"I wish I had... " You first DIY order do-overs

[Rickajho]

Ok, I'm groping around trying to figure out my first basics to buy. I'm still reading and figgering out. But I thought I would ask: What was your first DIY order mistake(s)? If you had to do that first order all over again what would you change? What did you forget to buy? What did you order waaaayy too much of?

Just wondering where the lines are. The first thing I'm wondering is what's a "good" amount of nic base and unflavored to buy. I'm guessing "gallon size" is not a good idea for a first order. Just for this most very basic thing, is there such a thing as too little on a first order as well?

 

[rcromwell92]

I wish I hadnt bought Lorann flavors and would have bought either FW, FA, or TPA instead. I keep getting a chemical taste from Lorann flavoring!!!

 

[UntamedRose]

Agree with above.......Loranns are horrible I'm surprised to see folks still buying them. Any I purchased have been trashed or stuck on the back of the spice shelves(for that day Someday Might make actually make candy)

Skip any such n such "Kits".........most of which you wont use and what you can, can be purchased separately for less.

Biggest Mistake I made..for a good 2 years was assuming I could DIY like I cook.
I cook with no recipes....I wing it, with lots of tasting and I've done this before.....if it it's something I've never cooked before I might look up a few recipes and take these as "general suggestions" but I still do what I want .........and that stuff comes out amazing! (ok the majority of the time...will admit to a few flops.)
Ejuice is a whole other beast...You got to write down everything. Get a note book just for it. Write down what you did..write down your reactions to a few weeks later...write down what adjustments need to be made...write down whatever recipes you want to try that you find here(elsewhere etc) All in one place helps.

Nic..60mls of 100mg will last you a good bit. Way long enough to figure our if DIY is for you. Skip any less then 50mg...just wasting money. If you are not comfortable with having 100mg in the house(kinda understandable) can cut it in half, or a quarter easily yourself as soon as you get it.
I order PG and VG in 500ml bottles....they seem to last forever So its like if you Dont use they will turn nasty on you. VG makes for a great massage oil if nothing else

 

[DoogieTony]

I wish I had gotten more syringes and 5ml bottles. It's suprising how many syringes you use when mixing multiple flavors, and 5ml bottles for all your test creations.
I ordered 250ml of 36mg base and cut it in half to make 500ml of 50/50 and I'm maybe 1/4 of the way through it after ~ 1 month. I'd say a gallon is overkill especially on the first order until you find that you like your vendors nic base.

 

[FACE MEAT]

I wish I had never smelled the horrors that lie within a bottle of Flavor West's Honey Wood Tobacco flavor concentrate. I imagine that's what Honey Boo-Boo's mom's skin fold cheese smells like.

 

[UntamedRose]

Good god 0o

 

[FlamingoTutu]

I second Doogie. Complete, utter nooblet at this but I didn’t get enough syringes. Thought I got enough bottles too but then got a bit carried with the flavorings and certainly didn’t have a problem buying too many of those.

 

[DoogieTony]

Side note: I found out that CVS pharmacies will give you 1ml, 5ml, and 10ml syringes for free. I tried to buy some and they just handed me several of each size.
I heard Walmart does this also.

 

[savagemann]

Im gonna have to second the syringe comments.
I wore out my 1ml syringe real fast. Within a couple weeks of mixing.
I ended up buying 100 pack of 1ml syringes from amazon for around 12 bux.
Shipped I think at that price.
Make sure you protect the graduated markings on the syringe as they will wear off real fast.
Some people use clear nail polish.
I use clear transparent scotch tape. Works great.
By the time thay fails, the plunger is gonna be dead most likely.
What I have been doing with my 100 syringes is to dedicate one to a specific flavor, mark it with a sharpie or paint pen with the flavor name, then cover it with tape.
Protects the writing and the markings too.

Also, you're gonna want an assortment of blunt needles.
From the tiny one, yellow, all the way up to the huge one, green.
I forget the gauges of each color.
Get at least a few of the small yellow ones.
A couple of the middle sized ones, pink and 1 or 2 of the huge ones, green.
Use the small ones for flavoring.
Middle for nic.
Large ones for moving heavy fluids like pure vg, 50/50 of mixed juice.

