Tips/Tricks to create Alien Claptons and any other exotic wire

Greyz

Greyz

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Good evening my fellow ecigssa forumites!

What started out, for me, as a means to quit smoking has now turned into a full blown lifestyle. I DIY all my own juice and so ago I figured why not make your own wire. First few builds were simple 26g\32g Claptons using my trusty Ryobi drill. Being a wired drill this was not the ideal setup but I was making my claptons with great success.
Next stop Fused Claptons, I really struggled with these as I didn't have a swivel and more often that not they came out more as Twisted Claptons than Fused Claptons.
Along comes Daedalus with their clapton making machine and @Vapers Corner with their awesome R850 deal. It didn't take much to convince me and I bought one.
Needless to say I ran out of wire very fast, all my spools were 30ft with the exception of 100ft spool of 34g ni80.

In a nut shell I wanted to create a thread where we can share our experience, pics and help each other with any issues we come across. All in the hope of saving others wasting precious wire. @R120 for 30ft we cold use all the savings we can muster.

Below is a pic of an Alien build I attempted earlier today. It was frustrating to say the least, everytime I would get going and slowly speed up, I 'd mess up the wire.
My guess is I didn't stretch out the clapton enough so when it reached those sections the wire humped up and doubled over itself. Hopefully someone here can share a few tips :D

upload_2016-9-16_22-45-48.jpeg

Here are some pics of a Triple Core Fused Clapton I did today. This came out perfect and just needs a little straightening. I used a slide and a swivel to keep the wires parallel as I wrapped them.

upload_2016-9-16_22-47-19.jpeg

upload_2016-9-16_22-47-30.jpeg
upload_2016-9-16_22-47-44.jpeg

Excuse the quality, I had to compress the pics as they were 6MB each.

So please any and all wire masters I invite you to share you wire builds and tips with us here.

I have gotten such great advise from the forumites here, I thought why not create a thread and ask :D
 
Feliks Karp said:
Awesome idea! Subbed! Will be stalking this thread :cool: and wires looking awesome!
Click to expand...

Thanks Feliks, I can't wait to see your contributions here. Put that Daedalus to work!
 
Excellent first try @Greyz You will get better with knowing how much to stretch the outer wrap after a few attempts. Check out 'The Art Of Vaping' on YouTube, they have a good video on the Alien coil. There is no way of knowing exactly how much to stretch the outer wrap clapton, it's more of a 'feel' which you will figure out after some practice.
 
daniel craig said:
Excellent first try @Greyz You will get better with knowing how much to stretch the outer wrap after a few attempts. Check out 'The Art Of Vaping' on YouTube, they have a good video on the Alien coil. There is no way of knowing exactly how much to stretch the outer wrap clapton, it's more of a 'feel' which you will figure out after some practice.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll go subscribe to their channel when I get home tomorrow morning, I have watched a few Squidoode, GrimmGreen and OhmBoy Josh videos. They make it look so easy like it's nothing. I think I know where I went wrong, you need to stretch the de-clapton'd wire till you feel like it almost like you can't stretch it anymore. My previous few attempts I had over stretched the wire, this time I had some sections stretched perfect and others not so perfect. I also need to be more patient and just go slowly until it's done.
 
Greyz said:
Thanks I'll go subscribe to their channel when I get home tomorrow morning, I have watched a few Squidoode, GrimmGreen and OhmBoy Josh videos. They make it look so easy like it's nothing. I think I know where I went wrong, you need to stretch the de-clapton'd wire till you feel like it almost like you can't stretch it anymore. My previous few attempts I had over stretched the wire, this time I had some sections stretched perfect and others not so perfect. I also need to be more patient and just go slowly until it's done.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the alien isn't like the fused claptons which you can max the drill speed and do it. With the Alien you want to use a speed you are comfortable with.
 
