Thinking of mixing, but a little apprehensive

[MattyTny]

I've been using premixed liquids and have had good experiences with them, but I recently thought of mixing to save money. I did some research and it doesn't look too hard, I found a guide on how to mix the nicotine, PG and VG, and flavors to get desired nicotine strength.

I'm just worried that I might screw something up and it won't come out right, but I guess I could mix in small quantities first. I found a mixing kit on totally wicked that seems proper, it comes with nicotine solution, PG or VG or both, flavor concentrates, and a few empty bottles. I just put in an order for a 50ml premix so I have some time to think about it, but I may try it out.

What do you all think? How have your experiences been with mixing and have you saved money on liquid?

 

[ccwaters]

I just started vaping in Sept. I started DIY juice about 2 weeks later, I mix test flavors in very small quantity, typically less than 3ml, I've found by doing this, and starting low on flavoring that you can usually doctor up these small amounts so they will be at least vapable. Just follow the safety guidelines on the Nic, and start small.

For me it is a definite Plus to be able to mix your own, but I still buy a few favorites.

 

[meanckz]

I have been playing with the idea to....nothing to do with saving money tho....more to do the flavors and flavoring strength of purchased liquids. I have a local place (more than one) where I get liquids, the one I most often visit has a good variety, but their flavors taste sort of fake....the other place I've only been to once and I got some menthol juice....which was brown....didn't taste great either.
I have noticed that I prefer clear juices to cloudy or dark juices, but that's just me, I guess.

So anyway, I really hope your experimentation works out in your favor and let me (or us) know about your experiences, please.

 

[MoonLit_Water]

Yes You can save a ton of money mixing Your own and Your thinking along the right lines. But You will want to check this sub-forum out DIY E-Liquid
read the stickies browse the threads in that forum and any questions You may have will be answered there.

and you will definitely want to use this eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

 

[DKP#]

I diy liquids. I like having complete control over what I vape. The cost is nice too. ($0.55 for 10mL of 20mg/ml)
It's not hard at all to mix. If you're not comfortable with the math, there's apps and I've seen links here to a web page for the amounts.
I did have trouble zeroing in on what I liked, but I started vaping with diy.
Just start out with smaller amounts and if you mess up, just dump it down the drain at that price.

I don't have kids so that's not a worry having nicotine around. Something you might consider.

 

[MattyTny]

This mixing kit is on sale now till the 18th, so I have a little bit of time to think about it. I like that I can adjust the amount of PG, VG, and flavor and I would hope to save money doing so.

Is this a good choice to get started?
50ml Platinum Ice 54mg/ml Mixing Kit

 

[MoonLit_Water]

Check out these sites, not sure how the prices compare to the kit but might be worth checking out

Wizard Labs
DIY Flavor Shack by E-Cig Smoke Store

 

[artv61]

I started mixing recently to but what i did was get a couple of bottles of juice from store,premixed at 24mg and bought some vg at walmart and started mixing different ones together and cutting nic down with vg.also i found that juices like cinnamon and apple tend to be pretty strong sowhen i mixed apple and cinn i used 2 parts app;e and 1 part cinn and 1 part vg .mixed them in a bottle that I had washed out from a previous juice. I start with just taking like 20drops of 1 10 drops of 2 and 10 of 3 and shake it up.I bought a cheap disposable atty to try a few drops in to test.if it tastes good i just make more,if not to add afew more drops or add another juice to change it.main thing is write down mix so you dont forget.

 

[dice57]

yeah, agreed on all the above post. I mix up a 10ml test batch before going into production, If I love it, write the recipe down and make 50ml or so, If I hate, I don't make it any more. It it's good but needs tweaking, I try another batch with a little less of that, or a little more of this and maybe a dash of that. So far I've come up with 3 ADV, haven't made any that I hated, had 2 that were ok but needed tweaking. Don't bother buying a kit, you'll end up with stuff you never use. Check out the DIY sections for recommended minimum supplies and Venders. I have 3 different size flasks, 2 glass stirring rods, 4 different size syringes for measuring, on 50ml graduated cylinder and a couple blunt nose needles. I haven't used my large mixing flask yet, so far the largest batch I've made is 50ml. With the equipment I bought I can easily mix and measure and get quality juice to my specifications. If I find I need another piece of equipment, then I just get it with my next base and extract order.

I use eJuice Recipe Calculator for doing my recipe calculation, Find it easy to use and understand. Have the other one downloaded, but is not as easy as this online one. I use it for getting my measurements for my batch, the once I have the #'s written down I use it again to calculate my flavor mixture %'s, when I use more than 1 extract in a recipe.

