Need DIY help!

[MBblue]

I just got some Marlboro and 555 no nic flavoring from Dawn at DIY flavor shack. Problem is the site is down a few days a week and the liquids are nothing like loraans flavorings. They appear and taste much less concentrated. Does anyone know how to get a decent, lets say.......24mg mix with these liquids. I got some 50mg non flavored eliquid lying around here. I just want to know how to use this stuff. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[john doe]

try a small amount at 25% to start. say 1ml flavor, 1ml pg and 2 ml nic. if its too strong add 1/2ml each of pg and nic. that would make it 20% flavor. if it's too weak add 1/2ml each of flavor and nic. that would be a little less than 1/3 flavor. this would give 25mg juice but close to what you want. just remember to mix equal amounts of nic and flavor or pg to keep it at 25mg.

 

[Ctrl F8]

I too am at a loss as to how to get accurate measurements, and with what instruments. (Too new here, can't post yet.)

After having waited for DIYFlavorshack to open after the holidays, I ordered a DIY kit with 36MG juice. The kit is stuffed, but there is almost nothing I can use for measuring. I watched RitaLee's video that showed how she mixes in a needleless hypodermic (she uses drops, not the lines on the hypo), but the only hypodermic in the kit without a needle has no cap to stop the liquid from spilling out the needle end. And if I mix into one with a needle, it drips out the needle.

Drawing liquid through a needle to measure is not practical for many reasons (the size of the bottles, the number of hands I need-3-, my penchant for getting air bubbles). I hate messing with needles anyway, but I will if I have to. (I think they're there to deliver juice into a cart anyway, not completely sure.)

I really want to learn to do make my own mixtures because I want to control the flavor and the amount of nicotine. I found a few calculators that require measuring to the 10th of a ML (like 1.7ML). I guess I could hit the 1.75ML mark.

Can somebody point me in the right direction? Thanks.

 

[mergryphon]

I use my dropper. I think this is supported by ScubaDan's ejuice calculator spreadsheet also.

I test to see how many drops = 1ml. Then the calculator tells me how many drops of what to add in.

I got one of dawn's kits and the big needle-less syringe did have a small cap on the end, there were also very small measuring cups.

One thing I did do was leave the needle's cover on, and take the plunger out, you can fill the syringe from the top that way.

 

[Ctrl F8]

Thanks mergryphon! I knew I was missing something simple. I had read that 1 ML is approximately 20 drops, but that varies with the size of the drops.

The smallest measure on the little measuring cups is 2.5 ML, and I want to make smaller batches for testing. I guess I'm the lucky one who got a needleless syringe without a cap.

 

[NanoVapor]

Try getting large guage BLUNT ended needle/syringe combos.

I picked up a bunch from Heavens Gifts. They are a large enough guage to suckup even VG (albeit it takes a few seconds to fill up each ml), the ends of them are blunted (wont poke a hole in you) and they are 5ml (5cc) capacity with measurings down to the 1/4 ml I think (or maybe even less, too lazy to go look at it). Also because they are a needle, they have good length on them so you wont have a huge problem getting to the bottom of most bottles/vials. Use these for doing actual measurements. Measuring by "drop" is NOT a precise measurement, measuring by metric volume is far more accurate so do that whenever its possible.


You can also get 10ml oral-medicine syringes that have no needle affixed to them but come with these nifty tubes that attach to the end of the syringe, these tubes are a good 4-5 inches long and have reached to the bottom of bottles where my blunt-needles will not. I got mine at the local Safeway pharmacy counter. They came in plastic wrapping that had the Safeway logo on it so I assume theyre an inhouse brand. Other 10ml oral medicine syringes ive seen did NOT come with the extender tubes and were thus useless. So make sure you find ones that come with the extension tubes so you can reach deep into bottles!! Theyre very handy


I should note, when im doing flavoring of small batches I just use a dropper for the flavorings (but the syringes for the PG/VG/Nic). When I scale up a batch I then switch to using metric measurements for the flavoring. To figure out X drops of flavor A = Xml, what I do is pull out the syringe plunger and add drops into the syringe using my dropper and counting the number of drops it takes until the flavor level reaches the relevant marking (i.e. 1/4ml or 1ml). Then I know that Xml of that flavor is X drops from my eye dropper, and then I do the math for my recipe.

