Beyond confused! Help???

[Bklynzfinest]

With the inevitable taxes and all these scary internet bans pending I'm determined to continue vaping by DIY. Problem is I'm completely incompetent when it comes to math, always have been, and I'm oh so very confused reading these beginner guides… Can someone please explain this to me like I'm 5?

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, what I want is very simple (which makes this all the more embarrassing)

If anyone can just give me exact amounts in ml's to get what I want in say, 30ml -- I would be eternally grateful.

10% flavoring
12mg nic
50/50 pg vg

I've read 10% generally seems to be the sweet spot for flavor so for the sake of simplicity I chose that percentage. If I want 12mg 50/50 vg pg… 10% flavoring in my 12mg base would be 1.2% of my total juice, correct? So deducting that from 12mg means I'm only getting 10.8mg nic as opposed to 12mg, yes? How do I just get an even 12mg?

Would I buy a 24mg base, and cut it in half with flavoring? But then that would make the flavoring 50% of my juice which would not be ideal obviously? I don't want to buy 100% nic anything as I'm not comfortable working with that yet & will probably land myself in the hospital. Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[penstyle]

Beginning DIY requires that you read, even if you don't want to.

Read all the DIY Sticky's at the top of the page.
Then read here E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs
and E-Cigarette Forum - dannyv45 - Blogs

Download eJuice Me Up calculator and mess around with it.
eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

Take time, 2 weeks to read and determine wants/needs.

Here is a good place to buy a DIY starter kit.
DIY Artisan Kits - One Stop DIY Shop Store

Furthermore, I know nothing. But this is often the recommendations here.

 

[AceCC]

The juice calculators are great. I used to use them until I stumbled on the perfect recipe. Let us know how it goes...!

 

[penstyle]

The milligrams of the nicotine is diluted with PG/VG.
You would add more PG and VG to your sample juice to get your target nicotine strength.
So that is 3 ingredients, correct.

Well not only will the nicotine strength(milligrams) change when you vary the 3 ingredients.
But
Also, the PG/VG ratio(70/30, 50/50) changes when you vary the 3 ingredients.

That is why you can buy say 24 milligrams or 36 milligrams of pre made nicotine juice.

After you understand that. Then think of that small amount of flavoring... Well that is just 10 percent of the total volume.
Most of the flavorings have PG in them so this will also change things.
But still just 4 ingredients.


They are usually measured in drops or milliliters. Download the calculator to get more confused.

 

[RaymondK]

Yes in your example, even your base is 50/50 12mg, you will not achieve 12mg in that 30ml when you add 10% flavour. If your base is either PG plus 12mg or VG plus 12mg, it will be worse or less mg in that 30ml.

If you get a PG base 36mg, then the mix for your 12mg in 30ml (50/50) would be:
15ml VG
10ml PG 36 mg
2ml PG
3ml Flavour

 

[Bklynzfinest]

Yes in your example, even your base is 50/50 12mg, you will not achieve 12mg in that 30ml when you add 10% flavour. If your base is either PG plus 12mg or VG plus 12mg, it will be worse or less mg in that 30ml.

If you get a PG base 36mg, then the mix for your 12mg in 30ml (50/50) would be:
15ml VG
10ml PG 36 mg
2ml PG
3ml Flavour

Thanks for the clear & concise breakdown! So what I'm gathering is, as a general rule, to achieve my 12mg I will need additional PG or VG without any nic, to add to the base?

One last thing, maybe I'm missing something but if I have 15ml's VG and 12ml's total PG, wouldn't that be more like 70/30 vg pg? Or it's always assumed the flavoring is PG based?

 

[Ld3441]

Thanks for the clear & concise breakdown! So what I'm gathering is, as a general rule, to achieve my 12mg I will need additional PG or VG without any nic, to add to the base?

One last thing, maybe I'm missing something but if I have 15ml's VG and 12ml's total PG, wouldn't that be more like 70/30 vg pg? Or it's always assumed the flavoring is PG based?

Your flavor is also PG which will give you 50/50.

 

[RaymondK]

Thanks for the clear & concise breakdown! So what I'm gathering is, as a general rule, to achieve my 12mg I will need additional PG or VG without any nic, to add to the base?

One last thing, maybe I'm missing something but if I have 15ml's VG and 12ml's total PG, wouldn't that be more like 70/30 vg pg? Or it's always assumed the flavoring is PG based?

Ld3441 is correct. Most of the flavouring is considered to be PG.

Since in my example I am starting at 36mg of nicotine PG base, in order to dilute to 12mg, the 15ml VG and the 2ml PG are without nicotine.