Coil Wrapping 101: How to Build the Perfect Coil

Let's talk about customisable vaping.

If you've tried many different devices, atomiser coil heads and hacks but not found your perfect cloud, this Coil Wrapping 101 is just for you. Anyone with a love of DIY and a slightly technical eye can get great results with only a little effort!

Coil Wrapping Basics

All atomisers, work the same way. Power from the battery heats up the wire coil, which makes the e-liquid travel up the wicking material and evaporate.

An atomiser head is nothing more than a wrapped piece of wire (or wires) surrounded by cotton and sealed inside an outer shell. The coil affects the concentration of the vapour and the flavour contained.

Start with Brainpower

• Battery storage capacity is rated in volts
• Amps measure the rate of current flow (like the current in a river). Batteries have an amp limit (banks of the river)
• Ohms indicate the resistance to the current (like sluice gates in a dam.) The higher the resistance, the slower the current. Too little resistance can go over your amps limit- and cause a fire.

Work out exactly what wattage you will need for your perfect coil. (More watts =more heat and flavour) You will need some careful measurements and this calculator. As an example, we did some quick calculations and want a target of 1.3 Ohms for our coil.

Mise En Place

That's fancy French for before you build, have everything you need within reach.

• Ohms Reader
• RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer)
• Small Screwdriver that fits your RDA's screws
• Round Kanthal wire, .32 mm- fine, 28 gauge
• 2mm Drill Bit or Screwdriver to wrap around
• Small Butane Torch
• Tweezers with Ceramic Tips
• Small Wire Cutters
• Scissors
• Wicking Material
• E-Liquid

Begin Your Build

Cut a 100 mm piece of Kanthal wire. Holding one end with the tweezers, use the torch to heat the wire just until it glows orange and does not spring back.

Start wrapping the wire around the shaft of your 2mm drill bit. One wrap is when both leads are facing the same direction. Keeping the tension steady, evenly wrap the coils tight and close together until you have your target number of wraps--in this case, 8 to reach our target of 1.3 Ohms.

Use your tweezers to take up slack from each end. Double count the wraps from the opposite end to make sure you have 8. Do not remove the coil from the drill bit yet!

Install Your Coil

Loosen, but do not remove the post screws on your RDA. Place one of the leads in the positive post hole and place the other lead on the negative post. Try to position the coil in the centre of the RDA while still on the drill bit. Tighten the post screws down. The coils should not touch the posts or any other parts. Trim the leads.

Test Your Ohms

Connect your Ohms reader to your RDA. The resistance should measure between 1.1 and 1.5 if everything is correct. Too low means too much current, which means possibly exceeding the amps limit for your battery.

Fire and Adjust

Put the RDA onto your mod. Pulse the fire button and adjust the coils with tweezers, until the coil glows evenly from the centre outward on a test fire.

Enjoy Your Custom Cloud

Place a small piece of wicking material inside of the coil and trim any excess. Follow this Top Tips to Stop Coil Burningguide for best results. You are now ready to enter the next level of customisable vaping.

For more information about vaping or if you have questions about coil wrapping or any of our vape products, please feel free to contact us or comment below.