How do you mix: by weight or by syringes?

Well, at least you have tried both methods and have something to compare it to.

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Thats is totally true. First of all no offence not personal at all.
I back my instincts on this one. Not going to convince me @thetinman1. Look at the amounts of posts in this thread saying I wish Iā€™d done it sooner & itā€™s awesome. You canā€™t deny that evidence. Not one post, saying I wish I mixed by volume mixing with those scales was terrible.
I know you had a concern about the accuracy of cheap scales. My point is that I am like 99% confident that the ($~10 and up) scales will be just as accurate if not more then volumetric.

Keep doing what your doing if that works for you. No worries, My messages is to new people and we should be doing all we can to make it easy for them to get into this. I think you will be in the very rare crown that would disagree.

There are a lot of benefits over volumetric with doing it by weight. Just read the thread. I know you guys are more accurate overall if we were talking a 10ml batch perhaps. At 20ml We are even and then scales would overtake you over that. Issue is at small percentages 1 drop of flavour is like 0.3g so if you need 0.1g extra, mmmm. you could pull out a micropippette. but why, itā€™s more cleaning and effort when the accuracy is fine and I can assure you your olfactory and taste will not perceive those margins.

Anyways Iā€™m going to leave it there. I know you like your volumetric and yes it is very accurate I give you that. Scales are just to damn convenient not to be so easily overlooked and stubbornly dismissed. But you made me think about it which I really like. Good on you.

Enjoy your vapes mate.

low blow. I studied Biochem at Uni. SO have a fair idea and experience!!! PLenty of experience that was like 20 years ago. Shit!

The point went right over your head. Not surprising at all but Iā€™ve noticed a pattern that your way is the only way.

And you really know nothing about me at all. Iā€™ve never mixed by volume. But I donā€™t push by weight mixing on anyone as the be all to end all. I simple advise people on what works for me. But what works for me doesnā€™t always work for others.

When I got into DIY I researched a lot. When I looked at weighing something just clicked with me. So I got a set of scales from amazon, $22, flavors, nic, VG, PG, $76. So $98 total investment that paid for itself in 2 batches.

If I had done syringes, beakers, and auch, my investment start up would have been more.

However to a retired science teacher that has these things laying around the investment for him may be quite cheap.

I know plenty of people that mix by volume. You make this thread seem like itā€™s the only debate thread on mixing by weight or by volume. There is a big world out there. Open your eyes. There are more threads, more forums and more ideas than your closed mind can wrap around.

Final point, because it works for you Itā€™s not THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT.

Tell people what works for you. Let them decide for themselves what works for them.

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I donā€™t think I saw anyone actually answer your question. When youā€™re measuring by volume you DONā€™T want whatā€™s in the needle to go into your batch. Whatā€™s in the needle will be extra. It doesnā€™t make a huge difference if is a large batch that youā€™re making, but smaller ones could get thrown off especially with any flavors that are very strong. When I measured with syringes I drew up the flavor to the right amount, squirted it into my bottle, then drew some air back into the syringe so I could get the flavor in the needle back into its original bottle. Hope that helps! :grin:

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I tried, but I think it got lost in what followed. And maybe wasnā€™t clear enough.

What she said ^^^ :wink:

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I did I did lol :blush:

EDITā€¦well I kinda did!

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Sorry @Lolly and @JoJo I was skimming. And Iā€™ve only had a half of a cup of coffeeā€¦ :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: I got a little lost in all the otherā€¦

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Yours was actual usable adviceā€¦mine was more newbie rambling guessing haha :laughing:

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I tracked back my posts - I was replying originally to @Bad_Influence and I got mixed up I thought you were the one who wrote not trusting scales. You just were helping point out that fact. Iā€™m sorry I got the two of you mixed together.

Not only that he was saying he did not used to trust scales (not accurate enough) and was asking for a recomendation he wanted to give them a chance. I impetuously only read the first sentence and went off being a smart-arse half-cocked and all. Missed the giving them a chance and wanting a recomendation. BTW I get by with AWS-100 but sounds like you want something a bit better then those.

I made a mistake, about who I was talking to and my original point was pointless anyway. That might put my post in a context my reply. I knew something was wrong the moment you said you didnā€™t mix volumetrically. God a right royal fuck up. Thanks for putting the brakes on.

A lesson I learnt 2 or 3 years ago. Everything I mean everything you believe to be true could be wrong. Maybe even that the sky is blue. Sticks to me to this day, I always look for the evidence. (BTW this is not me trying to prove Iā€™m open minded either. Iā€™m am as much as I can be. As much as anyone can try to be.) itā€™s human nature to categorise things so it can go against instinct, as I proved with no doubts.

Theres another lesson I better take more care when replying in forums, read the whole message and understand it. especially since I can be opinionated. Not the first time either Iā€™ve had to apologise on this forum. Iā€™m giving myself a bad name.

sorry @thetinman1 and @bad_influence.

