Do you like money? Why everyone *should* DIY.

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Catanonia

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I buy 24Mg of TW juice and cut 50% with PG down to my regular 12mg strength.

Just these simple calcs make my save 1/2 the cost. Effectively a bottle of TW cost me $15.

The reason I use 24Mg and not 36Mg and get 2/3 savings is I loose too much flavour.


Now for my own mixes, I use 36Mg non flavoured from Eastmall and cut it 2/3's to 12Mg and the savings are even better. especially for my fav'd cherry flavour. Works out less than $5 for 30ml.
 

helpingmyself

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May 3, 2009
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90,840 drops/gallon
20 drops/1 pack cigs. (Using 3 - 4 carts @ 5 drops ea. to equal a pack)

90,840 / 20 = 4542 packs per gallon (or) 454 cartons of cigarettes

$7.50/pack here in MA = $34,065 in cigarettes vs. one gallon of juice $3480
If you cut the juice in half with glycerin and flavorings = $1740.

$34,065 vs. $1740. Or $32,325 saved

Quite a savings still. Right?
 

helpingmyself

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An economics lesson.

I'll use Totally Wicked as my example. I do this because they are my favorite and if you can't pick on those you love, who can you? It also helps this example that they are also the most expensive. You can substitute the numbers used for what you pay.

30ml is roughly one fluid ounce. A gallon is 128 fluid ounces. A 30ml bottle from TW (any strength, 0-36) costs roughly $30. Therefore, a gallon of TW liquid would cost $3840. No typo... three thousand eight hundred and forty dollars. A gallon of Propylene Glycol costs $22.

My typical percentage of Lorann's flavorings in my recipes runs around 20%. So... to flavor that gallon of PG, I'd use roughly 25 ounces of Lorann's. Roughly 6.4 bottles (4 oz). Almost all of their flavors cost $13 for a 4 oz bottle. Soooo, now we have $83.20 in flavoring costs.

Hold the phones... we've just increased what our store-bought e-juice would have cost us. In adding the flavoring, we now actually have 153 ounces of our DIY liquid. That's now $4590 worth of TW liquids, for a DIY cost of $105. Savvy?

You don't save as much if you aren't into the 0-nic stuff... but using the same info above... if you are into say... 18mg liquid. Buy the 36mg instead! By cutting it with PG, you still save thousands of dollars.

I purposefully left Glycerine out of the discussion just to keep it simple. Glycerine is $9.50 for 16 ounces (from the right source), and I use maybe 35-40% in my recipes. It's not necessary.

Let's sum things up:

Cost per Gallon (0 Nic)

DIY - PG $88
DIY - Glycerine $133
TW $3840


A little more perspective... that 30ml bottle for $30? The same just cost you 68 cents to make yourself.

Any questions?

Did you leave out the nicotine juice in your own mix? Can you buy that in bulk, like a quart of nicotine juice/38mg?
 
oh my. I haven't even received my first e-cig yet and i am already day-dreaming about all the flavor combinations i am going to DIY. I love hookah smoking, does anyone have any input on how well these homemade flavors hold up to shisha? also, I am planning on the homebrews to be 0nic so i was wondering what a good base would be to try first. I plan on going out on monday and picking up some wilton's and some flavorings, anyways, thank you guys for the wealth of knowledge I have already found on these forums and hope to keep finding in the time to come.

-Ben
 

funkyZero

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When I cut the TW with PG, I not only lost the original flavor but also the throat hit. I dinked around with DIY juice, but it's just not the same. I like saving money too of course, but it is what it is.


