Hello from SoCal, pics included!

[Calicam]

Hello everyone, my name is Alex and I'm a forum lurker.

I have decided to turn my life around, admit I have a lurking problem and join the community.

I was a smoker for 12 years and made the switch to vaping two months ago. It was an easy transition because I hate cigarettes.

I work as an engineer for a camera manufacturing company and needless to say, love the tinkering and customization aspect of vaping.

I have one setup that I use 99% of the time (the other 1% I use the Provari w/Vivi Nova):

Provari mini.
IGO L

I've settled on a .9ohm coil which I built from two 32awg strands of kanthal twisted together. Wick is 3.5mm silica doubled up. 3/4 wrap.

This setup runs at 3.1v, 3.45 amps and around 10.7 watts.

Vapes like the proverbial steam locomotive and flavor is excellent. I also opened up the air hole on the IGO L just a bit for a tad more airflow.

I have tried tons of flavors and have settled on RY4, Longhorn and a great coffee flavor from a little shop by my work. Interested in trying some of the tea flavors I've read about too, would love recommendations of where to get them.

Well that's all I got for now, I hope I can contribute to the community as I learn more. Hope everyone is having a grrreat Sunday. God bless!



Sent from my car, while driving in LA traffic.

 

[eratikmind]

Choo, chooo . . . Welcome to the ECF community, Alex. Glad you finally decided to sign up . . . Enjoy that train.


- Andy . . . Challenge the day.

 

[SteamDaddy]

well it's like you have a handle on what's going on.
you started out right.
good luck and welcome

 

[JBL-37]

Hello Alex, nice vape cloud I just got my igo-l the other day and loving it... Gotta love that la traffic too, sitting at a complete stop while the lane next to you is doing 70. Don't miss that place lived in Downey for a year. I moved there from a very small town, huge shock to me.
I like the coffee and tea flavors. Black tea from my vapor store is good, I also like the intense cappuccino from vaping me. I'm still on the juice search though. Have some coming from mt baker vapor, have heard lots of good stuff about them. I still have lots to learn but having fun doing it.
I love gadgets myself and that will be my only hang up with vaping lol... Just started vaping and I'll probably see my first dollar saved in 2 to 3 years oh well... Some times you gotta spend to save a life

 

[DuckysBooBoo]

Hi Alex and welcome to the forum..........Congrats and good luck to you!!

 

[Calicam]

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

JBL37, do the tea flavors actually taste like tea? The IGO L is awesome, I started with the Vivi Nova but once I tried the IGO the flavor of the Vivi just doesn't cut it. I've tried cartomizers and they all tasted weird to me...burnt or something, can't put my finger on it. While I'm running the IGO at .9ohms right now, the sweet spot for me so far has been around 1.2ohms, 3.7 - 4.o volts.

My current dilemma is figuring out if there is any way to reduce the sweetness in the flavors I'm using. The only juice I have tried that was not sweet was a spearmint I tried a while back. Is there a way to reduce or eliminate sweetness? All PG or all VG maybe?

As far as nicotene content I find that if I go above 12mg I can taste it....does this make sense? I vape around 3ml per day and 6-12mg seems to give me a nice buzz without making me feel woozy. Will probably stick to 6mg once my current supply runs out.

Speaking of nicotene, I've noticed some interesting things. When I was smoking cigs I was constantly looking forward to my next one. Especially at work. I would take a quick smoke break every two hours.
However, now that I'm vaping I only toot during my lunch break. I feel no need to take a break. I'm assuming this is due to all the other addictive chemicals in cigarettes maybe? Some days I forget to put a fresh battery in my PV before work and run out of power half way through day...but it's not a big deal and I just wait till I get home. I'm surprised I don't go buy a pack of cigs in this situation! It's weird.

Cheers!

 

[nahoku]

Welcome to ECF Alex! I love my IGO-L too! You could just add some straight PG or VG to mute the sweetness.

 

[Calicam]

Hi nahoku! So you're saying the sweetness comes from the flavoring and not the PG and VG?

