I've decided to undertake the arduous task of compiling a comprehensive beginner's guide, since it can be daunting when faced with the wall of links in our current beginner's guide. I want to cover everything from what supplies you need to creating your own recipes. Now, I don't want this guide to be biased to my preferred method of mixing, and that's where you all come in. I want this to be a community-driven beginner's guide. I want different segments to be written up by different users, at different stages of the hobby. I want some tips for beginners, by beginners, and in-depth information from veteran mixers.
###How this will work: This subreddit is run by the community. Some may think that due to the amount of rules, the moderators run this subreddit. That's not true. The community always has the final say when it comes to threads getting removed or rules being changed/added/removed. Since this subreddit is community-driven, it's only right that the beginner's guide should be written by the community. I've currently got about 1000 words written up on a notepad document. Wiki pages allow for 524,288 characters. I'd like to fill a whole wiki page.
So, if you're passionate about mixing, are an expert on any topic, just want a way to give back to the community, want to make a beginner's transition to the main population of this subreddit that much easier, or just want to take some of the power away from the moderators by doing some of the work on this guide, keep reading.
###What I Need I need topics. Anything and everything. If it has to do with the going from the stage of "how do I make e-juice" to the stage of offering tips to make a recipe better, I want to see it in this guide. Flavor testing, cost-quality analysis for nicotine, bottling solutions, storage, shelf-life, anything that you wish you had known when you started, or that you want to know.
I need contributors. I don't care if you have experience writing. I don't care if your period key is broken. I don't care if English isn't even your native language. I care about your knowledge. If you feel like you know enough about mixing to get someone else started, write about it. You don't have to write a novel, even just a paragraph will be enough. We can add multiple submissions to make a full topic.
I need editors. I'm hoping to get a large amount of submissions for the guide, and I need some people to help me edit grammar, spelling, and flesh out thoughts. This is the only job that will require experience in mixing and great language skills. The editors will be reading submissions, fact-checking, and editing grammar, spelling, and thought flow and format.
/r/DIY_ejuice, this is your chance to make the beginner's guide you wish you had when you started mixing. I'm 100% confident that I wouldn't be able to make a perfect guide, even if I had a year to work on it. But we have the chance to make one right now, with each other.
######So please, if you feel you have something to contribute in the three areas that I need, leave a comment.
> I need some people to help me edit grammar, spelling, and flesh out thoughts ... editing grammar, spelling, and thought flow and format.
For the past 8 years I've been writing and editing for psychologists, helping them improve their neuropsych evaluation reports. I've been a writing tutor for GED prep, a newspaper reporter, a newspaper copy editor, and a college writing tutor. I have an English degree. I'm miles and years from being among the best and most experienced mixers here, but I'd like to think I've been around long enough to no longer be considered a novice. And I fucking love mixing and /r/DIY_ejuice. I'll give guide editing my best effort.
You didn't need to say anything besides "I'll edit." You've been noticed, in a very good way, and I was really hoping to have you on board.
- Sweeteners/additives 101
- DIY safety (pets/kids/you)
- PG/VG Ratios 101 (viscosity choices and why)
- Calculations and Formulas (Ohms law, basic formulas for mixing, how to adjust a recipe after its made, etc)
- agitation options (you vs magnetic stirrer, vortex mixers, frothers, centrifuges, etc)
- staying clean (mix prep to cleanup)
When you are done making this new guide, we need to sticky it. No more sidebar shit as mobile users will never see the sidebar and that seems to be where a lot of problems come in. Although short of making people click through a warning page before posting I don't think that will ever change.
I'm almost exclusively visit reddit via mobile. As long as you use the website instead of the various apps, all you have to do is click on view desktop site and the sidebar is right there. It took about 3 times seeing other ppl getting hit for not reading the sidebar for me to search out a way to see it on mobile. Some ppl just don't give a shit
The issue there is that we only get 2 stickies, and one is the monthly recipes, and we use the other for announcements/new mixers thread.
You could always sticky the new beginners guide and have the new mixers thread linked at the top (and all the other weekly/monthly threads for that matter)
I would love to help by doing anything you'd need. If you need me to write about a certain topic, I will. If you need some more editors, I'll do that as well. If you need both, I'm your man. Please let me know how I can help and I will do exactly that.
