Let's say you are testing flavors and mixing small batches of 5ml, are you guys using drops or actually measuring? It seems when experimenting, measuring all that and screwing with syringes would be a pain.
How accurate is the drops calculations that a program like eJuicemeUp will give?
If I were you, I'd run some tests of my own using the same gauge needle with a 3ml syringe across a sample of maybe 10 of so flavors that ideally are at the temperature you would be mixing. And then I'd either assign specific drops/ml values in my calculator or maybe use an average if my results were really close. If they weren't close, I might gradually work my way through my entire flavoring collection as needed.
I've heard drops/ml can vary wildly depending on a lot of conditions; gauge of needle, working temperature, and the specific surface tension of each flavor concentrate can all affect the droplet's volume when the mass finally overcomes the surface tension characteristics.
As an example, a flavoring with a significant percentage of alcohol will likely produce smaller droplets, as it will probably have less surface tension than one with PG alone. I've actually heard of some people getting up to 60 drops out of a single ml of fluid. That will really mess your recipe up if you're expecting 20.
It may be worth your time to run these tests if accuracy is paramount, and then again maybe it's not important to you. Personally, I don't use drops as a reliable and reproducible system of measurement unless I plan to always use drops regardless of recipe scale. But if I do ever change my methods, I'll probably invest the time in finding out exactly how many drops/ml there actually are in my flavorings.
Ymmv.
measuring by weight is a good option... does away with the need for gruaduated syringes and pipettes. You can get a decent, 2 decimal place gram scale for like $10–$20. Might not be SUPER accurate for tiny test batches, but seems to work good for 10 mL and up.
How does that do away with pipettes? What are you using to move the flavors?
I use syringes and NEVER use pipettes, so I don't know what you're using them for when you use syringes.
i use flavors with "squeeze bottles" or- for the rare TFA flavors I use- glass droppers with rubber "squeeze bulbs. "
likewise, a "squeeze bottle" for nic. PG and VG, i just pour in to a wide mouth mixing test-tubey deal (from Nude Nicotine)
A graduated cylinder?
I have those but never used them, I mostly make 30ml bottles and I have a 50ml cylinder and I imagine waiting for all the juice to pour and waste of some stuck to the sides would annoy me ... but I might try it.
The funnel/lip didn't seem large enough to easily pour into such a tiny opening as on an ejuice bottle.
How large are you bottles of PG/VG? Cause mine are 1 liter and their openings are also way too large for me to want to easily pour into even a graduated cylinder.
I need to figure something out with squirt bottles or such.