seriously! how many drops per ml?

[amoret]

I had to get a scale since I have hand problems and tiny syringes ended up being not at all accurate when wielded by me. The scale cost less than $15 from Amazon, and is super easy to use. For all intents and purposes 1ml=1gram, and my mixing app, Amazon.com: eLiquid Recipe Manager Pro: Appstore for Android, (which I prefer to E juice Me Up) will compute in weight or volume.

 

[jblack741]

I gave up on drops/ml because of the inconsistency of droppers and move to syringes which are more accurate.

 

[cbabbman]

It's the reason that baking (and chemistry) is done by weight and not volume... There are far too many factors that influence the measurement of volume (never mind the fact that a lot of people read a volume measurement at the top rather than the bottom of the meniscus!)

Same with any industrial batching process... it's all weighed...

When it comes to DIY, I just shake my head at this concept that eyeballing things and counting drops is an accurate way to do this... even more so at the resistance that weighing seems to come up against...

a cheap $18 scale from Amazon is more than enough for most people... and the arguments against it in terms of a scales accuracy are plainly comical, considering how far off eyeballing syringes and drops REALLY are... lol

But whatever floats their boats... I can do my mixes and get them dead on, time after time after time, with very little time spent cleaning up the couple of dispensers I use... it doesn't matter what kind of tip or bottle or container that my flavorings come in or what dropper/pipette I end up using if it doesn't come with one... I don't have to buy syringes... I can dispense to the 10th of a gram.... it's way more than good enough for me

 

[cbabbman]

I agree, that is the most accurate and foolproof method. But for people starting out, purchasing a high resolution scale and converting volume-based recipes to mass-based may be a bit more than they are ready to do. In that case, syringes are next best. And OTH, if you are experienced enough and use the same equipment and ingredients between recipes, drops can provide the level of accuracy required for your purposes.

But the fluid mechanics discussion will be solely for the purpose of entertaining geeks that like to pick things apart for the sake of the mental exercise. That is why it will not be a response to this or similar threads from people that just want a basic answer to a question.

all you really need:

2 squeeze bottles, 1 for PG, 1 for VG
10 cheap droppers for flavors
< $20 scale from amazon
ejuicecalculator

I honestly don't suggest that anyone just starting out go this route... It's way better for them to use simple and traditional methods to see if they really want to be doing DIY.

That's the way I started... and after a month of wrestling with syringes and trying to calibrate drops and just getting an inexpensive scale, there is no way I would EVER go back... the scale just makes it far too easy...

 

[Soignee]

I weight with a digital scale set to grams (mine does down to .5mls) and syringes. Only way to be accurate. Droppers are all different...

 

[Spazmelda]

I'd have to get a pretty expensive scale I think, for some of the stuff I do. I like to make small test batches (3 ml) in lots of different variations. I tend to put quite a few different flavors in, some at very low percentages, so a scale would have to be able to measure in the microgram range. .5 gram would not be adequate for many of my test mixes. So for those I use the micropipettors, which can accurately measure microliters of liquids.

I also make pottery, and make my own glazes. For that I definitely use a scale.

 

[rowdyplace]

I'd have to get a pretty expensive scale I think, for some of the stuff I do. I like to make small test batches (3 ml) in lots of different variations. I tend to put quite a few different flavors in, some at very low percentages, so a scale would have to be able to measure in the microgram range. .5 gram would not be adequate for many of my test mixes. So for those I use the micropipettors, which can accurately measure microliters of liquids.

I also make pottery, and make my own glazes. For that I definitely use a scale.

Try this one... It is large enough and under $25.00. There are many .01 around $8.00 (USA shipper) on eBay.
500g x 0 01g Digital Precision Scale SF 400D 0 01g Desktop Counting Scale | eBay

 

[Boletus]

You know, I think you mass-based folks are convincing me. After all, as long as you remain close to the surface of the earth, it is the only property of the ingredients that wont change with their state. And yeah, that whole manual dexterity thing isn't what it used to be for me (although I am still holding my own). Of course the scale measures weight, which can vary if the system is in motion and changing velocity, so I guess mixing with scales is out during severe earthquakes or while riding on a city bus, or traveling to outer space of course.

