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Workflow Discussion (Ideas, Thoughts, Tips, Debates)
submitted almost 9 years ago by Tiptup300

Just curious on peoples different workflow styles. So I'll throw out some ideas I've come up with so far.

Tupperware Steeping Organization

I very recently felt a little unsure about the conditions that my juice is steeping in. So I went down to the dollar tree and picked up some big Tupperware containers to put my bottles in while they steep to keep the airflow more consistent. Not only does it stop the air from breathing, but it makes organizing my bottles easier since they all can be stacked. I'm also considering storing them in a Styrofoam cooler just to keep temperature/air even more controlled, but still unsure.

Plastic Wrap Sealing Bottles (Untested)

I also purchased plastic wrap and I'm going to try doing some sort of air seal under the screw top, possibly keeping in some freshness there. Not certain how that one will work. Note that I'm using Siracha Style bottle tops.

Colored Themed Flavor Bowls

For organization of my flavorings I separated them out by flavor category instead of by brand, I put them in colored bowls so I just open my flavor drawer look at the creams bowl (yellow) grab the one I need, throw it back in. To keep it cheap I actually just put colored sticky notes on the bottom of Tupperware containers, ha!

Small Ones

  • When doing a batch of a few different 30mls for a recipe with a lot of ingredients, I'll take the caps off of all the flavorings I need, line them up (the caps) in order of the recipe so I don't lose track of which cap goes to which bottle (cross-contamination.) And I just leave the caps off till I'm done with that batch of juices. This saves time taking off caps, then putting them on, then taking them off, then on.

  • For 2,3, or 4 bottles of the same type at the same time, for right now since I'm not setup for large batch steeping I set all four bottles on the scale symmetrically, and fill them up one at a time, one flavoring at a time, like normal. Saved a ton of time!

That's all I got for now, just little things. Please share your ideas or thoughts on if I might be making things worse for myself. Cheers!

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9 points
 
by KG3Dalmost 9 years ago

my tips:

Utilize colored loom (rainbow) bands to color code your bottles before labeling. I notate the band(s) colors on my recipe spread to keep track. When mixing +20 recipes at a time, this becomes super helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GVGVWAE/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AJS7HXJ9MGSD3


...and if you are compulsive enough, get 200 of these cheap vape bands to also color code your RDA/RTAs when testing lots of recipes. I share the extras with vape pals.

http://www.dhgate.com/product/cheapest-vape-band-silicone-for-e-cig-mechanincal/255403120.html


Silicone Corks - get yourself some assorted sizes of widgetco silicone corks. I use these for steeping and saving my screw tops and dispenser caps for final bottling. I use these corks for my flasks and cylinders too for keeping liquids in and dust out. They clean easily with soap and water. Note: although the rubber ones are cheaper, they will leave a rubber smell in/on anything they touch. I have a bunch of the size 000-2 cork stoppers too and use those on my RDA/RTA/Tanks as they keep fruit flies out that are attracted to juice.

http://www.widgetco.com/silicone-rubber-stoppers


field/ammo box - these dry boxes are great and most are lockable to keep kids out (assuming you have them around.) I use one as my steeping box and a small one to house my Nic in the freezer.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=plano+field+box&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aplano+field+box


Desiccant - a hygroscopic substance used as a drying agent. These are those lil pouches of granules you get with most products. I save those (big and small) and use them in all my storage containers (especially bottle toppers and dropper assemblies.) These will get that last droplet of moisture out of your cleaned supplies. They are quite expensive to buy, so save them when you find em.

http://www.widgetco.com/desiccant-packs


Speaking of cleaning and drying, get a camera lens blower to blast air through recently cleaned bottles, assemblies, RDA/RTA/Tanks, etc. to help the drying process. This is the one I use;

https://www.amazon.com/Giottos-AA1900-Rocket-Blaster-Large/dp/B00017LSPI/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1476129140&sr=1-3&keywords=camera+air+blower


Funnels: get em, use em... avoid oil spills!

