Not Gonna Buy Any More Premixed E-juice. EVER.

[ChrisEU]

Hmm, I must have been unclear. The base should be PG based. You will have 3 bottles in front of you with "base" in them:
1) a bottle with your nicotine. This should be PG based, because you prefer a PG heavy juice.
2) a bottle of PG
3) a bottle of VG

From those three bottles you will mix your own, personal base.
Then you add flavoring.

That's it.

 

[the ob]

Hmm, I must have been unclear. The base should be PG based. You will have 3 bottles in front of you with "base" in them:
1) a bottle with your nicotine. This should be PG based, because you prefer a PG heavy juice.
2) a bottle of PG
3) a bottle of VG



From those three bottles you will mix your own, personal base.
Then you add flavoring.

That's it.

do I need more of the PG or VG non-nic bottles? These are to dilute down the nic strength juices right? The flavorings are generally PG based correct? So that will factor in right?

I am looking at two sites to buy the nic juice and PG and VG. One has them with nic juice with a base and the PG and VG are plain.


The other offers a nic juice that I can get a mix. for example I can get pre-made 70/30 PG/VG

what is the difference? Is one way to go better than the other?


also the calculator you listed says I should mix a base with nicotine and one base without nicotine but does not specify if the base without nicotine should be PG or VG. should this second base be a mix of 70/30 if that is what I want in the final mix?

 

[pianoguy]

With my cooking prowess, I could probably screw up unflavored.

 

[Emris]

I just ordered me a hand full of flavors that I know I like. Cant wait to get them and vape away. Going to save a ton of coin. As far as some vendors charging high prices, remember that some of these vendors have a large amount of overhead. That all goes into the cost of the juice and other items along with their profit margins. If it wasn't for these vendors I would still be on the stink stix! But they have got enough of my money, and after reading this it sounds like they have gotten enough of yours too!

 

[kenetix]

You need to look at it more like a mixed drink. Too much booze and it is rough... too much mixer and it is not an mixed drink. The ratio needs to be right. 1 shot this 1 shot that 1 shot of something else and top off with mixer wala you have a long island iced tea. Look at the DIY section I posted and see the recipe percentages and then look at the calculator I posted. It is pretty much all laid out for you. Do a little reading

 

[the ob]

With my cooking prowess, I could probably screw up unflavored.

you and me both my friend

 

[sinnyc]

do I need more of the PG or VG non-nic bottles? These are to dilute down the nic strength juices right? The flavorings are generally PG based correct? So that will factor in right?

I am looking at two sites to buy the nic juice and PG and VG. One has them with nic juice with a base and the PG and VG are plain.


The other offers a nic juice that I can get a mix. for example I can get pre-made 70/30 PG/VG

what is the difference? Is one way to go better than the other?


also the calculator you listed says I should mix a base with nicotine and one base without nicotine but does not specify if the base without nicotine should be PG or VG. should this second base be a mix of 70/30 if that is what I want in the final mix?

OB, I'm big on analogies so let me pitch this at you in a different way.

Let's say you want to make 10ml of juice that is 70%pg/30%vg with a nicotine strength of 20mg and your recipe calls for adding flavor at 10% of the total volume.

Don't think of juice, flavors, nicotine, etc.

Think of cookies!

Let's say you have a jar of snickerdoodles (VG), a jar of chocolate chip cookies (PG), a jar of chocolate chip cookies with nuts (100mg nicotine in PG) and some chocolate syrup (your flavoring that is also PG). And let's say that each cookie or flavoring = 1ml and your plate (a 10ml bottle) only has enough room for 10 of those items.

