Why Have Cotter Pins Become a Thing of the Past? Enail Coils

Cotter pins were the most popular way to attach an e-nail coil to a banger. They are small metal pins (similar looking to a hair pin) that fit into a small hole which goes straight through the tiny quartz rod fused at the bottom of your e-nail banger. First you slip the enail coil over the bottom of the banger, then attach the metal pin to secure the coil in place.

The small quartz rod seen on an e-nail banger is a cylindrical quartz piece that extends from the bottom center of the banger. This piece of quartz is welded onto the bottom of the bucket for a secure enail coil connection.

Downsides to Using a Cotter Pin

When enail dabbing first came about, using a cotter pin was a great solution; the coil would remain safely attached to the banger for optimal heating. However, as time went on, a cotter pin has become more problematic rather than helpful.

Over the past few years e-nail coils have gotten bigger in size, both in their diameter as well as their number of wraps extending upward. The main issue with cotter pins arises when your enail coil is larger in size, adding to its weight.

As mentioned, an enail coil's increased size makes it a lot heavier, putting more strain on the cotter pin which then puts strain onto the extended quartz rod at the bottom of your banger. The added weight would be fine with this simple coil attachment style. However, since there is a hole straight through the quartz rod (for insertion of the cotter pin), this tiny little piece becomes particularly weaker than the rest of the banger.

Quartz E-Nail Bangers with Cotter Pin Connection Points and Breaking

With this weaker part on your banger you have to be extra careful when handling it. We have had many instances where the banger accidentally hits the table and the quartz rod is the first part to break making it unusable.

A cotter pin has one wavy side and a flat side, sometimes removing the clip or placing it back into the hole can cause it to break. The waves on the one side are supposed to provide a secure grip onto the quartz rod, but yanking at it to remove it will break the rod.

Lastly, using an enail or dabbing in general involves a lot of heating and cooling which means there is expanding and contracting of the quartz. Any welded sections on your banger often becomes weaker over time with constant expansion and contracting. The quartz rod at the bottom is more likely to break since it has direct contact with the enail coil itself.

New Version of E-Nail Cotter Pin: E-Nail O-Clamp

The evolution of cotter pins led to the creation of the o-clamp. An oclamp attaches to an enail banger differently, it doesn't require a hole within that small quartz piece at the bottom. Instead an O-clamp has two prongs on either side, these two prongs get squeezed together to widen the “o” section of the oclamp. When slipped over the quartz rod, the prongs are released, closing the “o” section tight, for a secure fit.

Benefits to O-Clamp Connection over Cotter Pin Connection

This tiny yet useful tool wraps around the entire rod, offering a sturdy and less complicated enail coil connection. Using an oclamp has several benefits, an oclamp connection does not depend on a hole for attachment, so the quartz piece at the bottom is solid instead of having a hole straight through it. Ditching the hole + cotter pin combo makes your enail banger more durable in the long run, letting you enjoy your dab sessions without your banger breaking on you, mid rip.

Besides the increased durability of your enail banger, an oclamp is super easy to put on and take off. It can also be adjusted to position your enail coil closer to or further from the banger. While it's best to keep the enail coil as close as possible to the banger, some dabbing setups may benefit from a little bit of distance between the two components.

Different Sized O-clamps

O-clamps come in two different sizes, 6mm and 8mm. A majority of e-nail bangers have an 8 mm rod which is compatible with an 8mm o-clamp. There are a few enail bangers that have a 6mm rod, therefore they are compatible with 6mm O-clamps.

The reason for the size difference between the two quartz rod diameter sizes is because certain enail coils (depending on brand) have a slightly tighter wrapping at the bottom of the axial coil, which cannot fit an 8mm rod.

It's a little confusing to understand, but we'll attach some photos below to break this down for you. Also, if you are unsure as to which size you need for your specific enail coil, you can use a #2 pencil. A standard pencil is typically 7-8mm wide, so if that fits inside the bottom hole of your axial coil, then 8mm is the answer. If a pencil does not fit, meaning the hole at the bottom of your enail axial coil hole is smaller, you would need a 6mm.

Older E-nail Coil Connection Options

Stoners are incredibly creative, give them a straw, an apple, two butter knives, they will figure things out. Needless to say, there have been several other coil connection options through the years, some of them were absolutely genius, while others have been sent to the dustbin.

Silicone Banger Hanger - Galaxy Enails

One conceptually sound enail coil holder, which we AND our customers particularly enjoyed, was the silicone banger hanger by galaxy enails. It had two pieces of silicone that fit into each other, they were positioned on either side of a banger neck, then interlock together for a secure slip proof lever to rest your enail coil. This silicone piece is attached directly onto the neck of ANY banger, meaning it can be used with any banger not just enail bangers. Similar to a sidearm enail banger which features an additional quartz piece (we like to call it an arm) sticking out from the side of the banger neck to hold up an enail coil.