But hmmm... $25 would only buy a couple of bottles of pre-made juice, after all.

 

[Ryan H]

I use drops from my concentrate bottles, but I will re-evaluate the recipe after getting a NEW bottle, as the drops will not be the same as the last bottle. Simple, really.

 

[greyfox]

Righty, this may be a little bit wonky for some but as I am a practicing herbalist I'm going to answer as accurately as possible. A drop, or minim as it is classically known, is equal to one sixtieth (1/60th) of a drachm, aka 1 dram, which is itself equal to 5 ml of fluid (1 tsp here in America). One ml of fluid is equal to 1/5 of a drachm, and knowing that a drachm is equal to 60 minims, if we divide by 5 we get the final answer to your question: 1 ml = exactly 20 minims (drops), if measured precisely. Hope this helps

 

[mountaingal]

Well, to blow you all away...
I make 250ml of 24mg/ml at a time.
The recipe calls for 15ml of flavorings, I like to add a 5ml chocolate/hazelnut base with 3ml raspberry, 3ml tuscan tobacco, 3ml MTS, 1ml tobacco absolute.
I just use a 3ml and a 5ml botlle and eyeball it all.
I mix all that in a 15ml bottle shake and add to my 47/50 PG/VG nic base, then take an electric drink whipper and stir it for a few minutes.
Maybe, I have vapers tongue as any other flavor just tastes gross? (At the vape bar, the only other flavor I liked was Halo Torque.Yes, really, that was it.) And, it was so expensive, I am glad to make my own.
Maybe, when I get better shiny thingies, I will change? (I have new stuff on order.)
Maybe, I will go down on the nic? It has been 2 years now at 24ml/mg.
Maybe, I wish I was like you other vapers and could actually enjoy other flavors?
Maybe, I wish I was like you other vapers and could actually enjoy other flavors?
Maybe, I wish I was like you other vapers and could actually enjoy other flavors?

 

[twizted]

When you move to the big league, you measure your ingredients in the pounds.

J/k

But seriously.....

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

[Spazmelda]

Try this one... It is large enough and under $25.00. There are many .01 around $8.00 (USA shipper) on eBay.
500g x 0 01g Digital Precision Scale SF 400D 0 01g Desktop Counting Scale | eBay

I might consider something like that for larger test batches, but 0.01 g is still 10,000 ug. Some of my 3 ml tests use 5, 10, 15 ul of some flavors (so in the range of 0.000005 grams). Using the micropipettors allows me to scale the recipes up fairly accurately. Like for example if I use 20ul in a 3 ml test, that would translate to about 0.67%. When I decide to scale up to 100 ml I would add 0.67 ml. (For me, using small amounts of some flavors helps to get a more complex 'background' flavor in a juice with a couple of dominant flavors. Another way to do this if I didn't have the micropipettors, would be to dilute the flavors like 1:100 first and use the dilutions in my tests. Or to make 100 ml test batches, lol.)

I'm not knocking using a scale, I think it's a fine way to do things, especially for the convenience of not having to use a lot of syringes and dirtying up a lot of lab ware.

 

[dycero]

there is a new calculator for making recipes

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/480587-new-calculator-try.html

This one allows you to set # of drops per ml for each fluid since every fluid is different. this works out great as my nic is thicker and less drops then my thin flavors.

 

[aikanae1]

You might want to add windoze only

there is a new calculator for making recipes

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/480587-new-calculator-try.html

This one allows you to set # of drops per ml for each fluid since every fluid is different. this works out great as my nic is thicker and less drops then my thin flavors.

 

[MarkyD]

You might want to add windoze only

Rod's calculator works nicely under both VMware player (Linux AMD/Intel) and VMware fusion (Intel-based Macs). You'll need a copy of WinXP or other to install as a guest OS.

 

[IAMREALITY]

Wow it seems like this is taken so way too seriously, to be honest. True chefs never measure their ingredients with precision, or anywhere close to this sort of precision. Having to buy scales? Discussions on fluid dynamics? Seems a bit overkill no?

Count out some drops and be done with it.