Woot Woot!!!

[Vapr]

The mailman visited today. I received my 510 kit and the accessories I ordered and my Johnson Creek starters pack arrived as well.
I ordered the 510 no box kit and accessories from Cignot, placed order Thursday afternoon. I purchased the kit with manual no led batteries. I added to the kit a manual mega battery to compare performance, 3 spare attys, and a pack of tea bag modded carts. I selected 2 bottles of the MarlbUSA 26mg juice as my accessories to the kit.
I immediately put the mega battery into the wall charger, plugged the pcc into the computer to charge and sat down on the couch with my new little friend. I took an atty out and blew it out as instructed in threads here. I was surprised how much liquid came out. I continued blowing till nothing was coming out. I then grabbed one of the tea bag carts and filled it with the Marlb juice. Then I assembled the pieces.
The moment of truth was at hand. I pressed the button , heard a slight crackling sizzle and began to inhale a slow long drag. The first drag was good but not awe inspiring. Each successive drag got better. By the fourth or fifth I was sold. This thing is awesome. I got really nice vapor production, excellent TH for me, full lung feeling, overall a very satisfying experience. I think it is going to be the thing that breaks my addiction to the analogs for good!
I was surprised to get the Johnson Creek package since I ordered it late on Thursday and it didn’t ship until Friday. It was a nice bonus. The kit has 10 little sample jars of flavored juice along with some accessories for filling carts and a nice tin to put it all in. Now I can play around with new flavors. I am going to have a ball.
Last week and over the weekend I had been lurking around the DIY area reading up on what they are doing. I have always enjoyed cooking and barbequing along with using wood smoke to cook food. I enjoy creating new recipes and marinades to produce different flavors. I also went through about a ten year period of brewing beer; I enjoyed creating flavor profiles that I and my friends could enjoy. Sadly since I moved I don’t have the proper power/plumbing to brew like I used too. But I digress.
I think in a previous thread I mentioned I go whole hog into things I enjoy and I know that vaping is something I already knew I would enjoy.
I know some people are a bit leery of working with nicotine and I respect that. I worked for several years early in my career in a materials testing lab where we used now outlawed chemicals in our testing. I am familiar with hazardous mats handling and feel confident that I can work safely with nicotine.
That being said, true to my nature, I visited the DIYFlavorshack site today.
I ordered the premium DIY kit with 4 flavors, 20ml of 60mg no flavor, some pg to cut and a bunch of accessories. I augmented that with an additional 60ml of 60mg no flavor, 40 ml of 50pg/50vg, and a six pack of 10ml flavors. I should be in brewer’s heaven for awhile. Woot!
I owe this great feeling to this site. I have learned so much here and hope one day to be able to help others as the members here have helped me learn about this great alternative to smoking.
You guys Rock!
Cheers

 

[Elapid]

Vapr, glad to hear you are enjoying you new 510 and joining the vapor lovers on this forum. Not to worry, before long you will be an experienced PV'er and will help out more new people here. I don't think the PV will help you get off analogs, I KNOW they will.

 

[Rainbowz]

Wow, great post and welcome! I wish I had the finances to order so much up front... I would have ordered very similar. Isn't everyone here so helpful?

Cheers, Woot and all that good stuff to you!

 

[Mjrich]

Vapr,
Welcome.... and congrats on your new toy(s). You're going to love the 510 and all the fun flavors and mixtures you will be able to mix up and experience. I'm fairly new to this world and this site too but, like you, I think there are some great folks here with a whole lot of valuable information for us newbies. I think I've given up my cig addiction for a ECF addiction ~ LOL~ But, I'll take that any day!

Oh and it looks like we're neighbors too ~ Cool!

 

[Hoosier]

And that is the best thing about this site.

Everyone can learn at their own speed and enjoy the experience even before the PV comes in the mail.

 

[rosesense]

Welcome, sounds like you are going to have fun. I hope you shared recipes of ones that turn out greatl

 

[Kurt]

Vapr, welcome! That was a really great post! I am a chemist, and so I'm very happy that you have done your research and you are entering into this crazy wonderful world with a healthy respect for high-nic liquids, and the training to handle them properly. And that you have immediately decided to gear up for the fun of DIY is particularly great to see. Soon you will be making juices and kissing those analogs goodbye. I use a 510, and it is a great and satisfying PV right out of the starting block, but with some simple cart mods it can be much much better. And there are many batt mods available for the 510 atty, but enjoy it as it is now, as that is the only way to learn.

