Made this as a reply to someone on /r/electronic_cigarette asking about DIY. After some input, I've heard it is quality, and I personally haven't seen anything with 90% of the information required to start in one place. Mods, please let me know if this isn't appropriate. I'd honestly just like to help out people looking into getting into making their own juice.
TL:DR- Save money by fapping, looking at /r/DIY_eJuice for recipes, buying shit, playing chemist, and fapping some more ~~while~~ then vaping your creation. $66 for ~400ml, only to get cheaper overtime.
As a broke college student, I jumped in to save money. Skip using syringes to measure volume; just mix by weight. I use Ecigexpress for a good portion of my purchases. Prices will be based off of them.
-
Fap. A lot. Or give handjobs if that's your thing. I promise this is important. If you're ~~lame~~ awesome, you can also buy a shake weight.
-
Look for recipes you like on the /r/DIY_Ejuice subreddit. You can either look at the top posts, or search for juices you like. There might be a clone, or a clone attempt.
-
Buy your supplies. The startup can be a little expensive, but IMHO is worth it in the long run.
- Flavorings- Start with the smaller 10ml sizes unless you know you'll use them a ton (menthol, koolada, sweetener, etc). Those might run you about.... $3-$5 depending. Say you start with ten flavors (you might not have to, but up to you), then you're at $30-$50 for flavoring.
- VG/PG- Unless you want max VG, I'd recommend buying both separately. 250MLish of each each should be enough for you to decide if DiY is your calling. 250 ml of PG and 250ml of VG will run you $5.29 a piece, so round up and call it $11 for your PG/VG base.
- Nicotine- Fuck whatever you've heard. Buy 36 mg/ml in a 50/50 PG/VG blend. Higher strength might lead to more flavor, but IMHO not worth the risk at all. Ive been using 36 mg/ml for seven months, and I have no complaints, and I haven't died ~~if~~ when I spill the nicotine. Win win. Also, you want 50/50 as a max thickness to avoid any "hotspots" (uneven strength of the nicotine) after shaking. There's a debate on where to buy your nic from, but for my uses ECX wins with price. Haven't had anything of super high quality, but I've had zero complaints with the four or five batches I've ordered from them. 30ml of 50/50 36 mg/ml strength nic will run $5.
- Gram scale- for mixing by weight. Make sure it's accurate down to the 0.00 grams range. The other thing to look at is the max capacity. The smaller ones will have a lower capacity, thus gigantic batches won't be able to be made, but if you're going for 30-60ml, this has never been an issue for my 200g scale.** Found it on Amazon for $14** Though I'd check /r/DIY_eJuice for their list of recommended scales should you be able to find a better one.
- Bottles- You can reuse the ones you have currently after a good wash, or buy your own. I wouldn't recommend buying these 30ml cobalt dropper bottles due to the fact that they leak like a bitch, never really close securely, and the fact that they doubled in price since I bought them.If you need new bottles, I'm sure you could find a dozen or so bottles for $6ish or so. EDIT- Found these. 30ml glass bottles- $0.70/ each. 30ml standard plastic dripping bottle- $0.39/each. ** Glass Pros- Holds less flavor after a wash, also some say they don't leech the chemicals plastics to, and mess up your flavor. Cons- More expensive, marginally not as convenient as plastic bottles for dripping/refilling a tank. Plastic: Somewhat easier to seal, and cheaper than glass. Cons- Potential leeching of chemicals that may mess up your juice after extended storage. I've personally never experienced anything noticeable, but to each their own.
- Total of $66+ (plus $25 for your very own Shakeweight) or so, but YMMV. For ~400 ml that you can fine tune to your liking. This cost will decrease if you continue, as you probably won't have to buy another scale or more bottles for a while unless you really want to.
- Mix! Here's my go to mixing calculator. Not as 'advanced' as some of the other ones, but fuck it. It's simple, but provides a great layout to grow into. Go make yourself an account while you're waiting for your ingredients, and play around with it a bit. Hell, here's a ~~fan~~ friend/roomate favorite of mine. If you like root beer, I guarantee you'll like this. Three ingredients, and super simple. You can edit to add your preferred nicotine strength and/or final PG/VG ratio. EDIT: Banana nut bread that's also a friend favorite. Even easier.
- Mixing process- After finding a recipe you want to make, and getting your supplies in, shake the fuck out of all your ingredients, especially your nicotine. If the recipe isn't already on the calculator, put everything in yourself (flavor and percent), making sure to identify your nic strength, the PG/VG ratio of your nic, and the desired PG/VG ratio of your juice.
- Put your bottle on your scale, zero it out.
- Shake each flavor again. A lot. Put all that fapping to good use.
- Add each flavor to the corresponding weight (in grams) according to the calculator. MAKE SURE TO SHAKE EACH FLAVOR BEFORE ADDING IT TO THE BOTTLE I start with the nic, then flavors, then VG/PG. I don't really thing there's a right way, but that's been my system.
