Quick Question -- reducing mg w/doubler

[Seabrook]

Dear DIY pros,

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I'm almost out of juice, so kinda don't want to go through tons of threads. So if anyone knows the answer off the top of their head, please and thank you for a reply.

Here's the question: I've been vaping 24 mg here on my 1st mo. of vaping. Now it's time for me to cut down to what??? By how many mg would one cut down at a time w/o freakin out w/any symptoms. I'm striving to make this as painless as possible, LOL. The goal is to not vape any more often than I do. IOW, I don't want to double vaping time plus number of puffs because of lack of nicotine. I have Atomic Cinn./with a doubler with Scubabatdan's calculator on my other screen ready to do the calcs. I will be doing mls. calc's (not percentages). Anyone have any input on this?

Don't know if it matters or not, but I currently vape @ 24mg, about 8 puffs every 45 min. Before I started vaping, I smoked about 16 cigs a day. I think I started @ too high a mgs, as I had headaches and general achiness for the first 5-6 days of vaping.

Please and thank you.

 

[Hoosier]

I have been dropping down 2mg every other week. It does not seem to be an issue that way.

I'm sure you'll get other opinions, but if you are DIY, dropping by 2 mg is an easy thing.

 

[Seabrook]

Thanks for replying Hoosier. Since I've posted, I've decided to make 3ml bottles for cutting down. I guess I'll be doing it by drops instead of using this impressive looking needle my pharmacist gave me last week. So according to the xls, I would do 28drops 48mg, then 33drops 0mg doubler. That sounds simple enough. Thanks, off I go to mix.

 

[Nikhil]

If you're doing it like that, you could even do it 1mg per week for a more gradual approach. I think the main issue would be if you subconsciously adjust how much you vape to make up for the decrease in nicotine/ml.

What you can do is mix 3ml of your normal stuff and note when you mix it. Vape just that until it's over and note how many hours (minus time sleeping) it took you to vape it. If you do that each time, you'll get a sense of whether you're vaping the lower mg faster or not. An easy way to compare would be mg/hour. If your 3ml is at 24mg/ml it's 72mg total so if it takes you 48 hours of being awake to vape it you're at 1.5mg/hour. Once you take it down to 20mg/ml, your 3ml will have 60mg and if it lasts the same 48 hours you'll be vaping 1.25mg/hour.

 

[48lowes]

Seabrook
This calculator my be of some help to ya.
eJuice Recipe Calculator

 

[Tasteles]

I first startted at 24mg. Vaped that for a month, then went to 18mg. Since then I've been dropping mine down 2mg a week. Currently at 6mg. Haven't had any withdraw symptoms doing it this way. When I first startted vaping, I couldn't get enough, chain vaped constantly. That supsided after a couple weeks though, I figured I was having withdraws from all the other additives that are in anologs.

 

[Tasteles]

Oh yeah, forgot to add that I smoked 2 ctns a week of anologs for 25+ yrs. What a crutch to get rid of huh!

 

[Seabrook]

Seabrook
This calculator my be of some help to ya.
eJuice Recipe Calculator

I have that one, Dan's and one from a site Switched got his from. But, thanks for thinking of me 48lowes -- that was kind.

 

[Seabrook]

Oh yeah, forgot to add that I smoked 2 ctns a week of anologs for 25+ yrs. What a crutch to get rid of huh!

2 cartons a week? Wow, that's awesome and actually a true blessing that you found the e-cig. I'm impressed. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Seabrook]

Hoosier and PureVapor, don't laugh, okay? And don't roll your eyes, okay? Here's what happened when I tried to mix my own. So anyway, I have a cc needle (from the vet) and a ml needle (from my pharmacist). I couldn't get anything in the needles except air. I even laid the bottles so they would angle down. Okay, so first I get a little nervous w/the 48mg, so I got goggles on, and rubber gloves and an apron and everything -- probably overkill. Since I couldn't get the needles to work, I decided to mix it by drops. I noticed as I was mixing by drops that the 48mg nic (PG only) was a lot thinner than my 70pg/30vg doubler. I had the biggest dang mess of stuff. I'm lucky if it's even 12mg. Then after the fact, I was reading a post of MaxUt's that said he heated his VG and sometimes added water to it. Was I supposed to do that? I can see now that it at least would have been closer to the 22mg I was aiming for. I'm not going to trash it, I'll just vape it one of these days. So the question is: Is a needleless syringe what I needed instead? BTW, these are the same size dropper bottles from TV. It's just that the doubler drops were so big and thick. My first mixing a big flop! Advice please?