A few tips that are key when I make my aliens is to make sure that the core wires are all exactly parallel and all have the same tension on them. When stretching the decored Clapton I take a short sample of the core wires and stretch till one loop of the Clapton sits in the middle of the bunch and the others on the edges of the bunch. If you aren't sure if it's stretched enough don't over stretch, rather start wrapping and if it's not enough just stretch a bit more while it's still wrapped around the cores and try again till you find the sweet spot.

I use a keyring to keep them all flat when spinning. Moving the keyring about 1-1.5cm each time. Going slow or keeping a medium speed is best, when I get over confident and speed things up the poo usually hits the fan lol.

Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk
 
Chris du Toit said:
A few tips that are key when I make my aliens is to make sure that the core wires are all exactly parallel and all have the same tension on them. When stretching the decored Clapton I take a short sample of the core wires and stretch till one loop of the Clapton sits in the middle of the bunch and the others on the edges of the bunch. If you aren't sure if it's stretched enough don't over stretch, rather start wrapping and if it's not enough just stretch a bit more while it's still wrapped around the cores and try again till you find the sweet spot.

I use a keyring to keep them all flat when spinning. Moving the keyring about 1-1.5cm each time. Going slow or keeping a medium speed is best, when I get over confident and speed things up the poo usually hits the fan lol.

Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips Chris, I'll give this a go tomorrow. For a slide, I just used a piece of 34g that I wrap around the wires then flat that out and slide it along as I clapton. And then today I find that Daedalus has 2 slides in the kit, 1 for 3x 26g and the other 3x 28g. I'll try this little tool and see how it works.
I just hope I have enough 34g left - 100ft doesn't last at all.
 
Awesome stuff @Greyz, I was wondering how those little slides worked. Let us know how it goes!

Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk
 
Clouds4Days said:
I cant wait to start building some coils.
Got a coiling jig-a-ma-thing coming in so lets see how it goes.
I usually just buy pre built coils but i wanna play around with Nichrome builds now.

Oh yeah and just to let you peeps know efun.top has the Daedalus coil jig for $40

http://www.efun.top/avidartisan-daedalus-coil-diy-tool.html
Click to expand...

$40! Have you placed yet and when did you place it? eFun.top is a site I use for all my tank and mod buys.
Expect your coiling jig-a-ma-thing in 4 weeks :D

I hope you placed a FastTech wire order same time because there aren't many places locally where you can get hold of 100ft spools.
Last thing you want is a Daedalus and no wire - like having a drivers license but no car...
 
Ok first tip for you, daedalus is not compatible with the smaller UD spools, the spring on the jig keeps wobbling or dropping down the hole which is larger than the spring. I'm going to have to either cut out something to go over which doesnt slip or respool them on geekvape spools.

I made this in the mean time, I did 7 turns because I wasnt 100% sure of the resistence, and it came out at 0.7 so two of them are 0.35. It's two 28ga ni80 twisted then twisted again with kanthal tape...so I guess its hive tiger wire :p gets really hot, 70 watts burnt the cotton quickly.

PicsArt_09-17-02.02.35.jpg
 
Greyz said:
$40! Have you placed yet and when did you place it? eFun.top is a site I use for all my tank and mod buys.
Expect your coiling jig-a-ma-thing in 4 weeks :D

I hope you placed a FastTech wire order same time because there aren't many places locally where you can get hold of 100ft spools.
Last thing you want is a Daedalus and no wire - like having a drivers license but no car...
Click to expand...

No Havent orderd yet but maybe next month , wanna try my coilng jig-a-thing-ming first :-D

Its in customs orderd it a few weeks back, that along with my mage and some other little bits and bobs.

Ill be sure to order some wire from fast tech soon.