As we know, silicone becomes weaker and brittle over time, also most dab users consistently use alcohol and alcohol based cleaners to clean their pieces. Silicone and alcohol simply do not mix. Your once rubbery coil holder will become dry and cracked with continuous exposure and cleaning, eventually crumbling into pieces.

Once the silicone pieces become weaker, it will begin to slide and not hold your enail coil in its proper place. Newer e-nail coils can sometimes be too heavy causing the silicone to slip regardless if it's old and worn or even if it's brand new.

For a silicone banger hanger to function properly, your banger would need to have a longer neck so that the silicone has enough space for it to be attached. Many bangers do not have a very specific neck size, there are so many varied sizes especially with hand blown pieces. This coil holder was great at first, but when it came to banger compatibility and handling the weight of larger enail coils it lost its gusto.

New E-nail Coil Connection Options

Mini Enail Silicone Magnetic Tie

Another silicone enail coil holder we think everyone should have in their arsenal is the Magnetic Tie from Mini Nail. This design is more secure than the Galaxy enail banger hanger style and has been around a lot longer than the interlocking two piece silicone version.

The downside to this enail coil holder is that it works best with a banger that has a side arm design to hold up a coil. The silicone strap is used as an added safeguard to secure the coil and keep it in place, preventing it from falling off the arm on the banger.

You CAN use this type of coil holder with regular quartz bangers, but you will run into the same issues that you would find with the silicone banger hanger because it's also made of silicone. The silicone sliding would be the main issue you'd have with this tie, since this design is thin almost like a rubber band/string instead of two interlocking pieces like the banger hanger.

Best Coil Connection Possible

Neither of these two options offer the same super snug fit as an o-clamp. If you are looking for the most ideal fit and best heat transfer from your coil to your banger, opting for an e-nail banger (with a quartz rod at the bottom) and an o-clamp is surely the best route to take.

The newest coil holder “addition” is made by VapeBrat E-nails, called the silicone enail coil tie. It's a silicone strap that looks almost like a ziptie, and is wrapped around your enail coil and the top of your enail banger neck.

Silicone Tie - Enail Coil Holder by VapeBrat

While this e-nail coil holder can be used on its own, it is mainly used for added support for heavier enail coils. Earlier in this blog we mentioned that the increased size and weight of modern e-nail coils puts added stress onto the cotter pin, causing the quartz rod at the bottom of an enail banger to break. This silicone strap/tie/ziptie, whatever you'd like to call it, helps to alleviate some of that weight off of that tiny quartz piece on your enail banger. Distributing the weight evenly throughout sturdier parts of your banger instead of just on one side.

Some newer enail coils are 35mm in diameter, some 40mm, and even 50mm, there are also styles like the cobra coils that have 8-9 wraps extending up making it a lot heavier than a 3 wrap barrel coil. Remember enail coils are made of solid stainless steel and other metals, so the material is not the lightest option around.

The added weight of an enail coil can sometimes become heavy enough to break more “fragile” enail banger styles, like a terp slurper banger. A terp slurper enail banger is more fragile than a standard bucket banger, because the bottom dish is not completely welded onto the middle chamber. There are slits at the bottom of the middle chamber that need to be left open so that a terp slurper can function the way it's supposed to. Ironically, these slits are a terp slurpers strength (incredible flavor and function) and also its weakness (more fragile construction).

Whether you use this silicone strap with terp slurper bangers, larger sized enail bangers, or with your standard setup, it's still a phenomenal addition to any enail.

As mentioned, this strap has multiple grooves, once connected the strap end is pulled through a hole and then tucked in, similar to a ziptie. Its design lets you adjust the size of this strap perfectly to whatever banger you may have. Using a combination of a silicone tie and O-clamp connection provides super secure placement of your coil while removing the stress from the bottom of your banger.

While this coil holder is not designed to hold up the coil all on its own, it is an inexpensive yet useful tool to extend the lifespan of your banger so that you don't need as many replacements in the long run. You shouldn't tighten the strap to the point where the coil is being pulled up by the strap, the coil should be supported to relieve stress on the bucket.

If you are still currently using a cotter pin to connect your enail coil to your enail banger we strongly suggest making the switch to an O-clamp. It is a very small investment which will pay off in a major way, once the quartz rod breaks on your enail banger, it becomes totally unusable.

With a quick addition of the silicone strap, your enail banger should last you days, weeks, months, maybe years to come!