You don’t need a “lab” for DIY

[Whiplash]

I switched to ecigs nearly seven years ago and have been mixing my own juice from the beginning. Our home had a small office which I used for my lab. I used syringes at first but eventually acquired electronic scales, a magnetic stir-table, ultrasonic cleaner and more glassware. It was a hobby that paid for itself.

That home and its lab are gone. We now live in an RV but I still mix my own juice. The VG, PG, flavoring and glassware are in a plastic file box from Office Depot. Nicotine is in the freezer and mixed juice is stored in a craftsman tool box. Usually, there is enough stuff on hand to last a year (2500ml) and it takes up very little space.

I put together a shopping list for Amazon and Ecig Express. Go wild in the flavoring isle and your still under $150 for a year’s supply. If you have been using premium juice, you will save enough to buy a lot of new mods and tanks.

Portable File Box - $17.00
250ml Erlenmeyer Flask - $10.00
Digital Scale, 500g/0.01g - $15.00
12 - 2 oz (‪59‬ ml), Amber Glass Bottles - $12.00
Flavoring, 10ml - $3.00
Flavoring, 30ml - $8.00
VG, 1 Liter - $12.00
PG, 1 Liter - $12.00
Unflavored Nicotine Base, 250ml - $30.00 (I use 100mg/ml)

My point: You can do it. Start with small, simple recipes and keep a record of what you mix. With the help of our friends on ECF, you can DIY anywhere.

 

[Myk]

I see people talking about sterile (you're probably not sterile in a home, sanitary maybe). You don't need a clean room to make liquid for yourself. Clean is good enough. All those germs floating around are things you're intimately familiar with. Clean your kitchen counter, clean above your kitchen counter (dust and gravity are the killers, the small mouth of the bottles helps there). If you safely cook food there you can safely mix liquid for yourself.

Clean rooms are for manufacturers. You don't want to send your germs out to mingle with others who aren't familiar with them.

And this is coming from someone on immune suppression. You mixing for me, yes clean room please. Me mixing for myself, if I'll make a sandwich there I am safe to make liquid there.

 

[bombastinator]

The digital scale I can see as people mix by weight. I’ve found fishing tackle boxes beat file boxes because of the unfolding and handy little compartments. They are pricey though. For large measurements I went with some plastic graduated cylinders which work fine and are cheaper. The advantage of an erlameyer(sp?) flask is stirring and I generally just shake in the bottle.

 

[Whiplash]

True, and I think of this every time I see "John Doe's Juice" for sale. Do they mix it in the bath tub? Or is it safe?
I know where my juice comes from.

 

[Whiplash]

The digital scale I can see as people mix by weight. I’ve found fishing tackle boxes beat file boxes because of the unfolding and handy little compartments. They are pricey though. For large measurements I went with some plastic graduated cylinders which work fine and are cheaper. The advantage of an erlameyer(sp?) flask is stirring and I generally just shake in the bottle.

Two reasons for mixing by weight: more accurate and simple cleanup.
Most any boxes will work; I just need to be as compact as possible.

 

[DeloresRose]

True, and I think of this every time I see "John Doe's Juice" for sale. Do they mix it in the bath tub? Or is it safe?
I know where my juice comes from.

That’s a big part of why I started to diy. Aside from not finding anything that tasted good to me, and once I did, it was suddenly discontinued. When I went looking for juice, I was finding fairly unsanitary conditions where juice was being made. The place where I had bought my only good commercial juice was like a hospital, super clean, organized, really cool. But these local shops, well you could mix in your garage without washing your hands or wiping the tool bench, and it would still be more hygienic. Yuck.

I mix in my kitchen.

 

[Doctorvapes]

It's really true, if I can do it than anyone can.

I also mix in my kitchen and have no problems.

 

[NCC]

I've owned digital scales for years (decades likely). But, I use them for measuring (weighing) solids. I take issue with weighing liquids as being more precise than using syringes. Maybe it's a matter of technique and the syringes in use. For high precision, like for flavoring, I use a 1ml syringe which has graduations of 0.02ml. Visually split the difference between two marks and you're talking about 0.01ml. I doubt you can beat that with a gram scale...or that you would even need to unless mixing a couple ml at a time.

