Looking to get a rough estimate of what it'd cost to start mixing my own for personal use. Nothing too fancy really, coumarin pipe tobacco so far is my favorite all day vape but I do like the candy and sour flavors as well.
glad I got here first. this crowd is rough to a question like this so I will give it to you easy.
research, there are plenty of things about start up kits, estimated cost, etc.
this reference for your hardware needed
and this for an Idea on start up flavors.
but don't take that and run with it. look around to fit your needs
I've been reading through the sidebar trying to get a grasp on it all. Seems right around $50-$100 for a basic starters setup is average price. Will check out those links as well and keep on reading.
I believe $100 is a good starting point, you'll save more if you can grab a bit more of the pg/vg and some 100mg nic (use care with the strong nic). I mean, that's only a handful of 30mls of store-bought price anyway.
Keep doing research and asking questions until you feel you have the right bit of info for your needs.
Definitely recommend mixing by weight FWIW (started with syringes, bought a scale and never looked back)
You can get a good start with $100. I just got my first shipment in this weekend and I spent about $80 for all of this.
Liquid Barn has a great starter kit for around 70 bucks. It has everything you need to get started.
Here is a great video that goes through the whole kit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp39tnEcKd0
Biggest tip I can give you to cut the cost is to but in as big of quantities as you can but only after you know you will use the flavor. Don't trust your stomach, try it first. I tend to buy 10ml samples and if I like it I buy it in 4oz when I need to restock. The 4oz is literally half the cost per ml from most the stores I purchase from
Amazon is a good place to go for PG/VG, bottles, lab glassware etc. Then choose one of the numerous options on the sidebar for nic and flavors. Then prepare to place several more orders for all the flavors you didn't realize you wanted!
Depends on how crazy you wanna get. Realistically you'll probably end up spending the most money figuring out what flavors work for you so I'd probably research that more than anything. A budget of $100 will give you a range of options if you can figure out some conservative flavor choices based on recipes or recommendations. As far as gear, when I started I did just fine with disposable pipettes, some 15mL glass bottles, vg, pg, and nic base. It's a little crude (especially for making small 5mL test batches) but works well enough for learning the the ropes. Eventually you might want to upgrade to syringes or eventually do away with all of that once/if you start mixing by weight.
On top of the already good advice here, in case any of this helps, I started with a very basic setup - your sources may vary but essentially I got the following items :
- Nicotine in PG
- Nicotine in VG
- VG
- PG
- Flavours
So far as equipment went some syringes in sizes of 1,5 and 10Ml with tips also. For storage the plain plastic bottles and drip tips/caps are OK but it's definitely nice to have some larger glass bottles to store your eventual ADVs in. Your mileage may vary etc, blah blah ;)
Cheapest way is to buy just flavoring and your nicotine at whatever level you want, mixed in roughly the ratio you want (less PG in the nicotine, the flavor will add PG), and just mix the two into a glass bottle you can re-use. More expensive is buying a scale, PG, VG, etc. It's also more expensive initially to buy in large quantities, but that drives the cost per ml down.
For your pipe tobacco, if it's MtBakerVapor, it's probably FlavorWest, and 4oz (which will last you a LONG time) is only ~$8. http://flavorwest.com/index.php/coumarin-pipe.html
As others have said $100 will do it. Interestingly, as I'm from the UK, the startup costs over here are around the same as well £100 will get you started. You will of course spend more because you won't know how to use the flavours you've bought and then you'll get more. I started about 4 months ago with 10 flavours and now have over 40, not because I'm extravagant but because I'm learning what I like and how to make my juices give me just that.
Roughly $100-150. I chose to go with a few graduated cylinders (10ml and 50ml), 100 disposable pipets, some blue glass bottles from amazon (boston something or other), 48 mg/ml nude nic, flavors for a clone recipe (TFA and Cap)and some stuff to mess around with and some pg/vg from essential (2g vg & 1g pg).
My startup costs were about $40.00 , i avoided all the syringes and mixing utensils since i know i didn't need any of it to mix successfully .
I just bought the flavors that i knew i would use and a PG/VG mix of my Nic level and that was it .
I didn't buy tons of flavors just because others told me to , i used empty juice bottles i already had .
Money saver right there. That probably what I am looking at doing. I already have a scale so I'd just go by weight and really only need a couple flavors (for now). I'd just have to buy some bottles.
Just make sure you mix all the ingredients really well and most of the time the recipe doesn't come together until a few days have passed.
I mean they are vapable right away but you got to just remember it takes a little time for all the flavorings to mesh , some take a day others longer.
Having a few mixing utensils that show (ml) amounts is helpful , you can find those just about anywhere though but they are super cheap .
