I just snatched up a Corning PC-220 on eBay. I need stir bars for it. I have 3 Erlenmeyer flasks (50ml, 150ml, and 250ml) that I use for mixing right now. Should I buy some regular flasks instead? I also need to know a good source for stir bars. What kind, shape, size, etc.
When heating the juice do you add the nicotine after heating? How hot do you get the liquid? And what kind of cycle time do you let the juice heat/stir for?
Lots of questions I know. Thanks for any input you can give!
Sorry @daath for putting this in the wrong forum. I was thinking when I posted we need a “Mixing Equipment” forum in the E-liquids forum. I thought about the hardware forum, but this was more of a liquid category I thought.
I read it more like a hardware question ;D But don’t worry about it - I just like to move things around 
haha
I prefer to use Erlenmeyer flasks. I will take a couple of pieces of kitchen plastic wrap and seal the top with them, then penetrate the plastic with my temperature probe. I don’t know if the plastic does anything other than to keep possible contamination to a minimum, but it may help to preserve some of the flavors as the more volatile ingredients start to gas out.
I add all the ingredients on the scale, including the nic. I don’t think the short time and the lower temp I work to does anything to harm the nicotine.
I start the spin, turn on the heat to where it will end up being 125 deg F and let it go. It takes my plate awhile to hit the temp, when it does, off the heat it comes and I let it cool a bit, and into the bottle(s) to finish steeping naturally. I do this more for a thorough mix than to artificially steep, but I am sure it probably knocks the time down a bit. This is the process that has evolved for me and it seems to work pretty well.
You can find the stir bars on Amazon for pretty cheap. Cheaper from China of course. go figure.
That was another thing I meant to ask. Where do I get a good temperature probe or thermometer?
Edit: My questions regarding the stir bars were meant to draw out what size, shape, etc works best. There are so many options. My stirrer should be here in just a few days. I have some various bars in my cart on Amazon from a Chinese seller. But I needed something quickly so I ordered a simple 1-1/2" pill shaped octagon bar because it will arrive quickly.
Thanks!
I get all magnetic material here. They may not be the cheapest (not the most expensive either), but whatever you need, they have. They are pretty helpful with any questions you might have.
https://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?p=stir-bars
I use these small 10 ml Erlenmeyer Flasks got them at a decent price out of St. Augustine, Fl. an online science store.
Anyhow, the magnetic stir bars are the PITA to find the correct fittings for your size flasks. You seem to have the larger ones. I know @Shaner and a few others have used the larger flasks. I have them but my largest bar is Huge and I don’t have a way to measure it ( just recently moved in so my sweetie’s tool box is in storage)
Maybe someone will know the exact bar size per size of flask.
I use 25 mm for the 10 ml and I have one here I labeled the bag it’s marked 1.18 mm I use it for the larger 100 ml flask. The huge one idk but I use it for the 250 ml flask ( which I never use it’s a rarity mostly for bases )
I heat mine in a mini crock pot I tend to let it sit in there enough time to get warm ( fairly hot ) I have a thermometer and the water is usually around 110 , but I go by time tends to be around 15 minutes. Then I spin it until it gets white and very foamy that usually happens pretty quick so sometimes I repeat the process 2-3 times. My nicotine is in there, every now and then I won’t add it until later to me I don’t see too much difference honestly. I mix max vg so I need my batch pretty warm to spin it well.
I put that rubber black stuff on top of the magnetic mixer to keep sliding/ shifting down. Also I use some Karter round bottom beakers and not have it fly off the mixer this way.
I love this old magnetic mixer works like a charm and it was all of 15$ on ebay thanks to @Shaner for the heads up and great find 
Here is where we talked about it over the summer where I learned a lot !
My mixer has a place for a rod to mount in it. The rod is like $35. But being a machinist, I can just thread a piece of stainless rod to mount in the hole on the mixer. And besides that a quck search yeilded This
So now all I need is to grab some support rings to hold the flasks in place. So I won’t need the mat under the flask.
If you can work on race cars I am sure you can rig something up easily
Yeah, it helps having that 
I am starting to feel more like a chemist though 
Yeah I hear ya ! It’s fun to play mad scientist ! I wish I knew what a chemist does.
I once had a friend that was a chemist. I can tell you what they do. They make the best damn mixed drinks on the planet
Yeah but then they want to tell you why the drinks so cool and bore you. Then I just order a beer.
Finaly got my magnetic stirrer from China 
i always mixing batch about 300-1000ml , 80/20 vg/pg …
Have some trouble with getting the magnet to spinn good, so i have to try to heat up my base.
This stirrer comes with a “heat iron” 
but i have be afraid to use it , im afraid
different tastes will be mixed from the “heat iron” to the next juice i make - what do you guys think of
this, will it be safe to just wash it with water between different juice mix?
Sorry my bad english 
Yeah, just clean it really good. That shouldn’t be a problem. Stay below 125 degrees F
Is anyone still here? ?
I just got a hotplate mixer and an assorted pack of bars, I have a few 50ml erlenmeyer flasks 150 and 250. I’m wondering what size bars your using in your smaller flasks? It seems to struggle with thicker juice I can’t quite get them to form a vortex, stirs really good but I think if I had the right sized stir bars it would be jammin’! I appreciate the help if anyone knows, thanks!
Also, The ig problem I think, I kinda left out. The bottom of my flasks have a dome to them so the bar cant really spin in the center, it gets knocked off balance before it gets fast enough to make the vortex and falls to the outside of the bottom of the flask. Don’t tell me there’s special flat bottom beakers I’m supposed to get to use a stirrer with… Freakin Science!
Do you have a heater on your stirrer? Heating the liquid will make it thinner and easier to stir. I stay around 100 degrees and it does just fine. If you don’t have a heater on your stirrer, you can try the football shaped pills. They are made for stirring thicker liquids. The drawback is they don’t move the liquid very efficiently. But they do the trick. I rarely get a good vortex with the large amounts I mix. But I can see the bubbles are swirling around so I know it’s stirring. I have to gradually bring it up to speed also. I start out by slowly turning mine to 5 on the spin doctor dial. I let it spin round and round for 10 minutes or so. Then I bump it up a little every couple minutes, watching the pill for any Elvis like gyrations. Because once there starts to be a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on it’s back in black to the to the drawing board 
Well, if I had read your second reply before typing all that silly nonsense about I could have just said… “You need to buy better flasks”. I got mine on Amazon. Read the reviews. They will usually have some in there that will tell you if they work good on a stirrer. Or you can just grab the ones I did…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VIHFSI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Look for good name brand glassware. Corning is what I buy now. Very nice stuff. And notch much more expensive.
that matt is so smart
