Getting my shipment today. Some help, please?

[mgordon1100]

Yeah, very fast shipping. The post office received my shipment two days ago from voidmist in CA. It's in Elk Grove Village sorting at about 12:00am today. If they send it out over night, it should be in my town now for delivery. EGV is only 20 minutes away from here. OK, 45 with traffic.

OK, so I've read all the threads. It took me approximately 4.8 years to get through every single one, but I've done it! OK, so I didn't read all the threads, and it's only been a couple of days. But, I thought I read through the most important ones. I figured the DIY GUIDE would be a great one. Alas, it contained no Step By Step.

1. Dump some PG Nic into your laboratory grade beaker.
2. Use a syringe to squirt in the right amount of PG.
3. Use that same syringe to squirt in the VG in the correct amount.
4. Put in some flavor, but only the tiniest drop, as a full drop will flavor a cake the size to fit an army.
OR
5. Put in some flavor. Should be something like 5% to 20% (yeah, that's 1 fifth) of the whole mixture.
6. Shake it up. Some groovy music will help the process.

As you can see, any idiot can follow that kind of a guide. Even me, and I'm the worst one. I'm reading stuff around here that was designed for nuclear scientists. If you can't read between the lines, I'll spell it out here. I'm getting tripped up on the flavoring. My juicemeup calc tells me to use a large amount of flavor. I mean, I read somewhere that someone was using 20% so I figured that I would too because I want my juice to taste like I'm taking a big bite out of an apple. Then, I read that you don't want to use that much. But, I digress. It seems to me that these (including as little as 5%) are a very large portion of flavoring, considering the web sites that sell the stuff say that "A little goes a long way", when selling these tiny bottles. They give me the idea that a drop will do. Where am I going wrong before I screw everything up?

 

[gregc4]

Sorry I cant offer any assistance on the DIY stuff but you do have a really cool avatar!

 

[Spazmelda]

I usually use flavors from ~8-15% (or even 2-4% for the non-primary flavor). It really depends on the flavor strength out of the bottle and what you like.

 

[mgordon1100]

Sorry I cant offer any assistance on the DIY stuff but you do have a really cool avatar!

As is yours! Looks like a catphish to me. I was wondering how long it would take someone to recognize. Isn't that just the coolest SYF you'd ever seen? Alright, it's not the coolest, but cool is pretty subjective. There's gotta be thousands of SYF's out there.

Wait for it!


I'll call this one, Steal Your Sunrise!

 

[mgordon1100]

I usually use flavors from ~8-15% (or even 2-4% for the non-primary flavor). It really depends on the flavor strength out of the bottle and what you like.

But how do you know what that is? A Capella claim that "a little goes a long way" doesn't tell me jack. Here's another trip up of mine. You say that you'll use 8-15%. Does this actually mean 8-15 percent of the whole thing? Example. I have a 6ml bottle of flavor. I want to use 20% and I'm making 30ml. Does this mean, I'm dumping the whole bottle into my mix? A 6ml bottle of flavor seems to be more expensive than the nic solution. I little doesn't go a long way in our application.

 

[sbphotog]

try some of these e-liquid calculators.

e-Liquid Calculator - DIY e-Juice Recipe Assistant

Cloud 9 Vaping E-Liquid Mixing Calculator - Cloud 9 Vaping

eJuice Recipe Calculator

 

[Spazmelda]

But how do you know what that is? A Capella claim that "a little goes a long way" doesn't tell me jack. Here's another trip up of mine. You say that you'll use 8-15%. Does this actually mean 8-15 percent of the whole thing? Example. I have a 6ml bottle of flavor. I want to use 20% and I'm making 30ml. Does this mean, I'm dumping the whole bottle into my mix? A 6ml bottle of flavor seems to be more expensive than the nic solution. I little doesn't go a long way in our application.

You just have to figure it out for your tastes. I haven't used any Capella flavors, so I can't tell you anything specific about that. I can tell you that just because I like LA apple at 10%, that doesn't mean that you will like it at 8%. I'd recommend starting off at the low side and adding more till you get what you like. This is why it's good to make small batches until you find something you like.

And yes, 8% means 8% of the entire batch. If you were making 30 ml at 8% apple flavor it would be 2.5 ml of flavoring in the batch.

 

[Spazmelda]

A 6ml bottle of flavor seems to be more expensive than the nic solution. I little doesn't go a long way in our application.

Oh, and about this... When you buy the flavors in small sizes it is relatively more expensive. Once you find out what flavors you like, you can buy them in larger volumes and save a significant amount per ml.

DIY can be very inexpensive, BUT getting started can involve a larger initial cost. You will (probably) end up with flavors you don't like. You can PIF them or find some other use. This is why it's good to buy small bottles first, then switch over to the larger volumes when you find a winner.

 

[mgordon1100]

OK Guys. So, ten percent really does mean 10 percent of the whole batch. If my 20 percent calls for 6ml, then the whole bottle goes in. Just seems like a lot of flavoring, at 1/5 of the thing. Maybe I'm not supposed to use 20 percent then. I guess I'll go with the recommendation of starting small, then adding if I feel it's needed. But, and a big fat one if you catch my drift, there's no way that a little drop is going to flavor a batch. Right?