• Take 3 snickerdoodles (VG) and put them on your plate. (That's 3ml in a 10ml bottle or 30%. There's your 30%VG!)
• Take 4 chocolate chip cookies (PG) and put them on your plate. (That's 4ml in a 10ml bottle or 40%. We've now filled up 70% of your bottle!)
• Take 2 chocolate chip with nuts cookies (100mg nicotine in PG) and put them on your plate. (That's 2ml in a 10ml bottle or 20%. We've now filled up 90% of your bottle and that's also your 20% nicotine!***
  ***(This part needs more explanation. The more you dilute nicotine liquid, the lower the strength gets. For example, if you took 1 cup of 100MG PG nicotine liquid and mixed it in a bowl with 1 cup of pure PG, you'd end up with 2 cups of 50mg nicotine liquid. Instead, if you took your 1 cup of 100mg nicotine liquid and added 2 cups of pure PG, you'd get 3 cups of 33.3mg nicotine liquid. Adding 3 cups would yield 25mg and 4 cups - a 4 to 1 ratio - would yield 20mg. In our cookie example, we are putting 2ml of 100mg nicotine PG in a 10ml bottle and we're filling the rest of the bottle up with other stuff. That 2ml = 20% of the bottle so by the time we're done, that 100mg nicotine liquid we started with will be diluted down to 20mg since we are adding 8ml (80% of the bottle) of other stuff - the same 4 to 1 ratio.)
• Take your chocolate syrup (your flavoring) and squirt some on your cookies. (That's 1ml in a 10ml bottle or 10%. We've now filled up 100% of your bottle!)
• Presto, you're done! Out of your ingredients, 30% of them are VG, the remaining 70%, (including your nicotine, flavoring, and straight PG) are all PG-based so there's your 70PG/30VG mixture. Additionally, the nicotine was diluted down from 100mg to 20mg. You're ready to go.

Did that help or just totally make you want to eat a pile of cookies?

- Tim

Edited to add this ejuice calculator which helped me a lot.

 

[the ob]

OB, I'm big on analogies so let me pitch this at you in a different way.

Let's say you want to make 10ml of juice that is 70%pg/30%vg with a nicotine strength of 20mg and your recipe calls for adding flavor at 10% of the total volume.

Don't think of juice, flavors, nicotine, etc.

Think of cookies!

Let's say you have a jar of snickerdoodles (VG), a jar of chocolate chip cookies (PG), a jar of chocolate chip cookies with nuts (100mg nicotine in PG) and some chocolate syrup (your flavoring that is also PG). And let's say that each cookie or flavoring = 1ml and your plate (a 10ml bottle) only has enough room for 10 of those items.

• Take 3 snickerdoodles (VG) and put them on your plate. (That's 3ml in a 10ml bottle or 30%. There's your 30%VG!)
• Take 4 chocolate chip cookies (PG) and put them on your plate. (That's 4ml in a 10ml bottle or 40%. We've now filled up 70% of your bottle!)
• Take 2 chocolate chip with nuts cookies (100mg nicotine in PG) and put them on your plate. (That's 2ml in a 10ml bottle or 20%. We've now filled up 90% of your bottle and that's also your 20% nicotine!***
  ***(This part needs more explanation. The more you dilute nicotine liquid, the lower the strength gets. For example, if you took 1 cup of 100MG PG nicotine liquid and mixed it in a bowl with 1 cup of pure PG, you'd end up with 2 cups of 50mg nicotine liquid. Instead, if you took your 1 cup of 100mg nicotine liquid and added 2 cups of pure PG, you'd get 3 cups of 33.3mg nicotine liquid. Adding 3 cups would yield 25mg and 4 cups - a 4 to 1 ratio - would yield 20mg. In our cookie example, we are putting 2ml of 100mg nicotine PG in a 10ml bottle and we're filling the rest of the bottle up with other stuff. That 2ml = 20% of the bottle so by the time we're done, that 100mg nicotine liquid we started with will be diluted down to 20mg since we are adding 8ml (80% of the bottle) of other stuff - the same 4 to 1 ratio.)
• Take your chocolate syrup (your flavoring) and squirt some on your cookies. (That's 1ml in a 10ml bottle or 10%. We've now filled up 100% of your bottle!)
• Presto, you're done! Out of your ingredients, 30% of them are VG, the remaining 70%, (including your nicotine, flavoring, and straight PG) are all PG-based so there's your 70PG/30VG mixture. Additionally, the nicotine was diluted down from 100mg to 20mg. You're ready to go.

Did that help or just totally make you want to eat a pile of cookies?

- Tim

I thought I had it for a second, then lost it. A couple of reasons I get confused. FIrst, the calculators are not clear if about which nic base I should get. I have figured out that I need PG based.

Here is where I get screwed up.
I buy PG based nic liquid.
I buy PG
I buy VG
I want 9 mg juice.
I have heard that flavorings are mostly PG based. So in theory this would change the % of PG base and PG nic juice I would have to use.
The calculators which should account for this do not.

