Microcoil on SS in a Genesis

I've been curious about whether or not you can put a microcoil on stainless steel mesh for a few weeks, so today I decided to see if it works, and how well.

First I found the drill bit that fit in my RSST, 1/8 inch fit the bill.

Next I made the microcoil, did ten wraps.

Checked the resistance with the Vamo, came out to 2.3 ohms. I already had a wick that worked perfectly on my normal setup, so I attached the coil and fed it down through. Ended up a bit crooked on the coil. Checked resistance again and it had dropped down to 1.4 ohms. Hmm...

Test fired, looked somewhat promising.

 Tested the vape. Clouds, but the flavor was off.

I vaped on the setup for about an hour to break it in a little bit and see if the flavor improved. It didn't really change much. I used it on my Vamo and my Magneto, but the Vamo worked better since I could pump up the power. At 15 watts it had clouds of vapor, but so-so flavor, and the wick didn't really keep up very well at all. I kept checking the resistance throughout the test and it jumped around constantly, going up to 2.5 ohms and down to 1.3. 

I've come to the conclusion that microcoils don't play nice with SS mesh. If I had to guess, the coil makes just too much contact with the wire and shorts out, sending the power through the wick instead of the coil. If I'd used a genny without the insulated wick hole I wouldn't be surprised if it had never got it to work. Another downside is that building a microcoil with a 1/8 inch diameter bit isn't nearly as easy as on a 5/64th bit. It likes to slip around a lot when you're trying to squeeze the coil and torch it. I don't think I'll ever try that one again, but it satisfied my curiosity. 

To-do list!

Here's a few things up and coming for future posts.

Microcoil on SS in a Genesis (Hopefully later tonight)
K100-101 Review
Greenman Ejuice Paladin Orange Review
Smok Magneto Review
Vamo V3 Review
A Look Back: My First Device
Aspire BDC Review
RSST Review
ProTank Review
I-Atty Review
Batteries and You
Vivi Nova Review
Freedom Juice Milkshake Review

There's more besides that, but this is what comes off the top of my head.

The History of (My) Vaping Part 3

When I discovered that the Blu cartridges fit in my old Joytech 510 battery, I was vastly unaware how far the world of vaping had progressed in a scant 4 years. I didn't know it could get any better. Boy how wrong I was!

I craved more variety in my flavors than my local gas station could supply with Blu carts, as well as more flavor and vapor production. I was pretty much clueless where to go next. The Electronic Cigarette Forum had an endless depth of information, but I got lost in the talk of things like ohms, amp draw, mechanicals, and a whole slough of other over my head pieces of information. Eventually I decided the next logical step was an Ego battery, an atomizer of some sort, and of course, eliquid/ejuice.

After snooping around online seeing everything that there was that I understood, I stumbled upon http://vaporjoes.com/, which I still check out every day for the best deals in vaping. I forgot the exact post that was put up, I think it was about the Kanger ProTank, but most importantly it steered me to two places that jump started my vaping interests: http://www.fasttech.com/ and http://www.tasteyourjuice.com/.

Fasttech was significant because that's where I bought my next two devices that got me a lot more in to vaping. I ordered a 1100mAh eGo battery with a CE5 clearomizer and 4 juices for a mere $21. Later on I would order my trusty Vamo V3, and although she's a little beat up after 6 months of constant use, still works like the day I bought it. Nowadays I don't order from them much, if at all, but that's mostly due to personal preference to support USA vendors and my impatience (It took over 2 weeks to get my other orders, but I couldn't turn down the price).

TasteYourJuice is hands down my favorite vaping site in the whole wide world wide web. Phil Busardo has done the community a huge service in providing all of us reviews, advice, and knowledge. I personally have seen every single one of his many, many videos, from the first joke video about the vapor pen (I didn't get it then) to the Hurricane Juice review. I don't buy much of anything, hardware-wise, that hasn't been reviewed by Phil. Why did I buy my Vamo? It got a thumbs up. ProTank? Thumbs up. Aspire BDC? Thumbs up. The way he goes over everything is extraordinarily useful, if even just to see how something works hands on. If he didn't live on the opposite side of the country, I would seek him out and shake his hand.

Now back to me!

