Freakshow Mini
Welcome to the first review of my RDA series!
Today we're going to take a look at the Wotofo and Project Sub-Ohm's joint project, the Freakshow Mini.
Deserving of it's name, the mini was designed by Project Sub-Ohm based off the platform of it's older brother with a direct focus on flavor chasing.
Let's take a look at the specs:
Let's take a look at the specs:
- 19mm Height, 22mm Diameter
- 3 post design, with wide slit post holes and Allen Key screws
- Machined from stainless, with the negative posts milled directly from the deck
- 5mm deep juice well
- 510 threads with an adjustable silver plated copper contact
- Dual bottom airflow with adjustable airflow through the slotted top cap
- Delrin drip tip port with surrounding finned heat sink
- 7 colors including: White, Black, Pink, Lime, Tiffany Blue, Copper and Stainless Steel
Unboxing
The mini comes boxed in a small tin, Wotofo branded, with an authenticity scratch sticker on the side. Inside you'll find the RDA, and hidden under the foam padding at the bottom, a small baggy with 2 replacement O-rings, an allen key, and as a nice touch, an entire set of replacement screws for your posts. Surprisingly the packaging is completely void of any Project Sub-Ohm logos. Without the research into it, the average consumer would have no idea Project Sub-Ohm even had a part in it's conception.
On the underside you'll find all the expected markings. Logos, made by, and serial number are all visible in the photo above. As is the adjustable silver plated copper contact. All machining was clean, with no blemishes, sharp edges or imperfections.
Building
Removing the top cap, we get a clear look at what we're working with. Massive bottom airflow through 9mm x 3mm vents, deep 5mm juice well, with indents for wicking, and slotted post holes.
Evidently companies have begun to learn from the Kennedy's first renditions, as the airflow for the bottom vents is thankfully side slotted. This is a big plus when using something like a limitless mod, and although condensation around the base of the RDA isn't non-existent, it's definitely reduced.
How they achieved this 19mm height becomes pretty obvious. The posts, despite having large slotted holes, sit mere millimeters above the deck, with the post holes resting directly at deck height. Even so, centralizing, and fitting a build wrapped around a 3/32 drill bit, isn't much of a challenge. Keeping the coils hovering slightly off the deck, most builds fit snuggly, without shorts.
Where the challenge actually comes in, is squeezing your leads through the post holes. While allowing reasonable width, they didn't allot for much height. A 2 strand 26g core clapton struggles to squeeze through, sometimes even catching it's wrap on the threaded edges. Building low gauge parallels is next to impossible unless dedicating the build to a sleeper coil.
Complex builds aren't impossible though. With a bit of tweeking I did manage to fit a set of Corey Payne's imfamous 6 core fused. I resized them to a 3/32 bit, and trimmed the leads leading into the positive post so I could fit them both in, mimicking a sleeper. Then tightened the center post locking them in place. The build is below, along with a clapton quad coil sleeper, and clapton parallel sleeper.
So, how does she vape?
With the adjustable bottom airflow, and small chamber, the real answer is: incredibly well.
Vapor production is dense, and flavorful. It's hard to avoid a warm vape when using the freakshow mini, but the flavor is more than enough to take your mind off of it.
I do find that when using the mini with an added drip tip, I find the restricted flow through the mouth piece causes splatter. Surprisingly, with the delrin insert and fin style heatsinks, you can vape directly from the top cap as long as you avoid placing your lips towards the center.
Being someone who enjoys a warm vape, and restrictive airflow the adjustable top cap is a big plus. I often leave very little space for airflow, as seen to the left, and still have no issues in terms of heat when using the Freakshow without an added tip. Verdict:
The Freakshow mini is definitely a freak of a flavor chaser. I highly recommend it, as it's currently my "go-to" flavor RDA, owning 3. With strong flavor, huge juice well, plenty of build options and a ton of colors, you should probably pick one up (or 3). Oh, did I mention it's also an authentic coming in at UNDER 40$, you can't go wrong.
THE BUILD
DISCLAIMER: Building your own coils is for advanced users only. Please before attempting any build have a firm understanding of Ohm's Law, and how it effects your circuit/battery. Failing to do so could cause bodily harm to you, or those around you.
Before we begin I'd like to talk a little about Titanium wire. Titanium wire is a low resistance wire, that increases in resistance rapidly when heated. This makes it perfect for temperature control, as it's that increase in resistance that allows a TC mod to estimate the given temperature of the coil. Titanium can also arguably be used for non temperature control devices, including VV mods and mechs. I say arguably because when grade 1 titanium is heated to 500 C° (white hot) or higher, it produces Titanium Dioxide (TiO2). So what does this mean? Well, Titanium Dioxide has shown to be cancer causing in rats when nano particles are inhaled. While the FDA considers it safe for a human to be in environments with 2.4mg/m3, substantially more than our coil would produce on an accidental dry hit, I'd feel uncomfortable recommending it for anything other temp control. Seeing as minimizing bodily harm is the entire point of vaping, I think using it outside of temperature control would be kind of self defeating, even if the risk of cancer in humans is hardly observable. (additional information can be found here: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2011-160/pdfs/2011-160.pdf)
Besides that, and titanium being notoriously springy, it's great for making coils. (And, you know, airplanes)
With that out of the way, now on to the fun stuff.