 

[sanfordf]

Hoosier and PureVapor, don't laugh, okay? And don't roll your eyes, okay? Here's what happened when I tried to mix my own. So anyway, I have a cc needle (from the vet) and a ml needle (from my pharmacist). I couldn't get anything in the needles except air. I even laid the bottles so they would angle down. Okay, so first I get a little nervous w/the 48mg, so I got goggles on, and rubber gloves and an apron and everything -- probably overkill. Since I couldn't get the needles to work, I decided to mix it by drops. I noticed as I was mixing by drops that the 48mg nic (PG only) was a lot thinner than my 70pg/30vg doubler. I had the biggest dang mess of stuff. I'm lucky if it's even 12mg. Then after the fact, I was reading a post of MaxUt's that said he heated his VG and sometimes added water to it. Was I supposed to do that? I can see now that it at least would have been closer to the 22mg I was aiming for. I'm not going to trash it, I'll just vape it one of these days. So the question is: Is a needleless syringe what I needed instead? BTW, these are the same size dropper bottles from TV. It's just that the doubler drops were so big and thick. My first mixing a big flop! Advice please?

Hi again Seabrook. The needles that you have are too fine (as you have found out) for actually working with the viscosities of e-juices. The type of needle you are looking for can be found in San Marcos at MGM Plastics. They don't sell online so you'll have to drive there. Their address is on their home page. They also sell some plastic dripping bottles (MGM Plastics) that might come in handy. That's where I found some of the supplies I use for mixing my own juices including the syringe. They sell a 5 ml one and a 30 ml one. Both have 18 guage (flat and dull tip, not pointy) needles. The first thing you may want to do after you get one (or more) is to wrap the numbers in clear box tape so that the numbers don't rub off.

You won't have to dilute your mix with water (unless you want to) using the 18 gauge needles. Hope this helps.

 

[Seabrook]

Hope this helps? Are you kidding? I'm practically jumping for joy! Yes, I would much rather use the syringe than count drips. When I was mixing by drops, I looked down at my concoction and couldn't believe after the 28+33 drops I barely had the bottom of the mixing bottle covered. I just rolled my eyes and told myself, "Yep, you might as well pull up a chair, this is gonna take some serious time." And you've once again saved me so much trouble and given me good advice. You're an angel, thank you so much. And they even have the plastic bottles! I'm running a mapquest on it tonight.

 

[Hoosier]

Yep, drops are a messy way to mix unless you've metered out the dripper for each liquid.

Luer syringes and 18 ga luer needles are pretty good and I have a fairly good selection of sizes of the syringes.

Usually don't need a needle on the CC/ML sized because it is thin enough to get into most bottles... Unless it needs the reach.

There is a thread on down a little where myself and others stocked up on needles and rounded out the syringe sizes. They come sharp, but sand down pretty easily. (Rinse well afterward and I threw mine in some PGA before I put them back.)

You should not need to thin the TV juice.

You didn't make a mess. You learned a way that didn't work. Real learning comes from mistakes. I should know... I'm very learned...

 

[Seabrook]

Thanks for the info. I didn't think just mixing a percentage would be so involved for me. Then after I put all the garb on to protect myself, I kinda laughed, because I have seen a few posts later where people sometimes vape 48mg when they get a particularly heavy analog urge. I still think I will put the goggles and gloves on, though. I get the thin plastic disposable gloves at my local 99-cent store -- 99 cents for 100.

 

[Nikhil]

Check out this coupon if you haven't already to get some 18g needles: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/81110-11-syringes-4-cents-act-now.html

 

[Seabrook]

Check out this coupon if you haven't already to get some 18g needles: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/81110-11-syringes-4-cents-act-now.html

Had to come back and thank you Sun. I did order them. Yes, the coupon was still good about 4 days ago.