P.S. Can I get some sweet "2016 DIYorDIE Heavyweight Mixing Champion of the World" flair? :)
Some topic ideas:
- why DIY?
- Materials needed (broken down by volume & weight)
- Bottles: where to buy, types of bottles, types of caps, differences in materials, how to clean/sanitize, applications for specific bottles (ie. store nic in non-clear ones)
- How to fix mistakes & salvage a bad mix
- Pros/Cons of weight vs volume mixing
- recipe databases/resources
- flavor databases/resources
I've written Why DIY already, Materials has a rough outline, and Pros and Cons of weight v volume is the reason I opened this to the community. It's too large of a topic for one person to cover alone.
All of your suggestions will be added to the outline, thank you for the suggestions!
I'm not a professional DIY guy, so I can't really contribute much in terms of FAQs. But if you're making this guide anyway I just wanted to propose one thing a wanted the most as a beginner - a solid respectful list of good recipes, which don't have 10 components in it from 5 different brands, this list should not be too long or too short, I'm thinking 10 solid trusted and tasted recipes which are great to start with.
I Agree 100%. I think what new mixers need most is a solid shopping list of 10-15 flavours and a bunch of 2 or 3 ingredient 'starter recipes' (5 -10 of these ideally) that can be made with just these flavours. The recipes don't have to be the most amazing creations, just a means to getting started.
My thinking here is that most new mixers just want to get started with a minimal outlay. In an ideal world everybody would taste each flavour individually to learn it's intricacies, but let's be honest here, nobody does this when they're getting started. A bunch of recipes using a limited pool of ingredients would allow the mixer to see how different flavours interact and affect each other.
Further ideas to make this even better:
-
The starter recipes could be stripped back iterations of more complex versions. There could be suggestions to 'make this recipe even better' using additional flavours not in the starter list.
-
The starter shopping list should be a good base flavour collection to build from e.g a few popular fruits and creams, one or two bakery flavours (sugar cookie /pie crust) and perhaps koolada or menthol.
Now we just need somebody to come up with those recipes...
Well, I was thinking - mustard milk - obviously. Maybe his (fizz's) 'nana cream also can do, but that LA Banana Cream can be PITA to find in some places.
The OP's Strawberry Soup is pretty nice and easy too, although imo needs some tweaking.
Sure there should be some kind of mother's milk clone of some sort, althouth I'm not a fan of any clone available atm.
As for custards, the kreed's custard is easy and custard heavy. It can also serve as a base for fruit flavours of choice.
I personally think that Wayne's THE REAL clone is amazing and easy-peasy what a (no) and it uses all those flavours you gonna need in other recipes as well. And NO STEEPING is needed indeed. You mix this up and it's amazing straight away.
edit: I would not suggest putting a lot of fruit-based recipes in there, because let's be honest - fruit and citrus flavours are hit or miss. Everyone likes different recipes here. Me, for example, I hate all sorts of berries, but I like lemon juices. But a lot of people hate lemon and enjoy blueberries.
Thanks for the ideas! I'm in the process of writing up a separate post to try and get some solid lists/recipes together, I'll go back over the recipes you mention as a starting point to build from.
I think little or no steeping would be preferential for this to work, so as much as I love a bit of custard I'm not sure it's the best way to go?
I get what you're saying about fruits but fruit concentrates form the majority of the concentrates out there so are difficult to overlook. Most recipes have a fruit or two in there somewhere. New mixers aren't necessarily going to know what they do or don't like so including them in this selection seems like a good idea... I'd like it to be as varied as possible.
In conjunction to the Top flavors be more specific with Base flavor combinations being defined so the new user can pick their flavor profile. Ex Custard, bakery, tobacco, cream and Fruit.
I've seen too many people with "hey I have XYZ (all candy flavors or mix and match fruit) What can I make?" Everyone that looks at their list thinks S#!^
I would guess this is too difficult because I've been looking for this information to no avail. However in my dabbling and reading tons of notes on good recipes I have learned a lot.
