I’ve always been interested in making my own juice, been watching videos and checking out diy starter kits. I like the looks of the one offered by Liquid barn, 10 flavors, 150 ml of vg and 150 of pg, and 125 ml of nic at a 48 mg. Want to get this along with a scale because I would rather mix by weight. Any opinions on reliable scales? Also have any of you tried the Liquid barn kit? If so what do you think?
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Assuming based on you buying from LB that you're from murica. In that case, AWS LB-501 is pretty standard, and supposedly cheap atm.
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Do NOT buy starter kits. All you need is VG, nic, flavors, bottles, and a scale. Maybe a little bottle of PG (or PG alternative) if you don't usually vape Max VG. You'll get much more value for your money from buying individual components, and honestly you're better off with NicRiver than LB.
Note the starter kit gives you enough for ~350ml of finished juice (assuming 3mg/ml) with some flavoring and nic left over, but the juice would be 4/7 PG. You can do better buying individual components, and get enough to make at least 1l of finished juice that you'd actually vape, something like 80-20 or Max VG.
Good advice from juthinc. The AWS LB-501 is the go-to scale for good reasons.
Starter kits often include a lot of things you don't need. If you've got leftover glass bottles from buying juice you can wash them up and reuse them, and that saves you a little money. Glass doesn't soak up the flavor of juice the way plastic can.
You'll probably use way more VG than PG. I do 70/30 mixes and since my flavors and nicotine are both PG-based, I end up adding maybe 15-18% PG to a bottle. I buy VG regularly, but rarely need more PG.
I'd also suggest setting aside a 30ml bottle with a dropper just to use with your nicotine. A dark amber bottle is best for this, but keep it somewhere out of the light and out of the heat. Fill it up and mix from it while keeping the bottle you bought in the freezer or somewhere else cold. The less often you open the big bottle and expose it to oxygen, the longer the nicotine will last. A single 125ml bottle of 100mg/ml nicotine lasts me ages and I don't want it to oxidize before I can use it up. Refilling the 30ml bottle every couple of months is barely any more effort.
For flavorings I usually buy from Bull City Flavors. Prices aren't bad at all, selection is very good. I usually just find a recipe on AllTheFlavors or e-liquid-recipes that sounds good and that's the flavors I order. I experiment sometimes, but it's a learning process and I'm in no rush to make the One True E-Liquid just yet :)
Oh - discount codes:
- Liquid Barn: DIYorDIE for 15% off your order
- Bull City Flavors: JV10 for 10% off (or DIYorDIE for 6% if the other ever stops working)
Lastly, I've found that shipping can be pretty expensive on VG, PG and especially nicotine. Just a heads-up.
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Great advice from the both of you! Thank you very much, I have tons of left over naked bottles I can use, I may just end up ordering vg, pg, and a small bottle of nicotine from the site you guys mentioned, as well as just the flavor pack from liquid barn. I’ll be sure to check out that scale, thank you guys so much for your time and advice.
Word of caution, not all flavors are the same across manufacturers. For example, LB’s pineapple won’t taste the same as one made by Capella or TFA, etc. Something to keep in mind if you want to mix other people’s recipes.
Don’t forget to check out the monthly recipe threads on here. Everything in them won’t appeal to you but something might and quite often, there’s a lot of feedback from people that mixed it up and tried it.
Depending on what mg Nicotine you mix at, I'd recommend getting 100mg Nic at 100% pg, you'd use up the nic quick if you don't. (Basically saying it'll last longer if you get stronger concentrated nic)
For flavors, I'd do research and find like 10 really reviewed and thought out recipes that you like (maybe find some popular flavors/recipes that you know personally) and get some interchangeable flavors.
LB-501 is a common scale, small pocket scales that can measure in .01g are fine too.
The biggest thing I could offer is this. If you are somewhat personable or like talking to folks, you could go to your local vape store (check the reviews??) and ask to speak with the store mixer or owner.
Store Mixer- ask them to teach you or ask to watch them make some basic non-store recipe. let them know you want to learn.
Owner- could always ask if they know anyone who mixes who would be willing to teach you.
This is a big community part though, and totally not required.
That's exactly what I did, except I made the mistake of getting VG nic. Almost 2 years later and I'm almost done with the 500ml bottle.
Why is vg nic worse than pg nic? Does it alter the nicotine in some way or is it just because it messes with the ratios too much for you? I personally don’t care too much about the size of my clouds, flavor is a bigger component for me. I appreciate the advice and will definitely try talking to the people at my old vape shop who mixed the juice and see what they can teach me. Thanks guys!
I switched to vg nic after my second order. It’s the same as pg nic except pours a little slower or use a pipette and it draws slowly. I use 48mg not 100mg so maybe that’s why I never had hot spot nightmares or the vg terror.
