Rebuildable Tank Atomizers (FRTA,Squiggle)

Check the list post. MB has more in.

Just a comment on the QA for these: The one I got from MB appears to be rushed production (obviously be.comse the guy has much more demand than anticipated?) and the connector has come loose from the body of the tank. It doesn't leak but if I over tighten the pins turn. Take care with your squiggle.

Also I prepped a full length wick and filled using a very thin needle down the hole beside the wick. Thing wicks so much better now. No more tipping!

The second one I bought from Ravenmica appears to be more solid. The only down side of this is that the connector is sunk inside the rim of the tank and wont fit a Provari without an eGo adapter. Not that I mind. I have two JiBs and they work better on JiBs due to the weight.

Overall they appear to be working fine. No complaints really for the price. Might do a full review with pictures next month after a bit more use.

 

Hmmm, these look awfully similar to these DIY ones I saw on the other side of the fence:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/243494-my-cheap-version-line.html

even spotted Mert in that thread =P

[video=youtube;p_ic2segBFY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ic2segBFY&feature=player_embedded[/video]

 

Mine lobbed today..... Thank'ee MB

Made wick, fitted, made coil....Added JW juicy goodness....

Proceeded to vape, expecting it to be ruff be.comse everything was new.....

Picked lung up off floor, licked carpet fluff off and reinstalled.

Noticed vape production was going ta shit at a great rate....

Hmmm.... Not wicking well thinks Slothy.....Unscrews cap, hits button, watches red glow, blows out the bloody flame that popped up on top of wick....

Bit dry thinks Slothy....

Checks tank...tank empty...

Hmmmm... Thought I had about quarter in there to test....

Slothy fills up tank....

Couple of hits.... Verrrry tidy....

Funny sensation down arm.... Very much like juice doing what juice does when there's a massive fucking leak!

Shit says Slothy....

And WTF???

Unscrews tank, watches last of juice drip out of centre hole....

Farkin!! says Slothy.

Slothy sticks needle up 'ole... It goes right up to top plug!!!

Seems someone forgot to PLUG THE BLOODY HOLE!

Hope they dont build boats!

 

Damn, that sucks ass Slothy.. I feel for ya, been waiting for this thing for a while (not be.comse of madbunny but be.comse of the batch of 5 thing..) and finally got it today.

Using pure VG pretty much with a tiny bit of leftover PG (maybe 5%).

Zipped home from work and made a quick setup in the 20min I had at home, fired but at 3 coils was burning hot.

Got back from work and tried a couple of times;

Five coils - dry hits, thought it wasn't wicking too well so I stuck a bit of silica thread in the middle, still no joy.
Five coils/new tube - Made the tube with less SS; just enough to make a tube and go around again, too hot again but seems to be wicking OK
Six coils; close as possible to each other with the second tube - Seems to be wicking OK, not red hot and decent vapor (for the loose drag) but the taste is different (caramel is standing out more than cartos) there is some sort of taste like you would smell when the dentist gets the high speed drill on a tooth sorta like burnt hair but more metallic, seems to be dissapearing with each consecutive drag tho (haven't really given it priming so probably just that)

I also tried the silica tube from the guts of a carto at one point to go under the coil (instead of oxidizing the SS), this did not work as the fibers are rather brittle and don't seem to absorb juice.

Got told at my office that my DIY caramel-tobacco smells like piss today!? Ahhh.. now I can really savor the flavor with my new filler-less setup!

 

Got mine today at home. I'm at work for 11 more days. I'll get into it when I get home. Fiddle with it there. Probably good thing I didn't have it sent here. The wife's caramelising torch will work good for the wick and it's at home.

-s

 

I bunged up it's orifice and its now behaving pretty well.

Wicks fine, reasonable heat, good vapour volume and flavour.

I'll probably fiddle about a bit to wind the froat 'it back be.comse it's still a little on the harsh side.

 

A couple of observations from a few days using mine.....

