While I can respect and appreciate the convenience of ordering everything from one place..... Do yourself a favor and order your nicotine base from Nude Nicotine or get Vapers Tek nicotine. It's a small extra expense, and it makes a massive difference.
I'll look into that thank you.
No need to look into that. Keep what you have. I use WL for everything and its great stuff. You will be told that it is peppery and what not. Its not or its not any more then NN or VT as you will find posts stating that their NN was peppery. Note that all my mixes are 3mg and 6mg. Ive never made higher and zero plans of doing so. If you mix it at higher then 6 it might be peppery I wouldn't know. All I know is that I've tried them all and I'm sticking with what works for me.
cheers
I'd probably suggest more VG (unless you mix high PG mixes). I mix 50/50 or higher VG, and go through 3-4 times more than PG.
Grab a couple larger syringes. I use 10 and 20mL syringes for moving base liquids, especially when mixing 30mL or larger bottles.
Otherwise, I think you have all you need to get started. You'll be picking up more flavors soon, lol.
If you mix by weight, my understanding is that you don't need the syringes. Am I mistaken?
I'm not saying that the OP is planning on mixing by weight; I was just curious. I looked at a guide on this sub for mixing by weight and the consensus in the thread seemed to be that mixing by weight was much easier, so I figured that's how most people would do it.
Many folks do mix by weight. If you take the time to get exact weights of each flavor, etc., it will be the most accurate. That being said, you still have to move liquids from source to destination. Syringes are reusable for most flavors. Pipettes usually are not. ☺
It is easier and you don't need syringes or cylinders. I still think most people mix by volume though.
mixing by weight is only easier after you do the legwork of weighing your components and purchasing the necessary equipment. If you don't already have a scale and beakers, or the weights of your liquids, volume requires less work.
I think most people mix by volume because the effort is distributed, whereas going by weight requires more up-front effort.
Should I get the nicotine in pg or vg? I plan on making mostly high vg juices.
If you want very high VG mixes, then probably VG. When nic is suspended in PG, it tends to last longer with less degradation, but there's a lot of factors. So, as long as your source is good (which Wizard Labs is from everything I've seen and read), it's simply a matter of preference.
Just to give you an idea: I get my nic in PG. I mix either 50/50 or 30/70 usually. Most of my 30/70 recipes require little to no PG. Average 10-20% flavor profile.
looks like your gonna mix up some of fizzmustards nana cream, stuffs good, you just need some citric acid and you're g2g
Haha thats exactly what I was planning.
commenting here because it's relevant to nana cream, but I had another point too. First, grab yourself a couple 10ml and 3ml bottles. If you ever want to try an adjustment to your recipe, making a 10ml batch is less wasteful. The 3ml bottles are so you can throw a little bit in and give em to friends or family to show off your juice-fu. They're so cheap that you can't lose by grabbing 2-3 of each.
My main suggestion is to get a vial of TFA banana cream. Make the same recipe as fizzmustard, but sub LA banana cream for the TFA. It tastes distinctly different (cavendish banana vs gros michele) but it's also very good. I personally use half and half in my mixes, but at 1.49 per flavor it's hard not to try. For the same reason, get 2 vials of strawberry. It's great alone, and it's also the main ingredient so you'll run out of that first.
quick edit: i notice you have a shitload of base and only single vials of flavor. 1 vial of each will get you something like 120ml of nana cream, so you need way more to utilize your base ingredients, but I'm sure you noticed this before I did.
Where can I get citric acid? Is that a standard find like ethyl maltol?
I got mine from nude nicotine but you can also make some if you get the powder. The normal solution is 10% citric acid and the rest PG.
You really don't need the graduated cylinders.
I also suggest 100mg nicotine since it's the best value.
You probably want more bottles, 10ml and 30ml. My first order I got 15 of each and it wasn't enough so I ordered another 20 each.
Getting a gallon of VG and pg is way overkill for 4 flavors. My first purchase I got 250 mL of both PG and VG and 20 flavors and they lasted me months and months.
That PG/VG will last you a year and those flavors will last you 2-4 weeks.
