Are you ready for ME? I'm ready to start my first DIY!

E-liquids Beginners
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Well, with e-juice anyway.

After reading TONS, I have only a few hundred more questions before my first juice batch. Let me preface this with; a neighbor of mine, a 94-year-old WWII VET got me hooked on Swisher sweets. I was going through a full box 30 in about 8 to 10 days. Now that’s a lot of nicotine!

We’d sit on his porch all day long drinking coffee and smoking. I learned a lot more than I thought I already knew about the war, and I heard some of the funniest dirtiest jokes I have ever shared. NONE of which I guess I can’t share here☹

He passed on about a year ago and I wanted to quit smoking so my youngest boy (44 years old! When did that happen?) Turned me onto vaping. I’m now down to 3 mg.

I’ll start with my Rig. She’s a SMOK MAG-18. I tried several before settling on this one, and I like her a lot. I run VG/PG at 70/30. It is recommended to run this between 80 and 140 watts. I run her at 130. Nice throat hit, but not as much as my kids, and a real nice cloud. I’m a DTL vapor.

Juices that I have on hand and have been enjoying: Kings Crest Duke, Badger Hill tobacco brown sugar, Humble hop scotch and Custard monster butterscotch.

Yes, I have rather a bit of a sweet tooth.

I have a gallon of 70/30 VG/PG by SMPLY I got for $29.99 from Amazon. Obviously, no nicotine for me anymore.

Now for the flavor concentrates I have: These are all 10 ml. Malted milk TFA, coconut candy TFA, cheesecake FW, custard premium FA, butterscotch cream pie WF, salted caramel SC – WF, mocha and cream SC – WF, white chocolate FLV and milk chocolate FLV.

These are from Bull City Flavors at a cost of $25.69.

Tools, accessories, and whatever the foxtrot else I have on hand: Fuzion digital pocket scale, .01 gram, 5 – 30 mL ink injection some 5 & 10 mL syringes, Some 60 mL used e-juice bottles that my CCRFN nurse wife took to work to sterilized, 5 new 120 mL HUIZHU bottles for e-juice, and a half dozen 4 oz sterilized glass bottles formerly used for herbs and spices for mixing.

Funnels: Large mouth 2.95", Stem: 0.47". Medium mouth 2.17", stem: 0.35". Small mouth 1.77", stem: 0.24"

A boat load of 5ml syringes.

Probably a few more things I’ve left off, but not to worry, I’ll remember as soon as I click send!

I read that I can use plain water and add the flavors to get an idea of the flavor profiles, but I’m not so sure about that. Doesn’t the VG or PG (Don’t remember which) carry the flavors and add sweetness?

FIRST question and the 1st thing I wanna know. I have several Dremel accessories including some brushes used for cleaning. However, they’re Carbon Steel, not Stainless Steel. Of course they’ve never been used and the wife will sterilize them. Can I use them, or do they have to be Stainless Steel? I have a milk frothing device coming but it won’t be here until Friday, and I wanna get started!

I found this recipe here, that I’ll use as my starting place.

DevilsMilkShake

-by Grey, Sep 30, 2020, 19:42

ml Grams (g) Percentage (%)

Nicotine Juice 100 mg (100 % PG) 1.1 1.55 3.00

PG 8 8.29 16

VG 35 44.14 70

Total Base: 44.5 53.98 89

Chocolate Peanut Butter (Purilium) 1.5 1.5 3.00

Cream (Milky Undertone) (PG) (000) 1.0 1.0 2.00

Malted Milk TPA 1.0 1.05 2.00

Peanut Butter Cookie (Purilium) 2 2 4.00

Totals: 50 59.53 100

My Calculations for 20 ml. for what I want to try 1st. Just enough to mix.

ml Grams (g) Percentage (%)

PG 4.6 4.77 27.00%

VG 14.00 17.6 70.00%

Nicotine (PG) 0.00 0.000.00%

Diluent 0.00 0.00 0.00%

Malted Milk 0.60 0.60 3.00%

Milk Chocolate 0.20 0.20 1.00%

Custard 0.60 0.60 3.00%

Total 20.00 23.64 100.00%

Why does the calculator rob from the PG to make room for the flavoring instead of stealing equally? It should be an equal opportunity thief!

How am I looking and what else ‘ya wanna know?

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To answer this part of your question the calculator simply adjusts the PG based on the fact that both your Nicotine and flavorings are PG based it adjusts accordingly. If it didn’t adjust and you were trying for a 70/30 mix you would end up with something more of in the 67/33 range. I typically mix max Vg using Vg nicotine and a mix with a total flavoring of 9% will usually turn out to be 91vg/9pg.