I just pour directly into a 500ml bottle, add vg and pg to make an 80/20 base and top off any bottles with an average of 6-12% concentrate solutions to vape. Close enough.
I just made my first order for DIY a couple weeks ago. After doing research of kits, suppliers, flavors, recipes, and guides on this sub I went with Nic River for everything to get the free shipping otherwise a chunk of my budget would have been lost on shipping the nicotine. I also got a lb-501 scale from walmart and one flavor and two funnels from bullcity that nicriver didn't have available.
Yeah, an earlier comment told me about nic river, definitely going to check them out, thank you for the comment man! And good luck with your juice, hope it turns out awesome
If you do go with nic river starter kit, I'd recommend getting all VG as your base. with the 48 mg nic the provide in PG and flavors coming in PG, most recipes will come out to 70-80 VG with no real need for extra PG to get them in that range. The kit is a good starting point 15 flavors, a liter of base, nic, bottles (get the bigger bottles) and honestly a little more vessels than you need if you do go with mixing by weight.
Another good pick up would be some condiment bottles from the dollar store to put your base in and make mixing easier. Breaking the nic down into old amber glass bottles that have an eye dropper makes it a little easier to work with as well.
the LB-501 scale is about $20 on amazon last I checked. if you get another one make sure it weighs down to .01 grams.
nic river also has a few top ten flavor packs from capella, TFA, FW may be worth getting one of those after you scope out a few recipes on alltheflavors or ELR, just because they are used in lots of recipes and it will help you make a few more recipes without cutting into your 15 picks.
For flavors go to alltheflavors.com and pick 2-3 highly rated recipes and buy 10-30 mil bottles of the flavors you need for them. Buy a 120 mil of pg, a liter of vg and 120 mil of 100mg nic in pg. I use bullcityflavors.com for everything but nic. I used to get my nic from wizard labs but they had a security breach that resulted in my, along with thousands of others, credit card numbers being stolen. And they didn't tell anyone for months. So now I use nude or nic river. As you try different recipes and become familiar with different flavors it will all become intuitive about what and how much to order.
Good luck, have fun and welcome to the great art of mixing!! Honestly one of the best decisions I've made!!
EDIT: The app "vape tool" has an awesome be mixing calculator, flavor library and recipe book maker. A must have! It's free as well!!
I love this app. I just paid for the pro version ($2.99) and it has a function to save all your flavors and the amounts that will be left in the bottles after mixing each recipe as well(calculates this automatically once you choose to "consume" your flavors ie when youre done mixing the juice), so no need to enter them in each time.
Also has a steeping journal where you can add just mixed recipes to be steeped/tracked and can setup notifications. Lastly, one can choose to enter the prices they paid for each item in the mix(it'll save these also), and it will tell you how much each mix costs ya. *edited grammar
I bought the pro version on my old phone and forgot the password to transfer everything. I was building and selling exotic high end coils. The coil building calculators were amazing! Blows steam engine out of the water!!
One piece of advice that I wish I had followed when I started: Don't just go out and buy arbitrary flavors. Go to alltheflavors.com or e-liquid-recipes.com, find a few recipes that sound good, and buy those flavors. I went off a list I found of things that people said they really liked, but it has left me with a flavor collection where about half gathers dust. The first order should include mostly things you have a plan for. There will be time to expand your options for experimentation after you have gotten the hang of it.
I wouldn’t buy a starter kit. Find a couple of clone recipes of your favorite juice. You really only need vg, nic, flavoring, bottles, and a scale. You might need a little bottle of PG. I personally use 4/5 times as much VG as PG because my nic and flavorings are al PG based. Some dropper bottles or droppers or something may be a QoL thing. Flavors, VG, nic, etc. are typically cheaper in bulk.
If you start off cloning your favorite juice, you can learn how to build/layer flavors to get to a desired end result, and you have a direct comparison to measure it by. If you do follow recipes or clones, make sure you’ve got the correct flavor and brand. Pineapple is not the same across all manufacturers. Some taste like canned pineapple, some like fresh, and some like candy. I’m still chasing my favorite a few years in. I can get so close, but just not perfect.
A couple of the posters above my have given you better advice than I ever could. Just enjoy the ride and your new homemade juice.
Dunno if this has been mentioned but safety first. Always safety first. I was mixing up a quick 100ml for personal and the syringe flicked a drop of 100mg directly into my eye somehow. Little trip to the hospital for a few hours to make sure I wasn't going to die. Eye hurt and I was genuinely concerned. I wasn't wearing protective eyeware but I was wearing gloves, so there is that.
If you have pets or children in the house, make sure you have a dedicated mixing area and clean the labware EVERY TIME you use it. Disposable gloves. Disposable pipettes. Dedicated mixing area.
Oh man, I hope your eyesight is okay! And yeah, I’d be mixing in my woodshop which has a individual sink so I wouldn’t have to bring everything into the house to do it.