I like the idea of being able to work with the graduated cylinders honestly. I will be grabbing more bottles for sure and am waiting on the availability of larger ones. I will also be getting more flavors, those are just what i grabbed at the time
If you want larger bottles of flavoring I haven't seen prices better than heartlandvapes. They sell Cap and TFA. around 8 dollars for 4oz.
Most other places I've looked sell 4oz bottles of flavoring from 12-25 dollars.
I agree with IllustratedMann, you will never use the graduated cylinders. If you don't want to mix straight to your 30ml bottle (which you will after you see how much faster, cleaner and easier it is) then get a couple of Griffin Beaker's. Mix it and then put the Griffin Beaker in a warm bath to thin out the juice and then dump into your 30ml.
And get 100mg nic. No reason to get anything else.
Another vote to scrap the graduated cylinders. I had a couple that came in a starter kit I started out with and I have never used them. Not even once.
I know it sounds pricey and advanced to get a good scale and measure by weight but it isn't either of those ($30, simple and quick, plus almost no cleanup). It's at least worth considering.
> You really don't need the graduated cylinders
I'm new to all this, but after mixing a few bottles including one relatively complex mix, and viewing some videos of someone using a graduated cylinder, it seems like it would be MUCH easier to do with one.
You can literally just drip into it and still be able to measure fractional mL with ease, without having to dirty up an ultimately clean out a syringe or pipette.
Is there a reason why you suggest against them?
I wouldn't, and I don't know anybody here who would suggest mixing by drips. Especially with fractions of mLs, accuracy is incredibly important.
Dirtying a syringe is a non-issue, just keep a cup of water on your station and it takes less than 3 seconds to rinse it out.
Drops vary widely based on what tip you are dripping out of. If the measurement is .1ml, or however many drops, why not just use the syringe so you know it's accurate if you already spent money on them and have them next to you?
Plus having to the clean cylinders far outweighs saving time on not cleaning syringes.
Basically, either measure with syringes or with a scale. I really, really doubt anybody will tell recommend measuring by drops.
> I wouldn't, and I don't know anybody here who would suggest mixing by drips. Especially with fractions of mLs, accuracy is incredibly important
That's what I'm saying though.. It's not measuring by drips, you're measuring with the graduated cylinder. Drip into it until you hit the .3mL mark... then get your next flavor and if you need .2mL drip until it hits the .5mL mark.
It's not measuring in drips like most people think of, it's like mixing everthing inside the syringe itself, and you don't have to clean them in between flavors.
Here's a video of a guy mixing a simplified recipe (.5mL) this way.. but if you had a smaller GC with .01 marks you could get very accurate with it.
http://youtu.be/gtVjXcN-RvA?t=9m35s
If you're selling juice it's one thing, but I don't see how this method is any less accurate than using a syringe. I may be missing something though.
I personally like ripe banana better than banana cream
I want to do the same. Can u give me a rough estimate as to what u r spending
Have you considered mixing by weight? It can save you some money, as you don't need all the syringes and needles, just some disposable pipettes and a scale.
Also, make sure you get some nitrile gloves for when you work with the nicotine.
That's not a lot of flavors, but you can always expand later! I would consider getting plain banana and then a cream (vanilla, sweet, or bavarian), as you would still have the ability to do a banana cream, plus you could do cream flavor without banana.
How do i go about mixing by weight? All the recipes I've seen go by percentages.
You would have to convert the recipe, using the specific gravity of your ingredients. The specific gravity for PG & VG is easy to find, and flavors are close enough to 1mg = 1ml that most people just use that ratio.
e-liquid-recipes.com shows their recipes in both ml and mg. There is also more information in the sidebar, but I'll link here cause I'm nice :D
*edit: e-liquid-recipes does not have it by weight for the recipes saved by others, but when you make your own it does, so you would have to copy the values into the create your own recipe section, or use one of the calculators linked in the guide.
**edit: If you make an account, you can go to "update profile", and it will give you the option to show recipes in grams. Recipes will then display in ml & grams, instead of ml & drops.