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Welcome aboard. You are in the right place to get heaps of advice and help.
Your style of vaping is not in my wheelhouse, but there are a load of people on here who can give you the advice you are looking for.
Just ask questions and someone will answer for sure…
Cheers :grin:

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Welcome @PaulyWalnuts
Sounds to me like you’re ready to mix that recipe - what’re you waiting for? :tada: good luck!

I’m not sure if the recipe notes say but that recipe will need to “steep” for around a month with that Custard Premium FA in there & maybe even a bit longer if you are no longer using nic. Nothing to say you can’t try the mix earlier though.

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Interesting. I tell the calc to use 0 for Nic strength, PG content nic 0, then I tell it the VG content should also be 0 but it sends the PG content to 100.

Is this relevant to me?

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Thanks lanc13 Is that and L, or an I? I’m too old to understand the names people come up with. PaulyWalnuts is my favorite character on The Sopranos. If you haven’t seen it, it’s on MAX. Funniest show EVER! The boss of the Jersey City mob see’s a Psychiatrist. There’s an old movie about that, (Don’t remember the name…) but this show is on steroids! 1st episode, a degenerate gambler gets a knee cap busted. No surprise, but the segue makes it hilarious!

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The 0 for nicotine should be the mg of your nicotine so if you are using 100mg nicotine that should be 100. Then if you are using PG based nicotine that would be pg content 100 also, If you are using VG nicotine then vg content would be 100. Now if you are using a 50/50 blend of nicotine it would be 50 pg 50 vg. The calculator will always default to 100% pg even if you enter 0.

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Welcome @paulywalnuts. Big Sopranos fan here, and I recognized the name right away. One thing that isn’t essential, but will make your mixing life ALOT easier is a good scale.
A bunch of us here use and will vouch for this particular model:
LB-501 by American Weigh Scales. You can search for it on Amazon (or the net in general) you should have no trouble finding it. I tried to post a link for you, but for some reason, I can’t. I just saw it on Amazon for 39.99 with a 5% coupon on the item page.
It’s much more accurate than measuring with syringes.
A frother might help, but you’ll do just as well with a good shake and a long steep as @Sevencasper mentioned. Unless you want to invest in a homogenizer (a bit costly).

Anyhow, good luck and remember you’ll only fail when you don’t try. Lots of people here to help when/if you need it.

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Its an I mate. My first name is Ian, my last name starts with a C and I was born on a Friday the 13th hence the 13…

I liked what I watched of the Soprano’s, thought it was well done. Can’t remember the characters now as that was a while ago…

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Agreed it will need a steep but I find the CP FA is pretty good from around 10 days. The lack of nic may affect that, but testing as it develops is certainly something I would recommend.

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Welcome and glad you joined.

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okay, cool. That makes me feel better, THANKS!

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Yep! Saw the “mate”: and figured you for an Aussie…

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I have plenty of juice, so I’ll test 10 ml in 4 weeks, and the rest in 8 to see if there’s a difference. I’m not anal or have OCD or anything… The wife thinks I do… I have 30 teeth and an electric tooth brush that vibrates every 30 seconds . 3 seconds/tooth, right? A clock in the bathroom tells me when to move on. That’s logical, right? Normal?

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As they say, taste is subjective, so it might be fine at 10 days as Ian said but if it’s not, just leave it longer & it should get wherever it’s going.
I’ve mixed now for over a year with no nic (& nic mixes for hubby) & lack of it def affects the way flavours meld & flavour depth in some cases.

We watched the Sopranos end to end recently it’s a great show- that ending tho :woman_facepalming:

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Thanks, I already like it here!

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I picked up a Fuzion digital pocket scale, .01 g from Amazon.

Thanks!

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Pauly was the one with the “Wings”" in his hair. I was always surprised Tony never had him whacked.

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Caught a few episodes back in the day, but then life got in the way… Musta been around 2010, the Admiral and I were talking about it so I found the 1st season on Amazon. HOOKED we were!!! Got the 2nd season and watched season 1again, then season 2. Got the full set, watched season 1, then 2, then 3… Then 1, 2, 3 and 4…etc. Waited until June 10 2017 (10 year anniversary) to watch the last episode.

It’s on MAX on Roku… I bet we’ve watched that show at least 25 times now. And I’ll watch it 'till the day I die.

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Welcome to ELR @PaulyWalnuts. I’m glad someone explained the name, as I had no clue. :slight_smile:

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