Reddit reviews Halcyon T. Premium 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3mm Wire Coil Winder/Jig

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.

• Wire. Start with a mix of different gauge Kanthal.
  
  
• Wire cutters.
  
  
• Ceramic tweezers. These are for adjusting your coils once they are installed.
  
  
• A coiling jig. You can use anything from a nail to a precision screwdriver to a syringe, however I very strongly recommend this set.
  
  
• Cotton. I've tried every brand of cotton out there, they are all the same. Just go to your local CVS/Walgreens/Whole Foods/Walmart/etc and pick up a big bag of cotton balls, they will last you a life time for about $5. Seriously, a life time.
  
  
• [Optional] Ohm meter. This is only optional because you are using a regulated device, it is required for mech mods. The Kanger will not fire if your coil is bad or too low of a resistance (about 0.4 ohms in my experience).
  
  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 have this printed out at home in my vaping box. Or you can use the steam engine app android I just started myself and the best thing is to just do it. It is really intimidating but easier than you think. I went to my local B&M and got them to show me how to make a coil and then watch me make the second one. It was really helpful. I also got a coil jig and learned how to do the scottish rollwicking style. (One thing I didnt learn from the video, maybe I missed it is the fibers are in lines and you pull the cotton like you are pulling the lines apart.

like this |||| -> | | | | .

Steam Engine to know how many wraps you want to make.

Plus

A coil jig to make them without them looking like ass.

Edit: Fixed link to a coil jig that was actually available.