Keep everything clean.
After you clean everything up, it's not a bad idea to keep the plungers lubed up with a little pg to keep them from drying out, which a lot of flavorings will do since some are alcohol based.

Get lots of bottles. More than u think you're gonna need.
I get most of mine from new frog.
Takes a couple weeks to get them, so order a handful with your local order so you can get to mixing asap.
Get them here.......
http://www.newfrog.com/catalogsearch/result/dropper-bottles.html?cat=
Hope that link works. If not go to newfrog and search dropper bottles.
I have only tried the 5ml and 10ml so can't speak to the quality of the larger ones.

You're gonna want to invest in paper towels.
They are now referred to around my house as " vaper towels ".

I wear latex gloves and eye protection when I mix my nic. I use 100mg and it needs to be handled with the utmost care. Treat it like a loaded weapon without a safety.

A couple small sterite or rubbermaid containers are nice to keep everything tidy.
I have 1 dedicated to just my syringes.
Keeps all the scent at bay too.
Otherwise your house will start to smell like fruit, and not in a good way.

I picked up a pack of inkjet/lazerjet blank address labels for marking my bottles.
Im to cheap to use the printer, but just write on them.
They fit the bottles perfect, trimming needed for 5ml, but they're only 4 bux at target for 360 labels.

 

[savagemann]

I like to mix most of my juice around 50/50 pg vg.
So my first purchase was a liter of 50/50.
I also got about 200ml of vg.
I use that to offset for whatever % of flavor I use.
Also to offset the amount of nic used.
Say my nic is pg based, and I want a target of 10mg.
My nic is 100mg before dilution, so I would use 1ml in a 10ml bottle.
Then, my flavor total is 15%. Assuming your flavors are pg based. All of the ones I use are.
Thats 1.5ml of flavoring.
So there is an extra 2.5ml of pg.
To hit a target of 50/50, Id add 2.5ml of vg.
Then top the bottle off with my pg/vg mix and im done.
It's just the way I've done it.
You can reach the same outcome with just plain pg and plain vg.
But ive gotten lazy and don't even measure out my final base.
Just get the nic and flavoring right, add vg for the offset, then top the bottle off with 50/50.
It's less measuring and much faster.

 

[savagemann]

One more thing to add,
I always use lure lock syringes for nic.
One time I was moving some vg with a syringe that didn't have the lure lock for the needle, and I must have pushed a little hard and the needle flew off and vg went everywhere.
Had this been nic, and it got on my skin, or even worse in my eyes, it would have been ugly.

Like I said before, keep everything clean and contained.

I use the lid for my storage container as a place to set my syringes when im mixing.
I'll lay out some paper towels and set them on it as Im working.
For nic, I keep a small container of water handy, and keep the needle clean and wiped down with every move.
Like I said, safety is key.

,..................

I would look up some recipes, figure out what people are raving about, and order the exact flavors that you'll need to complete those.
Pick up a few extra things to get creative while you're at it.

Don't forget to get sweetener. I like tfa.
You'll maybe want some EM too.
Koolada and menthol are nice to have as well.
I really like tfa flavors. They seem to work well for me.
There are better ones out there though.
I just find a lot of recipies use tfa.
If you shop at ecigexpress, their "signature" line is TFA. Just renamed.
I shop with them a bit.
Get most of my nic there and several flavors.

For base, start with about 500ml of each pg and vg. 1 liter total.
100ml or so of nic.

 

[Mowgli]

The 50ml bottles from NewFrog actually hold 65ml - BONUS!
The quality on the 10ml & the 50ml bottles from NewFrog is fine.
They advertise child-proof. They're not.
They have the break-away ring on the cap and one-way "ratchet" on the bottle.
Use once, the ring breaks away, you throw the ring away and calmly vape on


I lucked out and found that out of the 75+ MBV/FW flavors I've tried all but a few work best for me at 12.5%
I found that out on my first try.
The only thing in the house that had ml markings were some old 8ml plastic test tubes my dad had.
I washed the bat/cat/rat$..t out of them and mixed 7 to 1 because I read that 12-13% worked well.
12.5% works perfectly for me in my 18mg 70/30 mix.
I should have played the lottery that night.

