my first attempt

[Bebop]

Ladies and gentlemen, stand back. This could be ugly.

So last week i bought an octopus RDA. I know its one of the cheaper no frills RDAs and I vaped the heck out of it for a week. As is typical, I got bored, took it all apart, trimmed the wick, staightened the wire out, rewrapped the coil, put it all back together and it fired up and worked like new.

The mad scientist in me (he lives very close to the surface, btw) did some poking around and I have now decided to rebuild it in the bunny cottontale configuration. Why, you ask? Because I can!

Anyway, Ive decided to do some shopping for a basic mad scientist starter lab. I would love your input on some basic tools and supplies that I'll be wanting. Keeping in mind that I would like to have a little stock of silica, nichrome wire etc.. think of it like jr mad scientist starter kit.

Tips? Suggestions?

[CascadianExotics]

For wire, I'd recommend using A-1 grade Kanthal wire over nichrome. TemcoIndustrialPower.com has cheap prices on 100-foot spools of 28, 30, and 32 gauge (among other gauges).

Silica is good, and German silica is better. However, Eko-wool seems to be gaining a lot of popularity amongst RDA users. You can also seek out lengths of Nextel X-16 (model?), and grab some cotton balls for your mad science experiments.

Otherwise, a set of drill bits will come in handy for drilling out the side of your Octopus whenever those stock bottom-fed airholes will no longer keep up with your coil builds.

Good Luck, and Happy Vaping!!!

[Uma]

Right on BeBop! Welcome to the club.

CE's post is spot on.

Most of the wires, wicks, etc.. can be found at most vendors these days... but usually they are tiny spools at almost the same price as the larger spools you'd get off ebay or anywhere. But, they're handy for trying the various sizes and types. Any leftovers can be twisted together into a rope for a SS cable rope wick, so it's never a waste of money tbf.

Some of the vendors you might have best of luck with are:

Kidney Puncher

Stormy's Vapor Cellar

Discount Vapers

and so on and so on.

Also, if you know what you like and want to get humongous amounts of stuff, another good place is:

The Vape Mesh Company (they toss in an extra sheet of mesh when you purchase one too, pretty cool.)

Have fun!!

[IMEDICx90]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kanthal-A1-wire-32-Gauge-100-FT-0-25oz-Resistance-Resistor-AWG-A-1-/400339866946?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d361d9542

thats 100ft for 5.75 with free shipping... so i would say ebay is the best place for that stuff. they have different gauges too. thats just the one im going to order.

[Love2VapeDaily]

What exactly does the mesh do. I seen videos on youtube and some people never mention using mesh on a rebuild.

[IMEDICx90]

the mesh is what they make the wick out of. the wire is just the coil. you can use other things like silica (pretty standard in most tanks and clearo's), Cotton, Ceramic, etc.

[Bebop]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, guys!

[Uma]

Just make sure it's Stainless Steel, etc.. like, A-1 Kanthal...

If you need guidance when you're at eBay, or any other place, just open up the Mesh Company's link in a new tab, and compare all the technical abbreviations.