Anyone else using Excel for recipes - got any tips?

E-liquids Recipes
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I’m curious and I know I’ve mentioned it recently, but the more I use it, the more I’m seeing how perfectly it could be utilized for juice recipes…

While I did start with an ‘analog’ notebook, albeit a super nice Clairefontaine notebook with an embossed, pale green cover and cream coloured pages, I very rapidly decided I was sick of flicking pages and scribbling everywhere so I dumped that shit and (combined with the knowledge I would be needing basic equations to determine amounts of mixing ingredients) quickly decided I’d have a play around in Microsoft Excel.

Two days later I’ve got a spreadsheet that calculates everything for me once I’ve entered the amounts, and all I’ve gotta do is enter the amount of juice I want to make for it to cascade those changes down the sheet so I can simply work my way down the ‘grams’ column and add the amount shown there for any given mix.

Then I additionally realized (and I’m very new to excel, only fucking around with it a few times here and there before giving up on whatever weekly budget or list I had a mind to create) that with just one single spreadsheet page created, I can just copy that to a new page and it gets its own tab down the bottom: change the name of the recipe, change the %s, change how much I wanna mix and BANG: all beautifully arranged on my laptop screen for me…

Once you’ve put in the time to create an attractive looking table (or one that won’t annoy you to look at), it’s infinately easier than a pen and paper and everything is stored within one single file - the spreadsheet file ‘Juice Recipes’ - or whatever you wanna call it.

It’s stored in the cloud, so I can access it from any device, anywhere and edit on my phone or copy a new page to start a recipe if one comes to me.

So anyone else using this?

I would expect others are, though I would also expect what, with all the apps, sites and software made for juice recipes now the majority of people would be using some variant of ‘eliquid calculator’.

Maybe if other people are using Excel and have any kickarse formula they’re using for additional functionality they could cough it up so ah, I can add it to my spreadsheet/calculator/designer whatever you wanna call it.

I know there’s an entire ocean of functionality I could impliment in Excel that I just don’t know about because I just don’t know Excel very well, with basic equations being all I’m currently using, but that ocean of functionality is all just sitting around the net in tutorials or hints & tips sites waiting to be googled.

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Only because you asked @Guido_Possum. I backup all my recipes monthly, but only use Excel spreadsheets for tracking inventory, not for recipes. If you’re going to spend the time entering everything into a document, you could just use Rod’s Ejuice Calc.

http://www.diyjuicecalculator.com/

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Iunno, that software probably accounts for every kind of combination of PG/VG, different ratios and is more comprehensive, though my spreadsheet is less of an eye-full so quicker aand easier to edit and since I always use 100PG 100mg/mL base with flavours that’re always PG based, I don’t need to have all those options 'cause they’ll never get used…

I got all the necessary information to make the juice, without any additional clutter on my screen that won’t be used…

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Simple by comparison, though excel can do a lot more than just what I’ve done here.

Course I doubt that’ll taste like the breakfast cereal now I think about it since that’s a very specific taste, but it should taste very good :slight_smile:

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Except for your calculations for nicotine and VG will be incorrect (not that it matters if you do it the same way every time)
Nic in PG weighs 1.04 per ml
Vg weighs 1.26g per ml
Pg weighs 1.034 per ml
The difference in the pg nic and the pg are very small but the vg will make a significant difference in the volume you are planning to make.

Not sure why excel is a more attractive option than the ELR calculator (or any of the other calculators)

But each to their own

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I could change that if I added those weights into the formula so it took them into account, but it’s the same nic base every time, same scales etcetera so it’s consistently incorrect :slight_smile:

I’ve just never used the ELR calculator, whereas I’m familiar with excel, have control over the calculations going on in the background and can use it offline or on if I like and have everything in one document on my device.

Ownership mostly: having everything on my own laptop and all in one document is, comforting somehow.

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Ya, I do understand that it will be the same across the board so it wont really make much difference. Your 60/40 ratio will not quite be right but at the end of the day it doesnt matter.

It will have an impact if you are making someone else’s recipe which is why I mentioned it the flavour will be roughly 20% (very roughly) more in your recipe which could have an impact with how the finished product tastes.

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@woftam, I like Rod’s for inventory tracking.

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That 40 is purely from the flavourings: I didn’t actually add any PG, and wanted 70/30 at least, but since the flavours all come suspended in PG I’ve added them into the tally and ratio.

*Edit: flavours AND bases: the 24mg mixed nicotine are in 100% PG too, which is around 12mL out of the 50mL mix… why I wouldn’t object to a VG nic base if they sold it as an option, but VENZ only have PG.

Occured to me just then too, that even without knowing the exact weight of the flavours, if someone else was to make that recipe it would still have to be very close anyway since they’d be using the same flavourings from the same company, which would have the same composition of the bottles I’ve got.

Just that VG maybe, though the 50mL bottle was filled to the top like without being short of over by any perceivable amount.

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Spose the only practical way to get an accurate measurement on glycerine - across the board - would be to suck exactly 10mL into a syringe (or as close as you can get visually), then squeeze that onto a scale and see the disparity in weight - that’d tell you by how much it’s out by.

But who does that? With so many brands of VG and PG around, nobody else bothers testing the volume/weight difference and working that into their recipes - people just tip in the VG and don’t worry about whether it’s denser than other peoples or not.

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Yeah @Guido_Possum, everyone has their own way of doing it and being “old school”, I prefer the ownership of having recipes on my laptop at home as well. The following snip (one of my favourite mixes from Lars) is what I have at home. Painstakingly created and checked against the calculator here on ELR so I know it’s pretty much correct.

Recipe Sheet
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Can’t remember exactly where I got the weights for the PG/VG but pretty sure it’s close enough. Lots of initial inputting (formulas and so on) but thereafter just a matter of copying another sheet and adjusting flavor names etc. I found the formulas easy enough as I deal with this sort of stuff at work (purchasing) but it was a grind getting it all spot on. But once it was done it was plain sailing. It even tells me how much each bottle will cost me (roughly).

The little red arrow things are to remind me to change values if and when required. As you can see, I’ve modelled it on the ELR calculator ‘cos it makes mine look “authentic” :crazy_face:. Also, the lines (box) around the recipe is just the print area I’ve set. Obviously that means I print off a paper copy that I keep for when I need to make up another batch. So there you have it mon frère, that’s how I do it. Hope it was some sort of help to you. Cheers.

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My maaaan!! :slight_smile:

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Definitely: shows me I’m not the only control freak who likes having all my stuff on my own physical device under my own control :slight_smile:

And not the only one using excel to do it :slight_smile:

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012

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Your spreadsheet’s more detailed course, but I only started mine last night and it’ll evolve into a more comprehensive document over time as I add more things I realize I want :blush:

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Yeah mate, that sounds like a plan. You do you brother :muscle:. I’m hittin’ the sack, gotta be up for work in 6 hours time :sleeping: :sleeping_bed:. Cheers.

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Looks VERY good @dardy.

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I already linked that for him in his other thread… Seems he ignored it altogether.

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Thanks, I didn’t know that. Better to link twice, than not at all @TorturedZen ?

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Thanks bud :wink:.

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