Regrets? I have some really pretty glass cylinders, beakers & funnels decorating my bookshelf.
I replaced them with plastic 25ml, 50ml & 100ml graduated cylinders that I use all the time.
Plastic is hydrophobic so our sticky liquids just pour right out.
I was still using a glass 250ml erlenmeyer flask to mix down nic base until recently.
Now I use an 8oz bottle with spout to mix/store my 20.5mg 67/33 mixing base.
I just add 12.5% flavoring and SHAZAM! delicious & strong 18mg 70/30 ejuice.

expensive but oh so pretty glassware:

 

[Shilo]

Ok, I'm groping around trying to figure out my first basics to buy. I'm still reading and figgering out. But I thought I would ask: What was your first DIY order mistake(s)? If you had to do that first order all over again what would you change? What did you forget to buy? What did you order waaaayy too much of?

Just wondering where the lines are. The first thing I'm wondering is what's a "good" amount of nic base and unflavored to buy. I'm guessing "gallon size" is not a good idea for a first order. Just for this most very basic thing, is there such a thing as too little on a first order as well?

I think the mistakes I made are almost inevitable---mainly buying flavors you end up not using or not liking or absolutely hating or a combo thereof. Buying too many flavors and getting overwhelmed in the beginning is possible too. Having said that I have to second the notion about the FW Honeywood Tobacco *shudders*

As far as actual DIY mistakes I read read read the entire DIY section for a good month before I bought anything so I was somewhat prepared. That alone made me mentally prepared for the fact that I was likely to make some bad juice before I found combos of things I like. I think the advancement of available choices in the flavor department compared to when I started this makes it even better for someone who ventures into it now.

The best advice I ever read and follow to this day is make your recipes without the nicotine to see if its a winner or not. Less wasteful and frustrating that way.

 

[rasmith1959]

If I had a chance of redoing my first DIY order it would have been to order 100 mg/ml nic base instead of the 36 mg/ml nic base that I did get. I make my juices at 18 mg/ml so it winds up that 50% of anything I make is the nic base. If I had a higher nic base then I wouldn't have to use as much.

Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk 4.

 

[dannyv45]

If I had to do it over again I would just buy Hangsen flavors and say screw the rest.

I will say one thing though. This thread should be stickied. A lot of great tips and hints here.

 

[Aheadatime]

Get a LOT of syringes and bottles, especially bottles. Get a higher mg strength nic (but be careful obviously). Order small flavor samples, wherever you choose to order them from. Always taste test your PG, VG, and nic without flavoring to see if you got a bad batch. If you did, contact the vendor immediately. Use a calculator and always be precise, so you can replicate/tweak recipes in the future. Safety first.

Take your time while mixing, double-check your %'s and ingredients, and work slowly so as to avoid spilling anything. Don't uncap all of your flavors, pg, vg, nicotine, and start mixing. Uncap one ingredient at a time; add the ingredient to your mix, then cap it back up and move on to the next one. (I've spilled three different flavorings by going to fast/keeping things uncapped).

 

[tfnc]

More needles,more syringes,more bottles,more flavors,more reading.....

 

[FinallyQuit]

More needles,more syringes,more bottles,more flavors,more reading.....

And then after you finish reading, go order yet more syringes and empty bottles. I keep running out of bottles and I buy 50 at a time. On the 30 ml bottles from Newfrogg, they are wonky at the top, and leak from the seal. So when you're dripping out of the dripper tip, you're also dripping out of the top seal under the dripper tip, so watch out for those. The smaller bottles from there are absolutely perfect, the dripper tip squeezes down inside the bottle by about 1/4 inch.

Buy a whole box of 1ml syringes for your flavors. Cover the gradations with tape, clear nail polish will flake off into your mixes. WL sells 1ml syringes for almost $1 each, you can get boxfuls of 100 for $25-30.

 

[ZNinja]

Dang...people still use syringes. LOL. Y'all need to learn to weigh. I skipped syringes all together.

 

[FinallyQuit]

Dang...people still use syringes. LOL. Y'all need to learn to weigh. I skipped syringes all together.

Do you have an extra scale laying around you're willing to send me? I've got 100 syringes, already bought and paid for. . .