Long Time Vaper, First Time DIYer, Need Help!'

[ditc]

So i've been vaping for 6 plus years. Used tons of different hardware, atomizers, cartomizers, tanks, mods, pre-made juices, blah blah blah... But,, i'm about to lose my DIY virginity. Never done it before, but am ready to dive in head first.

What I have in my arsenal...
*Tons of pg based concentrated flavors
*1 quart 100% vg
*1 liter 100mg/ml 50/50 pg/vg nicotine base
*lab equip (beakers, graduated cylinders, pipettes etc)
*safety gear (goggles, gloves etc)
*bottles and syringes galore

I've been reading up a LOT on DIY, but until I actually do it, I'm still a complete novice. I have a few specific questions that I've searched out for answers for, and have come up slightly empty handed with....

I already know the calculations to cut the nic base down to 6mg/ml (or what will end up being 6mg/ml after 20% flavor is added). What i don't know,,

1) Does it make more sense to premix a massive amount of strictly the 100mg nic base with the vg base ahead of time, without flavoring, so as not to have to dress up like Walter White every time I want to try out flavors. For the Breaking Bad deprived, I want to handle the 100mg nic as little as possible.

2) To ask this in a simple way. In a smaller scale.. Let's say I have a 50ml graduated cylinder, but no 50ml bottle, only 2 30ml empty bottles (not the case, but just for this example). If i pour and measure the nic base and then the vg base into the cylinder, i obviously can't pour the entire mix into a 30ml bottle to be able to shake it up to mix it... So how would I go about actually mixing (as in stirring etc) within the graduated cylinder before pouring a portion of the mix into a bottle? In other words, since the vg base will be more viscous than the nic base, i can't imagine that simply pouring from the cylinder would result in an evenly mixed base.. So how would i go about doing that?

3) am i better off only pouring into the cylinder what i can fit into one bottle, and then repeat, measure out another bottle's worth and so on and so on?

4) am i better off with let's say 10 30ml bottles of my unflavored, mixed down to 6mg base, or 1 300ml bottle that i draw from and put into smaller bottles when i'm ready to try out a new flavor recipe?

5) am i better off not doing any of this and just sucking it up (not literally) and mixing fresh batches of base when needed, which results in opening up and working with the 100mg nic bottle on a more frequent basis?

I'm sure i'll have more questions. This should be more than enough to bore you with and make your eyes bleed from reading for the meantime. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Dixie1954]

I mix up at least 120ml of my nicotine base - then draw off as needed for making flavoring tests. Remember less is more try to make your tests small 3-5ml at a time until you know if you like the flavoring(s) added. Good Luck and read read and read some more. PS I bought 2 of those cylinder things and did not and do not use them for me they were a complete waste of time. YMMV

 

[Cloudd]

So i've been vaping for 6 plus years. Used tons of different hardware, atomizers, cartomizers, tanks, mods, pre-made juices, blah blah blah... But,, i'm about to lose my DIY virginity. Never done it before, but am ready to dive in head first.

What I have in my arsenal...
*Tons of pg based concentrated flavors
*1 quart 100% vg
*1 liter 100mg/ml 50/50 pg/vg nicotine base
*lab equip (beakers, graduated cylinders, pipettes etc)
*safety gear (goggles, gloves etc)
*bottles and syringes galore

I've been reading up a LOT on DIY, but until I actually do it, I'm still a complete novice. I have a few specific questions that I've searched out for answers for, and have come up slightly empty handed with....

I already know the calculations to cut the nic base down to 6mg/ml (or what will end up being 6mg/ml after 20% flavor is added). What i don't know,,

1) Does it make more sense to premix a massive amount of strictly the 100mg nic base with the vg base ahead of time, without flavoring, so as not to have to dress up like Walter White every time I want to try out flavors. For the Breaking Bad deprived, I want to handle the 100mg nic as little as possible.

2) To ask this in a simple way. In a smaller scale.. Let's say I have a 50ml graduated cylinder, but no 50ml bottle, only 2 30ml empty bottles (not the case, but just for this example). If i pour and measure the nic base and then the vg base into the cylinder, i obviously can't pour the entire mix into a 30ml bottle to be able to shake it up to mix it... So how would I go about actually mixing (as in stirring etc) within the graduated cylinder before pouring a portion of the mix into a bottle? In other words, since the vg base will be more viscous than the nic base, i can't imagine that simply pouring from the cylinder would result in an evenly mixed base.. So how would i go about doing that?

3) am i better off only pouring into the cylinder what i can fit into one bottle, and then repeat, measure out another bottle's worth and so on and so on?

4) am i better off with let's say 10 30ml bottles of my unflavored, mixed down to 6mg base, or 1 300ml bottle that i draw from and put into smaller bottles when i'm ready to try out a new flavor recipe?

5) am i better off not doing any of this and just sucking it up (not literally) and mixing fresh batches of base when needed, which results in opening up and working with the 100mg nic bottle on a more frequent basis?

I'm sure i'll have more questions. This should be more than enough to bore you with and make your eyes bleed from reading for the meantime. Thanks in advance!!!

It would be helpful to make a jar of 3mg/ml of base but after adding in flavours, the nic would not be at 3mg/ml, minor differences only not that you'll mind that right?

