Time to make my own
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I got my stuff from myfreedomsmokes last August. I didn't get a kit. Just the individual items.
1 liter of 100mg nic
4 250 ml amber glass bottles for freezer storage
1 liter of pg
1 liter of vg
1 flavor, capella cuppuccino
a couple of small erlanmeyer flasks
a couple of syringes
some empty bottles
my recipe is below
I also have an android app calulator called liquix
My liquid costs 1.2 cents per ml
1 liter of 100mg nic
4 250 ml amber glass bottles for freezer storage
1 liter of pg
1 liter of vg
1 flavor, capella cuppuccino
a couple of small erlanmeyer flasks
a couple of syringes
some empty bottles
my recipe is below
I also have an android app calulator called liquix
My liquid costs 1.2 cents per ml
I just got this kit, to try my hand at making my own juice. I haven't tried it yet. I am still in the reading everything I can stage.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Read the stickies.
Its usually better to get from more than one place but find some recipes to make first and order flavors for just those. 3 or so recipes will get you started
Its usually better to get from more than one place but find some recipes to make first and order flavors for just those. 3 or so recipes will get you started
Do proper research before starting DIY and you'll avoid the common mistakes and fustrations new mixers go through. There's nothing worst then wasting money on improper supplies that don't work, over buying or buying things you'll never use.
My blogs will give insight into all aspects of DYI, from steeping to what supplies to have on hand to a basic walk through mixing your first E-juice.
E-Cigarette Forum - dannyv45 - Blogs
Then read hoosier's blogs. These blogs concentrate on fine tuning your mix and give insight on additives.
E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs
Then read Boletus's blog's. These blogs concentrate on formulation of nicotine bases regarding proper calculations methods for figuring Nicotine concentration as well as safety.
E-Cigarette Forum - Boletus - Blogs
Then read Ginger's book "E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid". It is a book which I've contributed to that delivers an in depth easy to follow guide in the art of DYI.
E-Cigarettes 102: DIY E-Liquid
I recommend viewing VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety and bookmark it for future reference. It explains safety in all aspects of DYI.
VPLive Vape Team Episode #82: DIY Safety
List of suppliers and other useful links courtesy of ECF Member Sir2fyablyNutz
List of suppliers and other useful links | E-Cigarette Forum
then read the stickies at the top of the page.
Reading the above will explain a lot of the how's and why's and help you formulate questions on what you may not understand. Best of luck.
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About starter kits, a good idea if money is no object and time is at a premium (Could see Liquid Barn's). The one thing that most beginning mixers fail to realize is the number of 1 cc/ml syringes you will need (2 doz + 1.5" / 18 ga. needles is not too many). I have never seen any kits that get this right (proportionally of course).
Scales or Syringes? Both have their advantages. If money is no object, get two scales, one to brake and the other for backup.
I mix up about 300 - 350 ml of juice every 2 weeks or so. It takes me about 2 hours and I make a dozen or so flavors. This is my entire set-up:
Tri Pour Beakers
100 ml x2(you can skip these until you nail down a couple of recipes you like enough to make in 100 ml batches)
Graduated Cylinder - Polypropylene - 50ml
50 ml x1 ; 10 ml x2
Syringe with 18ga Needle
3 ml x2 - and I bought some larger gauge luer lock tips to make handling VG based nic easier.
I have a couple dozen bottles from when I bought pre-made juices, and I bought a few 250 ml & 125 ml amber glass bottles to break down 1L bottles of nic for storage.
And some of these for the recipes that are nailed down and I make in 100 ml batches:
http://www.onestopdiyshop.com/4oz-natural-ldpe-soft-boston-round-w-black-twist-top-cap/
I have a few pipettes that came free with flavor orders, but I almost never use them. If I can use a whole ml of it, the graduated cylinders work fine. Otherwise, I have 2 syringes. One for nic and one for flavors.
Most of the stuff from MFS can be purchased as part of the starter kit for a slight discount. Just select it from the site, then start weeding out all the crap you don't need and watch the price fall. It's been a while since I bought mine, so it may be cheaper to just buy the individual parts now.
