I want to do DIY. What do I need?
I see this kind of post a lot and honestly, its a hard question to answer. Other than the basics, its subjective to you.
The first thing you need to do is read, read and then read some more. There is a ton of information here on ECF and its there to help all of us. Spend some time reading the stickies.
Next your going to need some equipment. You can do like I did and go to the DIY shack and get a starter kit. http://www.diyflavorshack.com/searchresults.asp?cat=3 I bought the "PREMIUM" DIY KIT and its not a bad kit but a bunch of stuff that I doubt if I will ever need. I have a habit of going overboard anyways, but the kit does come with a selection of flavors, some PG, VG and Nicotine so to me it was worth it.
If you dont want to get a kit then your going to need to get some bare basics. A 10ml graduated cylinder. Plastic works but glass is easier to use in my opinion. And a 50 ml graduated cylinder. A few 3 cc syringes, a few 5 cc syringes and a couple 10 cc syringes. Some large gauge needles. Some 1 ml and 3 ml pipettes. Latex gloves and safety glasses.
Now you need to ask yourself what do you want. Are you into tobacco flavors? Drink flavors? Candy Flavors? Puddings and creamy flavors? Do you want juice mainly to drip with or do you like to run tanks, or both.
Lets start with the bare basics here. I would suggest ordering 500 ml of VG, 500 ml of PG and 125 ml of 100 mg nicotine in a PG base.
Now dont be scared of 100 mg nicotine. You will have to cut it anyways for your mixtures and it is easy as well as more bang for your buck. If you plan on only dripping at max VG then get your nicotine in VG base.
Now for flavors. And this is the hardest part of all. What do you like. Its hard to make suggestions without knowing what you like. I would suggest looking over some recipes that you would like to try and write down the flavors called for and order them. Some basic flavors you will want in your arsenal are:
Vanilla
Vanilla Custard
Bavarian Cream
Cheesecake
Graham Crackers
Sweet Cream
I would suggest buying these in bulk sizes.
And if you want to try some tobacco flavors Hangsen and Inawera are reportedly the best. Capellas has a Wild Wild West Tobacco Flavor Pack that I liked.
Some good places to buy supplies is My Freedom Smokes, Wizard Labs, DIY shack, Ecigexpress as well as many others that you will see discussed on the forums. I have bought a lot of Capella flavorings off of Ebay.
And lastly get yourself a spiral bound book of 3 X 5 cards to write recipes in. When your cruising the net and see a recipe you like on a forum or a website its easier to write it down than to try to remember where you seen it.
And get a book to use as a journal. What I will do is write only on one side of the journal pages and write down the recipe I used, how much I made, nicotine level, PG/VG ratio and anything that comes to mind while mixing. Then in a month or so will come back and on the other side of the page I will write down how the juice came out after it had a chance to steep and develop. Always keep a journal for if you dont you will make the best killer juice known to man kind and forget how you made it. It happens!
Now all you have to do is wait for your DIY supplies to show up and start mixing.
Ok, your stuff arrives. Now what. Its easy. I use this online recipe mixing site all the time
http://www.ecigexpress.com/cookbook/ejuice-calculator/
On the top left put in your Base Nic Level. 100 Pg 0 VG 100mg
Next line is for your target Nic level. Say you want your final mixture to be 50 VG 50 PG and 18 mg nicotine. Just plug the numbers in.
Then you need to tell it what size batch your going to make. Lets start small with a 5 ml batch.
Now look on the right side and it already is telling you that to make a 5 ml batch with no flavorings you need to mix .9 ml of your 100 mg nicotine solution, 1.6ml PG and 2.5 ml VG. But dont mix anything yet!
Lets plug in some flavors. In flavor 1 line plug in Vanilla Custard at %10. In flavor 2 line plug in Baverian Cream at %5 and line 3 add some Strawberry at %5.
See how the base amount changed. Thats because flavors are almost always PG base. Now get out your 10 ml graduated cylinder. Put .9 ml of your Nic solution. (Cap the bottle as soon as your done with it for safety). Add .6 ml of PG and 2.5 ml of VG to the cylinder. Then add .5 ml of Vanilla Custard, .25 ml of Baverian Cream and .25 ml of Strawberry. It should be up to the 5 ml graduate line. Pour this into a small bottle and shake it vigorously. Pour some into a clearomizer and give it a try.
And Congrats, you just made your first Ejuice!
Dont forget to write it down in your journal!!!
