I think I would like a build platform and some ceramic tweezers and the coil jig. I just bought 50 pre-made coils so I should be good for awhile. I just got my wife a mod with a sub-ohm tank also. I’ll eventually get her an RTA too. I think she’s liking it. I’ve bee3n rinsing out the stock coils under warm tap water and blowing them out and I’m getting quite a bit more mileage on them. The cotton gets gunked up quick on those things.
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I just went on ali-express and got decent looking ceramic tweezer, A wire winding rod and a coil cutting guage, all for under $6. Can’t beat that. I’ll probably get it by october 1st.
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I switched to vaping around September 2014 and used factory coil tanks for about seven years. There were a few lean times for me and I know I gave cleaning coils a try, though I don’t recall having great success (probably Vivi Nova tanks mostly). Happy to hear it has helped get you through!
I had thought about RTAs at various points but didn’t make the jump until 2022. They’re pretty much all I use now but will sometimes fire up a sub-ohm tank to run through some commercial juice.
Wishing you and your wife much success with your new gear!
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Why wouldn’t you use an RTA to vape commercial liquid? I’m curious.
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You should use everclear or cheap vodka to soak your stock coils. Cleans better. Just soak overnight in a shot glass, rinse and let dry completely.
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I thought about doing that but I haven’t seen anybody do it yet so I was a little reluctant to try it. I don’t keep much liquor in the house because I’ve been sober for 25 years, but my wife will have a drink occasionally with friends on holidays, she’s not really much of a drinker. She just told me theres half a gallon of clear bacardi rum in the cabinet…I didn’t even know. After 25 years that stuff is only good to clean stuff as far as I’m concerned. Thanks for the advice!
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I tend to let factory coils go longer before I feel the need to change them - I usually get through 50-60ml (depending on the liquid), whereas with RTAs I usually want to freshen them up after about half that.
I also usually only run my DIY liquid through RTAs. Most of my mixes are testers of no more than 30ml so they seem to fit better with my refresh habits.
So it’s more of a habit/mental thing I guess.
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There’s nothing better than a fresh stock coil and my favorite juice, but I find that after 2 or 3 days, the vapor production goes way down along with the flavor. It’s because the small cotton in those things gets gunked up fairly quickly. The coil is still fine. Then I discovered that they can be cleaned…and it works! Which leads me to the reason for wanting to switch to an RTA. I’m not a cloud chaser but I am a flavor chaser… 
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I just got my Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA. I built it, first time. I didn’t too bad with the cotton, thinning it out etc… I used the shoe lace cotton that came with it. This thing produces a ton of flavor compared to the GeekVape zeus stock tank. I think I just got hooked on RTAs. It’s such a better experience. None of the vape shops in my area carry RTA tanks, so I’m probably gonna have to order my RTAs online. I haven’t used the rayon cotton yet…one step at a time. 
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