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I didnā€™t go with the better scales, if they are even better, on purpose. It was just what was recommended. If I had to do it over, or if these scales go bad, I will order a set of scales similar to what you have.

As long as a set of scales will do 2 decimal places I will pay $10 for them.

The scales I have now require a 300g weight to calibrate, which I donā€™t have. Blah.

If you want to check how accurate they are. I use coins. there will be a website stating the weight of coins for each denomination. Coins are great checkers because they make them specifically in mind to to lose mass, or as little as possible.

I get like 30 - Australian 20cent coins (we have the year stamped on ours I only like ones made in the last year or two or the newest you can get). You will find they are under but should be only just. It should give you a fair idea how accurate they are. Not perfect But at lead youā€™ll know if you are "weigh " off haha

Calibration weights can be gotten cheaply. They have grades, the really good ones are amazingly expensive. Itā€™s incredible.Searching my old emails love gmail I bought a M1 class for aud$65 for my 2kg 0.1g resolution scales use that for baking and cooking. I canā€™t remember the details on my 100g weight. I didnā€™t get it from the same place. To me The calibration weight is the key. I know Iā€™m accurate by that. Iā€™ll know when my scale starts playing up. Or if the cheap scale I bought is not accurate and won;t calibrate properly.

BTW for people who are turned off buy the auto-off function( haha) I don;t have aproblem with mine. I canā€™t turn mine off. But the only time the scale goes off is when Iā€™m not adding anything. Thatā€™s ok returning it on just tares it anyway. So iā€™t not essential. If your scale is turning off whilst adding ingredients then itā€™s faulty or not good enough quality, so thatā€™s a different matter.

No need to apologize. I just never said scales are ā€œworseā€, just that volumetric can be precise, too.
My fear of getting scales which are not precise comes from my old job. I was working in a injection moulding company where we made lots of cosmetic stuff. Weā€™ve made all the lipstick and eyeliner dummies for the shop displays and all the lids and shafts for all kind of cosmetic pencils. Weā€™ve had samples and recipes for about 100000 different colours, probably 20% of them just different shades of red. The scales we used to weigh the colour pigments were really expensive, somewhere in the 2-5 grand area. Only 2 digits after the decimal point. We have tried cheaper scales but the results were just not consistent enough. With colours you can actually see if there are a few milligrams of a component missing or too much. This was the only reason why I never got cheap scales for myself.
The whole situation with cheap scales seems to have changed in recent years so it may be worth looking into it again. Iā€™ve looked at scales from companies like Kern but they start at about $300. Also, response time was really bad a few years ago which annoyed me.

Thatā€™s what I was thinking also. Thank you so much for the replies!

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Hello Don
I looking for these squeezable bottles 320ml for PG and VG . Can you let me know where I can find these ? I hate making allways making a mess .
I wanted to buy the American weigh scale LB 500 from amazon but the donā€™t :frowning:ļø Ship this to Greece !!! Now I looking which site sell these and would ship this to Greece . Together with Norpro deluxe mini mixer with 3 extra sets of accessories . Would apreciat if you could give some advice . Thanks for reading have a nice day .

I was throwing them away I went through over 300 pipettes then I started washing them out
donā€™t know why the hell I didnā€™t think about washing them guess Iā€™m slow
:roll_eyes:

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great info , ty

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Really good thread. Lots of great info.

Iā€™ve used disposable syringes since I started mixing. I figured there was little cleanup when youā€™re just tossing disposables away. That is also, of course, tossing money awayā€¦ I only mix for personal use so it wasnā€™t a big deal.

But, as Iā€™ve become a ā€œbetterā€ mixer (and please, I use that term lightly compare to the masters), I think I am going to need to switch to weight for more precision. Something like a simple banana yogurt is easy and syringes get you close enough, but now I am looking at getting very specific flavors and mixes to get a lot closer to a great juice. I have a lot of good recipes, most wonā€™t ever be posted publicly, but I want great recipes. I want to be able to find that Holy Grail of %'s that makes the atty sing.

So, while I really never figured Iā€™d be so all-in, I now have to compile a list of additional things, like scales, pipettes, etc. Oy, it truly never ends.

But yes, a great thread. A great DIY mixerā€™s forum.

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So, I have this already. Will it suffice?

And, what size/thread are the squeeze caps that come on the standard 4 and 8oz plastic bottle sizes that concentrates seem to always come in? Iā€™m not even actually sure what they are called either.

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Mixing by weight is the weigh to go!! Youā€™ll need a scale that can measure to two decimals (.01) in grams. The most popular for our craft is the American Weigh LB501. It wonā€™t register below .03g but thatā€™s only a slight nuisance. There arenā€™t many recipes that call for that. I just assume .02~1 decent drop from a concentrate squeeze bottle(.03 for a pipette), or Iā€™ll add it to the previously weighed ingredient before I tare it to zero.

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