I was pretty happy with my CE5 and my eGo, but I'd read about how some juices can eat away at plastic tanks. That to me sounded like it could be terrible in every way, so I looked in to glass tanks and it seemed to me that the Kanger ProTank was the way to go. It had rave reviews, even if it did leak a little bit from time to time, and it was simple to change out the coil heads, even rebuild them for pennies. After convincing my wife it would last forever, I got my ProTank, and it's still my go-to clearo.

Now armed with a small amount of knowledge and a nigh-indestructible tank, I headed out with my new fancy (albeit top-heavy) setup, and confused my coworkers even further.

Juice Review: Good Life Vapor Zombie Blood

My first official juice review!

I've ordered from Good Life Vapor a few times now, and every time I get a 4x10mL sample pack to check out flavors I'm curious about. It's $20 and well worth doing, in my opinion. I'm not the type of person to order just one thing repeatedly, but if there is one I particularly like I'll order a bigger bottle. I'll get to the other flavors I've ordered in time, but today I'd like to take a look at the stand-out flavor from the last sample pack: Zombie Blood.

For review purposes I use a 1.5 Ohm bridgeless drip atomizer I ordered from Nhaler (http://shop.nhaler.com/510-and-306-Bridgeless-Atomizers-bridgeless.htm). I don't have a particular preference for this atomizer over any other since I haven't used other drip atomizers, but the flavor is true and it works well enough that I'll likely order another once this one dies.

Steep time on this one is only about 3 or 4 days.

Color: The color of the juice is nearly clear with just the slightest hint of red, or maybe orange. Not cloudy or foggy at all.

Scent: First thing I always do as soon as I get a new bottle of juice is smell it to see what I've gotten myself in to, and compare it to the actual flavor I get. Smells like cherry gummy bears.

Flavor: If you went to a candy store and bought a bag of red gummy bears and stuffed a fistful in your mouth, that's what this tastes like. Maybe a few of those white/clear gummy bears with the nondescript flavor on the exhale too. You know the ones, sweet and possibly pineapple. No weird off flavors, no bad aftertaste. 

Vapor: Seems good enough to me. I haven't seen a juice that didn't have decent vapor in a long time.

Throat hit: Pretty solid, I'm happy with it. It gives a good hit in the back of the throat. I only vape 6mg juice and I can tell it's there without a doubt. 

Overall I would give the juice 4/5 stars, it's going in the ProTank, and there's a pretty good chance I'll order this one again.

See it here: http://www.goodlifevapor.com/zombie-blood/

*I received no compensation for doing this review, and I ordered the juice with my own hard-earned money. Same goes for the atomizer.

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 2

In 2009 I bought my first device, a Joytech 510 Manual. I shelved it after a month and went back to smoking a pack a day. I had left the vaping world behind and wasn't planning on ever returning to it. I was constantly trying to quit smoking. I tried cold turkey with horrifying results, I tried reducing how much I smoked gradually with limited success, and I went to the patch, I thought successfully. I completed the 3 steps they have you go through and, except for the occasional cigarette, finished the program. It only took about 3 months to relapse.

What happened? A mildly stressful day. Nothing world-breaking, just run-of-the-mill work stress. I was convinced I would never be able to ditch tobacco. I was smoking in the middle of the night so my family wouldn't see me doing it (they knew anyway), otherwise I wouldn't smoke at home. It was a dirty secret. I was ashamed, I was disgusted at myself, and I was unable to stop. It certainly didn't help that the state had upped their famous Sin-Taxes and I was spending about $8.25 daily when we were short on cash.

Fast forward to mid-March of 2013. I was working out in the Sultan, WA area and my pack had run empty, so I swung in to the local smoke shop. Since I had been out there last they had put up a new sign. A Blu sign. I was intrigued. I had seen the Steven Dorff commercials, and I figured hell, if the bad guy from Blade likes them, I might as well give it a try. I bought two disposables for about $16 (still the lowest I've seen those things around here) and right there in the shop the clerk had me test them to make sure they worked. And boy did they work!

You've probably heard a lot of people bad-mouth Blu for various reasons, be it they didn't like the flavor or they didn't like the gimmicky Social Cases or whatever they are, but the simple fact is that the disposable that I bought was light-years better than the previous experience I'd had, and I was impressed with it. It was warm, tasted like hazelnuts, and had a very smooth feel to the vape. This was the catalyst to reintroduce the world of vaping to me.