Tri Pour Beakers
100 ml x2(you can skip these until you nail down a couple of recipes you like enough to make in 100 ml batches)
Graduated Cylinder - Polypropylene - 50ml
50 ml x1 ; 10 ml x2
Syringe with 18ga Needle
3 ml x2 - and I bought some larger gauge luer lock tips to make handling VG based nic easier.
I have a couple dozen bottles from when I bought pre-made juices, and I bought a few 250 ml & 125 ml amber glass bottles to break down 1L bottles of nic for storage.
And some of these for the recipes that are nailed down and I make in 100 ml batches:
http://www.onestopdiyshop.com/4oz-natural-ldpe-soft-boston-round-w-black-twist-top-cap/
I have a few pipettes that came free with flavor orders, but I almost never use them. If I can use a whole ml of it, the graduated cylinders work fine. Otherwise, I have 2 syringes. One for nic and one for flavors.
Most of the stuff from MFS can be purchased as part of the starter kit for a slight discount. Just select it from the site, then start weeding out all the crap you don't need and watch the price fall. It's been a while since I bought mine, so it may be cheaper to just buy the individual parts now.
I thought it was way more complicated than it actually has to be.
The DIY Starter Kit
I bought it. Seemed like what I needed at the time. I don't regret it, it did set me up with sufficient VG/PG/nic and flavorings to start screwing around.
I just found mixing by volume to be a messy, imprecise, cantankerous, totally unfun bore. I hate extraneous clutter, and can't get my mind around throwing away syringes after a single use. Too much too much! All of it except the liquids banished to the closet. The Liquid Barn flavorings, though what little of them I used seemed to work well, are also fairly untouched, not because they suck, but because they're in bottles without dripper caps! I plan to transfer them when I free up some bottles, or break down and buy some.
I had to simplify or DIY would be too much hassle. So, 1 scale Amazon.com: American Weigh Scales LB-501 Digital Kitchen Scale: Aws Digital Scale: Kitchen & Dining
1 bag of 100 pipettes (for the nic base only, all flavors and VG/PG are in dropper bottles), bottles I already have from 2 years of hoarding for the eventual DIY plunge. Everything gets mixed directly into the bottle. End of mixing session, 1 paper towel and 1 pipette go into the trash, whether I mix one batch or 10. That's an acceptable amount of waste for me.
Not knocking either volumetric mixing or DIY starter kits, it just wasn't what I needed, and unfortunately I had to pay substantially to find that out. Could have bought a lot of flavorings from Bull City for that 70 bucks.
So, 1 scale, bag of 100 pipettes (buy em when you buy the scale on Amazon, they're right there on the scale's page under "Frequently bought together"), flavorings in dropper bottles, empty bottles if you need them, paper towels. It's very low tech, and not everyone's preferred method by a long shot, but it serves for me.
The DIY Starter Kit
I bought it. Seemed like what I needed at the time. I don't regret it, it did set me up with sufficient VG/PG/nic and flavorings to start screwing around.
I just found mixing by volume to be a messy, imprecise, cantankerous, totally unfun bore. I hate extraneous clutter, and can't get my mind around throwing away syringes after a single use. Too much too much! All of it except the liquids banished to the closet. The Liquid Barn flavorings, though what little of them I used seemed to work well, are also fairly untouched, not because they suck, but because they're in bottles without dripper caps! I plan to transfer them when I free up some bottles, or break down and buy some.
I had to simplify or DIY would be too much hassle. So, 1 scale Amazon.com: American Weigh Scales LB-501 Digital Kitchen Scale: Aws Digital Scale: Kitchen & Dining
1 bag of 100 pipettes (for the nic base only, all flavors and VG/PG are in dropper bottles), bottles I already have from 2 years of hoarding for the eventual DIY plunge. Everything gets mixed directly into the bottle. End of mixing session, 1 paper towel and 1 pipette go into the trash, whether I mix one batch or 10. That's an acceptable amount of waste for me.
