Cotton Candy or EM?

[psycheval]

I had decided by looking at what some of the older hands here were using that me using all distilled water and no alchohol might be a bad idea. Last batch I made I used no distilled water in anything. I will be doing it from now on. PGA, Everclear, Vodka. Any of them. Makes sense you think about it. What does alcohol do better than water? 15% in just VG base. 10% in my nic base (MFS VG 100mg/ml). Don't care what the totals are I'm treating it all as just whatever it is. Although I am allowing for the diluted nic %. Not figuring in the alcohol in other words for the final blend. For tobacco blends you can't beat the alcohol. I think it helps a great deal.

If you put EM in VG heat it. I mix 10ml PG and 10ml VG with 2ml PGA for my EM. It makes caca. Heat it up when you get ready to add it to your blend. It will liquify with heat. it will blend in as it should in the final blend. Koolada does the same thing btw.

 

[bris1974]

I have both but just use the CC. 8ml a few drops at a time will last a long while. cheap and easy to just buy the CC.

 

[subver]

I had decided by looking at what some of the older hands here were using that me using all distilled water and no alchohol might be a bad idea. Last batch I made I used no distilled water in anything. I will be doing it from now on. PGA, Everclear, Vodka. Any of them. Makes sense you think about it. What does alcohol do better than water? 15% in just VG base. 10% in my nic base (MFS VG 100mg/ml). Don't care what the totals are I'm treating it all as just whatever it is. Although I am allowing for the diluted nic %. Not figuring in the alcohol in other words for the final blend. For tobacco blends you can't beat the alcohol. I think it helps a great deal.

If you put EM in VG heat it. I mix 10ml PG and 10ml VG with 2ml PGA for my EM. It makes caca. Heat it up when you get ready to add it to your blend. It will liquify with heat. it will blend in as it should in the final blend. Koolada does the same thing btw.

So will the EM dissolve in pure VG with heat? I would ideally like to dissolve it in 18mg nic VG base so I can use that without reducing my nic content too much. I know I probably should've ordered 24mg nic base to get a target 18mg liquid but 18mg is all I have to start with..

 

[psycheval]

No it will not comepletely dissolve. It saturates. They do not blend so they clot. Heat will allow you to use it in that form. Heat will thin it out to your original base consistency. There will still be very small clots even with heat. Very,very small but they are there. Once you get it in your final blend there is enough of everything else there for it to blend and disperse. 150-180F don't cook it.

Here is another thought for you. I know all this because of how I pre-mix my flavors. There is so little PG going into your final blend because of your flavors are you sure you need to worry about it? PG sensitives I assume so. But if your not, PG brings things to the table in small doses that you don't have without at least a little of it in your blend. Just a thought.

I started originally trying to do 100% VG blends by the way, so did lots of others that will put PG to it now because of all it brings.

 

[subver]

No it will not comepletely dissolve. It saturates. They do not blend so they clot. Heat will allow you to use it in that form. Heat will thin it out to your original base consistency. There will still be very small clots even with heat. Very,very small but they are there. Once you get it in your final blend there is enough of everything else there for it to blend and disperse. 150-180F don't cook it.

Here is another thought for you. I know all this because of how I pre-mix my flavors. There is so little PG going into your final blend because of your flavors are you sure you need to worry about it? PG sensitives I assume so. But if your not, PG brings things to the table in small doses that you don't have without at least a little of it in your blend. Just a thought.

I started originally trying to do 100% VG blends by the way, so did lots of others that will put PG to it now because of all it brings.

Well I do have a small amount of 18mg PG coming as well. It's not so much a sensitivity to PG, just that every juice I've ever tried that had PG in it gave me a very perfumey chemical-floral weird taste. My plan was to try the PG alone jsut to be sure.. but you're probably right that the tiny amount in the final product won't be an issue.
Thanks!

 

[awsum140]

I've been using the 1/4 teaspoon in 10ml of PG without too much of a problem. I put the PG into a small beaker, add the EM and stir well. Of course, it doesn't all dissolve. The trick I use is to heat it in the microwave for two or three seconds at a time and stir very well after each heat cycle until it's all dissolved. The mix remains clear until it is all used up...as in at least two months. It may be a saturated suspension with micro-clumps, but it works for me.