Some recommendations for things you might consider getting in addition to your kit:

Extra batts and attys. Sales abound, search the vendor forums on the home page of ECF.

A USB passthru (PT). They cost under $20, and are indispensable when on the computer.

Syringes for DIY. Perfect for accurate, safe and fast mixing. Drops are too variable in size, depending on liquid viscosity.

Vodka, Everclear, or distilled water for thinning very thick juices. Mine are all VG juices, as PG bothers me, and they are thick, so I use about 20% dist water.

Scubabatdan's e-juice calculator spreadsheet. Its in a sticky post in the DIY Forum.

Lots of paper towels. USPlastics sells cheap dropper bottles.

Extra blank carts.

You are going to have so much fun!! I am very excited for you, and the good news is it just gets better and better. You won't believe what you can do physically as you discard the analogs, and how the age clock will feel like it is in reverse!

Keep us posted with updates! I look forward to the new insights another trained professional will bring to this world. Vape on!!

 

[Vapr]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the great and supportive replies. Everyone here is so willing to help and is uber supportive of each other, what a great group of people!

Another cause for celebration....... As of 5pm today I past a mark I haven't been able to pass in over 5 years. I have made it 24 hours without an analog WOOOOT! Once I figure out how to add the days quit/ analogs avoided banner I think I am ready to add one.

I am loving the 510. It is keeping me well satisfied and not even thinking of lighting up. Tonight I am trying the JC Black Cherry....nice but I would prefer a bit more of a cherry note. Black Cherry is definitely a flavor profile I want to explore with the diy mats.

Kurt....I need to let the credit cards cool off for a bit, but your suggestions are all good.
I do have 3 batts, and 5 attys for now. But plan on augmenting both in a couple of weeks. Definitely need to stock up on carts, I really like the performance of the teabag modded ones I ordered with the kit so plan on sticking with making my own now.
The JC kit came with a couple of syringes and mixing bottles and the Flavorshack kit has even more so I should be ok.....never know though until I get stared.
Vodka is rarely out of supply at my house
I already downloaded Scubabatans spreadsheet, wow that thing is awesome....I was following the thread from the beginning and downloaded several versions as he tweaked it until I got smart and went to end of thread to find the latest.......looks like an excellent tool.
The other thing I think that you didnt mention but is on my list for safety is lots of disposable gloves and aprons. In addition some clear safety glasses.

 

[dgreen]

I love the 510

 

[lightinup]

Congrats and welcome to ECF! Happy Vaping!

 

[Kurt]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the great and supportive replies. Everyone here is so willing to help and is uber supportive of each other, what a great group of people!

Another cause for celebration....... As of 5pm today I past a mark I haven't been able to pass in over 5 years. I have made it 24 hours without an analog WOOOOT! Once I figure out how to add the days quit/ analogs avoided banner I think I am ready to add one.

I am loving the 510. It is keeping me well satisfied and not even thinking of lighting up. Tonight I am trying the JC Black Cherry....nice but I would prefer a bit more of a cherry note. Black Cherry is definitely a flavor profile I want to explore with the diy mats.

Kurt....I need to let the credit cards cool off for a bit, but your suggestions are all good.
I do have 3 batts, and 5 attys for now. But plan on augmenting both in a couple of weeks. Definitely need to stock up on carts, I really like the performance of the teabag modded ones I ordered with the kit so plan on sticking with making my own now.
The JC kit came with a couple of syringes and mixing bottles and the Flavorshack kit has even more so I should be ok.....never know though until I get stared.
Vodka is rarely out of supply at my house
I already downloaded Scubabatans spreadsheet, wow that thing is awesome....I was following the thread from the beginning and downloaded several versions as he tweaked it until I got smart and went to end of thread to find the latest.......looks like an excellent tool.
The other thing I think that you didnt mention but is on my list for safety is lots of disposable gloves and aprons. In addition some clear safety glasses.

You are correct! I did neglect to mention gloves. I have a box of nitrile gloves for when dealing with high volume of the high-nic juices. Apron generally means an old sweatshirt I don't care about, but a thick grilling apron is good too. And yes, I also have lab safety glasses. How refreshing for someone to finally come on here and tell me I had left safety items out! Usually it is me trying to impart sensible information to keep people safe, and the local cowboys telling me to not worry about it.