After i get all the ingredients in a mixing cup etc.. i use those bamboo skewers for shish ka bobs to mix it around at first .
I then transfer it into an airtight container (very important) before i really mix it together.
If you want to be cheap about it you can order off amazon. They sell small bottles of liquid nicotine. My first bottle I bought off there was 12 dollars for a 10ml dropper bottle, bottle of vg was 12 bucks, empty bottles you can get for cheap. I just ordered 50 unicorn bottles of ebay for 30 bucks, if you only wanted 10 you can get them for a buck a piece or you can get 30 ml bottles for cheap, less than 10 bucks. Plus a pack of gloves and I would recommend getting some plastic syringes for measuring, if you are making 30 ml bottles you dont really need to measuring cylinders. 40-50 bucks before you get flavoring, you can get a sample pack or Lorann flavorings off amazon too for pretty cheap. I dont recommend Lorann but if you are looking for something cheap to start and see if you like it, you can go that route if you are penny pinching. But for me I get a big bottle of Nic from Nicvape for about 60 bucks that will last you ages and a big bottle of VG too, I dont use PG is my mixes. I have a bottle of it from when I first started making 50/50 blends but now I am making 80/20 and for 30 ml bottles I dont need PG at all. But depends on your preference. I would recommend checking out one stop DIY shop online. They sell flavors from all the various flavor companies to see what you like. Once you have an idea then go to flavor companies websites and order direct. I personally like one on one flavors and Flavor West and The Flavor Apprentice. Really you should budget for about 50-60 in supplies and another 50-60 in flavors. It wont be fun if you just buy 2-3 different flavorings. My first order from one on one I ordered a couple sample packs in 10ml bottles which didnt last long at all but got me to understand what I like and what I dont like. I ended up getting about 40 different flavors for 100 bucks. But for you to enjoy making liquid 100 dollar budget you need, anything less and your going to wish you ordered more flavors. I know I was rambling and jumping around a bit but you get the point, get luck to you. It is so much fun making your own liquid, nothing is better than nailing a recipe.
If I were to do it all over again, this is what I would do:
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Purchase all my flavorings, PG, and VG from one site (BCV, Gremlin, etc.), instead of buying from all over the place and wasting money on shipping.
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Purchase a scale like this one
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Purchase 15ml or 30ml plastic dropper bottles off ebay like these
Look up tutorials on how to mix by weight and that's basically all you need to get started.
50 30 ml ldpe dropper bottles from ebay- 15$ Wiz lab 120ml 36mg in pg-13$ 10 wz lab flavors, 15$ 5 blunt needled 3ml syringes, 7$ Quart of vegetable glycerin from amazon 13$. This would last you quite a while, for 63$, 70$ or so if you add EM and shipping. If you plan on going with wiz labs the flavors I use almost every day- tfa: juicy peach, yellow peach, strawberry ripe, NECTARINE, honeydew (melon?), grenadine. Capellas- sweet strawberry, raspberry.
I think I bought my initial order for around $30 including mixing supplies. It was a simple two flavor recipe, nic, syringes, plastic funnel, plastic beaker, vg. etc.
If you have no supplies yet, I'd suggest heading over to Essential Depot to get a huge quantity of either VG or VG/PG cheap. If you're going for VG only, I'd get this and if you want a VG/PG split, I'd get this. You can use the code EDPC10 to get an additional 10% off. The reason I'd suggest these options is that not only are they cheap at around 35 dollars, you get free shipping in the US on what comes out to be around a 22 pound parcel, something that should probably cost between 30 and 50 dollars in shipping alone. It's a hefty amount that should last for a while, so it's a good investment.
Awesome, thanks for the links and the coupon code. Have you ever used Flavor West flavors? That's mainly who I'm looking at right now.
I haven't, I'm generally picky with flavors (not a fan of artificial ones or any artificial colors/sweeteners), so I've only used Medicine Flower Brand. The prices might seem high at first, but you literally use drops per 30mL of fluid, so the stuff lasts forever. It's sort of tricky to work with, there are no standards that apply to all flavors (each flavor has a different usage level), so if you don't have a concern for artificial flavors like I do, you may want to steer clear of it, but in my personal beliefs, the flavor profile of MF is absolutely amazing.
I cheaped out and got a few drams to try from lorann. Got a bottle of VG from a local cosmetics store and ordered 30ml/100mg nicotine pg base from a company a province over.
Then got some free syringes from a pharmacy and I'm gold. Don't have gloves or a resperator lol. I'm just super careful.
All in all about 70 bucks. I'll run out of vg within a month but the flavors and nicotine should last much longer.