Or how about a subsection on flavor Must Haves and Why
-
marshmallow and meringue add sweetness flavor and texture.
-
Cactus and Dragonfruit bump up fruit and fruit/bakery recipes.
-
just get Cap SDS it's a 2 for 1. Not only is a pastry at low % it adds hints of cinnamon in a recipe.
-
You need both Vanilla Custard and NY Cheesecake they work together in different % in both custard and cheesecake recipes.
just throwing it out there I hope it makes sense
Not sure this is relevant but we see a fair amount of questions from folks outside the US. Like myself (Canadian). Would there be space/room/need for some type of link for different countries in the section that is going to cover "where to buy"? Many come here and ask where to buy x/y/z in X country. And their fellow countrymen(women) answer. The bulk of the recommendations found on this sub refer folks to US based sites (for nicotine, flavours, bottles, etc) but perhaps for the many (or at least more and more it would seem) that come seeking help for acquiring their goods in other countries, something like this could be useful? And now with all the new regulations etc in various countries regarding acquisition of some items, perhaps this is even more pertinent?
I'd love to have an international section in the "where to buy" topic. Think you'd be up to the task of gathering some Canadian sources, and giving a rundown of what they offer?
I'm wiiling to help, starting with the Topics. How can i see that notepad, or how do you want to do this?
Just shoot some topics in the comments, and people will be able to pick from them. I'll make the constructed outline into a google doc and give public access to view, so contributors will be able to pick a topic and email me.
Sorta like this? I'm shitty at Reddit formatting.
DIY INTRO
WHAT IS Ejuice
-
PG - What it is, and why
-
VG - What it is, and why
-
NIC - What it is, and why. PG nic vs. VG nic - and why
-
FLAVORINGS - What they are. Different manufacturers flavorings and common starting %'s to start flavor testing. Candied vs. Realistic
-
COMMON RATIO'S for mixes
-
TANKS VS. DRIPPERS - Changes for your recipes
** 1st Decision - Mix by Weight vs. Mix by ml's. **
- Mix by Weight
** Scales
** Calibration
- Mix by ml's.
** # of Syringes to buy
** Specific Gravity of each or 1.o for each.
Blunt needles for flavors
Blunt needles for VG
Common items for both
Latex gloves - nic safety
Pipettes
-
Storing it all - Shoebox/Nail Polish Container/Shelf
-
Finding a good eJuice calculator for your recipes
1st Flavor Order
-
Buy Flavors to match recipes and trying to find recipes that share flavors
-
10 ml flavors at first
I feel like nic safety should be earlier, since it's very important. Maybe a small guide on how to use e-Liquid Calculator? They've got a nice feature filtering recipies according to what you have in stock!
Otherwise, I think you've pretty much summed up everything you need to know.
I would love to be able to contribute something. A rough outline for the whole guide would be helpful, if you have it. I'm terrible at thinking of topics to discuss but I love answering questions, often in much greater depth than anyone cares about. I'm by no means a veteran, but I can help beginners no problem. If you can use me, I'm on board.
How about this guide to troubleshooting harsh throat? Or is that a little more advanced than you want to go for this?
how to put flavors in flavor stash and search what you can make
Expanding on that: How to find recipes +1 or +2, and suggestions/tips for finding appropriate substitutions (perhaps tying in to base combinations as proposed by u/bogey_again). Finding +flavor recipes is simpler using AtF, but fairly difficult elsewhere; as a month-old newbie, this has been a point of frustration.
I have a very rough guide I whipped up in a half hour a couple of days ago. There might be pieces you can lift from it or expand on (I only had 30 minutes).
Let me know if you want to take a look at it.
I think it's important to really keep the guide as simple to understand as possible with links to more detailed discussion on each topic.
Yeah, the simplicity will be tough to balance. I don't like the current format of all the links that you have to click through, but I also don't want to overload a beginner on information.
/u/skiddlzninja if you need any extra help with the editing I'd be more than willing to help. I'm no expert on mixing, only been at it for a year, but I am an ex English teacher and would be happy to help.
Edit: although I should add the disclaimer, I may find it hard to leave the u of of flavour.
