermal conduction between the wires. This also helps the coil achieve a uniform temperature. But bleh, contact coils!
Love em with SS claptons. I’ve tried both contact and spaced and much prefer contact. Spaced Ti though…always.
I think with claptons it’s all about their wicking ability, but my builds are so shameful I cannot speak from experience how spacing affects them. I liked the claptons I’ve tried, but their lifetime is far to short for my lazy butt.
Hmpf, I am. 
Although I’m using both types, actually. And most of my daily atties use mesh - so much for retro 
Does this mean electricity is then not flowing “through” the wire, but “vertically” across wraps (via the many contact points created by pinching)? If yes, I find that thought quite entertaining 
Thanks for sharing! 
Yup, that’s what I’m saying anyway…is it the dominant mechanism or is the thermal contact more dominant in evening out the coil temp? I can’t say, but that’s why God created multi-physics computer modeling, haha.
Re strumming…I haven’t built kanthal in ages, but I’m pretty sure the strumming is not required. Just the repeated heating and cooling, although perhaps strumming helps it along. In any event, I think it’s probable one is heat-treating the wire. The fact that it gets so much harder afterward is pretty much proof of this. Kanthal is an alloy of several materials, which would make looking at solid-state phase diagrams out of my league. But my guess is that throughout the wires life to becoming a coil it is subjected to a number of processes that result in localized phase changes to the material. Each phase typically has different mechanical and electrical characteristics. By eventually taking the entire coil above some critical temperature, you make the material of a uniform phase…this is not the same as removing impurities or changing the wires chemical composition. I am referring to how the material arranges itself into various crystalline or non-crystalline forms, each of which again have varying electrical properties. This is pretty basic materials science, as I don’t know much more than this, haha. Maybe I can find a kanthal phase diagram…if you Google that term (phase diagram) you will see what they look like. I have several volumes of phase diagrams sitting on my bookshelf that I use for solders.
They are quite complicated to interpret for materials consisting of more than two elements (binary compounds), and ive never actually seen one for more than three elements (ternary compounds) because the axes of the graph(s) extend into more dimensions than can be represented on a piece of paper. . .well sorta, I still haven’t seen one. I shudder at the thought.
Is this the same as “evening out the tension,” actually it is in a way. You can create solid state phase changes without heating. This is called cold-working and kanthal is definitely susceptible to it. Take a small piece of large guage kanthal and bend it back and forth in the same place. Notice how it gets hard there? That’s called cold-working and it’s the result of a phase change. If you run current through it now, that spot will turn red first. Not all materials will cold-work, copper wont for instance, but in those that do, it is typically a reversible process done by…heating!
That was probably too much, but it’s fun thinking! I’ll stop geeking out now, well, I’ll try 
Oh, that’s an interesting concept! I’ll read up on that. 
(yes, “yum” is the most appropriate smiley )
As far as I know, I only ever heard of strumming when talking about titanium coils. How about cold-working titanium? I reckon it’s rather resistant to it (really springy)?
I feel like I learned quite a bit again these two days. 
I get really soft Ti from a jewelry supply place, and I just tested and it certainly seems to cold work. Bend it back and forth in the same spot and it eventually breaks. Again, copper will not do this. If you use thick Ti (I just used 18ga) or a paperclip (not Ti obviously) you will notice that the wire also heats up just by bending it back and forth. That’s another side-effect of cold working.
Totally out of this context, cold-working copper came up at work today, just now, so I actually looked. I am wrong, it will cold work. However some metals wont, my next bets are indium or gold, maybe gallium. Just guesses. Sorry about the copper mistake, but I don’t think it work hardens much.
How would you say a round wire Ti build would compare against an SS clapton for example, for flavour that is
I would say flavor might be the same, but don’t miss a main point which is lifecycle. Claptons are great at holding/wicking juice and also getting quickly crusty. Of course you can dry fire them, but that also entails re-wicking. I’ll refrain from derailing and adding hemp wicking …but combined with Ti coils just outlasts Claptons+cotton/rayon. It’s not that SS and Ti give you more flavor, it’s more like they don’t interfere with the flavor (Kanthal)
I’ve never used kanthal nor do I intend to. I’ve just found that using Ti in temp mode today was excellent, much better than SS. I can never get claptons to perform the way I want them to, and the flavour from a pair of 8 wrap Ti dual coils was excellent.
I think we hear alot about how this or that tank is better or worse, but I think finding the sweet spot coil-wise is the real secret. SO many options eh? but once you get close and finally nail it, it’s not really that complicated. Nothing sweeter than enjoying one’s own tasty build! …and being able to effortlessly repeat next round …congrats
I said something similar when asked about flavour tanks. I reckon it’s more to do with your build, temp, wattage etc…, than the actual tank. I’ve already ordered more Ti. Got a roll each (10 meters) of 22 and 24 for 9 euro . Cheers fella 
I bought wire to make some Ti Claptons but the thinnest available is 32ga …a project for a future date 
I just had a play on steam engine to have a look at ti coils. Wow, not much resistance in that wire. Yeah 26 32 Clapton will be good. Fused though I’d be leaning towards 28 cores. Wow that’s some serious wire, I’d like to try. Keep us posted, please.
Those that use ti what gauges and builds are you doing, good to know before I order, thinking 26,28 & 32+ is a good starter pack.
I’m using 22 for single and 24 for duals
Yeah I have made some big weird coils in the past and one of the things I like about my Digiflavor Pharaoh is the size of the build deck. I currently have dual 4.5mm ID notch coils and they fit no problem. My procrastination is that I would be inclined to post up some pics and I bought a Avidartisan Daedalus Coil Tool so it’s like 3 posts in one… daunting