Vaping for Beginners: Coil Building Materials
Want to have a go at building your own coils for your atomisers? What do you really need, and what’s useful to have on top? Today we’re doing a quick bit of materials 101!
You’ll need:
Wire
Cotton – make sure you use untreated cotton, not synthetic or bleached cotton.
A nail or screwdriver in your preferred coil diameter is handy.
Flush cutters and a small screwdriver, which is usually included with most rebuildable atomiser kits.
Later on, you can also try good old silica wick!
If your eyesight isn’t what it used to be, a magnifying glass helps. You’ll need both hands free, though, so my tip is: get a magnifier you can clamp to your desk. You’ll find these for watchmakers and jewellers. Back in the day, we all stocked up on watchmaker tools because atomisers didn’t come with the right screwdrivers yet. A small precision tool kit like that only costs a few francs and can still come in handy today.
Or you can go straight for a proper coil-building tool kit like this Coil Master kit. It has everything from flush cutters to tweezers. There’s also an ohm reader, and you won’t need the nail either because the coil jig comes with the right accessories.
Which wire should you buy for coil building?
Kanthal and Nichrome are suitable for higher-ohm builds in wattage mode. For beginners, I recommend Kanthal A1 with a diameter of 0.3 - 0.4 mm.
The following are suitable for temperature control mode:
Ni200 – nickel wire (supported by every TC mod)
Ti – titanium wire
SS – stainless steel wire
The thicker the wire, the lower the resistance (ohms). The more conductive the material, the lower the ohms. That’s partly just theory, though: depending on how tightly you wrap your coils or whether you use Claptons, the resistance can shift up or down regardless of the wire. And some wires are very thin. For beginners making their first coil, I’d still recommend Kanthal or stainless steel wire. Once everything works the way you want, you can switch to nickel or titanium for TC mode.
We’ll explain how to build your first coil and what resistance it should have next week. And if you want to know why temperature control is useful, check back here on Thursday for our blog post.