/u/skiddlzninja , I'm a busy man but I can work on whatever you send my way given some time. I'm no /u/ID10-T when it comes to experience in grammar and editing, but I used to write a ton of stories when I was in school, and still do small creative writing projects on occasion for my own leisure. I could also probably hammer out some wiki formatting if you already have plenty of editors.
I could probably type something up dealing with the benefits of individual flavor sampling with a bit of a "how to" go about it and what it can do for improving recipes. Maybe throw something in there about taking notes on samples and recipes.
There is also quite a bit of valuable information posted by /u/vurve in the "Modest Monday" threads. I would say that if one were to comb through the past few years worth of posts here, most of the info you're looking for is here just waiting to be edited and compiled.
Maybe an extended 'first order flavours' - the current top 18 list includes like 3 strawberries, 3-4 vanilla creams/custards, 2-3 cookie/biscuit type flavours. And maybe on the same page, or linked from it, a bunch of recipes that include only those flavourings?
~~A page dedicated to like~~Links the top 20 (most upvoted or something?) recipes from this sub. I wish beginner mixers would start with recipes that we all know to make it easier to help them.
Nicotine storage...obviously, lol.
Steeping 'methods' - ie just put it in a fucking drawer and don't heat it up.
I don't think I could contribute much. Jack of all trades master of none here. Editing I should be able to help out with though.
If you can flesh out ideas, it would be great to have some more contributors. As of now, we have a lot of editors, and it looks like they'll be tasked with also writing a few of the topics.
I've started working on the recipes list. Sorting by most upvoted isn't really working though. I'll put a big list together and we can cut it down.
I can put a rough list of first order flavours together but might be worth putting it to the subreddit for a better overall opinion.
Steeping methods I can put a few ideas together.
Nic storage I'd rather leave to someone else, not really my area of expertise tbh.
Sound good? Just want us to post what we do in this thread?
A best of would be nice. As in "These are the best 30 recipes right now" or something like that.
I don't think this is nedeed, what is a good recipe is subjective. To find some nice recipes that suit your palette around here can't be so hard?
One thing I noticed going through the replies is the 'beginner flavor list' idea vs 'starting recipes'.
Personally, I don't think giving beginners a list of useful/most used flavors is a good idea. This inevitably leads to the "What can I make with my flavors?" posts that we all love so much.
Instead, I believe giving beginners a compilation of simple, highly rated recipes is the better option. Bonus points if the ingredients overlap. Additionally, some guidance on how to find more recipes could be beneficial. They don't have to like every recipe provided and could serve as a lesson in how taste is subjective but having specific examples of what to mix when starting has got to be much easier than being given a bunch of flavors for a beginner.
I think the idea of starting flavors has outlived its usefulness. A couple of years ago, it was a great idea but there have been so many manufacturers/flavors added to the available pool that it is just overwhelming these days.
Then again, I haven't been a beginner for a long time. Maybe my opinions are colored by that? :P
I'll be structuring it so that the starter recipes are before the starting flavors, I'm thinking of doing why>materials>what flavors are>weight v volume>EZ recipes>where to buy>first mix>storage/steeping(may put this further up as a subset of materials)>recipe databases>tweaking recipes>creating recipes/first order flavors>then some other shit about making recipes.
I have done blogging before semi-professionally and edited for probably a couple hundred college papers, so if you need editing, I could help out with that.
What about having a "first recipe" guide? Like suggesting a couple basic and easy recipes that are well liked by the community that can help out new mixers on where to go. Like I'm thinking strawberry milk, maybe a placid/menthol, and then I have a super simple watermelon/apple recipe. All three of these flavors vary profiles, the recipes are insanely simple and can't really be messed up, they teach the basic tenants of percentages, and the flavors included can be used for a lot of other recipes so that people are given an idea of where to go.
Add on an easy RY4 recipe(literally just TFA RY4 Double at 8%) and you have yourself the basis for a fleshed out topic. We're getting tons of editors signed on and not many contributors, so I may be having some editors wear double hats if they're comfortable with it.
I could write a "first recipe" guide if no one else will. I just started DIY, so my education is limited, but I could write something if someone gives me some information (which seems slightly counterintuitive), but whatever you need, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Supporting this community is worth it, in my opinion.