RDA: Freakshow Mini
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: ~30 mins
What you'll need:
- 26g TA1 Titanium wire
- Wire snips
- Tweezers (ceramic preferred)
- Pliers
- A drill
- 3/32" drill bit
- An Ohm reader
- Scissors
- Your favorite cotton
- Alcohol swabs (Not KFC wet naps...)
- TC Device
- And if you're anything like me... A snack
Step One:
Take a length of Titanium, I usually take a full arm length, straightening the wire as you go. You won't be able to get it perfectly straight, but enough that it doesn't instantly wrap on itself is fine.Take an alchohol swab, and clean the length of the wire.
Often wires are shipped with oil based coatings to protect the wire from oxidization or minor blemishes. The oil has taste, and seeing as flavor is the name of the game here, we want the purest vape possible.
Gather the 2 ends.
You can either place them parallel within the teeth of your drill, or you can twist the ends together slightly before placing it in the drill, to save yourself some frustration.
Slip your drill bit through the loop, and pull the wire taut.
Once the wire is taut, spin up your drill.
Titanium can be really stubborn when it comes to twisting, and it may take a couple tries to make sure it twists evenly along it's length.
You're looking for a tight even twist. Something along these lines.
Once you've got your wire in a nice twist, remove it from the drill, trimming both ends.
Guess the middle point, and cut it with your wire snips.
Step Two:Now we're going to wrap the coil.
Take 1 strand of your twisted wire, laying it across your 3/32" drill bit.
Slowly, and firmly wrap the wire around the drill bit, trying to keep your wraps as close to the previous as possible.
We're going to do 8 wraps.
Repeat this process with the second strand of twisted wire.
Take 1 coil, with the drill bit inside of the wraps, and insert it into the positive center post, and a negative post.
I like to place my coil so that the leg that extends from the bottom of the coil, is in the center post. Doing this makes wicking slightly easier later on, as the wick will have more space between the final wrap, and the side of the top cap.
Move the coil so it's centered over the airholes in the deck. Tighten the center post and the negative post. This is where I like to get a little rough with my coils.
With both posts tightened down, pull on the drill bit, the same way you did when pulling the wire taut before twisting.
This helps the coil tighten up nicely around the drill bit, preventing the positive lead from overlapping the next wrap in the coil.
Losen your posts, and take up the slack created from tightening your coil.
Re-position the coil above the airholes, and tighten your posts back up.
Rinse, repeat for the second coil.
Once both coils are in place, as evenly as possible, centered over the airholes in the deck, we can trim the excess leads.
Step Three:
If you're uncomfortable with this step, feel free to skip it. "Why would I be uncomfortable?", you say? Well. We're going to fuse the coils.
Now I know I said that Titanium wire produces TiO2 when heated, but I've got a little trick for you.
Put the RDA on your VV mod. (It HAS TO BE a VV mod.)
Now I know I said that Titanium wire produces TiO2 when heated, but I've got a little trick for you.
Put the RDA on your VV mod. (It HAS TO BE a VV mod.)
Reduce the watts to around 7-10 watts.
Now turn off the lights. (Or have as little light as possible)
Pulse the mod in 2 or 3 second intervals. You'll start to see the coils glow a deep red color.
Pinch the coils with your tweezers and allow the coil to cool. Repeat this process until the coils glow evenly from the center, outwards.
REMEMBER. Unless you're using ceramic tweezers, don't pulse your mod while holding the coil. You'll short the circuit, and get a little bit of a wake up call in the process.
Wick up your coil, swap back to Temp Control mode, and enjoy your vape!
Thoughts on the build:
As far as temp control builds go, I firmly believe a twisted build has the best results in terms of flavor. While I usual prefer a warm to hot vape, the optimal temps for a high VG liquid is from 350 up to a max of 500 F. After 500 F, certain flavor profiles can begin to break down, losing some of the more subtle notes.
The flavor profile of an E-Juice is very easy to identify through this Titanium build. Titanium has no flavor what so ever when vaped, and subtle complex flavors easily stand out on both the inhale, and exhale.
I hope you enjoyed my review, and build for this month!
Be sure to check back next Friday, October 2nd for our first E-Juice review!
Be sure to check back next Friday, October 2nd for our first E-Juice review!