This is the coil thing-a-ma-jig hahaha:-D

http://www.efun.top/coil-fundi-auto-coil-builder.html

555.jpg
 
Awesome thread @Greyz!!
Well the tips I can give that made my alien builds easier is.....
1. Swivels. To be precise ball bearing swivels. 3 of them linked together will make your life a lot easier.
2. Alignment. Your drill, core wires, swivels all need to be 100% level with each other. If your off by n little it will make the core wires wobble and thats (in my case) where problems begin.
3. Keyring. The keyring (or high quality, stif paperclips) will keep the core wires flat. The last thing you want is a 5cm awesome piece of alien and then your core wires mangle. !
4.Tension. The tension on you core wire cant be to much or the swivels wont function good AND the tension in which you hold your clapton wire to wrap, to much tension and the core will mangle, to little tension and your alien will not look like an alien.
5.Distance. Your hand with the wrapping wire should be about 20cm away from your cores as this gives the wrapping alien time to lie in it's natural curvy way.
6.Feel. When you stretch your decored clapton you will feel the wire gets "springy" when you are at the preferred stretch. DON'T go past the springy stretch. Like @Chrisdutoit said: take your samples of you core wires to see if they fit in the stretched wire.
7.Wire. The more the merrier! Aliens are difficult and WILL take a few tries, buy a 125gram, 250gram @gasphase wire or 500feet TM wires and "GAAN BOS".
8. Patients. Don't max your drill. Take your time. Slow and steady wins the race.
10. Angle. Your wrap wire you want to keep at a higher that 90degree. So just in front of the wrapping. Not to much or it will look like a spaced alien.
11. Compress. When you are done with your alien, hold on to the cores and compress the alien wrap with your finger nails and wrap the end in tape. This will keep your wrap in place until you have coiled your coils.

88994171e22ecdf95e266f433b15a539.jpg

6cec40cbf4093451a26262acd7b1f94a.jpg

99190791e87417811b89b23dcf69f813.jpg

0a595da4c5d1e7ee9bf748fd02248ade.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Feliks Karp said:
Ok first tip for you, daedalus is not compatible with the smaller UD spools, the spring on the jig keeps wobbling or dropping down the hole which is larger than the spring. I'm going to have to either cut out something to go over which doesnt slip or respool them on geekvape spools.

I made this in the mean time, I did 7 turns because I wasnt 100% sure of the resistence, and it came out at 0.7 so two of them are 0.35. It's two 28ga ni80 twisted then twisted again with kanthal tape...so I guess its hive tiger wire :p gets really hot, 70 watts burnt the cotton quickly.

View attachment 68050
Click to expand...
Yeah twisted Nichrome alone is beastly. I run 3 strands 28g and it KICKS at 105w. I can but imagine your build. You got that in a tank or dripper?
 
My old skol coil maker. Have made some pretty nice compound coils with it, but I mostly don't bother with making fancy coils now days with the failing eye sight. :(

1spycoiler1.jpg
 
I see a lot of international builders using nylon tipped pliers. Anyone know of a local source of them?
 
Greyz said:
$40! Have you placed yet and when did you place it? eFun.top is a site I use for all my tank and mod buys.
Expect your coiling jig-a-ma-thing in 4 weeks :D

I hope you placed a FastTech wire order same time because there aren't many places locally where you can get hold of 100ft spools.
Last thing you want is a Daedalus and no wire - like having a drivers license but no car...
Click to expand...

thx @Greyz ..didnt know they have 100ft..just ordered 12 X 100 ft kanthal rolls for r570...score...happy days
 
First off please excuse the crude cave painting.

So @Greyz asked me about how I re-spool from bigger spools, so I thought I'd just share a diagram on my own method. Personally I really like the geekvape spools, they're easier to manage and fit the daedulus and my own home made jig really well.

First you have to locate the two slots on the inside which have little grooves cut in to them, you take your wire and thread it in there and just have to bend it and bend it against the outside, make sure though that the wire is threaded in the opposite direction against the spool it's coming off of, then simply start turning the new and old spools in opposite directions, on the new spool make sure to start at the top and start moving down as you wind it on and then start moving it back in an upwards direction, this will insure that it doesnt pile up on itself causing it to catch when you start to use it. The opposite direction dissipates alot of the stored energy. I do this by hand and would not suggest doing it by a powered source as you can muck it up and also put energy back in to the wire.


spooling.jpg


This is just to illustrate the movement of the wire as you wrap it on the new spool:

wire wraps.jpg
 
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