my diy juice sucks so far!

[edyle]

I have a bottle of butterscotch which I tried months ago; I kinda liked it but after a while found I couldn't stand it;


recently I got a couple drippers;
and recently I started vaping vg+10% water;

then I started adding a drop at a time of store bought eliquid to my dripper after putting in 10-30 drops of my vg+water base.
Now I'm finding myself mixing the butterscotch about 1-to-10 to my vg+water base, and putting that in my needlebottles;

I also have some Southbeachsmoke double apple, and what I discovered a couple months ago last time I tried it, was that diluting it made it much better; just too strong by itself

 

[1vapeatatime]

Try ....................
My very first few batches, including Mother's Milk, I find are better than the originals.
Also very important IMO is DO NOT go by "drops", there is no standard "drop".
Get an electronic scale, this one from Amazon is great and all you need.
1ml = 1mg invariably.
http://www.amazon.ca/American-Weigh...r_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1418240066&sr=1-1
Really????


Also, an Ultrasonic Cleaner ( a good one, minimum 150W) does wonders in reducing/eliminating steep times.

So I've been a bad boy for using only drops? Gosh Darnit!!!!
1ml=1mg? really?invariably?
I'm sorry but I totally disagree with you!!!!

 

[retired1]

So I've been a bad boy for using only drops? Gosh Darnit!!!!
1ml=1mg? really?invariably?
I'm sorry but I totally disagree with you!!!!

Have to agree. Water has the same weight to volume ratio so this ratio would be true. But when it comes to our eliquids, you'd have to determine the density of the liquid before you'd be able to do a conversion from weight to volume.

 

[retired1]

Got to thinking more about this and got to digging.

Density figures:

Vegetable Glycerin - 1.26 g/cm³
Propylene Glycol - 1.04 g/cm³
Flavorings would be somewhere between those two figures depending on the base of the flavoring, I'd imagine.

 

[jchisholm]

As stated "IMO" which if a translation is required stands for "In My Opinion".

Agreed that I did typo in my original post equating a ml to a mg. Obviously it's a gram I was referring to.

Densities varying between 1.04 and 1.26 are for my money close enough to 1 (again, IMO)
which is a better standard for a beginner than drops, which I have found can vary from 20 to 35
drops per ml depending on the liquid and dropper being used.
Works for me, I'm a beginner and passing on what I have observed.

Also, FWIW (For What It's Worth) I go by percentage of total volume with flavouring.
A good Sucker Punch recipe (credits to Thomas Story) call for 14%
Dragon Fruit flavour (or 4.2ml by volume for a 30ml batch)
My MBV Dragon Fruit flavour comes in a dropper bottle.
Takes 35 drops of this to make 1 ml.
Do I really want to count out 147 drops of this or easily weigh out 4.2 grams?
And (I just tested this) 4.2g of this flavour is 4.17 ml.
It's just a hobby and that's close enough for me.

 

[dannyv45]

So I've been a bad boy for using only drops? Gosh Darnit!!!!
1ml=1mg? really?invariably?
I'm sorry but I totally disagree with you!!!!

I totally disagree also. If you though of it that way then would making a 100ml bottle of juice mean your vaping a 100mg juice? I think not. When dealing with Nicotine the strength is measured in mg and the volume of juice your making is measured in ml. This I know is a silly method and really should have been thought out a bit more carefully before it was adopted as standard measurement in e-juice making but none the less it's what is common in ejuice making today. So be very careful when interpeting measurements and don't pour yourself 100MG's of 100mg strength NIC. Always remember that MG refers to NIC strength and ML refers to fluid volume.

Example:

I just made a 30 ml (1 ounce) bottle of 12mg strength juice.

 

[1vapeatatime]

As stated "IMO" which if a translation is required stands for "In My Opinion".

Agreed that I did typo in my original post equating a ml to a mg. Obviously it's a gram I was referring to.

Densities varying between 1.04 and 1.26 are for my money close enough to 1 (again, IMO)
which is a better standard for a beginner than drops, which I have found can vary from 20 to 35
drops per ml depending on the liquid and dropper being used.
Works for me, I'm a beginner and passing on what I have observed.

Also, FWIW (For What It's Worth) I go by percentage of total volume with flavouring.
A good Sucker Punch recipe (credits to Thomas Story) call for 14%
Dragon Fruit flavour (or 4.2ml by volume for a 30ml batch)
My MBV Dragon Fruit flavour comes in a dropper bottle.
Takes 35 drops of this to make 1 ml.
Do I really want to count out 147 drops of this or easily weigh out 4.2 grams?
And (I just tested this) 4.2g of this flavour is 4.17 ml.
It's just a hobby and that's close enough for me.

Don't TTTS(take this too seriously). It's just a hobby LOL(laugh Out Loud)

 

[Train2]

While I do NOT agree with "it's close enough" - he wasn't talking about mg of Nic.
He was saying you could weigh all your flavorings, PG, VG etc - and mix a recipe by WEIGHT, just replacing mls with mgs.