Not knocking either volumetric mixing or DIY starter kits, it just wasn't what I needed, and unfortunately I had to pay substantially to find that out. Could have bought a lot of flavorings from Bull City for that 70 bucks.
So, 1 scale, bag of 100 pipettes (buy em when you buy the scale on Amazon, they're right there on the scale's page under "Frequently bought together"), flavorings in dropper bottles, empty bottles if you need them, paper towels. It's very low tech, and not everyone's preferred method by a long shot, but it serves for me.
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Interesting. Can you walk me through your simplified process? I'm trying to take the DIY plunge but don't have any interest in becoming 'Heisenberg'. Being that PG/VG can be about any ratio one wants to make it, it seems this can be done fairly imprecisely without a ton of hassle. What is the scale for? I've become frustrated with the flavorings. All different sizes, brands, strengths, suppliers, etc. Some you don't even seem to be able to use for vaping. Any good, single source for high strength, high quantity flavor at a reasonable price?
Edited to add. I already bought NIC from MFS. 100mg, 1 liter bottles. Just need the PG/VG which I have in my Amazon cart already. Just trying to reach the finish line
Some folks mix by weight instead of volume. Grams instead of milliliters. You need an accurate scale for that. There are a ton of good sources for e-juice materials. Bull City Vapors, My Freedom Smokes, and One Stop DIY Shop are the 3 I use most often. They only carry the flavors that are suitable for vaping.
The scale is for this...
It's a good vid, to get your mind around the mechanics. Don't worry about the math wizard stuff about specific gravities. Your recipe calculator will figure out all that stuff for you. I personally like JuiceCalculator (the dl is in this forum), but use whatever calc you like. I do enter all the listed specific gravities of my flavorings into JuiceCalc, but I think a lot of people just use the 1 gram = 1 ml constant. JuiceCalc defaults to that if you don't enter a specific specific gravity (hardy har).
You can find lists of specific gravities for most flavorings on reddit Those of you that measure by weight, how do you find the specific gravity of flavors, or what is the "standard"? • /r/DIY_eJuice (hope I'm allowed to link that).
Notice in the vid he's using a new pipette for each flavor, and says "throw them away afterwards". The bottles are extracts I think bought directly from TFA? I just get everything from Bull City, rebottled by them into dropper bottles. The Capellas already come in dropper bottles. So there's where I'd recommend going for your "single source" flavor supplier. Their site is cool and easy, prices the best.
So it's just one pipette for the nic, and throw it away after. You could also use glass eyedroppers and wash 'em, but eh, I wash enough dishes already
(lazy in other words).
Check out RTS Vapes. they have glassware, pg,vg, flavorings, nic, just about everything. Price is not the cheapest on everything but 1 stop shop sometimes is that way. And read,read then read some more!
Scale is used to measure flavors out instead of using s syringe. (Faster way BTW)
Quick update for you guys, I've set up and made a few 100ml bottles and only one horrible tasting bottle of disaster! Truly horrible, really, don't take that lightly! Don't think I'll go near raspberry or apple for a while! Other than that these very vanilla custards are yummy! Strawberry glazed donut is steeping, really can't wait for that one
Seriously do not get kits. I think you might get ripped off. All you really need is one 1 ml syringe. 20 3ml pipettes. 15 ml plastic pour cup, NIC (Nicotine River), VG (BCV/Essentials Depot), PG (BCV/Essentials Depot), 30 30ml bottles and small flavor samples (BCV a good place). All should cost you no less than $100 with shipping and handling.
I went to make my vape and glad I did get a kit, they sent some instructions that lined up with what members here had told other people to do and I got loads of stuff that I do actually need and use all for 40 quid! Started buying flavours nic and bases from other cheaper places now but it was a good place to start
Ok..I wasn't really planning on using a scale. Actually, I didn't even consider it being this is the first I'm even reading about using one. After watching the video about, I'm even more confused lol! No scale on this lady's thing's to buy list 
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