DIY Wicking
Your cotton wick should be several inches long at this point. Roll it between your fingers to compact the fibers a little bit. Remember, you will need to thread your wick through your coils, so it needs to be able to fit. However, you don’t want it to be so small that it can easily slip out of the coils.
Once you get the hang of this it’s pretty easy, but for your first few wicks, try to thread the wick through the coil and see how it fits. If it tugs your coils and is pulling them out of shape, it’s too big. If it pulls through with space around the edges, it’s too small. The wick needs to be snug without damaging the shape of your coils in the process.
The best way to thread your wick is to tightly roll one end of your wick down to a point so that it can be threaded through like a needle. Your wick should be 2-3 inches long so you should have plenty of room to roll one end while leaving the center of your wick loose enough to fill the coil.
Once your wick is in place it is time to trim the ends and secure it. You don’t want to trim the ends off of your wick right at the ends of the coil. This would leave you with very little material for absorbing juice. Instead you want to leave about a half inch sticking out on either side of the coil. Use your scissors to cut the fibers down to size.
Now it is time to tuck the ends in. There are many different techniques for doing this, but the easiest way is to simply tuck the ends of the wick down under the coil. By wrapping the ends this way you are holding the wick in place and creating a way for the wick to pick up juice sitting in your well. This is where a tiny screwdriver or tweezers will come in handy because you don’t want to damage your coil while you’re trying to get the loose ends tucked in.
With the ends tucked in, try to create a small air tunnel beneath your coils as well – pushing the ends of the wick to either side under the coil can do this. If you don’t give yourself an air gap you may end up suffocating your vape or losing out on flavor. You need air to flow in and around your coils to get the best experience. If your wick is filling all that space, then the air will only pass over the top of your coil and won’t go around and through the coils to pick up the flavor.
Finally, now is the time to break out your e-liquid. Add a few drops to your wick and make sure that it is well saturated inside the coil and at the base. Once the liquid is soaked up, do a test fire of your device to see if it starts creating vapor right away. If everything checks out you can put the rest of your RDA or RBA back together and begin vaping immediately.