Example; In my recipe beta test I added 10 drops to 1ml of base solution. I liked the mix and want to scale it up. So in my 5ml syringe with the plunger pulled out I drip flavor in until it reaches the 1ml mark, lets say this takes 30 drops. I now know that in my beta-test recipe I was using roughly 0.33ml of flavoring to 1ml of base solution to get the taste I wanted (30% flavoring). So I now want to make 10ml of this e-liquid, so I take 0.33ml and multiply it by 10 giving me 3.3ml of flavoring to add to 10ml of base solution (giving me a total of 13.3ml of solution but at this point im not factoring flavor volume into the total solution amount). So now instead of using my eye dropper, I use the 5ml blunt-needle syringe and suckup 3.3ml of flavoring and squirt it into 10ml of base solution (your PG/VG/Nic at whatever ratios you desire), mix, and voila, scaled it up. Hope that helps in someway!

These blunt needle syringes are awesome, as are the 10ml medicine syringes with the extension tubes. Id much rather use metric volume instead of simply "drops". But for really small beta-test batches, drops are just easier.

 

[john doe]

there should also be a large plastic "pipette" type dropper with 1/2 ml markings on it. from 1/2 to 2

 

[Debbie]

Check Scubabatdan's ejuice Calculator:
FilesAnywhere - FileShare Detail View

Debbie

 

[MrsJaaxx]

We have instructions on our site that might help give you an idea of how to get the flavor you're looking for. If the flavors you have are less concentrated, you may want to start with the stronger mix (step3) rather than the 10% mix.
JuicePak Instructions

 

[AlexTM]

Things may be slightly different in the US, but I get syringes from eBay, for a few dollars per pack - and one pack equals 100 syringes. Same with needles, and I am fairly sure the color codes for those are international. Yellow 0.9mm needles I can also get at every pharmacy (just for more money), those are the biggest ones easily available. The pink ones are even bigger, but harder to get.

I never bother with getting blunt needles, either. If I can get them, fine, as from heaven gifts. But since I had to inject myself with said yellow needles for years (thanks God for gel, I don't have to any more!) I don't care either way. And I venture to say that everybody who is not completely clumsy can handle those, too, without injuring themselfes. If you are worried, a plain buffer for artificial nails can be used to blunt a needle sufficiently.

I use 1ml syringes because of the very fine markings, and 5ml ones for everything where 0.2ml is sufficiently precise.

 

[Ctrl F8]

NanoVapor, I agree about precise measurements. That's why I'm attempting to use a syringe instead of a dropper. I have been using ScubaBatDan's calculator, which is where I got the tenth of a ML formula measurements.

Plastic pipettes were included in the kit, but I need a magnifying glass and a floodlight to read the measurements.

I got four syringes in the kit, three have 18 G needles. On my first attempt, I tried to draw 50/50 PG/VG through and failed. I think I need a larger gauge needle or the syringe with a tube for that. Or maybe a second attempt will succeed.

When measuring drops per ML, I attempted to measure drops into the syringe without the needle (and without a stopper--plugged the end with my finger). But there is extra volume where the needle attaches. Same with the ones with needles. So I am unsure about the accuracy of using this method to measure drops per ML. Also, when I draw liquid, should I assume that the air bubble displaces that specific volume?

I will look for the syringe with the long tube. And I'll order blunt ones my next order from Heaven Gifts.

Holy smokes! There's a lot to work out when vaping.

 

[sjohnson]

Glycerine is so thick that I don't measure it by the drop. I use a 5 ml medication dropper, graduated in 1/2 ml increments. It's easy enough to estimate to 1/4 ml accuracy, so I round off any recipe to the quarter ml for glycerine.

