8 Tools to Make Yourself the MacGyver of Vaping

Guest post by EasyPuff

When you use a small vaping device like a cigalike or a pod vaping system, it isn’t likely that you’ll ever encounter a situation requiring serious troubleshooting. When you decide that it’s time to upgrade to a more advanced vaping device, though, you open up a world of possibilities. Depending on your vaping setup, you may work with removable batteries, resistance wire, various types of wicks, rebuildable atomizers and more. If something goes wrong while you vape – or you simply want to try to improve your vaping experience – you’re going to need a few tools. Would you like to make yourself the MacGyver of vaping? Get these tools to ensure that you’re prepared for anything.

Pre-Wrapped Coils

Building your own atomizer coils might be fun, but you may not always feel like doing the work. You might run out of wire unexpectedly. You might ruin a portion of your wire trying to build a twisted, braided or Clapton coil. Whatever the reason, it’s a good idea to have a supply of pre-wrapped coils available. Purchased in bulk, pre-wrapped coils are very inexpensive – and it’s often very useful to have them around.

Coil Building Platform

Are you still using your mod as a building platform and resistance tester? If you want to build advanced coils – or you simply want to become a better coil builder – you need a real coil building platform. A coil building platform is more than just a stable surface for coil mounting. It also provides the ability to test coil resistance and dry fire your coils. Many coil building platforms even let you check the voltage of your batteries. Buying a coil building platform is the first step toward building better, more consistent and safer coils.

Wire Cutters

Admit it – you’re still using scissors to trim your wires, aren’t you? Scissors might work fine for thin kanthal wires. As soon as you step up to higher-gauge wires, nichrome and pre-wrapped coils, though, you’re going to find that ordinary scissors are no longer up to the task; they just mangle your wires. If you want to build perfect coils – or just want to trim pre-wrapped coils without ruining them – you need a good pair of wire cutters.

Battery Wrap Tube

The wrapper around a lithium-ion battery is nothing but a thin layer of heat-shrink plastic. It tears easily. If you drop your mod – and the batteries fall out – it’s likely that you’ll end up with battery damage. Even your mod can cause battery damage if it has a tight battery compartment. If a battery has a torn wrapper, it means that the battery’s metal enclosure is exposed – and the entire metal surface of a battery is conductive. If something touches the top and side of a battery simultaneously, you’ll have a short circuit and a potentially very dangerous situation. The only safe thing to do is to recycle the batteries and begin using new ones – unless you have some battery wrap tube.

Battery wrap is cheap and very easy to use. To rewrap a battery, you’ll begin by peeling off the existing wrapper and saving the insulator ring from the positive battery post. Cut a length of wrap that’s a bit longer than the battery. Put the battery through the new wrapper and replace the insulator ring. Wave a hairdryer on the lowest heat setting over the battery. The wrapper shrinks over the battery. That’s it!

Battery wrap isn’t just useful for repairing batteries. If you buy OEM cells from makers such as Samsung, you know that the OEM battery wrappers aren’t always the best. When you buy a new pair of batteries, you can immediately remove the wrappers and replace them with more durable wrappers. Do you use and charge your batteries in married pairs? Wrap the pairs in matching colors so you can tell them apart.

Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner

If you like sweet e-liquids – and who doesn’t these days? – you’re going to go through coils quickly. That might be fine if you’re a fast coil builder. If you build complex coils or use pre-wrapped coils, though, you might like them to last longer than a day. Dry firing is a fast way to burn away most of the residue, but dry firing alone doesn’t always completely clean a coil. If you want to make your coils last longer, try an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. It’ll make your coils bright and shiny again with nothing but water and a little agitation. Some people have reported that ultrasonic cleaners enable them to use the same coils for months.

Silicone O-Rings

A sub-ohm tank or rebuildable atomizer typically uses several silicone o-rings to keep parts in place and prevent leaks. If you have an e-cigarette attachment that’s leaking – and you’re certain you assembled it correctly – the o-rings are the first components that you should check. Most e-cigarette attachments include several replacement o-rings, but it’s a good idea to have a few spare o-rings in varying sizes in case you run out.

Ceramic Tweezers

A pair of ceramic tweezers might be the most important tool that you can own for coil building. New coils typically need several small adjustments during the dry firing process for even heating and elimination of hot spots, and ceramic tweezers are the perfect tool for making those adjustments. Ceramic isn’t conductive, so it won’t cause a short. Ceramic also protects your hand from the heat of the coils.

Variable-Speed Hand Drill

It isn’t too hard to make a twisted kanthal coil by hand. If you want to try some of the advanced coil builds that you’ve seen on YouTube, though, twisted coils are only the beginning. If you want to make Clapton, alien, stapled or juggernaut coils – and you want those coils to turn out right – you need a tool that’s stronger and more precise than your hands. A small hand drill is the perfect answer. Get a drill that can operate at a low speed; a drill that spins too quickly can lead to uneven wraps and damaged wires.

About the Author

Jason Artman is the owner and author of eCig One. Through his website, Jason leverages more than a decade of professional writing experience to offer content creation services to vaping companies around the world.