After a good two week stretch of largely using the Blu disposables, I had an epiphany. What if my old Joy 510 worked with their cartomizers? I wasn't sure, being that there was a 4 year separation between them and that there was no such thing as a carto when I had tried vaping before. To my delight they fit, and I was fairly satisfied.

That was April 15th, the last day I was a smoker, and the first day I was a vaper.

How (and why) To Clean Your Device

I spent some time this morning cleaning up my Smok Magneto and thought I would share how and why it's done, by me anyway.

First and foremost, there's more than looks involved when you're cleaning up your device, especially when it's a mechanical. On any device, you want to regularly wipe out your atomizer connection. If you've never done that, go get a paper towel, napkin, or a tissue, twist it up, and spin it around on the threads a few times. I'll wait for you to do that.

Done?

See that black crap? It's your enemy. What exactly it is I'm not 100% sure. Some of it's eliquid, some of it's dust and dirt, and some of it's a tarnish. Probably dead skin too. Even on a device that never leaks, you'll get that gunk in there. You'll get it anywhere there's metal to metal contact. Basically what you're seeing is a side effect of electricity running through metal.

Other than being generally gross, the main reason you want to clean up your device is to reduce voltage drop as much as possible. That gunk impedes the flow of electricity between your battery and your atomizer, which leads to poor performance and angry, unsatisfied vapers. Also, it makes it shiny. People like shiny things.

I personally have two types of cleaning I do. For general upkeep, I use a microfiber cloth to buff up my mod a little bit and use paper towels to wipe out the atomizer connection. I generally do this daily when I fill my tank back up. It takes 5 seconds and keeps things looking alright. Once a month or so I do a more thorough cleaning for my mechanicals. It's a multi-step process that takes me about 45 minutes, but so far has been pretty effective, and you can do it with stuff just lying around the house, no special stuff or runs to the hardware store needed here!

DISCLAIMER:
Do not follow this word for word if you're using a regulated device (Vamo, Provari, and about a billion others these days). If you immerse your control head your device will stop working and you'll need a new one. You're probably ok to clean your battery tubes and end caps this way though.

First thing you want to do is assemble your supplies.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the distilled white vinegar and table salt into 2c of hot water. I use a small food storage container.

The next thing I do is disassemble my mod and immerse it in the solution for about 15 minutes.

After the parts soak, scrub the threads with a toothbrush. Get any other nooks and crannies that you can too. My Magneto has a Smok logo and some design on the top cap that get gunked up so I pay a little extra attention there.

Next, empty your container, fill it back up with clean water, and rinse out your parts. You don't need the salt hanging around on your mod, it can cause spots and possibly corrosion. Rinse thoroughly and set on a paper towel.

Blow out all the pieces where water can collect, like vent holes, end caps, and buttons. Now you've got two routes you can take. One, air dry. Two, an oven set to a low temperature. I have a toaster oven so I'm going to use that. I arrange my pieces thusly...

and put them in the oven, set at 150F for 20 minutes. (The baby spoon is not involved). Note: The button magnets seems to be glued in place on the Magneto here. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't put the bottom tube or the button in the oven, just in case. Live and learn.

After the ding, wait a few minutes for the parts to cool off, reassemble, buff with a cloth, and you're back to a nice, shiny piece.

Yes, I have a Protank on my Magneto. I still need to clean my RSST.

An optional step a lot of people take is to lube their threads with Noalox, a conductive lubricant, after they clean. A little dab will do the trick. I don't have any right now so I didn't do that.

Now lets say you've had your mech for a very long time and have never, ever cleaned it. If there's still a bunch of gunk on your battery contacts and your atomizer connection after the process, or want a super-deep clean, I have another tip. Make a solution as above, but mix in some all-purpose flour until you have a paste. Not too thick, just enough to stick to the parts. Coat the parts and let them sit for several hours or overnight, rinse off all the goop, scrub it with a toothbrush to get it all out of the threads, and see if that does the trick. If the paste is turning green/black, that means it's working.

There are a lot of ways people clean their devices. There's obviously store-bought metal polishes and polish rags, but I'm cheap and don't have any of them. As an added bonus, you can use this method to clean a lot of other metal objects you may have around the house.

Do you have a special way to clean your mod, get rid of that gunk, or want to make fun of my Protank on a Magneto? Leave it in the comments!