If you are considering doing this, don't delay. Hopefully you saved all you old juice bottles, just wash them out and you can use them for your own creations. Least that's what I did, saving me from having to buy bottles too.

Good luck in the Lab.!


Far as saving money, if you call $4 for 50ml of custom juice saving money, then yeah, saving loads. That was with a $60 dollar investment for lab ware, VG, PG, nic base and 15 flavor extracts. Price will go down a bit next time since I have my lab ware already. I control the flavor, I control the VG, I control the nic mg. win win win.

 

[MoonLit_Water]

One advantage of using the downloaded one, is that the program itself can save the recipes for You. If You do some tweaking to the recipe You can overwrite the old recipe or just create a version2(3,4 and so on) of it. But as with anything in vaping it's what works best for You.

 

[DKP#]

This mixing kit is on sale now till the 18th, so I have a little bit of time to think about it. I like that I can adjust the amount of PG, VG, and flavor and I would hope to save money doing so.

Is this a good choice to get started?
50ml Platinum Ice 54mg/ml Mixing Kit

Kinda high

MFS same stuff but 120mL of nic, VG and PG - about $50.
Wizardlabs probably about $30 (120ml of each). Hard to catch WL with nic in stock sometimes. It's where I get everything. If they're out, I wait.

 

[artv61]

Also dont forget to go to youtube,there are tons of vids about mixing juice.the info is out there

 

[dice57]

One advantage of using the downloaded one, is that the program itself can save the recipes for You. If You do some tweaking to the recipe You can overwrite the old recipe or just create a version2(3,4 and so on) of it. But as with anything in vaping it's what works best for You.

Yeah, I can see that, but it's much more complicated to figure out initially. Also, I just write the recipes down in %'s in my E-book, plug them into the batch size and good to go. I include the batch size and volume in the e-book so that I have it right there in the lab when mixing. If I want to make a larger batch then can plug in the new values and adjust for the bigger batch. I only write down the killer recipes, and don't use the just acceptable ones again unless I've perfected it to my satisfaction.

I usually make a batch to fill the bottle that I'll store it in. When I looked at both Calculators, I just couldn't get the down load one to work to my liking quick enough, and loved the simplicity of the online one. I usually do all my surfing and pc work, lounging in bed, using my 40" lcd tv as my monitor, so it's real easy for me to use these tools.

 

[MattyTny]

Are the cut prices on Wizard Labs permanent? I see that I can get 60mg nicotine, PG, VG, flavors, a few bottles, and a syringe all for around $40. That seems like a great price to me and I think I can save some money doing it this way. I like that I can control everything too

 

[AgentAnia]

I've been ordering from Wizard Labs for about 6 months, and their "sale" prices have been in effect all that time, so yes, I'd call them permanent. I also recommend you get yourself a few syringes (available from 1ml to 10ml) and several needle tips (18gauge for most purposes, I suggest 14guage for thicker, mostly VG juices). Would also suggest, if you order their flavorings, to get a 5-pack of dropper inserts for the little flavor bottles.

Lately it's been difficult to find the larger bottles of nic base in stock at WL, but you can sign up to be notified by email when stock is available.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

Don't be intimidated. It's really not that difficult. My DIY "starter kit" consisted of a self-assembled bunch of empty bottles, leftover dripper caps from Johnson Creek bottles, a pediatric dosing cup with milliliter graduated lines, a bottle of CVS glycerin and nic liquid ordered from Mt. Baker and RTS Vapes.

The EJuiceMeUp Windows app is great. There is a short, not-so-steep learning curve to it, and it comes with a lot of recipes already installed.

The most important advice I can give is to not go overboard on flavor additions. At most, you'll probably find that something between 10-15% of total volume delivers the flavor profile you're shooting for.

One of my first attempts at creating a Virginia Tobacco flavor ended up tasting like a Christmas Tree because I went overboard on adding some Virginia Tidewater Tobacco flavoring that carries the same piney, earthy flavors of the tobacco grown in that part of Virginia.

All I can say is, come on December!

 

[Screamin Eagle]

All of the folks above have been right on the money. I just have a few ideas to add.

There is a fairly new calculator out there that is sort of in between the stadic Ejuice Recipe Calculator and the EJuice Me Up calculator in the it is very easy to use, web based, and you can save your recipes on it.....dot1ml | Eliquid calculator & recipe repository . Check it out. Play around with any of the calculators you deside to use until you get a good idea of how they work. Most are similar, but not all are the same. So just plug in fictitious amounts to see what changes they make and how you can adjust things to make your mixes turn out the way you want them.