All the other liquids I use (PG-based nic, PG and PGA) are all thin enough that they can be measured with a syringe and 18g needle. So, the critical component (the nic liquid) can be measured with accuracy and a quarter ml of VG isn't going to substantially affect the e-liquid I'm compounding.

 

[NanoVapor]

I got four syringes in the kit, three have 18 G needles. On my first attempt, I tried to draw 50/50 PG/VG through and failed. I think I need a larger gauge needle or the syringe with a tube for that. Or maybe a second attempt will succeed.

Ya VG is as thick as syrup. The blunt needles HG offers do suck it up though. Theyre very large guage (not sure what the actual guage # is) but the ends of them are large enough diameter that you can pretty much fit the tip of a ballpoint pen into them.


About the air bubble in the syringe. Usually the air bubble dose not span the entire diameter inside the syringe (if you spin the syringe around and examine it you'll usually see that it only spans half the diameter or so, which makes it really hard to compensate for it).

What you should do is suckup air into the syringe, stick the needle deep into the solution your trying to suckup, press down the plunger all the way to inject out the air, and you've now created a vaccum. Make sure you dont pull the syringe out of the solution. Now suckup a bit of the solution, and then instantly inject it back out into the solution (again, your needle still should not of been removed from being submerged in the solution). Now suckup the amount of solution you want to measure. IF you notice any air bubble forming inside, inject the solution back into the bottle and re-draw again. If for some reason you keep getting significant air bubbles in the syringe, your plunger may not be fitting the syringe properly (manufacturer defect) or there may be an air leak somewhere in the syringe-needle connection point (manufacturer defect). Try using a different syringe if this is problematic. Also try to pull/press the plunger STRAIGHT (when pulling it back try not to bend the plunger as your pulling as this can create a microscopic air gap and cause a bubble to form).


As to adding drops into the back end of the syringe to measure and the volume of liquid the needle/syringe draw-point holds... im not sure but I ASSUME syringe manufacturers compensate for the volume of solution that is held in the needle shaft and/or syringe draw-point. Meaning the first markings are slightly different to compensate for this volume thats held there. I dont think this is a huge problem for measuring your flavor drops. The amount of solution the needles hold is usually negligible. But ultimately, I dont see anyway to really work around it.

In my personal experience, it hasnt made any noticeable difference in my final products flavoring. Im not sure if theres a better way to calculate the ml quantity of flavoring per drop.

One thing I will say, even using the same brand of flavors, there are differences in the volume of each drop from the same dropper between flavors. Some flavors are thicker and others are thinner, so you can expect the exact volume of each drop to be slightly different between the two flavors, even if theyre the same brand of flavorings. So to be truly precise, you'll want to measure the "drops per ml" calculation for EACH specific flavoring your using, not just for each brand of flavoring (dans calculator gives general "drops per ml" for BRANDS of flavorings but this doesnt apply to all of the flavorings that brand offers).

Example; LorAnn's bubblegum flavoring is very watery, whereas LorAnn's coffee flavoring is very thick. It seems to me that the thicker a flavoring is, the larger volume each droplet is.

Anyways, goodluck with your ventures bud! Im still a DIY amateur myself, but learning more everyday. Am still frustrated with the fact that I cant find any BRAND whose all flavors work good for vaping, I find 4 out of every 5 flavorings I try, simply SUCK for vaping (meaning even at say 30% flavoring, you cant taste them worth a .... )

 

[Ctrl F8]

NanoVapor, I have zero experience with syringes, so your information is really really helpful. I feel much better now mixing.

In my limited test batches with PG/VG, I have found that the throat hit is lacking (which it turns out, is important to me), so I will be using only PG for now just to keep things as simple as possible. Later on, I can start experimenting adding pure grain alchohol. But there are so many variables, I want to keep it as simple as possible and experiment with nic levels and flavors only. When I start doing that, I can add another large gauge syringe to my arsenal.

The drop volume variable is also good to know. Thanks again for sharing your expertise.