I'm aware of the trend of mixing by weight. It goes against my training (volume for liquids, weight for solids). But, whatever works for you is what is best for you. Thanks for sharing. I agree you don't need a lab. Chemistry lab equipment is fun though, isn't it? LOL.

 

[DaveP]

I've owned digital scales for years (decades likely). But, I use them for measuring (weighing) solids. I take issue with weighing liquids as being more precise than using syringes. Maybe it's a matter of technique and the syringes in use. For high precision, like for flavoring, I use a 1ml syringe which has graduations of 0.02ml. Visually split the difference between two marks and you're talking about 0.01ml. I doubt you can beat that with a gram scale...or that you would even need to unless mixing a couple ml at a time.

I'm aware of the trend of mixing by weight. It goes against my training (volume for liquids, weight for solids). But, whatever works for you is what is best for you. Thanks for sharing. I agree you don't need a lab. Chemistry lab equipment is fun though, isn't it? LOL.

You're probably right. Dripping drops of liquid into a scale involves settling time and scale lag. Some level of competence is built as you use the scale to mix ejuice. You learn the response of the scale and the art of pouring thick liquid into a bottle top ( I use funnels in the bottles).

What I like about mixing by weight is that you put one bottle on the scale and tare to zero, and pour the ingredients, taring the scale between each. When you're through with that bottle, you take it off, cap it and shake it, and put a label on it. Repeat with bottles 1 through X.

I throw away the pipette, fold the scale and box it, and put the caps back on my PG, VG, and nic. Done. There's usually nothing to wash.

I'm better at reading a digital scale display than I am at seeing liquid approach a line on a flask or beaker.

 

[zoiDman]

Two reasons for mixing by weight: more accurate and simple cleanup.
Most any boxes will work; I just need to be as compact as possible.

"Accurate" is kinda a Relative Term. Accurate to what?

And what happens when Numerical Measuring Accuracy in DIY Exceeds the ability for a Person to Taste the Difference? Is it still needed? Or are Less accurate methods which Taste the Same OK?

Don't get me Wrong. Not saying that a Scale is Not a Good Way to do DIY. Because the potential Reduced washing of stuff is a Huge Plus. At least to me.

Here is something I posted in another Thread awhile back...

It kinda Depends on what I'm Measuring.

For measuring 100mg/ml Nicotine Base to make "Pre-Mix", a Line on a 250ml Bottle is Enough.

For measuring VG and PG to add to my 250ml Pre-Mix Bottle, a Graduated Cylinder is Fine.

For Measuring Flavoring to be added with the Pre-Mix, a Scale (to me) is Hard to Beat.

How do you prefer to mea sure your recipe?

But, will All Things DIY, do what You Like the Best. And what You feel yields the Best Results for You.

 

[Marc411]

Personally I have tried both mixing by scale and syringes and I get the best consistency from syringes but to each their own. The cleaning of the syringes takes me a couple minutes and is well worth the consistency but in the end it is simply personal preference.

And I set up a mixing station using my old kitchen cabinets and countertops in my basement. My pg/vg and flavors are kept nice and cool, I have a slop sink to wash everything and I can keep a dedicated area nice and clean. My electric stirrer and all the tools needed are within arms reach.

 

[stols001]

I mix on my dining room table. While I probably have a bit more space than the OP, no you don't need a lab (although if I'm getting commercial juice, I prefer it to be from a lab, etc.)

Anna

 

[Mowgli]

 

[DaveP]

Personally I have tried both mixing by scale and syringes and I get the best consistency from syringes but to each their own. The cleaning of the syringes takes me a couple minutes and is well worth the consistency but in the end it is simply personal preference.

And I set up a mixing station using my old kitchen cabinets and countertops in my basement. My pg/vg and flavors are kept nice and cool, I have a slop sink to wash everything and I can keep a dedicated area nice and clean. My electric stirrer and all the tools needed are within arms reach.