For bottling (15-120ml boston rounds); https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016D82NFC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For everything else; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FKERMW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1


I keep all my flavor concentrates (other than bulk 4 oz) in 2 of these gasket sealed (keeps the rainbow of concentrate scents contained) parts organizers. I have them organized by bins in alphabetical order with the caps color coded (using the wife's nail polish) by brand. I like these because they stack and store under the bed and out of view. speaking of scents-tip: keep a rag or nail polish wipes near mixing station and wipe your bottle tips before putting the caps back on!

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-10-Compartment-Deep-Pro-Organizer-Red-225046/205847797


edit: forgot another one;

China Markers!

You can get them in any color, but I find the white ones to be most useful. I will utilize these to put recipe initials on the screw tops so the bottles are easier to differentiate when in my steep box. They can also be used to mark temporarily on bottles for whatever reason.

https://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Peel-Off-China-Marker-12-Count/dp/B00006IFGG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476132436&sr=8-1&keywords=white+china+marker

1 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

I love those corks man. Awesome.

And for the air blaster, you can get a brake pump pumper thing that I bought to clean my camera for like 3 bucks.

5 points
 
by ckivealmost 9 years ago

When making multiples of the same juice, whether complex or simple, instead of adding each flavor to each bottle, you might consider making a flavor mix concentrate.

Let's say your recipe calls for (before nic, pg, vg are added):

  • 10% flavor 1
  • 25% flavor 2
  • 25% flavor 3
  • 40% flavor 4

You can prep 30ml of concentrate quite easily with 3ml, 7.5ml, 7.5ml, 12ml of each respective flavor, as one example.

Now when making three orders of the same juice for the week, say a 30ml 70/30 6mg, a 60ml maxvg 3ml, and a 120ml 50/50 0mg, you simply whip out your premixed concentrate, and add your nic, vg and pg to spec for each. Say flavoring is 10% of the total mix, that's still 10% for any mix, so it's as simple as adding 3ml, 6ml, and 12ml to those bottles, adding the rest of the mix (and you can premix those as well if the scale is worth it and get it down to a two ingredient "mix" for production).

Not worth it for a bottle here or there, but if you're doing dozens of bottles in a short time of a particular flavor, and can take care to store everything properly so you are minimizing undesired exposure or pre-steeping? Likely pretty worthwhile.

Edit to note that I'm not advocating mixing by volume, even though I chose to use volume examples above. Also, typo.

2 points
 
by sd_junglistalmost 9 years ago

Good One u/ckive ! This was huge for me in pumping out a shit ton of bottles of the same flavor.

2 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

I actually totally forgot about making flavor mix concentrates. Totally would save me some time!

What sucks is the app I use for all my recipes doesn't allow for quick export of that, which really sucks. I've emailed several ideas, but haven't received anything back.

3 points
 
by Vurvealmost 9 years agoVurve with the Swurve

As for steeping, I use a Dyno label maker, or whatever it's called, to label what each juice is and when I made it. Put the juice on my shelf.

Boom.

Steeping organization taken care of.

2 points
 
by Vurvealmost 9 years agoVurve with the Swurve

How much juice are you making?

I make about 400ml at a time (assuming it's not a special project) and it hardly seems like to so much work I need to organize the workflow.

Perhaps i should back up and ask, are you utilizing the most efficient mixing methods? PG, VG, and nicotine in squeeze bottles, weight scale, organized flavors?

2 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

I did my first big batch over the weekend which I was a little bit underprepared for. 19 individual 30ml bottles.

Started it without enough vg prepped, or nicotine prepped. But the whole process sorta stress tested my system and allowed for me to fine tune some aspects of my current process and hopefully be able to put out better juice, and put it out faster.

I got my VG & PG prepped in 8 Oz Squeeze bottles. Weight scale, ck. Right now I got about 6 VG bottles filled to the 7 Oz mark, and 2 PG bottles filled to the 8 Oz mark.

My Nicotine so far is my weakest link being prepped only in a 13ml thin needlenose dropper bottle, I love the precision, but it runs out quick. For my next batch I prepped up an amber 30ml with a dropper so that should save me time having to stop midway to refill on nicotine.

Biggest way to save time right now would just be to split up 3x30ml of x juice into one 90ml container, but I don't have the containers for it.