Froat 'it seems to be variable according to the weight of draw. The tighter the draw, the greater the froat 'it. Currently I've got a 3mm slice of condom partly covering the air hole, which allows fiddling with the flow to be done easily.

Filling.... I've found the easiest way to fill the tank is with a 18G needle with a 45 cut point on it. This will slide down between the silicon top and wick without doing any damage, but it needs to be done GENTLY! It helps if you pull the needle away from the wick slightly to allow displaced air to escape. Fill SLOWLY or bad things can happen!

The reason for the custom needle is simple.... I want it to act as a wedge rather than to make a hole. The objective is to push the silicon away from the wick, not stick a hole in it.

All in all, fairly impressed with the little bugger. Not sure yet if it'll become my go-to, but it works well and is simple to set up.

 

I ended up making another hole around the same size as the wick hole in the top then chucked a silicone washer on the top threads to stop any extra juice seeping out.. I plugged it with a metal rod to hopefully stop it hindering the wicking action or leaking but the juice seems to viscious to leak out from the second hole even when upside down and the washer should stop this if it ever does happen. Flavour has come through alot more after a couple of refills but still not satisfied with the vapor, fairly decent but not enough to make it fog up Cheech and Chong style in the car like cartos did..

PS: The top silicone part is simply a cap off a carto..

Sent from my ICS Iconia A500 using Tapatalk

 

Hi People

Well my setup has been sat around for a couple of days just crying out for attention. Decided to nail it together before night cap time.

Followed all the advice, and everything went fairly well. Made the wick using an 18g needle. Didn’t have a blunt one, but I will get one for the next time. Those things are sharp!!

Anyway, I agree with everybody that the wick hole is too small for easy working. It would be a bitch to try and make larger, so I have a few diamond points that are ideal for roughing up the hole. Trying to cut it clean is out of the question. Roughed up the hole, and used a pg lubricated pointy thing to lubricate the hole. After that the wick slid in without issue.

The next problem was the short conductor wire was bowed where it passes through the tank and the wick was colliding with it, and refused to go any further without bending. I had to get the pointy thing and bend it out of the way. Once done, the wick slid home.

Winding the coil went ok started off with five turns. Just a word about the terminations. When I fired it up, all of the heat was coming from the connections. A quick crimp, and all was well. High resistance on the connections is not good!!

Filled the tank using Slothys method of an 18g needle down the side of the wick. Went fine and vented via the same hole. Slow but sure.

I needed an adapter for the Provari and tried it at 3.7v. PLENTY of throat hit and vapor. Hoping that the flavor will come through as the coil gets bedded in. Any higher power and the experience is to much!! The wicking is right on with no dry hits (So far).

Its an interesting piece of kit with plenty of scope to play around, but at the moment just a toy. I will run this coil for a few days and see how it goes.

 

Hi People

Just a few observations about my FRTA squiggle. My only complaint so far is the thing drinks juice and its hard to see what is left in the tank. That was the only negatives worth mentioning.

After yesterdays build, I vaped all night along with my whiskey. From starting off fairly harsh, the set up had mellowed by the third tank and is now very acceptable.This morning I switched from the Provari to a 650mah ego battery and it still performs with good throat hit and a warm vape. For some reason the airy draw has tightened up a little, which is fine.

Of all the toys I have tried, this is the one that will make it possible for me to dump the Nicotine when I am ready. I have just filled up with Vape Kings Italian Espresso, cut with PG, and its giving me all I need to drop the nick. Throat hit, warm vape and lots of vapor. At this point I am not missing the nic and I have been vaping at around 12mg for the last couple of months. Good stuff. This is first thing out of bed, and I am not missing the usual morning fix (Yet). Other thing is I have switched from coffee to tea for the first morning pick me up!!

I need to head off to Jaycar and pick up a new multimetre. I don’t know why the last one died, but I have not been able to check the resistance of the heater yet. Just been winging it so far, but its certainly working.

