Small batches ?

[backitdown]

I'm fairly new to vaping and even newer to DIY e-juice mixing and have a couple questions I hope you can assist with. Being a menthol junkie in my past life, menthol recipes were my first prerequisite to being successful in quitting the analogs. I have gather up the necessary tools for the trade but have run into a problem making small 3-4 ml test batches. Knowing that using drops as a measurement is iffy at best I have an array of syringes from 1 to 10 ml. Using the 1ml syringe for the nic, pg and vg is pretty easy and accurate but adding flavor is very problematic. In a 4 ml batch , flavors of menthol .2ml , peppermint .08 and koola .04ml are called for. Measuring .04 ml (1 drop) even in a 1ml syringe must be fairly iffy as well. But my largest problem is that I have found that the menthol and peppermint flavorings are melting the syringes and making the plunger very sticky and uncontrollable for drops. I may be in looking for a glass 1ml syringe in the near future.

Using small dropper bottles I have tried to determine how many drops per 1 ml and I come up with about 40 for PG bases. As you know the viscosity changes between all the ingredients so the drops will as well. I am not experienced to know if most flavoring have approximately the same viscosity. Flavoring come in glass bottles and would have to be transferred to dropper bottles if drops are used for a measurement which is a pain. What is a guy to use ? - a good quality glass eye dropper calibrated to drops per ml ?
I am afraid the cheap pipettes would meet the same fate as the cheap syringe

So- I guess I am asking what you more experience cooks do when making small batches that require only so little flavoring. Have you found that menthol is so strong it messes with your syringes ? That is a real pain in my *rss.

Having fun----

 

[Hoosier]

My 1ml syringes are marked every 0.02ml. I've made a number of recipes where there is 0.02ml of flavoring going in the bottle and the results have been completely repeatable.

Maybe you should look at better marked syringes?

 

[backitdown]

My syringes have increments marked at .02 like they all do but pushing the syringe with that kind of accuracy is difficult. In fact impossible for me - the menthol crystal mix and peppermint flavor destroys the syringe.

 

[Hoosier]

I don't have that problem. I'm not sure if it's because I coat the plunger in PG before I assemble it or because I pull the syringe apart and toss it in a glass of water right after dispensing a flavor?

When they get sticky, I toss them. They last a long time though...haven't had to throw many away over the years.

 

[backitdown]

Hoosier- Thanks - I guess I'll buy them in a much larger quantity the next time and not be so stringy. I may have dilly-dallyied a bit too long with the flavor in the syringe. Have you tried measuring by weight ? I wonder what 1ml of PG weighs ?

I know you are a master of the trade and have done your share of flavoring. May I ask you to describe the flavor or ? you would expect when one drop of EM is added to a 4ml batch of menthol. VS one drop of "sweetner".

Many thanks for sharing.

 

[Hoosier]

One drop of EM in 4ml doesn't add sweetness to me. It will give the vapor more body and may mute/de-edge/blend flavoring. Really depends on the base flavor. One drop of sweetener in a 4ml batch will make it sweeter.

No don't measure by weight.

I purchased 100 1ml syringes shortly after I figured out that going by drops wasn't going to work for me. Most of them are still in their sealed wrappers.

I don't know about a master. I've just made lots of mistakes and learned from them.

 

[backitdown]

That is how a master becomes a master

 

[Harlen]

When I mix I mix at 10ml till I hit some thing I like a lot then mix 120ml some batches are a lot better then others but nothing so bad I can't vape yet
Use pipets and syringes to mix

 

[dannyv45]

Hoosier- Thanks - I guess I'll buy them in a much larger quantity the next time and not be so stringy.

I buy my 1ml syringes from ebay. there marked every .02. Very inexpensive at about $15.00us for 100 syringes including shipping. They work great.

New 100 1CC Tuberculin Luer Slip Syringles 1ml Sterile Syringe Only No Needle | eBay

 

[DeeDee1234]

How old are your syringes? I use menthol and koolada both and have 1 cc syringes last months.

