New to DIY

[Conner85]

I've been reading through a lot of articles and forums to gain all the knowledge I can to start making my own juice. There are a lot of things I have to ask, so please bear with me.

1. Where can I get VG, PG and nicotine locally, and what is a good brand? If not locally, where's a good place online? I don't need a large quantity at the moment. Maybe just a quart or so of each in case I mess things up.

2. I want to do a few different nicotine mixes. Dripping juice will be anywhere between 3-6mg and more than likely a 70VG/30PG or an 80VG/20PG. But my regular juice will probably be between 6-12mg of nicotine and maybe a 50VG/50PG mix. Should I get VG or PG based 100mg nicotine?

3. Where can I get the best deals on supplies, like bottles (preferably amber colored with black tops and ML measurements on the droppers), syringes, etc?

4. What is the best calculator to use? Or are they all good?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. But this is all I can think of right now. Gotta get to bed for work. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Hoosier]

Some Tractor Supply stores carry USP PG and most co-ops can order it. A compounding pharmacy usually has PG too. VG is available at many places, but I usually order my PG and VG online. Nobody in this state dilutes nicotine down for mixing.

Order nicotine diluted in the base that is your highest percentage is the usual course.

I like to collect Halo bottles from folks myself, so I'll let other say where to buy them.

I like scubabatdan's calculator, but there are a bunch of good ones.

 

[Conner85]

I see a fellow Hoosier. Thanks for the reply. Any specific brand I should look for?

 

[Larry J]

Hoosier, I'm glad to see that someone besides me likes to use the Halo bottles for DIY. I think they're great except that the droppers eventually wear out and get little holes in them. Time to order some 1ml dropper, I guess.

 

[Hoosier]

Yeah, the bulbs to after awhile, but I had some bulbs I got in an old order that I have been swapping out as they go...starting to get low on those.

Way back in the day TFA was TPA and everything came in glass with droppers either on the bottles or all the dropper parts loose. Ah, those days are so long gone...

 

[Hoosier]

I see a fellow Hoosier. Thanks for the reply. Any specific brand I should look for?

Um, brand of what? PG is pretty much PG as ling as it's USP because I have not found any taste difference. My favorite VG is impossible to find and I'm down to my last 500ml of it and tend to use Essential Depot most of the time. Nic, my favorite comes from Xtreme Vaping, but it's pricey and I do like the stuff I've gotten from Vaperstek almost as much.

BTW: Hi, I'm Hoosier. President of the Hoosier Vapers club. Also known as J. Stop in nearly any vape shop in the state and ask the owner if they know me.... I've been mixing my own juice for about 5 years and been an officer of the club council for over 4. We've been a bit busy lately fighting against 5 bills that were aimed at killing off shops and putting a huge crimp in vaping, but we're making progress with all that crap. Hmmmm, maybe I should make that my bio? (yes, my real name is a single letter, that's not nearly as odd as I am though)

 

[Conner85]

About to order some now.

And I've read about some bills here in Indiana that sound pretty ridiculous. Some of the best gun laws in the country, but their views on vaping are crazy.

 

[Hoosier]

They've had some help on the crazy.

I'd tell you to join the club, but that part of the website is still broken. (club site went down around 2am the morning of the first reading of SB 539 and we didn't find out until we had folks going to a rally at the statehouse let us know we were down.). But, if you Facebook, you can like our page and follow from there.

We did get some of the website working, but we have quite a bit to rebuild yet and efforts are focused elsewhere at the moment.

Which area of Indiana is your stompin' grounds?

 

[Conner85]

I'll definitely look into it. I'm originally from Evansville. Moved to the communist state of Illinois for a while. Now I'm in Princeton, IN. About 20 miles north of Evansville.

 

[Conner85]

You think it may be a coincidence that your site went down at that specific time?

 

[Hoosier]

Ah, John with Vapor Bank and Sandy with Cool Breeze area. Both have been great and working hard against the legislation.

Yes, it was a coincidence, a badly timed one. Lost everything on the database server due to a miscommunication between our former IT officer and our current IT officer about a year ago. Sounds sinister if you leave out the dull details because of the timing though.

 

[JD1]

For vg, the Humco glycerin at Walmart is USP and vegetable based, usually found over be the pharmacy along with skin care products. and at a better price than most other pleaces. For a larger quantity, Essential Depot is good. Amazon is also good but only if you have prime to avoid shipping costs.

For pg, Tractor Supply might have it but make sure it hasn't been sitting for a while. Evidently, some stores move it fairly well while others don't. As far as vendors, Bull City seems to have decent prices on smaller quantities, but if the weight goes up too much it puts the shipping into the next higher bracket.

 

[englishmick]

Another Hoosier checking in.

For standard bottles try Packaging Options Direct. Cheap and really good shipping rates. Fast too. Don't know about the graduated droppers though.

I got all my nic and VG from Wizard Labs. Got funnels and syringes there at the same time, because it was convenient. You can get that stuff a bit cheaper on Amazon but you never really know what you will get. I looked around on Amazon. There were just too many comments from people who got pointy needles when they ordered flat end needles, or the wrong type of bottle caps, etc. If you get them from somewhere like WL you know what you're going to get. Only problem is WL tends to be semi-permanently out of stock on a lot of the lab equipment. All the nic suppliers tend to sell mixing gear.

 

[shreduhsoreus]

communist state.

Wow. Yup, you're from Indiana all right -_-

 

[Conner85]

Lol.. Communist because of their gun laws. Hopefully things will change for them this year. I hate when I visit my parents there and "have to leave my pistol in my car". It's useless if I'm attacked while outside of my car, locked in the trunk, glove box.. etc. But this is a vape site. So I'll keep it vape related.