Mixing at larger amounts would give you a more accurate ratio (fraction of error lessened), As for keeping, keeping in larger amberglass jar would reduce the light damage on the juice (more so nic), unless you keep everything in a wooden box in the cellar for the 30ml bottles.

One thing I've noticed about nicotine, it decays faster in high concentration. I have N330 last time (yes you read right, 330mg/ml) and they go dark relatively fast, then it smells like fish. The 6mg/ml stock I had vs plain VG/PG base added with N330 to 6mg/ml, the former don't quite smell at all after the smae period of time.

 

[JD1]

I usually dilute and split my 100 mg into two 50mg containers, then work from one until it's used and then the other. For convenience I mix down about 50 ml at a time to my target base which is 6.5mg. I know that the flavoring are going to cut it more but I'm always under 10% flavorings so I don't worry about it. If you plan on using flavors that require higher percents it would probably be worthwhile to mix to a higher percent and use a good calculator to tell you what to add. I use and like eJuice Me Up. Good luck and keep us posted.
And welcome to diy. It's both fun and rewarding. I predict that in no time at all, you'll be fussing at yourself for waiting so long to start lol.

 

[Capt.shay]

I don't personally pre-mix my base. I mix at different percentages Nic. and vg/pg for different devices and for other people as well and pre-mix would not work. If your making one juice at the same percentages all the time then sure, it makes things easier but you sound like the type that would take the time to learn to handle fluids safely and have the flexibility to mix as you chose. While 10% nicotine should be handled with respect, it is hardly caustic. It wont burn your skin or send you in to a nicotine frenzy, you just want to wash it right off and not give it any time to absorb. I have spilled 10% on myself way to many times and have never felt effects from it, just wash it off in a timely fashion.

Larger pieces of lab storage glass can be improvised. Baby food jars are great and canning jars will work as well, glass is glass. Just make sure they are completely clean.

I always throw in a recommendation to new people to get a scale. Easier and more accurate.

 

[donnah]

I use 48mg nic in pg or vg. (mainly because I'm more comfortable handling 48mg than 100mg) Then use a calculator to cut it to 8mg in the percentage of pg/vg that I want (I like 50/50). I make a 500ml of "base". When I want to make a "mix".. I parcel out the base into smaller containers and add flavors to that base. I don't usually go above 15% flavor so I know that cuts the strength down somewhat to around 6mg. When I used 12mg as my base, it was really easy to dilute the 48mg... just use one part nic to 3 parts vg or pg. But since going down lower.. it's a bit more complicated and I have to use an online juice calculator.

One stop diy shop makes it easy to add flavors. They sell "blends" that are already mixed to get a certain flavor profile. no need to add different flavors to get a certain target flavor (like chocolate cake or cinnamon bun) I just add the "blend" to my base at 10-15% and it's done. For me, it way cheaper just to buy and use their blends than it is to buy different bottles of individual flavors to try to mix together to get a certain flavor profile. I still have mixes that I mix myself with different flavors but more and more I'm using osdiys blends. Kinda like that easy button on TV lol.

I got started in diy by ordering from tasty vapor. They sell preflavored nic and "doublers" which are flavored pg/vg. You can buy, say a flavored nic in 48mg and then buy that same flavor in a "doubler" to cut the flavored nic. It made it easy for me to understand how it worked. I quit buying from them because it was cheaper to buy unflavored elsewhere and just add my own flavors.

I hope all this makes sense!

 

[Suryia]

Here is a little tip for making the mixing much easier. I use a cylinder for measuring out my pg and add that to my bottle. I then take a syringe and use that to measure out and dispense my vg directly into the bottle. In your case, lets say you are using a 70/30 ratio with a final nic strength of 6mg. That gives a total of 21ml vg and 9ml pg. First, subtract out your nic base (1.8ml = .9 vg and .9 pg). Use a pipette to measure out and pour the nic base directly into the bottle, do not add it into any cylinder for mixing. Next, use a syringe to measure out and pour 20.1 ml of vg (21- 0.9) directly into the glass bottle. After that, use the cylinder to measure your pg flavoring and base up to the 8.1 ml mark (9 - 0.9), and then pour thst into the bottle. NOW you can start shaking your glass bottle to homogenize the mixture. This way you are not worrying about mixing until the absolute end. This keeps your workspace mess free and allows for accurate measurement of all individual components, vg base, pg base with flavorings, and nic base.

 

[clh2121]

So.... what I would do here.... Cut the part of 100mg down to 10mg base mix. Use this... that way. Makes math easier... IMO. So 10mL bottle at 6mg would need: 6mgX10ml= 60 MG total, 60mg= 6mL of premixed base. leaves 4ml or 40% for flavors... Say you use 20% flavor, you'd have 2ml flavorings, 6ml nic base, 2 ml plain vg.... Now this is all assuming you are shooting for Max VG... or High VG. 30mL would be 18ml base, then flavor and VG......

 

[issy]

I don't personally pre-mix base, because I know I'm going to have to adjust by adding pg/vg anyway. Some recipes are 12% flavoring, and some are up to 25%, it just depends on what you are making that day. However, I will try to mix a larger bottle (120ml) of the recipe I'm making, so I'm not getting out all of the equipment for a smaller bottle. But I can see why you would want to do it - but I live in a small space, and don't have the room for another big bottle of diluted stuff hanging around.

By the way, congrats on making the jump into DIY! You will wonder why you didn't do it before...