*Close your bottle.
*Shake the fuck out of it again. See how important masturbation is to training for this?
- The mixing process really only takes 5-10 minutes, it's not that bad once you get it down. Promise.
-
Vape/steep!- Whew! That was a bit of effort! But if you find this interesting for one reason another, I will confirm it can be VERY rewarding. If it sounds like too much work for little yield, then so be it. I'd still recommend giving it a shot.
-
Enjoy! Feel free to message me or SEARCH /r/DIY_eJuice if you have any questions. Always would love to help someone else.
Great post!
-
36mg/mL nicotine is awesome. No need to go larger until you're mixing mad volumes.
-
Does that scale come with a calibration weight? Does it need one?
Have 4 unicorn bottles on me /u/changetip
Thanks, man! Really appreciate it!
-
Hell yeah. has served my purposes perfectly
-
I does not. Not sure scientifically how accurate it is, but has served my fine for my mixing needs and my room mate's "medical" useage.
barcantholdmyusernam received a tip for 4 unicorn bottles (5,204 bits/$2.17).
--
From the looks of it that scale doesn't have a calibration weight with it. This scale does come with two 200g weights for calibration. It's a tad bit more expensive but it does have an AC adapter as well as battery options so you don't need to use batteries.
Worth the price. Not even just for the calibration weights but so you can make 120ml easily. Every 120ml glass bottle I have is 108-109 grams already. I make 100ml in that bottle and for the last one I made that was 119 grams including flavor, nic, vg/pg. So we are now at almost 230 grams total and the linked scale is 200 grams max.
So it would be alright to buy the cheaper one if you only ever plan on making 30 and 60ml bottles I guess. I can almost guarantee that people will move up into higher weights to reduce the time they spend mixing though.
American Weigh Scales LB-501 Digital Kitchen Scale
|||| --:|:--|:-- Current|$22.91|Amazon (3rd Party New) High|$41.83|Amazon (3rd Party New) Low|$20.00|Amazon (3rd Party New) |Average|$24.48|30 Day
Price History Chart and Sales Rank | PriceZombie is shutting down...
36mg is pretty good - and it's where I started. However a smaller bottle of 100mg goes a lot further(and can be bought cheaper) and is easier to calculate on how much to cut when mixing odd mg's or small mg's that aren't straight cuts of 36 like 12, 6 or 3 without using a calc. Granted you have to be a little more mindful when using it because it's strong!
A calibration weight isn't what I would call essential. Many people make a huge deal over being extremely exact in their measurements - which is crucial for bigger batches. Truth be known if you're off on most things .2-.5 you will never be able to tell if you are mixing 30mL at a time like I do. But having one doesn't hurt - especially if you have a flavor that you can tell the difference or depending on your level of nicotine tolerance. Personal experience may vary from user to user though and I can only speak from my perspective.
I bought a scale on Amazon for ~$25 that came with the calibration weights so price shouldn't be a major determinant on getting a decent scale.
Just to add; when buying your flavor concentrates, don't just buy things that you thing sound good. You'll save money if you buy concentrates that are in proven recipes that you are interested in making, and then buy a few experimental flavors in addition.
I replied to a different thread with this information but I figured I'd post it up here for more people to see as well.
All I did was read some of the sidebar on /r/diy_ejuice, did some research on vendors, and some of the top posts on diy_ejuice sorted by year. Then I said fuck it and just dived in.
This video gave me a lot of confidence to get started. You can ignore the math stuff if that scares you away. There's a ton of great calculators out there that do it all for you. I put in some sample recipes on this calculator that I use and it looks like it's going to be an ingredient cost of a whopping ~$1.30 per 30ml of juice.
I'll leave some info here like which recipes and flavors I picked out. Along with all the stuff I bought to mix by weight. My list should help you if you want to compare prices with other vendors. BUT, please use or buy safety equipment when working with nicotine. It's not in my lists below because I already have necessary gloves, goggles, and clothing.
Hopefully it helps someone out there to make the switch. If I can do it, you can do it.
Supplies from Nude Nicotine:
Product | Price ---|--- 60mg/mL Nicotine Base - Size: 120mL - Solvent: 100% VG | $16.00 Propylene Glycol (PG) Size: 120mL|$4.00 Vegetable Glycerin (VG) Size: 250mL|$5.00 Nude Nicotine Test Kit - HIGH RESOLUTION|$10.00 Plastic Amber Storage Bottles Size: 60mL|$1.50 Subtotal|$36.50
Notes: After further research, I would go with 100mg/mL Nicotine Base because it's worth it for the extra money, 60mg/mL is diluted more with VG. The Amber storage bottles are for splitting up the nicotine so it's easier to work with and it help keep it fresh. You may also want to look into Carolina Xtract for a higher quality nicotine and it's more expensive, but I figured Nude Nicotine is fine to start with.
