I've been lurking on this subreddit for a while now, and learned a lot about DIY. I just started about 2 months ago, but I'm already creating by own ADV, and I haven't bought juice from a vendor in about 6 weeks.
So it is about time I gave back a little. I'm still learning, so I'm not really comfortable giving advice on flavors and such. But I have mixed enough now to tell you what equipment I bought that I absolutely needed to get started in DIY (minus the ingredients), and a little about what I bought but didn't really need. Most of these products are based on recommendations made by much smarter people on here, this is just a consolidated list.
note: I'm an Amazon junkie, so I got most of my stuff there. You can probably find this stuff cheaper in other places if you look a bit. But this is what I personally bought.
American Weigh Scales LB-501 Digital Kitchen Scale
Amazon price: 25.90
OK, this one is a no-brainer. This is the scale that virtually every mixer here recommends if you are mixing by weight. .01 gram resolution, easy to use, and the white bowl on top of the scale makes cleanup easy if you spill an ingredient.
Amazon price: 3.75 each
This was a later addition for me. I fill one up with VG, and one up with PG. It makes dispensing much easier than using pipettes, especially for the VG. They cut my mixing time down by about 50%.
Amazon price: 11.85
I do have some flavors without the proper dripper tops. For those, I use pipettes. I also use them for my nicotine base. I only use them one time, then discard them. I've still got most of the box of these after 2 months, so they last a while.
10ml Childproof Dropper Bottle LDPE
ECigXpress price: 0.34 each
I bought 10 of these to start. These are great for just trying some mixes out without wasting too much of your ingredients if it doesn't turn out correctly. I bought them at EcigXpress, but you can find them just about anywhere that has DIY supplies.
Worth considering: I still work with 36mg nicotine base, but if you are working with higher levels, you really should be wearing gloves. I probably should be too, but honestly I don't. If you are a new mixer, start with 36mg (or less) nicotine base... it lasts a good while and lets you get some practice in. And it is much safer. You can always move up later once you know what you are doing.
Things you don't need (at least to start): fancy starter kits, beakers, flasks, syringes, or any other fancy lab equipment. I actually bought some beakers when I started, but I have yet to take them out of the box.
Like I said, I'm not going to recommend flavors. But my general advice is to go on E-Liquid Recipes, find a couple of recipes that sound good, and buy the flavors for those specific recipes. Don't worry about getting "essential" flavors for DIY until later.
Good luck, and if you are considering DIY, do it. It is quite easy and more fun than I expected.
Solid list of essentials. But unless you're Michael J Fox I think the gloves are unnecessary.
Yup. I would also recommend an RDA, easier to test flavors and mixes on than a tank. I wish I had an RDA when I started out. And looking back, I really wish someone had told me to get an RDA. lol.
Speaking as a brand-new mixer, definitely seconded :) An alternative, for those who don't like rebuilding, is to pick up a couple of bridgeless dripping atomizers (they're getting hard to find, but still my device of choice for sampling a bunch of different liquids one after another.)
I don't wear them either.
I only work with 1000mg/ml nicotine, indoors, no ventilation and I don't wear a mask.
:)
I like to mix into 50, 100 or 200 ml griffin beakers. It is a PITA trying to drop the bases and concentrates directly into bottles with small openings. The beakers have pour spouts that make it easy to fill bottles.
I also use a frother for a few seconds before pouring the mix into the bottles.
I don't bother with pipettes. A good number of the flavors I purchased already came in 30 mL plastic dropper bottles (the same kind we use to mix juice in), but for the ones which came in glass containers without a dropper cap, I bought a bunch of 30 mL "unicorn" bottles (the smaller diameter means less space used on my mixing desk). For the ingredients I use enough to warrant purchasing 120 mL bottles of, they came in bottles with just a screw cap, so I just fill up a 30 mL bottle to mix with, and refill as needed. Since everything is either in a plastic dropper bottle or a glass bottle with dropper cap, I don't need to use pipettes.
My nicotine is stored in the freezer, and I take out 10 mL at a time, which goes into a 10 mL plastic dropper bottle. 10 mL of 100 mg/mL nicotine is enough for about month of mixing at 2 mg/mL (I go through anywhere from 5–30 mL a day, averaging around 15 mL).
My scale is the standard AWS LB-501. I don't bother with the white bowl and use it on battery power. This means that it does shut itself off after (I think) two minutes, but this has never bit me in the ass. A few times it would turn off while I was searching for the next ingredient to add, but since the auto shut-off is only triggered if the measured weight does not change, it won't turn off while you are in the middle of measuring out a single ingredient.
I buy VG by the gallon, and for mixing I pour it into 120 mL plastic squeeze bottles. I picked up a dozen off of Amazon, and use the extras to make 120 mL batches of juices which I go through quickly. But the vast majority of the time I mix 30 mL batches in plastic dropper bottles.
I do also have a good supply of smaller bottles as well. For testing single flavors, I use 5 mL bottles. For new recipes that I develop, I use either 10 mL or 15 mL bottles. If the recipe uses all of its flavors at 1% or higher concentrations, they get mixed in 10 mL bottles. If there are flavors at less than 1%, they get mixed in 15 mL bottles, since my scale doesn't give consistent results for very small amounts (less than 0.1 g).
Gloves are recommended but I don't use them, even though I mix with 100 mg/mL nicotine. I am very careful when mixing, but the few times where I have spilled a bit of concentrated nicotine, I just clean it up then immediately wash my hands. Nicotine does get absorbed through the skin, but it doesn't happen instantaneously -- having a drop or two spill on you won't do anything if you wash it off quickly.
Didn't they kick some one for saying that retarded sh** A couple weeks ago? Don't whatever you do or whoever you think you are (superman, batman, spiderman, wolverine,) ever use more than 100mg/ml nicotine. It's stupid and it's stupid for people to even mention it. Common sense goes a long way.
If you were trying to reply to /u/Nutz_of_Brin I'm pretty sure they weren't being serious...
Guess I should have used a smiley.