I just got about 20 flavors in just waiting on my nic base and syringes, bottles, etc.
I've read a lot into this and downloaded the ejuice calc.
Is there anything tips/tricks or something you've made a mistake doing that would help me out?
I'm very excited. Any info would help. Thanks
Huh, too many to list really. Be sure to ask questions as they come up. This sub isn't heavily used but a lot of us are knocking around.
Some people like to warm VG in a water bath to make it easier to work with (stupid thick). A lot of us don't use a needle anymore and room temp works just fine. Just draw it straight into the syringe.
The black marking on syringes rub off VERY quickly. Take some clear tape and cover them or you'll be buying more soon.
If you have TFA/TPA Ripe Banana, never use it in syringes or anything plastic. It will literally melt your syringe. It is fine once you get it into the bottle though.
To get a super fast concept of all your flavors and their relative potency, take a shot glass of water and drip one drop into it. Swish it around in your mouth and spit it out.
Go ahead and order this 50 pack of bottles - $9.50. Once they come in, leave out the nic and make a 5% or 10% solution of every one of your flavors and drip them over the course of a few days. If you don't know what they taste like, you'll never use them and this is the fastest way to go to town. If you find ones you love, make a 10ml mix however you like. Later, you can start adding other flavors to it. Also, you can never have too many bottles and constantly washing a small stash gets old real quick.
If you find yourself burning through PG or VG, you can get great VG cheap on Amazon and a gallon of PG at Tractor Supply for $20.
The initial investment may seem a tad steep but trust me, you basically vape for free once you are set up. My brother still gawks when I toss bottles of juice but really, it is like a dime, so whatever.
Recipes online are getting better and I'd like to see this sub get together to clone a lot of the more famous flavors. Check out the Honey Peary thread for example. We're really damn close on that. I'll be getting started on Apple Bourbon Tobacco next week but will need some help on the tobacco bit as I'm not experienced in using them.
Oh, and if you don't already have one, get one or more dripping atomizers pronto. A 510 bridgeless atty will do if you aren't already familiar with RDAs.
I guess my last tip for now is to download "eJuice Me Up". Not sure what calc you have, but that is by far the best at the moment.
OH!!! Record everything! You WILL forget!
Should I mix just 5ml samples or 10 at first? Or does it even matter?
Oops, yeah, I'd do 5ml samples. They are somewhat difficult to do however without a 1ml syringe. The amount of flavoring gets really small.
I do 5ml samples all the time with 10ml syringes.
My method... I have a little blunt metal tool that fits perfectly into the end of the syringe to plug it. I take the plunger completely out of the syringe, plug it, invert it. I have this handy little mixing calculator handy. I add VG first, measured in milliliters. Then I add my base (100mg) measured in drops. Then I add various flavors, also measured in drops. Then I top it up to 5ml with PG. I then put the plunger back in, invert it and give it a really good shake. Then I take the plug out.
I have lots of 10ml syringes... I just keep the juice in them, to steep or to use right away (a blunt needle tip helps prevent splooshes).
I realize drops are frowned upon, they are not accurate... but they make for a quick and easy mix for experimental juices, not production juices.
Less is more. When I first started doing DIY I would sit down in the evening for a mixing session. I would mix little juices, try them immediately... and soon I was overwhelmed and couldn't taste anything! So I would add more flavor... and all I could taste was nastiness. I blamed the flavors. I blamed my palate. I blamed the hour... it was late evening, and I was tired. I was smoking trees at the time, and I blamed that too.
But the problem wasn't any of those things. The problem was, I was mixing flavors too strongly, then stronger again as I tried to compensate.
So my advice is... take it easy on the % of flavors in a mix, especially when you're having an experimental mixing/tasting session. 15% is recommended for a mixed juice, as a baseline... but it is too strong to start with when you're experimenting. You can always make it stronger later. Probably you should go easy on the nicotine during these sessions as well. Try some 0-nic juice, so you know what it's like, so you know what nicotine does to the flavors and throat hit. And be sure to try some pure PG and pure VG... they have a flavor too.
And remember to let your juices steep too. Of course you will try them right away... you should do this anyway so that you can learn how they change with age.
Take your time. This isn't something one can learn overnight.
And welcome to the DIY e-Juice club! This is fun... you will see!
Less is more is a HUGE tip.
Damn near every ADV I mix now has gone down in flavor percentages over time. I imagine you know, but for others, one of the other pitfalls is that for many/most flavors, at a certain point, more flavorant results in less flavor as it overwhelms you. So people often chase mixes right up the scale! Also, the higher you go, the faster you'll get vape tongue.
Always start a bit lower than you think!
I'm having much better success now, not just because of the less is more principle, but from all the activity on /r/DIY_eJuice. Recipes, advice on where to get stuff, comparisons of flavors...
This is fun.
No kidding, it is a hell of a lot of fun. It certainly can get frustrating though. We are definitely living the Wild West of diy. In a year or two I'm sure people will be able to hop on a wiki, grab rated recipes, and spin out gourmet juices on their first day. I'm enjoying the exploration, but I do look forward to that as well. :)
vape tongue?
Olfactory fatigue. Vapor's tongue is a misnomer because it is actually your sense of smell, not your 'taste'.
You know how if you're around a bad smell long enough you just kind of get use to it and can't smell it anymore? Yeah, it happens in vaping as well with flavors. You'll just get use to some juices and they'll lose their flavors.
Remedies include swapping among several juices, a drop of lemon juice on the tongue, and sticking your face in a can of coffee (this is the best and what spice merchants etc do).