 

[Hoosier]

But how do you know what that is? A Capella claim that "a little goes a long way" doesn't tell me jack. Here's another trip up of mine. You say that you'll use 8-15%. Does this actually mean 8-15 percent of the whole thing? Example. I have a 6ml bottle of flavor. I want to use 20% and I'm making 30ml. Does this mean, I'm dumping the whole bottle into my mix? A 6ml bottle of flavor seems to be more expensive than the nic solution. I little doesn't go a long way in our application.

How do you know? - By experimenting, thus the "mad scientist" attitude on here.
Does this actually mean? - Yes, percentages are of the total volume, so if you need 20% flavoring in a 30ml bottle that will take 6ml of flavoring.

Now if you plan to experiment with 30ml final volumes, you should be wealthy otherwise you will go broke quickly. This is not like making a cake from a box. It is more like making a fancy cocktail taste good when you've never had one and 10 people have 12 different recipes. Most of us experiment are around 3ml or less and without nicotine until we find our levels. Once the tiny amount tastes right, we scale up and adjust again because going to a larger amount sometimes does not come out exactly like the tiny amount did.

My juices can range from 5-35% flavoring depending on what I am making. (I have recipes that I spent months getting right and recipes that I got right the first time and some I lifted directly from ECF.)

Just have fun and keep notes and things will come together.

 

[symphynity]

Wrong.

If you take a hamfisted approach to DIY , you will make a lot of junk liquid. For Example , PA Tobacco Absolute diluted in 5ml of PG only requires 3 drops of that dilution to flavour another 5ml of liquid.

I would recommend trying 3 to 5 drops of a flavour in 5ml of PG and try it . If not strong enough , try another 2 or 3 drops.Its easier to add flavour than it is to remove it. Even one drop of some flavours can make or break a liquid.

Take your time , and enjoy the ride !

Oh , and let it steep for 24 hours to improve the flavour.

 

[Spazmelda]

Yes, I don't use tobacco flavors, but I've heard they usually require a lot less. Is that correct? Others that require less would be what? Menthol, cinnamon, wintergreen?

I got a black cherry from PA that seems very strong to me. I still haven't figured out how much to dilute that one.

 

[Hoosier]

Depends, Spaz, some tobacco flavors take very little, around 5% for me, and some I have to go up to 15%, but I do not do any tobacco straight, I always blend the flavorings.

Menthol at 5% would actually be fairly high. I use it as a spice as I am not a huge menthol fan. I also only use cinnamon in combinations. (Adding TPA/TFA's Pear and Cinnamon together is a great thing. I think I have a recipe on Linda's site for that.)

Wintergreen oil would be low, but a water base wintergreen would be close to your range. (You can use less wintergreen if you add a drop of menthol and/or Koolada.)

Yep, that black cherry is a tricky one. I use it in other things, but have never gotten a straight black cherry to work.

 

[SharonCC]

Start with a small mix...I started with 2ml batches. That's a total of 40 drops. You might want to start with a 10% flavour, so 10% of 40 is four so use four drops of flavour. Thirty six drops left for base mix...

 

[Spazmelda]

Depends, Spaz, some tobacco flavors take very little, around 5% for me, and some I have to go up to 15%, but I do not do any tobacco straight, I always blend the flavorings.

Menthol at 5% would actually be fairly high. I use it as a spice as I am not a huge menthol fan. I also only use cinnamon in combinations. (Adding TPA/TFA's Pear and Cinnamon together is a great thing. I think I have a recipe on Linda's site for that.)

Wintergreen oil would be low, but a water base wintergreen would be close to your range. (You can use less wintergreen if you add a drop of menthol and/or Koolada.)

Yep, that black cherry is a tricky one. I use it in other things, but have never gotten a straight black cherry to work.

Ah thanks! I haven't used cinnamon, menthol, or wintergreen in my DIYs. I don't really care for those flavors at the moment.

I was thinking about just adding a few drops of the black cherry to other flavors, because I also have not found a concentration that I like with that as the predominant flavor. Maybe I just don't like it.

 

[mgordon1100]

Symphynity, I guess I wasn't very clear. What I meant, was that a single drop isn't going to flavor a batch of 30ml or more, like it's some kind of fairy dust that will last forever. Or, if you like LOTR, that bread that only needed a crumb to make you completely full.

Update, my shipment arrived in my town at 6:45 this morning. It's 8:30, but it doesn't say it's out for delivery. I can't imagine that it's not. I live in a small suburb, not the city of Chicago.

 

[mgordon1100]

New update, supplies are out on the truck for delivery. I didn't think it would be coming until Monday, or more likely Tuesday. Thought I'd run out of juice too, but it's here today. And me without my labamatory equipment. Thought I'd have more time. But, I've got a plan. I'll just use these little bottles to make samples with single drops. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something decent to vape if I run out before getting to the science surplus store. Luckily, American S & S is about 20 minutes from me. Anyone use them online? It's like Vapor Kings. I wish I lived in Tulsa, just so I could stop off at the store when I needed something. We don't have anyone selling this stuff here.

 

[StuckinLA]

one of the things you'll want is a really good e-juice calculator and I tried just about every one out there and found this one to be the easiest one to use and get really good results.

eJuice Me Up - e-Juice e-Liquid Recipe Calculator

 

[Spazmelda]

I think he mentioned on the first post that he's got the ejuicemeup calculator already.

 

[mgordon1100]

Yeah, I've got the e-juice-me-up calc. At first I had trouble figuring out why I was getting negative numbers. I finally realized that I had the flavoring number wrong.

Side note, the mail truck is down at the end of the block. I just went out to look for it. I'm stalking this guy.