If it were me, I would get all that you needed to do your mixing, but, since the nicotine is the most expensive and hardest to get consumable, I would do test mixes WITHOUT using the nic.. If it truely stinks, and you do have to pitch it, your only out a few worth of supplies. If you like it, just add some nic to it and see how it goes.

I would also make 10ml batches (which is exactly what I do) so you can sample some at different times. Some flavors need to steep and you will need to know how long that will take. So sampling them at a few days, a week, and a couple of weeks you'll be able to note the changes (if any) in the flavor.

Keep records!!! There is nothing more frustrating then trying to repete a mix that you nailed on the first try, but didn't write down, and now can't quite get it
Or finally, after 6 weeks of trying, nailing that one flavor you've been wanting to get, then realizing you didn't write (or log) that one change you made to get it just right.

Start out with simple mixes. http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-liquid-recipes/439217-simple-recipes.html . One or two flavorings. Then once you get the hand of what you are doing then go for it.

And another piece of advice I can give you, that may keep you from getting very sick, is to remember that nicotine is a POISION! It can, and will, make you very sick in large enough doses.
It is also absorbed through the skin. So USE GLOVES, AND EXTREME CAUTION WHEN HANDLING IT!! And if you do get any raw nicotine solution on you, wash it off. As in stop what your doing right then and wash your hands, arms, or take a shower if necessary.

Have fun!!!!! But be safe. DIY mixing is kind of like an adult version of the old chemistry kits we use to get as a kid. Play with it and have some fun.

 

[Thunderball]

Are you ready to jump in now ?
Now that you have gone and looked at Wizard labs site, you will see its cheaper to go that route. You can get everything you need there.
You might want to get 120ML of PG, 120ML of VG and 120 ML of 60 Nic in PG or VG ( I get mine in VG cause I do mostly a 50/50 Mix)

You may want to get 6 to 12 Brown 30ML glass bottles on Amazon (12 bucks for 12) with glass dropper caps. You can get 50 10ML plastic bottles on Ebay...the kind they sell you juice in.

A label maker is nice for labeling your mixes.

You will also find that many of the TFA flavors that are sold by Wizard are vary good "stand alone" flavors which you will be able to get "instant gradification" from mixing and vape imediatly with no aging, especially fruit flavors and bubble gums...apple pie flavor, etc.

Have fun...you can always PM somebody if you need a little help.......or just read all the DIY stickies. What helped me the most is that I read every TFA recipe thread in these forums and then went to work and ordered and mixed.

Its really not that hard.....to me anyway. Have fun

 

[MattyTny]

Thank you all for replying to my post. I think I'm going to opt for these purchases:

60mg nicotine solution 120ml
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_64&product_id=71

120ml PG
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=132

120ml VG
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=70&product_id=137

I'm not sure what flavors to get and they are out of regular tobacco, but I found that Totally wicked has this:
http://www.totallywicked-eliquid.co...ld-standard-flavor-concentrate-5-product.html

A few 30ml bottles (I have a couple of saved glass amber bottles, but I figure I'd try these too, they also have a dropper tip where mine come with a pipette)
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_75&product_id=126

A few 10ml bottles
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_75&product_id=272

I guess I should get a 3ml while I'm at it
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_75&product_id=366

A 5ml syringe
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_73&product_id=112

A 1ml syringe
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_73&product_id=110

A couple blunt tip needles
http://wizardlabs.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=71_73&product_id=143

 

[Screamin Eagle]

Thank you all for replying to my post. I think I'm going to opt for these purchases:

60mg nicotine solution 120ml
60mg Nicotine solution - 120ml

120ml PG
Propylene Glycol USP - 120ml

120ml VG
Vegetable Glycerin USP - 120ml

I'm not sure what flavors to get and they are out of regular tobacco, but I found that Totally wicked has this:
10ml Gold Standard Flavor Concentrate - 5 Bottle Multipack

A few 30ml bottles (I have a couple of saved glass amber bottles, but I figure I'd try these too, they also have a dropper tip where mine come with a pipette)
30ml LDPE Dropper Bottle with Child Resist Cap

A few 10ml bottles
10ml LDPE Dropper Bottle with Child Resist Cap

I guess I should get a 3ml while I'm at it
3ml LDPE Dropper Bottle with Child Resist Cap

A 5ml syringe
5ml Luer Lock Syringe - Quantity Discounts

A 1ml syringe
1ml Luer Lock Syringe - Quantity Discounts

A couple blunt tip needles
16ga Blunt Tip Luer-Lock Needle 1.5" - Quantity Discounts

WTG Matty,
Looks like you'll be in here telling us all about what your discovering about the fun hobby of DIY mixing in no time.