Yes, the age old “Contact or Spaced” debate, hehe. I’ve run both, and both seemed to work well for me. Contact or “pinched” are clearly easy for me to make consistently. I do always have hot spots, basically every time, but with a few strokes, and pinches they glow even until I replace them.
When I make a big batch of these, I’m always surprised how much wire is used, even for single wire 7 wrap coils.
I can’t argue with that.
Again, really glad to see your post, and hope all is well with you guys.
Same, i much prefer spaced, i also get quite a bit better flavour with spaced coils, i ran multiple tests a while back - I use clapton spools 2x26+38g & 3x28+38g mainly but i do have 2x28+38g & 4x28+40g + a few others, so i made a few contact coils from each of the spools, some 5 wrap/some 6 wraps, then made some identical coils/specs but spaced them & tested them all side by side in the same atty, same juice etc, all against their matching spec contact coils & the increase in flavour from the spaced coils was very noticeable, i got the same result with every one of them/each spec the spaced coils gave much better flavour. I only use spaced coils now since those experiments, they were just better all round imo, better flavour, no messing around with hotspots etc & my wicks seem to last longer, it actually made me wonder why people even still use contact coils?
To space mine i just put the coil on the coil rod & stretch/pull it apart from the end wrap on each side, then push/compress it back together & when you release it, it will spring back open with near perfect spacing & end up looking something like this -
This is very good info. I’m still a bit of a newb. I’m using pre-made coils. Spacing the coils makes perfect sense to me. More surface area on the coil for juice saturation. Also seems less likely that you’d experience dry hits…all other things being equal.
I have a few quick wicking guides on youtube which might come in handy for someone new, especially if you like your coils to crackle like i do,lol, -
With muji cotton -
I just watched all 3 videos. They’re short and sweet and easy to follow. I’m getting better at wicking my RTAs. It’s like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it. When I first started doing my cotton, a lot of the finer details just went over my head because I had no experience. I have 4 RTAs and they’re all a little different. I need to get a pair of those bent tweezers, I only have straight ones, they work but sometimes it’s hard to get that tuck-in right with the straight tweezers. I guess that’s the fun part in learning this hobby, experimenting and re-doing. It’s awesome when you get it just right and it works flawlessly.
I check in every day, just don’t post unless I’ve got something to say. My wife states that I “wouldn’t say $h!t if I had a mouthful,” but I’m more of a “if it doesn’t contribute to the conversation, keep yer trap shut!” kinda guy, you know?
We’re doing well, thanks! Might be spending a few months in New England-my brother was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer and I’ve offered to come out and help in whatever way that I can. I’ve done chemo care a few times in my life and as the old song goes, “It ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” Not looking forward to the winter, but with enough layers any temp is doable, right?
If you’re using pre-made clapton spools, have you tried just wrapping the wire on the rod WITH the spacing? It doesn’t have to be uniform-just keep space between each wrap. Once you finish the coil, compress it-the spacing will become uniform, then simply give each lead a firm tug with a pair of pliers while holding the coil on the rod with your thumb to pull any slack out of the coil. It’s how I wrap my spaced coils and it works perfect for me-one less step!
Yeah i do just wrap them around the rod spaced now, i dont pay attention to how neat it is at first, because like you say you can just push them back together &/or tighten them up by pulling one of the legs.
I never really use contact coils anymore though.
For the tip i mentioned that was more for people that buy their coils handmade/pre-made that come as contact coils, just stick them on the rod & tug them apart & compress/push back together to even out the spacing. If you’re using spools you can just wrap them however.
@RicklePick-Eddie1z, @paingawd, it’s probably because I spend so much time on single wire coils that spaced/contact never seemed to make much difference. I think I do have some complex triple, or quad cores running somewhat that are spaced. What’s the big difference, better wicking ? Slightly more surface area for more vapor production ?
Yeah theres wont be much of a difference with simple round wire builds tbh, well, there will but its just a lot less noticeable. With claptons/aliens & other exotics its a more noticeable, especially if you take 2 identical coils (same specs/wire makeup etc) & space one, leave one contact, put them in the same atty, same juice you will notice the spaced gives more defined flavour. To make it a fair test you have to make sure the coils are the same specs/makeup though & not just the same resistance.
Better flavour, & yeah my wicks do seem to last a bit longer with the spaced coils compared to when i used contact coils, everything else is pretty much the same, ie vapor production etc
