Syringe use

[Baums]

To those of you who use syringes, how do you go about it. Do you use a different syringe for each liquid? Do you reuse them after making a thing of juice?

Also, what gauge dispensing needle do you recommend?

 

[mishakal]

I am very new to making my own juice but for me so far I have 3ml, 6ml and 10ml syringes with 1ml on order. Only making small batches so far so I use the 6ml for my vg and pg and 3ml for my Nic and flavors.

When mixing I keep a large cup of heated water and a empty cup after I am done with each liquid I draw the water in the syringe and expel into the empty cup and repeat 5 or so times then wipe with towel and blow out. Currently all i have are 18g needles and they work although straight VG is a pain. I have more stuff on order so I wont have to clean as much.

 

[Hoosier]

1ml, 5ml, and 10ml syringes. Usually 1ml for flavorings, but sometimes use the 5ml's for that. 10ml for Nic and base. Don't use needles as the 1ml barrel goes down into the bottles just fine and the 0.02ml marks mean I can keep measurements fairly precise.

The 10ml ones I use are from Walgreens that I link in one of my blogs.

Yes, a different syringe is used for each component and I clean them after I'm done using warm soapy water and the brush that comes with the Walgreens syringes.

 

[john333]

I use the same syringe for the flavors. Just wipe off the needle between flavors. The only cross contamination is inside the syringe and then only from the liquid inside the tip. And, that doesn't matter since your goal is to mix it anyway. For vg you want a 14 gauge blunt tip. I have 1 2 3 5 10 ml sizes. good luck

 

[the_vape_nerd]

ok here's how i do it

Needles:

for transferring VG you want a very large low guage needle (the longer it is the better) get a 14 guage

for transferring PG you can get up to maybe an 18 guage as PG is thinner

For the syringes themselves:

This is largely dependent on batch size I guess so if you work in larger batches get bigger ones but I find this collection here is adequate for almost all operations

1 ml syringes- get about 10 (I bought 50 of these on ebay for about 5 bucks, they came from singapore and took 2 weeks though)
3ml syringes- get 2-3
5ml syringes- get 2-3
10 ml syringes- get 1-2

The 1 ml will help you deal with the flavors mostly....when you need say .3 ml, the best way to get it is with a small 1ml syringe.

The 3 and 5 ml sizes are good for making say a 10ml bottle and you need to add a substantial amount of dilutant of PG or VG. They can also be used sometimes for adding larger doses of flavor. Say you need to add 1.5 ml of peach. Break out your 3ml and fill it half way.

The 10ml I generally use when making a large batch for my wife. I also use it for VG as my juices are 50/50 and sometimes my recipes will call for like 6-8ml of VG. I also use it sometimes to dilute my high concentration nic.

There's really no way to answer this exactly for you. You need to experiment and see what works for you. I can tell you that if you stick with this for any length of time, you will might regret some flavor purchases but you will never regret a syringe purchase. You just cant have enough.

Finally, yes i use a clean syringe for each and every flavor i draw. Once I'm done with all my mixing though I clean them out with hot water. Dry with towels and set out to let the insides air dry.

Good luck.

 

[metropolitan]

i make jewelry so i have tons of syringes at home as i buy bulk to use with certain industrial adhesives, but to be honest i use the same one for e-liquids. i just give it a quick rinse out in water between flavors. i would recommend 18 gauge blunt needles --wide enough for very thick liquids but not wide enough to start dripping on its own.
you can get a cheap set of different size syringes and needles on ebay. and get blunt tips. i know what you're probably thinking --i'm an adult, i can handle sharp objects, but from experience if you use syringes a lot, you will end up poking yourself every so often.

 

[metropolitan]

just to clarify --i use the same syringes for different e-liquids, not the the same syringe for adhesives and e-liquids...

 

[Baums]

Thanks guys all very helpful. One quick question. For the VG I see you want a larger gauge, but can you use that larger gauge as well for PG and flavoring? Just see some lots to get a bunch of needles but didn't know if I should be getting different sizes. Thanks much for the help.

 

[Thompson]

1, 3, 5, & 10 mL all covered in packing tape (except for my first one that wore off entirely). There is also a 2oz mamajama but its got horrible action so I never use it for anything (it'd only really be useful for doling nic from shipping container to glass boston rounds).

I think I've got a 16ga (pink) and two 14ga (green)? Also have a 'meat injector' needle tip I need to modify, but its got a leur lock, huge ID & its about 4-5 inches long (super nice for reaching into 60-120mL bottles).

