I just wanted to say thank you to all the veterans and all of the noobs, that I happen to be a part of, for all you guys do. I've been vaping for about 3 or 4 years now and this has all been so much fun getting into. The vaping community as a whole seems to be very friendly and knowledgeable. It took me a while to really commit to vaping, but once I did it's been non stop. I've worked in and out of the industry and loved progressing from clearomizers to sub ohm tanks then getting into RDAs and building coils finding RTAs and squonking. I've gone from ego pens to little 30 watt eleafs on into 200 watt mods then mechs then series and, as I said before, squonks. Now I'm starting to get into more complex coil building and finally making my own ejuice. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that's helped me along the way and continue to do so. Y'all have allowed me to help others and I'm glad to be a part of this community (r/vaping, r/electronic_cigarette, r/coilporn, r/vapeporn, r/DIY_eJuice, etc.) Y'all Rock 🤘
PS. PLEASE DON'T PUT THIS IN AWARD SPEECHES!! I just think y'all deserve some thanks, cus it may just seem like something to do to quit smoking or just a hobby but if you've ever asked a question or answered one then you might not think it, but you truly do help someone.
I wish i could say your welcome.....i still dont know how to make juice.
I have a simple understanding of it. One thing i do know is never get the premixed based with your finished VG/PG ratio and nic. It's a trap... or at least in my experience. I haven't found a good one yet. That's why about a month and a half ago i just went all in and got a DIY kit from River Supply Co and even that wasn't the greatest, but that was my fault. I didn't research first order flavors so i got some random stuff but mostly TFA flavors it was serviceable but my flavors didn't completely jive. With my coronavirus stimulus money i was able to throw just over $100 on flavors alone and checked out the best rated flavors by DIYers on this sub in the sidebar. Now I have quite a few options. I can do a few fruits, some desserts and some tobaccos, even some bakery and ice flavors. The keys to diy seem to be do some research on the ideas you have by looking them up and asking on here, check out the recipe sites to get an idea of the flavors you're gonna be working with, GET A KIT (with a scale that reads grams to the .00 decimal if you can) to get you up and running after that things get a lot easier, maybe get a couple recipes you like and get those ingredients to get a good mix so you can see how it works while you try and make a few original recipes. That way you don't get discouraged if your recipe sucks cus you'll have another one to see that it can be done. You should also get 10-15 mL bottles to test single flavors so you know how individual ingredients taste to you (in full disclosure I haven't done this yet, but that's cus I've always had a problem with patience). The big thing is to ask questions. Like I'm currently working on a red bull cola and asked for help on here about it and I've gotten some responses and listened to what they said and I've taken some of it under advisement and some of it not so much. Come to find out most of it was spot on. At one point someone suggested that i add some cactus to it and I thought "what am I supposed to use cactus for in cola recipe? I wouldn't know where to begin with it." But it kept bugging me so I looked it up. People say it can be pretty horrible on its own, but in mixes and at lower doses it tend to lend a wetness to them do you Vape's don't feel so dry or sometimes bitter even. I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't asked for help and it allowed someone to pass on their knowledge to me. I ultimately didn't listen, but I also didn't totally disregard it because I still looked it up and now I know....
Umm, yeah, just saw that I dropped a novel on you. Sorry about that. Anyways, thing is get a kit from one of the trusted vendors that you find In the sidebar menu of this sub, play around with stuff safely.. and have some fun through the good mixes and the bad and always ask questions. I'll help where I can, but then again so will everybody else 👍 what do you want to know at the moment???😁
Pretty helpful read tbh. I'm just getting into DIY. I've been vaping for a long time, build my own coils it's a passion/obsession almost. But I love it. Just ordered my scale on Amazon and I have a half dozen recipes I'm going to mix when my vg and pg arrives. That way I can start with some "proven" recipes and try some of my own creations down the road. I'm so happy to have found this forum. Honestly don't know what I would do without all the knowkedge these people have hereto share! Would you mind elaborating on the premix thing to avoid. I'm planning on using pg and vg and nic but not premix or one shots. If that makes sense. Take care
Definitely would be lost without them myself. Well said 👏👏👏
What i mean by premixes like Liquid Barn's BASE © brand premix or any other premix out there. The problem with the is that they give you a bottle of liquid base that's a premix of pg, vg and nicotine at whatever ratio of those things as you like. So all you have to do is provide the flavors. It sounds kinda cool like hay I'm a new mixer and i dont want to fuck it up so let's get the bade and some flavor and this should be way easier.... In theory, yes but what it actually does is give you say ay 70/30 VG/PG blend at 3mg nic and done. Well now you add flavors and they're usually made suspended in pg. So now not only are messing with the base nic level, but you're also messing with your VG/PG ratio ad well. This can throw off things quite a bit come to find out and im the case of Liquid Barn at least their BASE is harsh. No matter what I did to it it always came out harsh. I had one of their 60 mL bottles of BASE which had percentage marks on the bottle and recommended percentages on their flavors which seemed excellent at the time, then i got it and used it and it was how I said so that one got tossed, but then I had also gotten 2 500 mL bottles of the BASE, so I wouldn't run out for a while, when I ordered the 60 mL bottle.. well the first one i opened of those had a burst seal under the cap, either from the factory or during shipping, and it was sealed in a plastic bag that had a small amount of liquid on the inside of it. Well I didn't think anything of it because I didn't know what it meant. Later on i found out... When i mixed the 60 mL bottle it was alright sorta but it was a bit harsh and for the most part just sat and this is with me trying a shake and vape flavor that was supposed to be awesome. It was a premixed flavor of Water Malone that everybody raves about. Well through the harshness of the vape i could tell the flavor was excellent but I couldn't enjoy it because the whole mix was just too harsh. It was like a pepperyness that it had. Come to find out that's almost always due to oxidation in the nicotine causing the harshness. Ok so that's gotta be thrown out. Tried some of the open base, ok do that's a bit worse than the the original 60 mL bottle. Get about half way through that 500 mL bottle trying whatever i could to try to soften the harshness before I gave in. After that with no success i tossed it. Well that just left me one more 500 mL bottle which i have now. I've only used a tiny bit of it to see if it's any better than rest of it and surprisingly it is. Not by much but not nearly as harsh as the first 60 mL bottle and certainly not like the 500 mL bottle. So now i keep that in the freezer in case I ever find myself in a tight spot I'll have something that will last me until i can hopefully find myself some more VG, PG or nic for whatever reason i may need to do so.
Now however i found River Supply Co and their line of PŪR nic salt so I've got that a bottle of 500 mL VG and a 500 mL bottle of PG, along with something like 30 different individual flavors so i can put together some recipes, labware and the best scale on the market, or at least what most of us agree is the best. I've got a bit of experience with AWS as I used to sell them when i worked in a smoke shop and it's the one cooks, mixers and alternative business people prefer to use. The smoke shop sold it for $75 in store 3 years ago, AWS sells it on their website for $75 today and you can find it more or less expensive elsewhere online. I got mine for a steal at $30 off eBay. 😁 Anyways yeah I'm doing it properly now and it's a lot easier than i thought, but I'm still a noob proper mixer of about a month and a half even though I've been "mixing" for about 8 or 9 months..... Now that I have an idea what's going on and what I'm doing with mixing I'll never get any pre-mixed bases ever again.....
Hmmm. Have you read the info available here (sidebar)? I have no idea what you‘ve tried mixing or which flavors/equipment you have, but you‘re welcome to join our Discord. Maybe together we can pinpoint what’s going wrong and help you get started in the right direction. Stay safe.