Just recently started working for a manufacturer, I noticed our mixologist uses an electric pump to pump nicotine and vg into 5 gallon buckets from 55 gallon drums. I brought up to him that nicotine needs to be shaken periodically to avoid hotspots. He said that that's only the case with small quantities because the hotspots are small and don't really effect the outcome when mixing in the volumes we mix in.
Is this true? If it's not, I really don't see how we could shake a 55 gallon drum as it weighs like 500 pounds.
They've been in business for many years and have never had a complaint so based off that I guess what he says is true, just curious.
Never had experience with that huge amount of Nicotine, but based off what the mixologist says, it kinda makes sense.
Home Hobbyists don't go through that much nic, hell I just bought 150ml of 100mg nic salts, and I probably won't need to buy more for a long time.
I bet the electric pump also aides in mixing the nicotine. When the nicotine is put into smaller bottles, I would be that's when you would be more focused on hot spots.
Just FYI, you don't want to shake nic, you want to stir it. Shaking it introduces bubbles into the solution and hastens oxidation.
good to know, but im sure that wouldnt really matter to him because I've seen him go through 2 55 gallon drums of it in a day so he's using it up faster than it would oxidize
The drums would get agitated some just gettng them into position, the pump would induce currents inside the drum, etc. And yeah, it likely averages out a lot, and the finished mix will be uniform in distribution of all compounds if they use the right ewuipment.
Ya going through them that fast I imagine keeps it pretty mixed with the pump causing some constant disturbance to the drum. I would be a little worried about coming in the next morning to the drum thats been sitting all night but as far as the levels of hotspots I wouldnt imagine it would get up to 200mg/ml in one spot or anything but there are probably slight level differences in spots
If the bottle comes sealed with nitrogen shake the fuck out of it, won’t make a difference. It’s only after you open it, shake it, open it, shake it, you should be worried.
True that. You can also buy argon gas as wine saver for the same purpose.
What kind of PPE are you using? Pure nicotine is risky stuff. If not using full ventilation containment on that scale you need proper gear
its 100mg/ml
Oh that’s not so bad then, I use pure nic!, bit more scary
Done some larger scale manufacturing - we always mixed the nic after transferring it to 2.5 gallon jugs. We just shook it. I could understand the concern about wanting to mix it up before transferring to smaller containers but this is just how I was always is taught to do it and we never had complaints.
Two 55 gal drums in a day though, damn, that's some large scale. Do you mind if I ask, how much of your process is automated? All the flavor mixing I assume is done by hand, your bottle labeling, filling, capping, and safety-sealing though, is that all automated?
We have 2 machines and are getting a third. one machine does 30ml plastic bottles the other does 100ml plastic bottles. the third machine we're getting will do 60ml plastic bottles.
each machine fills, caps, and labels. the machines each require 2 people, one to load bottles and caps and the other to collect the bottles. They have me loading the bottles and caps right now.
The machines sometimes fuck up a bottle cap or a label so there's three people who do quality check and fix bad bottles before they go on the shelf.
Thank's for your insights. I always wondered how some of that stuff was done. I also couldn't imagine how much liquid was being made. 2 x 55gallon drums of nic in a day. That's a lot. I don't even want to try doing the math lol.
well it's not as much as you may think. They are drums of nicotine salts at 100 mg/ml. Making 25 and 50 mg juice so half the volume of each 5 gallon bucket is nicotine salts.
the freebase nicotine comes in single gallon jugs and we use comparatively a lot less of that than we do nicotine salts.
>If it's not, I really don't see how we could shake a 55 gallon drum as it weighs like 500 pounds.
Yeah, I don't know of anything large enough to shake it. Stirring might mix it well enough, but you'd have to be able to reach all the way to the bottom. The company I worked for used a drum roller. Most things would be rolled for an hour or more, depending on the carrier (VG vs. PG).