Additional supplies from Amazon:
Product | Price ---|--- American Weigh Scales LB-501 Digital Kitchen Scale | $24.91 Plastic Transfer Pipettes 3ml, Gradulated, Pack of 100|$5.50 Wilton Set of 2 6-Ounce Mini Melting Decorating Squeeze Bottles|$4.07 Avery Removable Labels, Rectangular, 1 x 3 Inch, White, Pack of 72 (06728)|$4.99 30mL LDPE Plastic Bottle w. Childproof Cap|$15.95 Subtotal|$55.42
Notes: The decorating squeeze bottles are for the VG/PG to make it easier to pour into the ejuice bottles.
Flavors from Bull City Vapor and Grimlin DIY:
Product | Price --------|------ Bavarian Cream-TFA 30ml | $4.00 Juicy Peach-TFA 10ml | $1.75 Pear-TFA 10ml | $1.75 Ripe Strawberry-TFA 10ml | $1.75 Vanilla Swirl-TFA 10ml | $1.75 Apricot (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Banana Cream (Colorless) (LA) 5ml | $1.50 Cheesecake (Graham Crust) (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Dragonfruit (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Mango (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Raspberry Sweet (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Strawberry (TPA) 5ml | $1.50 Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (TPA) | $1.50 Subtotal|$23.00 Notes: As you can see, I went a bit wild with flavors. But that's because I'm pretty damn picky on what I like and I want to make as much juice as I can ASAP so I can start saving some $$.
I looked around on reddit and http://e-liquid-recipes.com/ for some top and simple recipes I thought I might like to get started. I ended up with:
- Mustard Milk - Simple Strawberries and Cream - by fizzmustard
- Blue Voodoo clone - by gu1doh
- Bombies 'nana cream - by fizzmustard
- Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream - by termoventilador
- Sinful Dragon Drip - by BandWheels
- Chrono's Strawberry Astronaut Clone - by TheDoobie
- Sucker punch clone 50ml - by Menace21
Good post. The only thing I'm going to argue is that I'm still on my first liter of PG, but have gone through quite a few gallons of VG.
I knew all that fapping would come in handy one day! Awesome info for someone thinking about getting in to DIY. Even though I've escaped the realm of the noob (some might disagree =P ) I find it super interesting to read and watch intro tips. I appreciate the post.
Transfer pipettes are really nice for flavorings if you happen to order flavors that come in containers with a cap rather than in LDPE dropper bottles. I got these, although an amazon search of "pipettes" would yield results of lesser quantity for a smaller initial cost. I got 500 because I knew I would be using them all eventually.
When I started my own DIY adventure in January, I ordered those very same cobalt dropper bottles on Amazon and I agree that they're complete crap. The dropper separated completely from the cap on one bottle and the dropper cap cracked on another one. So that's two lost out of twelve. Where were you when I was getting started? LOL
The AWS scale that I purchased is bigger than the one you listed, but it's very sturdy and accurate. It does come with calibration weights and a power supply so you don't have to swap batteries, but after three months I haven't had to swap yet or plug in the power supply. Also, you only need to calibrate it if you end up moving it around like I do (I don't have a dedicated space for mixing juice) or you notice that the measurement fluctuating on the display and you haven't placed anything on it yet.
ELR has been a huge help for me, probably moreso than this sub has been. It has helped me immensely in seeing what ingredients go in what recipes and I hope that one day I'll get really smart about mixing and be able to start contributing my own recipes :)
I haven't had any experience with ecigExpress thus far, but I believe they have a bigger flavor selection than anybody else. I do find that their prices are a wee bit higher than Bull City Vapor. I'll probably start buying items that are out of stock at BCV or that they don't carry. Also, BCV is located in North Carolina (I live in Virginia) so shipping is super fast for me (I placed an order with them at 9PM on Thursday and I got it on Saturday).The best thing about them is that they put their flavors in their own dripper bottles instead of just putting a cap on them like Wizard Labs does. That being said, I'll see if I can just take the dripper off and use my pipettes instead.
I first ordered my PG/VG from Wizard Labs when I started DIY, but recently switched to buying from Essential Depot on Amazon. At $11 for a quart of each, I can make around 40 30ml bottles before I need to re-up on my VG supply. The PG will last me a lot longer than that. The nicotine I bought from Wizard Labs was 120ml at 100mg VG. Looking back now I think that it was a mistake to do the VG base and will change that to PG next time I order more nicotine.
You make a very important point about shaking the flavors before adding them to a mix. It ensures that the flavor is well-combined because the contents of the bottle that it came in WILL separate if you don't use them for a while.
Thanks for a great post!
Awesome post! This is exactly what the new mixer needs to read. One thing that helped me a lot was selling to my friends. At first I wanted to make a nice profit on juice because those 'premium' makers charged so much. But I realized I would rather sell cheap juice to some friends and make them happy. I only charge a few dollars now $5/30ml and what little profit I make contributes to new flavors to experiment with. Thanks to this sub everyone thinks I'm a juice chef. lol!