But the main idea is that you can ALLLLLWAYS make tasks more efficient. Simpler, easier, faster, and more fun!

6 points
 
by Vurvealmost 9 years agoVurve with the Swurve

Something I want to hit on again is your flavor organization.

Is it all in boxes or in a clear display rack where you can see everything.

Aside from a scale, this was easily the biggest improvement I made towards efficiency.

http://m.imgur.com/a/KT3lJ

3 points
 
by wh1skeyk1ngalmost 9 years agoThanks for reading this flair

Those photos are freaking beautiful. I am using the zipper bags my flavors come in, organized by my own preferred themes (creams, bakeries, citrus, tobacco, dark/light fruit, etc) and they're all in a huge box that my work boots came in. I don't have a pic, but it's not half as neat as what you have going on.

My only real pro to your setup is everything is somewhat double sealed and in no way ever sees sunlight. I do spend a ridiculous amount of time picking up my bags to read the bottles and see what group they are, which literally just gave me an idea to label the bags by writing on a strip of tape or something. Boom. Thanks, Vurve.

1 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

I divide my flavors into categories and then each category gets its own color coded bowl.

These bowls are in a drawer that's directly next to me so I can pull out the next set of flavors somewhat quickly. I agree, that is definitely the weak link of my system. Good call!

I feel the color coding is bringing me half way there, but I'm still experimenting with my current apartment setup and having my flavors displayed possibly alphabetically within those categories..... WHICH WOULD MAKE INVENTORY SO EASY.

So yeah definitely gotta have it where I can AT A GLANCE see all of my flavors, straight down the line. Right now their organized, and I can get them fairly quickly, but there's way too much work that goes into that every single time.

2 points
 
by Paleone123almost 9 years agoProud Sidebar Reader!

With regards to "airflow", are you steeping with the cap off? That's generally not a good idea. Otherwise I'm not sure what you mean, there should be a pretty good seal even with LDPE bottles.

Edit: By Siracha style cap, do you mean there's a two part cap where the outer sleeve rotates to open and close?

1 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

Yep on the Siracha, and no on the cap off. Even with the tightest twist there's a certain amount of air escaping, I feel especially so with the bottles/caps I purchased recently.

Every extra step I'm adding to add that security also adds other benefits as well so the non-airflow is just a benefit. The cooler would control temperature, the Tupperwares are handy for organizing & stacking, and the plastic wrap (if it works) will provide a level of customer satisfaction "fresh seal" or first time open safety demonstration thingy....

That last one is probably a bit of a stretch, but if it works, I'll really be happy with it.

EDIT: ..... CAN I just.....buy the quality seal things?

2 points
 
by Paleone123almost 9 years agoProud Sidebar Reader!

Well, you can buy glass bottles with polycone caps. That's probably as good as you're going to get for a reasonable price. While I appreciate the thought process I don't believe air movement around the bottles will have much effect. Plastic wrap under the cap may help a bit - if the threads are loose enough to allow it, they're probably not air tight. The only thing that would increase volatile escape is a decrease in air pressure, but if you have even the cheaper LDPE bottles with needle tips and screw caps you're not going to be losing much no matter how you store it as long as it remains relatively cool.

1 points
 
by Tiptup300almost 9 years ago

I really do understand that I'm not affecting much in regards to volatile escape, but the steps I'm taking to help all have other purposes so I'm happy with them.

In other news, I tested the plastic wrap and WOW, it works great, It's efficient and I'll be able to get colored plastic wrap to make it go along with my zero-cent branding.

My main goal really is just have a self-funded non-profit small business that supplies friends with my own recipes. It's like an abstract art project for me. I love coming up with dumb little crafty ideas, love coming up with recipes, love mixing juice, love helping my friends get good juice for VEEEEEERY cheap prices. And make it all look really nice for the customer.

I 100% understand though what you're saying to me, that if I were really worried about the air and flavor escaping then I'm wasting a lot of time and resources, but that's just one element of it. And I really do appreciate it!

Heres the bottles/caps I got:

https://www.containerandpackaging.com/item/B468W

https://www.containerandpackaging.com/item/L462

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