 

[03FXDWG]

I immediately rinse my syringe with hot water after adding any flavoring. I haven't used any of the most deadly flavorings (cola, rootbeer & banana) yet so maybe I've just been lucky. I have done peppermint & orange--both oil based without damage. I know some people say not to use the oil based flavors but they are so much more concentrated that I don't think the miniscule amount can hurt me after surviving 35+ years of smoking. Flavors that can melt a syringe in under 30 seconds bother me a little though. I don't really like cola, rootbeer or banana but if a family member really begs me to make them some--I will sacrifice a syringe or 2.

 

[fogging_katrider]

Have you tried measuring by weight ? I wonder what 1ml of PG weighs ?

1.04 grams

Mixing by weight IS a far superior method of measurment...
I cant wait to get a decent digital scale up and running so i can finally say goodbye to fiddling around with flicking and burping out air bubbles in syringes and mis reading syringe and pipette graduations...screw it ! And pipettes...argggh don't get me started. sometimes its a quick way to move a liquid to the mix...but its so damn frustrating (and inaccurate) to sit there waiting for that last bit of vg to drain down the pipette and spit out into the bottle.

After reading and understanding more about it, you may be looking to buy a nice digital scale too.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/492182-mixing-weight-you.html

 

[backitdown]

Fellow members- I appreciate all your thoughts and leads - I'll pick up a large batch of syringes for now and continue to read about measuring by weight. To test- I have been cleaning a tank each time I mix a new batch and getting tied of this procedure. I need a easier way of testing my juices- do 310's or 510's or even RBA's give the same taste as when the juice is used in a Tank ? Or do they give a more intense flavor ? and when put in a tank taste muted or lacking in flavor ?

So many combinations and so little time

 

[Danoman]

When I mix I mix at 10ml till I hit some thing I like a lot then mix 120ml some batches are a lot better then others but nothing so bad I can't vape yet
Use pipets and syringes to mix

I'm doing pretty much the same as you are... I mix in 30ml amounts so it gives me a little play room for trial and error when exacting a new recipe. My second one was 'iffy' but, the rest are all really good and easily vapable, most actually very enjoyable. For mixes that are menthol flavored, I personally use Cream de Menthe because is seems to be a little smoother and goes a long way. (personal opinion)

 

[ut1205]

Lorann Peppermint makes an excellent juice but it destroyed a 1ml syringe immediately. I believe it attacked the black rubber piece on the plunger. I wash my syringes out immediately with warm water but it didn't help the Peppermint one. I threw it away. I believe the glass syringes still have a rubber tip on the plunger. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Midnight*]

Yep... Lorann Peppermint is a syringe killer... been there.
I had one other that did the same thing, I believe it was the lorann wintergreen

I ended up using a glass dropper that i had figured out the drops per ml... not perfectly accurate, but saved a syringe.

 

[Landosnotasystem]

My syringes have increments marked at .02 like they all do but pushing the syringe with that kind of accuracy is difficult. In fact impossible for me -

Just a note on syringe technique. It sound like you're putting a bunch of flavor into the syringe and trying to only push out a little bit (sorry if I misread). What I do is hold the 1 ml syringe in a half-fist (pinkie to middle finger), needle pointed toward the pinkie. Pull up on the plunger with index and thumb by simply spreading the gap between index and middle fingers. It gives you a bit of resistance, and makes it easier to make smaller movements. Just fill up to the .2 ml mark (for instance), push any extra back out, and empty the syringe into your batch.

Again, I may have misinterpreted, but that approach works well for me. I don't have the most steady hands, but have never had a problem measuring those increments.

**Another possibility - you could always get a spare bottle, and make a 10 or 50 percent dilution of something strong like Koolada in your base (pg/vg)[ETA: 9 ml Base, 1 ml Koolada]. Then, instead of using .02 ml of Koolada, you would use .2 ml of a 10% dilution. I had to do this with TFA Commercial Tobacco, because sweet goodness, is that overpowering.

 

[BoilerRoom]

I wouldn't even bother with a syringe that small. Get a hold of a few 1ml pipettes. These are much easier to use and cheaper. This is what works for me.

 

[vapero]

I use drops for flavoring and a syringe for base
but I test every flavor by counting drops into a 1ml syringe to calculate the flavorings drop/ml. maybe it isn't that accurate but it is consistent and repeatable and that is what I look for