Hi Robert - there is a person here named Bill's Magic Vapor that has a lot of very informative posts, a LOT of recipes, and several very good blog entries about DIY mixing. He also describes the "100DT" method of flavor testing/development he uses, which is essentially to use one type of glass dropper for all dropping while flavor testing to make 1 drop ~= 1% of mix, so you work out your percentages pretty easily that way and only use up around 2.5ml of ingredients (mostly VG in your case) per sample. And a BUNCH of other good info, like different base flavors that you'll use most frequently. Perhaps most significantly, he promotes mixing at a higher flavor percentage so you can taste and vape the liquid at time of mixing, and know without waiting days or weeks if the recipe used is going to be any good.
He does recommend buying a lot of different base flavors, which may or may not be a good thing for you right now -- you'll also need some essential "labware" like others have mentioned - syringes etc. If you want to try his mixing methods, I'd probably say find several of his recipes that sound interesting/tasty to you, read up on his info about using creams and vanillas etc. as bases, and figure out which of those you'll HAVE to get larger quantities of to make the different recipes you like or want to try - thus avoiding having to buy all the recommended base flavorings first.
If you go with PG-based Nicotine an 18ga or larger luer lock blunt tip needle will work fine. But especially since you like high percentage VG I think it would be wise to consider buying your nicotine base in 100% VG. It is a little slower to work with due to the higher viscosity, but it's not that bad - you just need to use 14ga blunt luer lock needles to draw and dispense it easily along with with smaller gauge like 18ga if you will be using syringes to measure your other ingredients most accurately. They cost about the same generally.
My suggestion on using VG-based nicotine base is because if you like your VG around 80% of overall mix, then the more of that 20% PG percentage room you use up with your nicotine base, the less room you are going to have for flavorings - assuming the flavor concentrates you use will be PG-based (almost all of them are, or at least partially + water and/or PGA, etc.). And if you are working with a lower strength nic base and use PG-based nic... the amount of PG you'll "have" to add to reach the nic concentration will be higher if that makes sense.
I'm just a noob with DIY myself, I've been vaping my own liquid exclusively for just about a month now, so I won't tell you that what I have to say is gospel truth. But I did a LOT of reading and bookmarking of posts and topics here on ECF - starting about 3 years ago. There's a lot of good info here that is older but definitely not obsolete, like Kurt's posting about storing concentrated Nicotine in the freezer long term. But it was very interesting to discover Bill's Magic Vapor's posts also, and I mixed a recipe of his up the other night and it was very good right off the bat. Exactly what it was supposed to taste like. So the proof is in the pudding. He uses TFA flavors BTW. I have heard some other brands are more "completed" flavors where it isn't necessarily required to mix different things together to get the complete taste. A couple weeks ago before I discovered Bill's stuff here, I did mix up some liquid using just FW (flavor west) black licorice, PG, VG, nic, and couple drops per 5ml of TFA sweetener (sucralose) and it was very good.
Good luck Robert and I know there a lot of good folks with a lot of experience (me? not so much... lol) that will help out!
He does recommend buying a lot of different base flavors, which may or may not be a good thing for you right now -- you'll also need some essential "labware" like others have mentioned - syringes etc. If you want to try his mixing methods, I'd probably say find several of his recipes that sound interesting/tasty to you, read up on his info about using creams and vanillas etc. as bases, and figure out which of those you'll HAVE to get larger quantities of to make the different recipes you like or want to try - thus avoiding having to buy all the recommended base flavorings first.
If you go with PG-based Nicotine an 18ga or larger luer lock blunt tip needle will work fine. But especially since you like high percentage VG I think it would be wise to consider buying your nicotine base in 100% VG. It is a little slower to work with due to the higher viscosity, but it's not that bad - you just need to use 14ga blunt luer lock needles to draw and dispense it easily along with with smaller gauge like 18ga if you will be using syringes to measure your other ingredients most accurately. They cost about the same generally.
My suggestion on using VG-based nicotine base is because if you like your VG around 80% of overall mix, then the more of that 20% PG percentage room you use up with your nicotine base, the less room you are going to have for flavorings - assuming the flavor concentrates you use will be PG-based (almost all of them are, or at least partially + water and/or PGA, etc.). And if you are working with a lower strength nic base and use PG-based nic... the amount of PG you'll "have" to add to reach the nic concentration will be higher if that makes sense.
I'm just a noob with DIY myself, I've been vaping my own liquid exclusively for just about a month now, so I won't tell you that what I have to say is gospel truth. But I did a LOT of reading and bookmarking of posts and topics here on ECF - starting about 3 years ago. There's a lot of good info here that is older but definitely not obsolete, like Kurt's posting about storing concentrated Nicotine in the freezer long term. But it was very interesting to discover Bill's Magic Vapor's posts also, and I mixed a recipe of his up the other night and it was very good right off the bat. Exactly what it was supposed to taste like. So the proof is in the pudding. He uses TFA flavors BTW. I have heard some other brands are more "completed" flavors where it isn't necessarily required to mix different things together to get the complete taste. A couple weeks ago before I discovered Bill's stuff here, I did mix up some liquid using just FW (flavor west) black licorice, PG, VG, nic, and couple drops per 5ml of TFA sweetener (sucralose) and it was very good.
Good luck Robert and I know there a lot of good folks with a lot of experience (me? not so much... lol) that will help out!