Now, if you ALWAYS mix by weight, and all your recipes are done in weights - or done in percentages - THAT would work, just fine.
But converting a finished recipe from mls to mgs, you'd be changing it...

Oh - I also agree, measuring in drops isn't accurate enough at all.

I totally disagree also. If you though of it that way then would making a 100ml bottle of juice mean your vaping a 100mg juice? I think not. When dealing with Nicotine the strength is measured in mg and the volume of juice your making is measured in ml. This I know is a silly method and really should have been thought out a bit more carefully before it was adopted as standard measurement in e-juice making but none the less it's what is common in ejuice making today. So be very careful when interpeting measurements and don't pour yourself 100MG's of 100mg strength NIC. Always remember that MG refers to NIC strength and ML refers to fluid volume.

Example:

I just made a 30 ml (1 ounce) bottle of 12mg strength juice.

 

[Jazzman]

I agree drops is not as accurate as weight. But sometimes a drop is fine, like if you use 1 drop of sweetener in a 30ml bottle. In that case I will use a drop and not worry about it, but I wouldn't do the whole recipe in drops. Also, if just getting into mixing I think syringes are just fine too. They are cheap, disposable and as long as you have an assortment of syringes and use the appropriate size you can get very good mixes. For example, don't use a 10ml syringe to measure 0.8ml of nic base... use a 1ml syringe. I find for most of my mixes I can use 1ml, 3ml, and10ml syringes to make reasonable accurate mixes of 30ml juice concoctions. You do have to be accurate and never use the syringe on 2 different ingredients without washing between (or have several of each size... they are cheap), but it will work out quite nicely if you are accurate with them. Then if you start making flavors you like and will stick with mixing buy a very good quality digital scale. Don't waste money on a cheap one, buy a good tool once and you've bought it for life.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

I think the only way to make great juice is to make bad juice. It is like most every other pursuit in that practice will improve the outcome. My first juices were darn near unvapable. Now my family will only vape my stuff. Given that I started as the laughing stock and now get "you better make more of XXX", I recommend practice and patience. Some general advice:

• Read the forums and websites where people share knowledge
• Keep impressive notes so you know what you did
• Make test batches
• Keep a batch of your favorite PG/VG/Nic blend w/o flavorings so you can use it as a base to mix one atty full at a time to test. Note if you use PG based flavors you will want to adjust your mixing base blend a bit up on the VG and on the Nic so you end up in the sweet spot when you add PG based flavor and Nic.
• Speed steep ALL of your juices using a crockpot or similar

 

[Dixie1954]

If all your droppers on your flavorings are the same size or you use a dropper to measure all your flavorings and they are all pg based then DROPS do work lol and drops are easier when making small testers I make 3ml and 6ml test batches My best advice is to find out what each brand and flavor within the brand is said to be used at - stand alone, because they all are not used equally even in the same brand. https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr..._hQ6Fu8HdEwwR2dLRUJlVjlabEN1NG1ucktuUVE&gid=0 if this link works it will help - just go to the top of the page and click the brand and find the flavors, the %s in yellow are the average and can be a good place to start.

 

[Mr.Mann]

I think the only way to make great juice is to make bad juice. It is like most every other pursuit in that practice will improve the outcome. My first juices were darn near unvapable. Now my family will only vape my stuff. Given that I started as the laughing stock and now get "you better make more of XXX", I recommend practice and patience. Some general advice:

• Read the forums and websites where people share knowledge
• Keep impressive notes so you know what you did
• Make test batches
• Keep a batch of your favorite PG/VG/Nic blend w/o flavorings so you can use it as a base to mix one atty full at a time to test. Note if you use PG based flavors you will want to adjust your mixing base blend a bit up on the VG and on the Nic so you end up in the sweet spot when you add PG based flavor and Nic.
• Speed steep ALL of your juices using a crockpot or similar

I agree with this here and have lived by that philosophy. I can't remember who said this, but ever since I heard it I loved it: The quickest way to success is to double your failure rate. Trust me, with DIYing this is true too. On average I make about 3-5 different mixes every couple days, and that is down from 10-12. It's down simply becasue I get it right a lot faster now after having made so many misses.

 

[Boletus]

I only like to vape one flavor ... Any ideas?

If you set the bar too high coming out of the gate, you will almost certainly give up out of frustration before you make anything you like. If you cannot find single flavor homemade juices that are at least acceptable to you, you will probably end up wasting a lot of ingredients trying to find that one special juice.

How many pre-mades have you tried, and where any of them at least OK to you? Lots of great comments in this thread about how to approach DIY with at least a chance of satisfaction, but if nothing but that one exact mix can make you happy, you have a very long row to hoe. If that is the case, you may be best off just buying that, unless you are willing to spend a lot of time, effort, and resources chasing that holy grail.