Reddit reviews Genuine Lightning Vapes Ceramic Tweezers - Heat Resistant - Pointed
We found 17 Reddit comments about Genuine Lightning Vapes Ceramic Tweezers - Heat Resistant - Pointed. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Great for tweaking your coil while firing
Here's a $4 replacement.
Study ohm's law and battery safety. If used improperly, mech mods can become a pipebomb.
That being said, here's a list of stuff you should get.
Hey! Great questions! And good on you for asking them!
Part I
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So first off, building your own coils is ABSOLUTELY the way to go, it is much cheaper, more customizable, a better vape, and just plain fun. You are going to need a few things though.
Now that you have everything you can go to town! Remember, all of this is just my personal opinion and experience, do what works for you.
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Planning: The Kanger works best at around 1.19 ohms at 50 watts but can go as low 0.4 ohms. To get an idea of how factors like different wire gauges or multiple coils will affect your resistance try simulating it on this page.
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Wire Work: There are plenty of videos and tutorials out there for different coils but my advice would be to start simple. Once you can build a coil that has good tight wraps and learn how to remove the hot spots from it and are generally just comfortable coiling then move on to more fancy builds. The advantage of (almost all) advanced coils is more surface area for better wicking and juice retention, there are also the offbeat ones like staged (dual) heating. I am a big fan of simple twisted wire coils, they are incredibly easy and work much better than simple single wire coils.
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Prepping The Wire: When you pull the wire off the spool be careful, if you don't hold tension the whole thing is prone to come unwrapped rather quickly. Work in longer lengths than you will actually need, screw ups are frequent and wire is cheap. Cut off a length of wire and you'll notice that it isn't exactly straight, or really at all, but this has an easy fix.
To straighten your wire: At one of the wire make a small 90 degree bend, insert this end into your drill with the wire centered and the bend sticking out the side, the bend allows the pincers to grab onto the wire. Grab the other end with a pair of pliers and apply light pressure (too much will cause the wire to snap). Start up your drill noting the direction it is spinning. It doesn't take more than a second or two, if the wire snaps it has spun more than enough (it tends to snap at either end but can be in the middle in which case you have to start over).
Annealing the wire: Thin wire like we use tends to be 'springy' making your coils unwind when you release tension, the thinner the wire the worse it gets. But again I have an easy fix. Holding the wire straight with tension, either with a vice grip or the drill or pliers or whatever you have, use a BIC lighter or a small flame to apply heat along the length of the wire. You want it to just start to heat up, not glow orange, if you see smoke coming off the wire move to another area because that one is done. Some people recommend dunking the wire in water when done but I just let it air cool.
[Optional] Making twisted wire: Take however many strands you wish to twist up and line up all of the ends with the 90 degree bend, cut the other end so that they are all equal lengths. Before inserting into your drill I find it helps to make a few 'starter twists' to keep the wires even and from coming undone. Remember how I said to make note of the direction your drill is spinning? Well it is time to spin in the opposite direction. Clamp your wire down in your pliers (not the drill) with the bent end sticking out a few millimeters. Grabbing the wires by the bends twist them by hand a couple times in the same direction as your drill is now spinning (opposite of the direction you used to straighten the wire). Now you can insert them into your drill. Start the drill slowly and don't go past a medium-high speed overall or the wire is more likely to snap, if it does it will 'unstraighten' on the end near the drill and become a mess to work with. If you are using a long length of wire (I would say over 8" but YMMV) it is best to release the wire halfway through and insert the opposite end into the drill (you do not need to reverse the direction of spin on the drill, it will work as is) because the end nearest the drill will twist the fastest this will provide a more even twist across the entire wire. It is totally up to you how much you want to twist the wire, if it snaps though it means you either went too fast on the drill or it has reached its limit of twisting (you can usually reinsert it and get a few more seconds of twisting out of it though).
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Building a coil with the linked jig: I'm only going to cover using the jig I recommended up above because if I didn't I would be here for all eternity, ask 10 people how to make a coil and you will get 12 answers. That jig is super easy to use, cheap, and makes coils better than you ever will be able to by hand.
Start by selecting the inner diameter of your coil, the jig provides nails ranging from 1mm to 3mm. Unscrew the cap from the base unit, insert your chosen nail, and screw the cap back on over it. Insert your wire from the top through the small hole on the base and grip down on the end of the wire with your thumb, you only need to pull the wire down to where the cap screws on to get plenty long leads. Taking the other end of the wire (the long portion sticking out the top) give it a small start around the nail, a quarter or half turn is all it needs. Put the piece with the corresponding size hole (the piece you the nail is originally stored in / marked with the sizes) over the top of the nail, push it down making sure the wire is between the screw and the nail. Twist the corresponding piece to wrap the wire around the nail, this requires almost no pressure if you do apply pressure you will end up with a pancake and not a coil.