 

Iv had wicking issues since I got it, nothing like the taste of burnt stainless yum yum. I also had a problem with bugger all vapor but it didn't taste burnt my solution was make the spacing of each coil larger to get a bigger surface area that will make more vapor. Still not 100% tho

 

Well I think I am getting the hang of the squiggle now, finding it quite good with good flavour, vapour production isn't the best I have had but still very good. I am winding 6 coils around my wick and getting a resistance of around 2.9ohms, currently vaping a 4.4V on the provari with it.
I have drilled a small hole in the white top so I can easily slide an a syringe down into it for easy refilling, as I only use it at home I haven't bothered plugging the hole yet as I always keep it upright, when refilling it through the hole I have found it best to turn it upside down so the air is being pushed out through the wick rather than liquid from the bottom of it.

 

Mine still hasn't arrived for some reason

 

I hadn't used mine for a few weeks and got it out last night to have another go. I MUST make a lower nic mix for this thing I think before I can really get into it, I still find I end up with a sore throat prety quickly. The flavour is there but its still like sipping on the juice instead of vaping it, I think maybe I have too big a hole down the centre of the wick though its just big enough for a needle it seems to shoot juice particles like a cannon.
Is everyone using a measured amount of mesh, I just cut a little square without really taking much notice of the size, though I can see the cut out sizes on the mesh left over.
Thinking that there is still about 80% of the learning with this little guy left to do.
The method of pushing the needle down the side of the wick instead of throgh the centre hole is great, had my first fill yesterday without most of it bubbling back up through the wick.
still undetermined fan status here.
will persevere..

 

Assuming the mesh supplied with them was the same for everyone I took one piece...

Forget that, I used a piece 45mm x 65mm and rolled it so my wick ended up being 45mm high. I cannot fit an 18 .comge needle down the centre though.

Another thing I did was cut the bottom of my wick at a 45, not sure where I seen that recommended but know I did somewhere at some stage. I still get some spitting and bubbling at the top of the wick, but have found that since putting my small hole in the white cap that the unburnt juice flows back into the tank very slowly, not sure if thats a good thing though, may end up tainting the flavour of the juice.

First tank I put through it was JW grape hookah, now on second tank of JW choc tobacco but can still taste the Grape, I mixed them up at 8mg to cut down on the harshness.

 

I am giving some thought to using less mesh to try and cut down on the residual heat thing. As Stoney mentioned earlier there is a large mass of mesh under the coil, that once heated retains the heat. You dont get the same issues with the ceramic fiber type wick. Just a thought?

 

mine works but I reckon has a bit of a short in it somewhere? ego battery won't fire it at all.... lava tube will fire it but gets hot doing so

I suspect the juice is conducting a bit? Pulled it apart and the 2 copper leads aren't sealed at the base that I can tell, solder exposed to juice...

I'm thinking a blob of hot melt glue could solve the issue?

 

What does your multimeter say?? You have more balls than me to pull it apart. Was considering it, but I don't have any double sided tape to put it back together!!

 

I suspect the juice is conducting a bit? Pulled it apart and the 2 copper leads aren't sealed at the base that I can tell, solder exposed to juice...

Zain,

I have just had a play with some VG and PG. As far as I can tell the juice shouldn't be an issue as it doesn't act as a conductor according to my meter. Makes sense as all coils in all equipment is exposed to the juice at some stage.

I would now be looking at the mesh and the coil. Two things. When I assembled mine, the mesh was colliding with one of the conductors in the tank. I had to pull the mesh and bend the wire out of the way with a screwdriver. Its possible the mesh has scraped the varnish insulation from the wire, and maybe shorting out?

The other thing is a short from the coil to the mesh. I thought this was a possibility so I oxidized my completed mesh five times as well as the coil. Pretty sure you are looking at a short somewhere.

 

Actually I dare say he is looking at 2 or more actually. works fine with only 1 short.
unless its simply too low a resistance.