I don't know about you but I don't think I will ever get it right. I've been trying to get some suggestions on duplicating Puresmoker Pina Colada and menthol. I cannot seem to get the sweetness I crave. I think one important note about menthol is that you need to start with a base tobacco flavor, not unflavored and then use small amounts of menthol crystal to spice it up. I'm getting so-so results, FAR better than starting with unflavored. This leaves me with not being able to cut it 50/50 though because I lose too much of the base flavor (tobacco). Having said that, I got some bottles of 18mg menthol form Ruyan and it is actually pretty decent. So is the Marlboro. At 10 bucks for 30/ml I can almost live with not mixing my own.
My next step is I'm thinking about ordering an entire liter. You can get it for 140 bucks which equals 33, 30ml bottles. That comes out to... CHEAP. I know I cant vape a liter per year, so I can buy some 30ml bottles and split it with buddies or whatever and sell it for just enough to cover the cost. Even if I throw half of it away in the end, it’s still cheaper than most places.
I'm going to get a get tobacco flavored and use it as a base to add other flavors once in a while when I get bored.

My only real concern is customs. I emailed centraltrade and they claim they are getting 99.9% through with no issues. I hope they are telling the truth, I hate to lose 150 bucks to customs.
.
 

funkyZero

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Can someone provide info on where Litres can be purchased?


CentralTrade Your Business Partner in China


Warning: I know nothing about them, their quality, customer service or ability to get items past customs.
I'm considering taking the chance, but haven't talked myself into it yet.
I need to do a bit more research before I am ready to try it. I'm not in the mood to lose several hundred dollars.

I'm considering a liter of tobacco fl juice and maybe a 10-pack of rn-4075's.
 

Kimpetuous

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Apr 22, 2009
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Hi! I have made a Cotton Candy Mix - starting out with 36mg and cutting to 11mg

30% - 36mg Nic
18% - Loranns
49% - PG
3% - H20/alcohol

It's tastes great (subjective, I know), but I was wondering if there was a tweak to increase the visible vapor just a leeeeetle bit. Little more nic? (not married to 11mg, can go higher or lower) Little more PG? Little less flavor?

Any suggestions?
 

Walrus

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Mar 3, 2009
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Hi! I have made a Cotton Candy Mix - starting out with 36mg and cutting to 11mg

30% - 36mg Nic
18% - Loranns
49% - PG
3% - H20/alcohol

It's tastes great (subjective, I know), but I was wondering if there was a tweak to increase the visible vapor just a leeeeetle bit. Little more nic? (not married to 11mg, can go higher or lower) Little more PG? Little less flavor?

Any suggestions?

Reduce the PG, and add in some Glycerine. And IMHO, the water/alcohol is not needed.
 

Hanna

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Apr 19, 2009
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Hi Walrus, thank you for your post. I wrote that a while ago, then couldn't find it. I still need to figure out how to make what is posted most recent to come to the top rather than at the end, I think.

Anyway, since I posted that, I have been in the hospital. Not a fun trip and there can be no more cigarettes for me, and I am going CRAZY.

I want to try the e-cig, but I am a little nervous about it. There are so many brands, etc. I want to say, look, I want one that looks like, feels like, is weighted like, draws like a real cigarette. I read all this talk about batteries and...some other component and wading through the lingo and I am totally lost. It seems they are very breakable. How does one wade through all that?

I have googled e-cigarettes and come up with lots of pages......some from China for sure, others....its iffy. I don't think I want to buy something like this from China.

You say you eliminate the, what does the glycerine do? I mean if you use it in the e-cig it does this, if you don't use it in the e-cig it does that.

I guess I am going to pick on you if you dont' mind. I have read a lot on the forum but I am not clear on exactly how this thing works. Like how do you turn the thing on?

I've also read a lot about how long a cartridge lasts. Obviously it is going to depend on how often you puff on it, but just for giggles, if you puffed on the cartridge the same amount that you puffed to smoke a pack of cigarettes, how many cartridges would you use?

Also, how many cartridges will a 30ml bottle of liquid fill?

I am going to stop now, but I do need to make a decision quickly, right now I am doing cold turkey and this, on top of everything else is not fun!
 

geeker

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Neither here nor there
Thanks for the cost breakdown. I have some TW 36 mg, haven't cracked the seal yet. Newbie, and a little intimidated. I did cut some 18mg with VG, and got a greasy vapor. Too much VG I thought until I read recipes which seemed to use more VG than I. I'll try PG next; seems less viscous so maybe it won't leave a film in my mouth.
 
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