I see this kind of post a lot and honestly, its a hard question to answer. Other than the basics, its subjective to you.
The first thing you need to do is read, read and then read some more. There is a ton of information here on ECF and its there to help all of us. Spend some time reading the stickies.
Next your going to need some equipment. You can do like I did and go to the DIY shack and get a starter kit. http://www.diyflavorshack.com/searchresults.asp?cat=3 I bought the "PREMIUM" DIY KIT and its not a bad kit but a bunch of stuff that I doubt if I will ever need. I have a habit of going overboard anyways, but the kit does come with a selection of flavors, some PG, VG and Nicotine so to me it was worth it.
If you dont want to get a kit then your going to need to get some bare basics. A 10ml graduated cylinder. Plastic works but glass is easier to use in my opinion. And a 50 ml graduated cylinder. A few 3 cc syringes, a few 5 cc syringes and a couple 10 cc syringes. Some large gauge needles. Some 1 ml and 3 ml pipettes. Latex gloves and safety glasses.
Now you need to ask yourself what do you want. Are you into tobacco flavors? Drink flavors? Candy Flavors? Puddings and creamy flavors? Do you want juice mainly to drip with or do you like to run tanks, or both.
Lets start with the bare basics here. I would suggest ordering 500 ml of VG, 500 ml of PG and 125 ml of 100 mg nicotine in a PG base.
Now dont be scared of 100 mg nicotine. You will have to cut it anyways for your mixtures and it is easy as well as more bang for your buck. If you plan on only dripping at max VG then get your nicotine in VG base.
Now for flavors. And this is the hardest part of all. What do you like. Its hard to make suggestions without knowing what you like. I would suggest looking over some recipes that you would like to try and write down the flavors called for and order them. Some basic flavors you will want in your arsenal are:
Vanilla
Vanilla Custard
Bavarian Cream
Cheesecake
Graham Crackers
Sweet Cream
I would suggest buying these in bulk sizes.
And if you want to try some tobacco flavors Hangsen and Inawera are reportedly the best. Capellas has a Wild Wild West Tobacco Flavor Pack that I liked.
Some good places to buy supplies is My Freedom Smokes, Wizard Labs, DIY shack, Ecigexpress as well as many others that you will see discussed on the forums. I have bought a lot of Capella flavorings off of Ebay.
And lastly get yourself a spiral bound book of 3 X 5 cards to write recipes in. When your cruising the net and see a recipe you like on a forum or a website its easier to write it down than to try to remember where you seen it.
And get a book to use as a journal. What I will do is write only on one side of the journal pages and write down the recipe I used, how much I made, nicotine level, PG/VG ratio and anything that comes to mind while mixing. Then in a month or so will come back and on the other side of the page I will write down how the juice came out after it had a chance to steep and develop. Always keep a journal for if you dont you will make the best killer juice known to man kind and forget how you made it. It happens!
Now all you have to do is wait for your DIY supplies to show up and start mixing.
Ok, your stuff arrives. Now what. Its easy. I use this online recipe mixing site all the time
http://www.ecigexpress.com/cookbook/ejuice-calculator/
On the top left put in your Base Nic Level. 100 Pg 0 VG 100mg
Next line is for your target Nic level. Say you want your final mixture to be 50 VG 50 PG and 18 mg nicotine. Just plug the numbers in.
Then you need to tell it what size batch your going to make. Lets start small with a 5 ml batch.
Now look on the right side and it already is telling you that to make a 5 ml batch with no flavorings you need to mix .9 ml of your 100 mg nicotine solution, 1.6ml PG and 2.5 ml VG. But dont mix anything yet!
Lets plug in some flavors. In flavor 1 line plug in Vanilla Custard at %10. In flavor 2 line plug in Baverian Cream at %5 and line 3 add some Strawberry at %5.
See how the base amount changed. Thats because flavors are almost always PG base. Now get out your 10 ml graduated cylinder. Put .9 ml of your Nic solution. (Cap the bottle as soon as your done with it for safety). Add .6 ml of PG and 2.5 ml of VG to the cylinder. Then add .5 ml of Vanilla Custard, .25 ml of Baverian Cream and .25 ml of Strawberry. It should be up to the 5 ml graduate line. Pour this into a small bottle and shake it vigorously. Pour some into a clearomizer and give it a try.
And Congrats, you just made your first Ejuice!
Dont forget to write it down in your journal!!!