Chem teacher here, I mark endless students work, I'll edit anything you send my way. Happy to contribute to a topic of you need me to.
As a chemistry teacher, I'd be more interested in hearing what you have to say about introducing excess energy to volatiles(heat-steep, milk frother, ultrasonic cleaner) and how that can hurt flavor. But if you'd rather just be an editor, I'd be more than happy to have you on as well.
Yeah sure I'll do some reading over the weekend. My gut says that none are really worth it you'll always lose more than you gain.
If anybody you know has a base of docs/notes on this already I'll happily read through and condense into a beginners guide. (Initial cost/benefit to the mix/others notes.
Well, I wrote a post that included it, but it was more of a sub-topic in the post. That and I have no sort of schooling in chemistry, just what I've learned from wikipedia and my high school chemistry. I'd really just like to have someone with actually credibility in science and chemistry to put their word out there.
If you want to see what I wrote, it's DIY Mythbusting, and is in the top 5 of all time on the subreddit.
I have a video about the supplies to get started in DIY
I'd love to see a "same flavor by another name" list. When first starting I struggled with a flavor in a recipe going by a different name from various suppliers. One vendor would say FA Fuji while another would say FA Fuji Apple, but not to be confused with FA Apple. For example TFA Cotton Candy == EM, TFA Brown Sugar Extra == TFA Brown Sugar (but TFA Coconut Extra != TFA Coconut), all the name changes between cereal flavors, etc. Could also include rebrands and other equivalents.
This topic could span 10 wiki pages with 250k llus characters. It's a very in depth topic and something that can only be learned well through experience.
I was planning on writing my own UK specific guide, given I have just been through starting up. More than willing to contribute to ideal starter kit and where to buy.
First off, props to all the folks that contribute here, the open knowledge sharing gave me the confidence to start making my own juice a few months back and I'm loving it. However, I'm still very much a hack and mostly make my same simple three flavor juice with pre-made base that already has the nic in it over and over again. It's nothing special but it works for me.
When I read thru the stickies before placing my first order it was a bit daunting, and with two kids I didn't really want to be storing nic in the freezer so I went the pre-made base route. Grabbed a few flavors that I knew were part of my old ADV and gave it a go and voila I had a decent shake and vape juice. No scale, just eye-balling/adding more as needed and I'm happy.
The point I'm trying to make was from just reading this sub at times I felt like if I didn't have the exact flavors and percentages of a given recipe the end result would be something unvapable (which I've only had happen on my first batch - wayyyyyy too much and many flavors), so maybe just something in the new wiki about highlighting the real training wheel route of starting with the pre-made base liquid then eventually moving to mixing your own base before adding flavors.
TLDR; please add something about starting out with a pre-made base, and mention that in the starter recipes that being off a little isn't the end of the world.
I am relatively new to DIY but have been lurking in the /r/DIY_ejuice thread for quite awhile. If you're still looking for an editor count me in. I don't have nearly as much experience as ID10-T, but I'd like to contribute to this in any way I can.
I've got an English degree btw, but if you've already got enough editors I can always go through noodles1972's work and remove any "u's" from flavour he might have missed. ;)
Will there be anything in your beginner's guide about 1,3-propanediol/PDO? The /r/vapeheads/wiki/juice-diy-introduction recommends it over PG but no reason is given for this. Perhaps for people that are experiencing PG sensitivity. I thought I'd toss that out there for a possible addition to your guide.
Yo, gimme something to tackle!
Just started a couple weeks back - Mixing by weight. Ordered a bunch of stuff that I LIKELY did not need but am honing in on it now. Either way, I have gained a tremendous amount from this sub and would be happy to contribute in anyway you need.
Write up a bare-bones startup guide, or some things that you found to make the jump easier.
Ok - Tonight I will put together some topics and flesh out the first 2 or 3 to make sure I am addressing a true need. Don't want to duplicate too many efforts... However, I can speak pretty well to a few newbie mistakes regarding first flavor order and some ideas around better flavor selection - purchasing a few extra flavors to make friends juices.
Where should I send it?