I assume if I get PG nic liquid in my mix I would use 70% of that for the mixture. I would then put 30% Vg right? Say I get 48 mg nic juice. I am guessing I would have to use a certain amount of PG an VG to dilute it down to 9% right?
wouldn't the flavoring add more PG and water it down more?

I am amazed that I can get through my life sometimes when I cannot comprehend such simple concepts.

 

[washvap]

Thanks for asking all these questions Ob. Your not alone in all of this. Really had a bunch of unanswered questions as well before I decided to make a leap into DIY. Still pretty confused on a majority of this stuff.

 

[sinnyc]

I thought I had it for a second, then lost it. A couple of reasons I get confused. FIrst, the calculators are not clear if about which nic base I should get. I have figured out that I need PG based.

Here is where I get screwed up.
I buy PG based nic liquid.
I buy PG
I buy VG
I want 9 mg juice.
I have heard that flavorings are mostly PG based. So in theory this would change the % of PG base and PG nic juice I would have to use.
The calculators which should account for this do not.

I assume if I get PG nic liquid in my mix I would use 70% of that for the mixture. I would then put 30% Vg right? Say I get 48 mg nic juice. I am guessing I would have to use a certain amount of PG an VG to dilute it down to 9% right?
wouldn't the flavoring add more PG and water it down more?

I am amazed that I can get through my life sometimes when I cannot comprehend such simple concepts.

This calculator has you add in the specifics of all of your ingredients. For example, the first field asks you for the strength and PG/VG ratio of the nic juice you are using. Then it asks for the target strength you want. So you can use basically nicotine juice in any PG/VG mix. It also has fields where you enter the overall PG/VG ratio you want. Just fill in all the fields and let it do the rest.

- Tim

 

[the ob]

Thanks for asking all these questions Ob. Your not alone in all of this. Really had a bunch of unanswered questions as well before I decided to make a leap into DIY. Still pretty confused on a majority of this stuff.

I have mentioned this before. I own a successful business that I have had for 9 years, yet this stuff makes me feel like a total ...... It is truly amazing how difficult it is for me to grasp this. I know in my heart, it is not hard, yet I still do not get it. This is the main reason I have not done it. I explained it to a friend who does not even vape last night. He got it immediately and yet, I still do not understand.

 

[the ob]

This calculator has you add in the specifics of all of your ingredients. For example, the first field asks you for the strength and PG/VG ratio of the nic juice you are using. Then it asks for the target strength you want. So you can use basically nicotine juice in any PG/VG mix. It also has fields where you enter the overall PG/VG ratio you want. Just fill in all the fields and let it do the rest.

- Tim

that one would be great. unfortunately I use macs and you cannot download that one onto a mac. I looked into it a while ago.

 

[washvap]

Everyone has their knack and area of expertise. Confusion is the first step to understanding. So, basically everyone has to start somewhere.

 

[sinnyc]

that one would be great. unfortunately I use macs and you cannot download that one onto a mac. I looked into it a while ago.

Here ya go.

- Tim

 

[the ob]

also. what do you do when it says put in 3.8256 ml of something? do you round? How is one supposed to measure that?

 

[the ob]

Here ya go.

- Tim

thanks a ton! better!

so I need to buy my PG nic and a lot more straight PG it seems. A smaller bottle of VG should suffice.

Is 48 mg a good place to start?

 

[kenetix]

also. what do you do when it says put in 3.8256 ml of something? do you round? How is one supposed to measure that?

I personally would change your values to get better increments. It should give you number of drops to do too....

 

[sinnyc]

thanks a ton! better!

so I need to buy my PG nic and a lot more straight PG it seems. A smaller bottle of VG should suffice.

Is 48 mg a good place to start?

Round numbers are easier for me to do in my head but with that calculator you can get anything you want.

I personally would change your values to get better increments. It should give you number of drops to do too....

^ I agree but if worse comes to worse that calc does give you the number of drops to add.

- Tim

 

[the ob]

I personally would change your values to get better increments. It should give you number of drops to do too....

I kept trying to make it more even, but I could not get even values. Is this because I do 9 mg?

 

[kenetix]

E-Liquid Calculator With PG/VG Adjusting and Flavor's With Nicotine