Once you have however many wraps you want push down on the base piece and the corresponding piece to put pressure/sandwich the coil. Hold this for at least 30 seconds to a minute, it will help tighten the coils and keep them from unwinding. Some people pull on the wire leads with pliers to tighten them up but I do not like doing this personally because it changes the number of wraps as well as causes the leads to be made from part of the coil (as in not straight leads).
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Mounting your coil: Insert your coil leads onto your post and tighten them down. Be careful about over tightening or having your leads at strange angles as this can cause the coil to bend such that on one side the wraps do not touch and on the other overlap, it can also cause other weird deformities that ruin all the work up to this point. Roughly position your coils, using the nail from the coiling rig will help to keep the coil from getting bent. Make sure the coils are not touching anything as this will cause them to short. Clip your leads.
With your mod on a low to medium power setting begin to slowly pulse the device until the coils begin to glow. You want them to glow from the inside out, evenly, and at the same time. This will pretty much never happen right away. You are looking for spots that heat up unevenly. Using your ceramic tweezers squeeze and manipulate the coils, this is hard to describe but you'll understand it right away I'm sure. You can also use the coil jig nail to turn the coil and tighten the wraps (i.e. if the coil was originally inserted parallel to the deck insert the nail and twist it upwards to a 45 degree angle or even vertical, the amount varies from coil to coil but you can tell very easily by looking at it as you twist).
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Permalink to Part II: https://www.reddit.com/r/RBA/comments/3xo2lv/rba_coil_question_newbie/cy6qbta
edit: Oh, and for those curious, I am currently running 3mm quad coils made from 2 strands of 32awg kanthal at 14 wraps each on the Sub Ohm Innovations RDA and the Kanger KBOX. They read in at 1.4 ohms and I fire them at 35-40 watts.
I think you’re still good to go. Those components withstand those temperature all the time - a little molten plastic likely wouldn’t have damaged them (but the residue may char and eventually become hard black rock-like deposits and/or drip on your prints) - though your cleanup may, so as always take special care and double and triple check the steps before actually doing any procedure.
It’s probably overkill, but if you really wanted to, you can replace each component separately, though you may just want to order a full assembled hotend and scavenge it due to shipping costs, you can also source the same e3d components elsewhere (hint: e3d’s website is guaranteed authentic and they ship to US for as low as a few USD ;], though you can still potentially source them cheaper - for example 5 nozzles from e3D is $15 to $20 cheaper than those same 5 nozzles from Prusa, depending on if you want it tracked or not for e3d's cheapest). Note also some parts have their wires with custom lengths by Prusa - these parts you'll probably want to source direct from Prusa.
First, for a full breakdown, you should perform a few Atomic Pulls if you can, to remove as much plastic as possible from the inside of the hotend (more info here as #2).
There are about 3 screws you should remove for best access, which would be the print fan and shroud. Now you can remove the thermistor and heat cartridge very easily, just be careful with them as they are delicate. They may have become jammed with plastic, so I would recommend heating the block before loosening their screws. Take care to remove as much plastic from the thermistor hole as you can as the thermistor does not sit proud on one end, and this side may have plastic inside that will prevent you from reseating the thermistor later. You’ll need the two smallest hex keys from the kit (hopefully these are also included with the assembled?). Use a wrench (NOT pliers - you WILL scratch up the pretty heat block) to firmly grip the heat block, then loosen the two screws on the bottom by the nozzle. With those loose, you can gently push the heat cartridge and thermistor free (I used my hex keys for this).
Now you can easily scrub the heat block without concern of damaging the wires, though take care not to turn the heat block as you will loosen the heat break, which will cause you to leak plastic here later.
If you wanted, you can now easily remove the heat block, though it is probably recommended to remove it from the extruder body first. There are about another 6 screws preventing access. Remove the heat sink fan (the Noctua), then the two extruder body screws, and the extruder body should now easily pop apart. You can remove the hotend assembly by carefully tilting and pulling it towards the front of the printer, while applying a downwards force. It’s kinda tricky, but it’s not too hard and doesn’t require much force. With the hotend assembly removed, you can remove the heat block simply by unscrewing it from the heat break. Take special care as the heat break is delicate. The heat break must be seated at a certain depth into the heat block, so take care to measure this distance as best you can.
