Okay I get totally lost when I hear 5% ? How do I know how much 5% is...
I don't mind using one flavor to begin with either .
Could I fill my tank w the juice and just add a drop ? My vape shop has me donthat w menthol if I feel like menthol sometimes w my already made juice ....
I know, I am late to this conversation, but let me explain a bit about how DIY juice making goes.
There are three main parts to an ejuice. The Base liquid (either PG, VG, or most likely both), Nicotine, and flavoring.
Nicotine by itself is dangerous in it's pure form, so they usually dilute it down greatly for ease of use. When DIYers buy nicotine, they usually buy it in this diluted form. Even in the diluted form, it is still dangerous, and gloves are usually worn. Some companies offer a highly diluted form to where all you have to do is add flavoring.
The Base is usually Propylene Glycol (PG), Vegetable Glycerine (VG) or Both. Propylene glycol has a thinner, "water like" consistency, holds flavor a bit more than the vegetable glycerine. Vegetable Glycerine has a thicker "corn oil" like consistency, doesn't hold flavor as well as Propylene glycol, but it produces more clouds and has a smoother draw to it.
The last part is Flavoring. Most of these flavors are food flavorings or extracts, but not all food flavorings will work with Ecigs. Vanilla extract, for example, would work well in an Ecig, however most vanilla extracts contain alcohol..which does not go well with Ecigs. For that reason, most flavors are limited to alchohol free extracts or flavors. Some company's flavors are stronger than others, so less flavoring is needed to have a good taste.
Most DIYers have bottles of VG, PG, Nicotine base, and an assortment of flavors to choose from. It's not really hard to mix. I use hypodermic plungers to measure the small amounts of nicotine and flavors, since they can measure fairly accurately by the milliliter. Some companies offer a pre-mixed base, which has a fairly low nicotine content, so all you have to do is add flavorings. That simplifies the juice making by a great factor, but it is more expensive that way. I'll throw some numbers to give you an example of some juice making techniques.
Pre-mixed base technique.... Jon likes a medium flavor, and he prefers a 6mg base. He buys a 6mg/ml 50/50 PG/VG base and a strawberry and cream flavors. he decides to try a %10 flavor mix and he has a 50ml bottle. %10 of 50 is 5, so he wants to add 5ml of flavors.. he decides to try 3ml of strawberry and 2 ml of cream. the rest he fills with his base. He ends up with a 5.4mg/ml solution with a 60pg/40VG(ish) result. He didn't get his exact PG/VG ratio, but he'll probably like the flavor, and it's close enough.
My technique.... I usually like a guava/custard mix. I like a high amount of flavors, so I choose a %15 flavor mix. I am putting them in a 30ml bottle. I like a high VG mix, so I won't even worry about the PG/VG ratio. My nicotine and flavorings come in pure PG form, and my nicotine comes in a 60mg/ml bottle... I like %10 Guava, and %5 vanilla custard. %10 of my 30ml bottle is 3ml.. so I put in 3ml of guava, %5 of 30ml is 1.5ml, so I put in %5 of vanilla custard. I like a 6mg mix. I bought the 60mg/ml for ease of math.... all I have to do is add 3ml of my nicotine base. I fill the rest of the bottle with VG and shake until it's fully mixed. The end result, is a %15 flavoring, 6mg/ml guava/custard flavor that ends up being a 75VG/25PG mix.
It sounds complicated, but it's really not. It takes me about 5 minutes to make 3 30ml bottles, and that lasts me for a while. I do have some 256ml bottles, so sometimes I pre-make my juice, and just refill my 30 ml bottles. I use a calculator called
steam-engine to do the math for me.