Since you are obviously gearing up for some real fun, you will find this processing, long-term storage and usage thread of interest, I'm sure.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/myfreedomsmokes/43742-smoke-juice-storage-tips.html

One thing that has to be considered: flavors are the most unstable chemicals in e-juice. Nic will react with O2 over time, but O2 solubility in PG or VG is very low, and the nic is generally encapsulated in its vehicle. But fruit flavors can decompose, since they are esters which can hydrolyse with water present. Other flavor types can decompose too. People have had still-sealed bottles of flavored juices in the fridge that went nasty after about 6 months. So while it is temping to make lots of premixed juices in the beginning, since it is SO much fun, I wouldn't recommend making more than you can vape. Better to make 3 mL test batches to play with recipes, or even less. The syringe allows mixing of 1 mL pretty accurately. I have a bunch of dropper bottles of failed juices that I will likely never vape, since my eyes were bigger than my lungs, so to speak, and while some flavors sounded great, they were not so good to vape.

But more discussion of this should likely be done in the DIY forum. Have fun with your new lab! Most excellent to see you taking the safety issue seriously. Hope the other thread is of benefit to you!

 

[Vapr]

Thanks to all who replied
Kurt: Thanks for the kind response about noting safety items. I wouldn't want anyone to miss the seriousness of the need to protect yourself from hi-conc. nic.
I appreciate the thread on storage will definitely be studying up on it.
You must have been reading my mind on test batches. I was playing with the juice calculator and was just contemplating how small of test batches I could start with to be able to reasonably create a usable base test batch of a flavor profile that I could tweak. 1 to 2 mls sounds like a good place to start.
Thanks for all the great tips!
I will start posting this sort of stuff to the DIY area, just wanted to reply. Dawn is working on my order today got an email from her. Can't wait for it to arrive.
Meanwhile the 510 is doing a great job!!

 

[Vapr]

Kurt: One quick question would a quick hit of C02 into the storage container, gently applied to displace 02 help in preserving flavors? I have some C02 equipment from my brewing days and seem to recall it is heavier than air.

 

[Kurt]

Kurt: One quick question would a quick hit of C02 into the storage container, gently applied to displace 02 help in preserving flavors? I have some C02 equipment from my brewing days and seem to recall it is heavier than air.

This has been considered before, but I honestly think it is overkill. Presence of O2 does not in general affect flavors, water in the juice over a long time does, though, with some flavors that can hydrolyze, like fruit esters. But this takes some months. The only thing that O2 might affect is nic itself, and this would only be for long term storage of high-nic unflavored juice. If there is little headroom anyway, and given the solubility of O2 in PG or VG is extremely low anyway, the amount of nic that would react is negligible, as in < 0.001% if that. Also, the nic is bound up in VG or PG and is in general not very mobile for the nic molecules to actually find and react with stray O2 molecules. So the O2 issue is not a concern at all, really, IMHO.

Plus, while I don't think it would react much, CO2 can make carbonates with some compounds. I doubt it would happen much at all, but if there was water in the juice being treated with CO2, it would lower the pH some and make some flavors even more unstable than they are at neutral pH with water present. If by container you mean the storage box that contains stored bottles of unflavored nic juice, CO2 in the container will do nothing one way or another, as all liquid is quite sealed in glass.

I would just store high-nic unflavored for long term without much headroom above the liquid, in the cold, and then make flavored juices and use them as needed. Ideally, you will be vaping them up long before any significant reaction can occur with any ambient species, like O2 or water. And if you have the euro dropper inserts, and just take unflavored juice with syringe, the amount of exchange with ambient air is small.

Of course, no one has yet stored a bottle of nic-juice for years yet and then tested the nic content and purity, since we haven't had such liquids long enough, but based on my knowledge of organic chemistry and nic chemistry, my storage method should be quite good. And I know at least one other professional chemist here that agrees with me, as we have discussed it at length. I do know that pure free-base nic, when stored in a sealed container, is virtually unchanged even after 10 years or more.

 

[Vapr]

Thanks Kurt,
Another greatly informative reply.
I have some rudimentary chemistry from school and the lab, and some from brewing school but nothing like what you are able to impart to a conversation.
I look forward to further discussion in the DIY area. Spoke with Dawn today, I misordered. Worked it out with her, I am going to be getting 19 different flavor of no nic to play with flavoring.....yeah its probably overkill, but dadgum it I am going to have some fun, and with all of the recipes on the calculator it has stirred several ideas for me of different approaches. One has to have the mats to experiment..... I am going to need a big journal.
Cheers Bud.