Even with the ease of using a scale it takes me a few minutes get it all out of the cabinet, set everything up, and actually start mixing. Accuracy? Sometimes I tend to be heavy handed when I drip PG and VG using a condiment squeeze bottle. There's sometimes a last drip from the bottle that takes me over by a few milligrams in a 100ml mix, but it's probably within reasonable limits in the final product. Being the sole consumer I let it slide and the juice comes out fine for my taste.

I'm much closer in my nic dispensing. But, if there's an extra drip from the pipette, so be it. An extra drip of nic in 100ml doesn't hurt my feelings.

Flavors are probably my most accurate just because I use the dropper bottles the flavor comes in. You have to be off more than a drop or two to ruin a recipe (20 drops = 1 ml in most cases). Still, there's variance in flavor bottles that make small or large drops, so I have to take that into consideration.

I expect labs that make juice for sale to be well equipped and highly trained, but there's no FDA inspector that comes in and checks the quality of random bottles from the sales floor shelf, AFAIK.

We are probably getting our best juices from our own home DIY process, IMO. After all, they are made to our own taste and we know exactly what's in the bottle.

 

[Marc411]

We are probably getting our best juices from our own home DIY process, IMO. After all, they are made to our own taste and we know exactly what's in the bottle.

Absolutely agree..... And premium juice at a 10th of the expense.

 

[Hawise]

What I like about mixing by weight is that you put one bottle on the scale and pour the ingredients, taring the scale between each. When you're through with that bottle, you take it off, cap it and shake it, and put a label on it. Repeat with bottles 1 through X.

From a technical perspective, that wouldn't be the most accurate approach. In uni we were always required to record the mass of the container, add whatever and subtract to get the value - no taring of components we were weighing (er, massing?). Taring is imperfect and adds inaccuracy. Besides, the scale's never fully accurate so with a higher mass the inaccuracy is distributed over a larger value.

But that's in a lab. In a practical application, I'm willing to bet your approach is more accurate. Math has never been a problem for me, but I think over the long term a bunch of calculations would add more risk of error than the scale's inaccuracy.

 

[DaveP]

From a technical perspective, that wouldn't be the most accurate approach. In uni we were always required to record the mass of the container, add whatever and subtract to get the value - no taring of components we were weighing (er, massing?). Taring is imperfect and adds inaccuracy. Besides, the scale's never fully accurate so with a higher mass the inaccuracy is distributed over a larger value.

But that's in a lab. In a practical application, I'm willing to bet your approach is more accurate. Math has never been a problem for me, but I think over the long term a bunch of calculations would add more risk of error than the scale's inaccuracy.

When I was 19 I worked for a couple of years on a DOT survey team. Accuracy was pinpoint with a transit, level, and measuring with a 100' steel tape. Still, there was a common saying, "That's close enough for highway work!".

50 years later, I-75 is still running hundreds of thousands of cars daily and they all get where they are going!

I get an unexpected drip into the bottle here and there, but the juice is always good. I'm really careful with a 10ml mix, but with 50 and 100ml bottles the occasional extra drip doesn't ruin the mix.

 

[DeloresRose]

I think accuracy can be interpreted more than one way.

I recently told someone how to make hummingbird nectar, 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. She asked, how big is a part?

It simply doesn’t matter if all things are measured equally.

I think, if you’re good and steady with pouring, you’ll be accurate with a scale. It’s all about consistency either way. So what, if my measuring tools are not spot on? A part is a part, 6 parts of this and 8 parts of that are still a 3:4 ratio.

For me, pouring everything into one bottle would be disastrous. I would over pour everything. I don’t have steady hands. But I can see why it works for others, and the benefit of less clean up. Who knows, I may give it a go one day.

 

[classwife]

Moved to DIY E-Liquid from General E-Liquid Discussion

 

[NicotineRush]

I live in a 30' Toy hauler. Liquids in refer/freezer and mixing on the kitchen table. (by weight)