 

[MiamiMom63]

Nice to meet you and congrats on your vaping, Calicam! I have the Igo-l also but unfortunately need to get a new drill bit to widen the hole before I use it more. Lol. Currently still using my Vivi Novas on my Provari. Great pics! I recently got the 32 gauge kanthal to try out. Been messing around with the 34 gauges doubled together but want to try the 32 once I get this darn air hole widened. I make cotton wicks. also, I make a mean green tea DIY with a hint of pear added that is quite yummy. The teas can be nice because you can actually taste that tea note if done right.

 

[Amirite]

Welcome Alex! I'm headed to LA tomorrow and hoping to check out some shops while I'm there. Are there any decent shops in the downtown area near the Standard? (in case I encounter any trouble getting my mods/supplies through airport security)

 

[Calicam]

Hi MiamiMom, I widened the hole in my IGO with a corkscrew like some folks on this forum do; worked well enough to get a noticeably less restricted draw from it. Where do you get your green tea flavor from? I eventually want to make my own juice but first want to find quality lavor vendors. Prefer natural/organic flavors if possible.

 

[JBL-37]

Well, the black tea is the only tea flavor I have at the moment. It has the black tea flavor to start but had an odd and slightly sweet after taste. I only bought a small bottle to try out and have half left. I got used to it and was not too bad, was my daily for a couple days. I had recently read about steeping and now trying to implement a rotation so set it aside. I filled several clearomizers with the juices I received and just tried it again last night. The flavor had increased and the sweet is starting to mellow out and is changing. Now has a black tea start with a cotton candy finish to it. I'm going to finish what's loaded up and give the rest some time to mature a little. I picked the tea and coffee hoping for a slightly bitter flavor but both are sweet. The cappuccino works well enough for me though in that department though, very rich and satisfying vape IMO.

 

[MiamiMom63]

Nowadays I use natures flavors organic extracts with 100% VG but the green tea I made, which was awhile ago because for some reason I just got tired of it and started using organic, was from the flavor apprentice, as well as the pear. I haven't used a tea that is organic yet though. I did know a couple girls that loved it and I made them some free bottles awhile ago.

 

[MiamiMom63]

Oh, and I tried the corkscrew but it didn't seem to widen it enough for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong because I am just not getting enough vapor as I do the Vivi's, and I've lined the hole up right and all that.

 

[Calicam]

Hi Amirite! There is a big shop on Van Nuys Blvd off the 101. About a 20 minute drive from downtown if there's no traffic. With traffic, hehe well I won't even go there.
The Vapor Spot - Sherman Oaks - Sherman Oaks, CA


My favorite place is: Caught the Vapors - Burbank - Burbank, CA Small shop with less selection than the one above but they have the best customer service I have ever experienced. It's like you're hanging out with your friends when you go there. Really good people.

 

[JBL-37]

I used a 1/16 drill bit on my igo, so much more vapor now makes me cough if I take a big ripper.

 

[Calicam]

You really have to put your back into it. I worked it for a good 10 minutes and ended up stabbing my finger a few times in the process...but the hole did widen a bit and that was enough for me.

 

[MiamiMom63]

I used a 1/16 drill bit on my igo, so much more vapor now makes me cough if I take a big ripper.

Yea, I need to get the same drill bit. I actually have 2 Igo-l. Lol.

 

[nahoku]

Hi nahoku! So you're saying the sweetness comes from the flavoring and not the PG and VG?

From what I know, PG is inherently sweet while VG is much less sweet. In fact, raw VG isn't sweet at all to me. My take on the flavoring I have on hand is that they're also sweet, and maybe because they're PG based. Some vendors also add sweetners to their juice mix. Adding more PG or VG just dilutes my juice and seems to make it less sweet for me. I normally add VG.

There are a few juice vendors that sell juices you can "customize" to have PG, VG, Nic, and sweetened or unsweetened. TastyVapor is where I get some of my juices. Very good prices and juices. You can order unsweetened from them and then buy a bottle of their sweetener just in case. You can also buy PG and VG from them. Everything TastyVapor sells is at a very good price.

By the way, on the topic of price... TastyVapor sells what they call "Doublers". This is 0mg juice. If you buy a particular juice in a flavor you like, you can buy a doubler in the same flavor and proportionally increase your juice by a factor of at least 2 for a very good price. Read TV's faqs on Doublers. It's a very good deal and TV is the only one I know of that does this.

Hope that helps.

 

[jase888]

Welcome Alex! Cool setup.. Im hoping to get into rebuildables soon.