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 1

Back in the days of 2009, the internet rumored of a newfangled device called an "Electronic Cigarette." (This is a term that I now hate, I will explain that in a later post). I, being a new father of a baby girl, was very interested in an alternative to cigarettes, not only to keep her safe, but to ensure I would be around for her as long as possible. After justifying the ridiculously high price of $85 to my wife, I made an order for my first device, a Joytech 510 manual starter kit, from some vendor who is probably long out of business.

For those that are unfamiliar with this ancient piece of history, the Joytech 510 manual was a battery, roughly the size of a 100mm cigarette, with the little light on the end to simulate the ember cherry. It had an amazing 150mAh battery and could go almost a whole 3 hours without needing to recharge. Luckily the kit came with 2 batteries, and for people that were really fancy you could get a personal charge case, which was basically a bigger battery to charge your smaller battery. You could be good for almost an entire day on the go! (This is where you see BluCigs technology at today)

After patiently waiting what seemed like forever for my new gadget to arrive, the kindly UPS guy dropped it off and I started playing with it almost immediately. After figuring out how to prime the atomizer and fill the cartridge I gave it a go. I was impressed with the flavor (at the time). It was a sweet tobacco, nutty with a touch of caramel. I also got mango. I thought to myself "I can live with this, I can't see how I wouldn't like it!"

And then...

Dry hit. The worst dry hit EVER. After a whole 20 minutes or so of puffing on the thing, my throat caught on fire and my eyes watered. What the hell happened? Isn't a cartridge supposed to be the same as a pack of cigarettes? I took the cart off and it was bone dry. Oh well. I filled it back up and kept a close eye on it, putting in a drop or two every 10 minutes or so. I can live with this, I say.

The next day I take my new toy to work to show my curious smoker-buddies. Most of them laugh at it, one commends me for trying it out. The guy that chewed though it was sweet, go figure. He rode with me in my rig for the next few days since he was just back from a long disability leave and got a good idea for how well it did (and didn't) work.

At home my 510 was great, not so much on the road. On a long drive from one place to another I could easily need to refill on the run, but luckily I had a passenger to do it for me for a few days. The flavor of a burned filler is pretty damn annoying when you're trying to drive. Eventually I learned when the thing was about to go empty by taste, and it wasn't too bad if I paid attention.

Between the constant refilling and getting juice on my hands all the time I was getting pretty annoyed with my new savior of a gadget. I was doing my best to keep with it, I hadn't had a real cigarette for a week. Then I ran out of my tobacco flavor and switched over to my bottle of mango. Holy crap was it bad. It tasted like ashes and sugar. It was a demoralizing blow to my psyche.

Getting more and more angry with my 510, I decided to see what help I could find online and discovered the Electronic Cigarette Forum. After coming across a lot of things I didn't understand, I found the post that put the nail in my vaporizers coffin (temporarily). The tea-bag mod for cartridges. Long story short, there was a thread that explained how to fold a Liptons tea bag a certain way to hold more juice and feed the atomizer better. Then I found the one for using blue aquarium foam for filler. At that point, between the leaking, constant dripping, bad flavor, and the fact the damn thing didn't work as well as it could out of the box without learning origami, I shelved my brand new toy, picked up my Camels and my Bic, and had a smoke.

To Be Continued...

Welcome to Vapifier!

Hello and welcome to Vapifier!

My goal here is to help whoever I can, whenever I can, with their vaping questions. The world of vaping can be very confusing to a beginner, and even more confusing once you think you know something that turned out to be wrong. The best thing I can do to help out is to share my experiences, good and bad, with anyone that will listen. 

While I'm not a genius when it comes to some things, like how many amps are safe to draw off of what battery (yet!), I do have the means to find that information and pass it along to you, my internet vape-buddies. If there is a question you need answered, be it mundane or you're just too exhausted in your search to continue, reach out to me (vapifier@gmail.com) and I'll do what I can.

For the next little bit I'll mostly be focusing on posting here at Vapifier and customizing the website to my liking (pretty new to all this blog stuff), but in the near future Youtube videos will follow, maybe some sort of live streaming as well. I'm pondering doing that once a week once I figure out how.

That's all I've got for now. I'm looking forward to getting in to reviewing, ranting, and, most importantly, doing what I can to keep everyone vaping happily.

(Catch-phrase currently in development), 

-Vapifier