If you wanted, you could instead or also remove the heat sink. First, carefully remove the PTFE tube. Now, simply unscrew the heat break from the heat sink. There is a thermal compound that belongs on the threads here, which Prusa is kind enough to include with (I believe) the heat sinks (but not the solo breaks).
Now you have completely disassembled the hotend. You can scavenge any viable pieces, or replace whatever piece is necessary. Again, take very special care with reseating the heat break into the heat block. It must be at a very specific depth or the nozzle will not be able to properly seat against it, and plastic will drip out from these threads.
Of course, you could also order a whole preassembled hotend. I did that, then pulled the thermistor/heat cartridge on both the full new hotend and my used hotend, then I could pull and replace the whole hotend while leaving the thermistor/heat cartridge connected (skipping the whole wire loom debacle).
Of course this is all super overkill.
Just be careful around the wires. They're not super fragile, but they also aren't very strong. Too much force and you will snap them. They're not difficult or expensive to replace, but the wire loom can be annoying and time consuming
Prime...shipping is always free!
Kanthal is fairly inexpensive
Ceramic Tweezers
This looks really cool
You'll also need something to clip your leads when building your coils and some tweezers to pinch them tight and make them perform efficiently. These but regular fingernail/toenail clippers will do, and these allow you to pinch the coils while firing your mod, which you cannot do with all metal tweezers.
> arsenal- ceramic tweezers
Are these okay?
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Lightning-Vapes-Ceramic-Tweezers/dp/B00KAEWG76
They beat me to it....Lightning Vapes on Amazon $11 link
If you want to wait a couple of weeks, you can get these for $3.50 on amazon
>It's the ceramic tweezers that you get butchered on.
Really? These are $3.33 shipped.
You could buy a coil master V2, but you don't really need to buy one of those full kits.
I bought a coil spinner for $5 at a B&M, but you can get away with wrapping them around the shaft of a precision screwdriver or a drill bit.
You should get an ohm meter. I know you can check it on your mod, but it still can short out and ruin it. I have done this.
You can use any scissors. You might want to pick up some fabric ones later on. I use this this.
You can buy wire cutters if you don't already have them, but honestly I use a nail clipper most often.
You can buy cotton cheaply on Amazon. But it takes a long time to ship. I ordered mine January 7th and it will arrive February 24th. So in the meantime I picked some up at a B&M for $5 which isn't a lot of cotton, but will last me for longer than it will take for my order to arrive.
You can also use any tweezers to pinch and position coils, but if you want to buy ceramic ones, then you can do it while firing the coil. You should not dry fire or pinch nickel or titanium coils though. Just stainless steel or kanthal.
Another suggestion would be to get a pair of ceramic tweezers so you can squeeze your coils together while you are pulsing them. These are pretty decent.
I find that they twist way too much and sled one pitch together evenly.
This is what I have. Very comfortable, right amount of tension, and does a decent job gripping.
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Lightning-Vapes-Ceramic-Tweezers/dp/B00KAEWG76
Amazon doesn't sell a lot of vapes, but they do sell some vape stuff like batteries, chargers, kanthal, cotton, etc.
I'd recommend some ceramic tweezers if you don't already have a pair.
http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Lightning-Vapes-Ceramic-Tweezers/dp/B00KAEWG76/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416438185&sr=8-1&keywords=ceramic+tweezers&pebp=1416438203422
Rake across the coil with something stiff like you're strumming a guitar. This gets the hotspots out 10 times out of 10 for me. I have ceremic tweezers like this (different brand, same tweezer), and use the opposite end (as in the non-tweezing end) to do it.
I don't have any idea on what's best in the RTA world because I pretty much stopped at the Subtank Mini but I can chip in on the supplies.
I purchased my cotton and wire from amazon, mainly because I had prime and shipping was free. The cotton I use is Koh Gen Do but really any organic, unbleached cotton is fine.
For wire, I bought a small spool of 26ga A1 Kanthal from Lightning Vapes but again, as long as it's A1 Kanthal resistance wire (or Nickel/Titanium for TC building) it should be ok.
Pretty much only picked 26ga because that's what was suggested. I don't do any crazy builds so it's worked out fine.
The little blue screwdriver that came with the tank is what I use to wrap my coils (using steam engine), otherwise you'll need a build kit or something else to build on.
I've got a little pouch that also contains a small pair of scissors, nail clippers, ceramic tipped tweezers and a 10ml bottle of unflavored VG in case I need something to prime the coil with.
If you're going to build really low, I'd suggest some sort of ohm reader to save your mod any extra wear and tear but it's not really needed as long as you've got a decent regulated mod.
Hope that helps and best of luck!