 

[1LastShot]

I've been using the 1/t teaspoon in 10ml of PG without too much of a problem. I put the PG into a small beaker, add the EM and stir well. Of course, it doesn't all dissolve. The trick I use is to heat it in the microwave for two or three seconds at a time and stir very well after each heat cycle until it's al dissolved. The mix remains clear until it is all used up...as in at least two months. It may be a saturated suspension with micro-clumps, but it works for me.

Psycheval was saying it does the micro-clumps thing with VG, not PG.

Your post says 1/t teaspoon- did you mean 1/4th? That method sounds like a quick and easy one, I plan to buy crystals soon since we use EM alot. Want to have the right measurement though does that equal about a 10% solution?

 

[awsum140]

Psycheval was saying it does the micro-clumps thing with VG, not PG.

Your post says 1/t teaspoon- did you mean 1/4th? That method sounds like a quick and easy one, I plan to buy crystals soon since we use EM alot. Want to have the right measurement though does that equal about a 10% solution?

1/4 teaspoon to 10ml is a figure I got from Wizard Labs, directly, as well as having seen in other posts here in DIY. The typos are fixed.

 

[psycheval]

There is a thread around here and I cannot find it now for the life of me. Scubabatdan has talked to somebody at TFA and from them the 4ml of EM in the 8ml glass bottle is the exact amount to cut with 10ml pg I believe. It's what I do and have since I saw it, if it's wrong it still works is all I know. Tastes better than buying pre-mix EM. Just a little stronger but not alot. I use 0.5-1% generally.

 

[1LastShot]

There is a thread around here and I cannot find it now for the life of me. Scubabatdan has talked to somebody at TFA and from them the 4ml of EM in the 8ml glass bottle is the exact amount to cut with 10ml pg I believe. It's what I do and have since I saw it, if it's wrong it still works is all I know. Tastes better than buying pre-mix EM. Just a little stronger but not alot. I use 0.5-1% generally.

This is a post from March of 2010 from Dan, but still relevant. I'm no good at linking so I copied and pasted.
He was discussing how to use PG instead of PGA if a person didn't want to use PGA.

" I use 1/4tsp per 10ml of PG and then run it under hot water, it usually takes 4-6 hours to completely disolve in the PG. It will disolves faster in PGA and 100 proof, if you have no problems with alcohol then I would use the 100 proof. You can use any combination of PG and 100 proof with the EM, since your goal is to make a an EM concentrate that will be added to you ejuice just like any flavoring.
Hope this helps
Dan"

Which is good news since it would almost be a waste of time to buy 1 8ml bottle of crystals and only get 2 uses out of it

 

[SouthernBliss]

As a test I did 1/4 tsp EM crystals in 1 ml everclear, 1 mil distilled water and 8 ml of VG. I heated the vg slightly and it looked like it had taken most of the crystals last night. Not so much today.It is in a 10 mil bottle so no room for more anything to further dilute it to get a proper solution. The good news is that when you shake it it does suspend the crystals well and I would guess long enough to get a measure of it to go into a mix. I think I am looking for a supersaturated solution in my case so this would be alright. Overall though it seems really "messy".

 

[psycheval]

As a test I did 1/4 tsp EM crystals in 1 ml everclear, 1 mil distilled water and 8 ml of VG. I heated the vg slightly and it looked like it had taken most of the crystals last night. Not so much today.It is in a 10 mil bottle so no room for more anything to further dilute it to get a proper solution. The good news is that when you shake it it does suspend the crystals well and I would guess long enough to get a measure of it to go into a mix. I think I am looking for a supersaturated solution in my case so this would be alright. Overall though it seems really "messy".

Super saturated is the word I believe. I just heat it when I mix it and have had no issues.

I keep finding that post you found 1last and cannot for the life of me find the other. I wasn't hallucinating I don't believe. It was tucked inside of another thread just happened on it by luck. Haven't found it since. I had enough sense at the time to copy and paste the formula into my notes so I got that right at least.

Ethyl Maltol
1/4 tsp = 8ml add 10ml PG = 10% Ethyl Maltol

 

[SouthernBliss]

I think the link out is in this thread: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-liquid-recipes/347314-lyndas-lucious-2.html . The thread has a fair bit of information about trying to get a supersaturated em mix.