Carry the 3mL & pink needle in my travel kit. 1, 5 & 10's stay in my DIY tool box.

I just rinse them with warm tap water between each ingredient and then flush them with hot water when I'm done.

 

[metropolitan]

i personally use an 18 gauge for both pg & vg (and some even thicker liquid adhesives).
this might be overkill for your needs but i recently bought 50 18 gauge blunt tip needles for around $10 on ebay.
i remember awhile ago i bought a kit from someone on ebay that came with a selection of blunt tips and i think 3 syringes. you might want to do a search for "adhesive syringe" to narrow it down as you'll get too many results just typing "syringe" (and the industrial syringes are the same as the medical ones --meaning packed sterile)

 

[Thompson]

I have been keeping an eye on glass syringes on eBay. They are a bit costly, but they look real nice. Feel like I read some where on here they aren't really worth a damned though? Rather not drop $10-15 to find out its fancy glass garbage.

 

[Faylool]

I think it would break in my hands.

 

[Baums]

i personally use an 18 gauge for both pg & vg (and some even thicker liquid adhesives).
this might be overkill for your needs but i recently bought 50 18 gauge blunt tip needles for around $10 on ebay.
i remember awhile ago i bought a kit from someone on ebay that came with a selection of blunt tips and i think 3 syringes. you might want to do a search for "adhesive syringe" to narrow it down as you'll get too many results just typing "syringe" (and the industrial syringes are the same as the medical ones --meaning packed sterile)

Awesome thanks man. One more thing though. I am finding a lot of places for the dispensing needles. Although they say non-sterile. Should I be looking for sterile dispensing needles as well?

 

[metropolitan]

I have been keeping an eye on glass syringes on eBay. They are a bit costly, but they look real nice. Feel like I read some where on here they aren't really worth a damned though? Rather not drop $10-15 to find out its fancy glass garbage.

that's funny, i recently also thought of buying some glass/pyrex syringes on ebay but i had no reason other than because they looked so nice.

 

[metropolitan]

Awesome thanks man. One more thing though. I am finding a lot of places for the dispensing needles. Although they say non-sterile. Should I be looking for sterile dispensing needles as well?

to be perfectly honest the needles i use for e-liquids are non-sterile (i actually had to go check right now to make sure). sterile just means they are guaranteed bacteria free on opening. if you're worried about contamination a quick rinse in alcohol should do the trick. the needles are stainless steel which are safe for food use.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Glass is 'da poo' !!!!!!!

Flavors don't stick immediately or with time. They clean a lot easier and more thoroughly. Especially with the strong flavors like DeKang Tab 555 and anything overtly robust.

I am switching eventually all to glass because it only takes mere minutes to put together a bottle of juice, but WAAAY to long to clean up the impromptu lab aka the crapper.

You can troll the auction sites or get 'em new here:

NTT - Glass Syringes


A couple o' things about the auction sites.
Get a true "luer lock" syringe, as some say luer but don't actually have the metal attachment an the end of the syringe. This gets a good precise fit with needles.
Also, soak the syringes overnight in a bleach solution, then rinse extra thoroughly with water until there's no bleach smell. I always still rinse 'em with dish soap after that, ,and, of course, another rinse.
Ya' never know what was in 'em.

Glass really is superior. Measurements never wear off, etc.

Plastic with rubber(the plunger) will either eventually wear out or take on flavors and you just don't want that.



Now the mixing routine:
I have a series of old big vitamin bottles with hot water and a blob of dish soap in each. I line them up based on the quantity of flavors I am needing. Then, as I use each flavor I just plop each dissembled syringe in the corresponding "wash" canister. Rinse once or twice after a little soak, dry, done.

The nicotine laced syringe I treat with extra care. Wash,rinse repeat at least twice. Always in its own primary wash basin( an old plastic tub or whatever).


Get a couple of large gauge needles for your dense VG based stuff and as many needles as you have syringes in 18ish gauge.

And re: your question about larger needles for low density, you can use 'em for non-vg but with less control of liquid in the barrel.

Ecigexpress has most all stuff on sale(including needles cheeep) with code: IamVeryPatient.


Happy DIYing

 

[the_vape_nerd]

i think 14 guage is the way to go and will work with either VG or PG...still it will be nice for you to have a smaller guage needle around for filling cartos/clearos and sometimes its just real easy to shove a thin needle right into a flavor dropper bottle and get what you need without have to take the nipple thing off