Before I state my case, a little background is in order. I’ve been a professional mechanic for 30+ years and my philosophy has always been quality over quantity. I didn’t work well in “job shops” that want you to put out a large volume of work as fast as you can so as soon as I could, I opened my own shop and now do “craftsman” work. I have also accumulated lots of tools, mostly high end Snap On stuff. I have always believed in buying quality tools and enjoy buying cool new tools to do the job better. This is where the danger comes into the picture. When I started to look into DIY and saw all the cool stuff there is out there I got really excited. I started buying beakers and scale, pipettes and bottles, magnetic mixer and stir bars, (who knew there were so many options for stir bars?) nail polish racks for holding the flavors and a label printer for everything that needed labeling. On the testing side I picked up an RDA to use for testing mixes and a Coil Master kit and Japanese cotton to go with it. Now that I’ve tried the RDA I’m looking at squonk mods. Since I’ve done some mixes and now turn my research towards steeping I want an ultrasonic cleaner and have plans to build a bottle rocking device for my mixes. I could go on and on, and that is the danger. DIY is so fun I want to keep accumulating gear! I have to tell myself that I don’t really NEED this or that despite my desire to have it. Does anyone else feel the same way, or is it just me?
The Rabbit Hole
Yes, we as DIYers / Avid Vapers fall in and just cant claw ourselves back out again but it turns out there is a light at the end of that hole…
We learn, yeah you heard right, we learn, everything about vaping, we find what works for us and we create our own formulas / workflows, at first it can seem its neverending but end goals come quick and that knowledge is something that will keep you in good stead for the future.
As far as steeping goes, nothing beats time, a room temp / dark place will steep better IMO then trying to “speed steep”, the only way you can truly learn what is good for you is to try many methods.
I have perfected my vaping craft therefore I am able to keep costs low (end goal) but still get a quality vape with quality gear (Which I won a lot of, on this forum).
Stay creative, enjoy what you do and don’t be afraid to ask questions, here at ELR we have over 100 years of combined experience on every aspect of vaping and we will do our best to convey to you our experiences with all the different aspects.
Happy Vaping!
The longer you remain active here, asking questions and reading posts, the more gear and flavors you will acquire. It’s never ending
everyone needs a hobby,looks like u found yours. It sounds like u take pride in your work and sure the mixes will reflect that. I have fun building things for the hobby such as racks for gear and liquids and coming up w/ new ideas for the whole process such as mixers. I do find myself wanting more gear but i do as u do and ponder whether i really need it or not. You can look at it like a lot do and recall how much u spent on smoking. This is alot more enjoyable then sucking down a butt, throwing it on the ground and moving on to the next one.
Oh peeps you are soooo right!! I have only recently joined the DIY bandwaggon and find myself endlessly searching for stuff that I “think” I need when really I have everything right here in front of me lol
I have just ordered some VG and distilled water as I want to see if I can dilute the VG down a little (cost saving exercise/trial). If anyone has any details on mix quantities I would greatly appreciate a shout out.
Sorry looks like I have hijacked Bikerdude’s thread which was not my intention…my bad
Need to find your own level as everyone is different.
I found what suits me as I mix Max AG except for concentrate.
I mix my VG, VG Nicotine with the Purified Water @ 8% water if the concentrate is above 10% in the mix
10% Water if concentrate is above 5% and below 10%
12% water if concentrate is below 5%
I store 500ml of each base separately and just use the relevant base to each mix.
I find if I mix all the Vg, Nicotine and Distilled water in a large pyrex beaker first, before decanting into a bottle till it is ready to use and I stir it gently for about 30 secs to 1 minute with my plastic stirring stick. I find it produces a better and smoother mix for my tastes (I don’t believe in blitzing with a frother though).
But as I say you may only need 5% water or 20% and a lot less phaffing than I do. Just needs a bit of testing as you would with a concentrate to find your preferred level.
And as a side note. If you mix Max Vg then adding water to it to make it AG (or even PG or a PG concentrate, if you don’t add water) reduces the boiling point of the finished liquid significantly, reducing the chances of a very nasty and harmful gas Acrolein being produced if it was just a pure VG mix, from what I have been reading on the subject. An all VG base and VG concentrate can be quite dangerous especially if you TC at high temperatures
Welcome to Hell Biker Dude.
I’ve just started slowing down from my headlong fall into the Rabbit Hole. What has finally made me relax is that I now have over a dozen recipes that are awesome. I have almost 2 liters of juice sitting in my closet. I have 4 mods, 2 e-gos, 6 tanks and 3 drippers and a boat load of coils. I can take a break now. My fear that drove me into a 5 month frenzy to learn and accumulate was the fear of going back to smoking because not enough juice ( hard and very expensive to find where I live) or hardware.
In your case you just to let it run its course. There are much worse hobbies one can have, that’s for sure.
I feel your pain brother
I am the same way with everything I get into. I got into machining. Within a year I had $2500 worth of brand new Starrett measuring tools. That all burned in a fire, and I quickly replaced it with about $10,000 worth of tools. I ten purchased a large Snap-On box to set my Kennedy Machinist chest and base on.
I was the same when I discovered diy here. But I did my research after a few failures and eventually found items that were not too terribly expensive. Is my magnetic stirrer necessary? Not really. But I love using it. And mixing large batches is very easy on it. So it is a real time saver. I have learned to restrain myself a bit and figure out what I need to mix efficiently. But there are still things I would like.
Well at least I’m not alone! I did sit down and run the numbers and comparing vaping to the cost of smokes I’m still way ahead. Comparing DIY to buying finished liquid I’m also ahead a bit. I can mix 30ml of juice for less than $2 compared to buying a finished 30ml bottle for $20. Considering that neither my wife nor myself will stop vaping for the foreseeable future we will be way ahead cost-wise going forward. I’ve already mixed a couple of recipes that turned out very good so the future looks bright to me. Of course, that’s justification to buy more stuff! 
@LordVapor you sound just like me and I too have to restrain myself from enthusiastic buying sprees. I too love my mag stirrer and I’m glad I decided to get it even though it wasn’t “necessary”.
@worm1 I You are absolutely right about cost of vaping/DIY VS cigs and it is infinitely more fun to mix/vape than flick a butt. One thing I must say is the community here is awesome and I think that is a big part of my enjoyment. The creativity and independence of the folks here is quite inspiring, as is the encouragement and enthusiasm you all provide. I’m glad to be a part of it!
Hell yeah man. It is great to have a place like this with people that share their creations. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out a lot of the retail juice is made from recipes shared here. Many of the recipes I have tried have been as good or better. There are a couple retail juices I have tried that are the exception. But I assume they put crack in their juice and that is why they are so addictive LOL.
For anyone trying to save money versus smoking, they need to try to go at this slowly. Find a couple recipes and make those. Take the money you save and invest in flavorings to make a couple others. It may be a while yet before I pass the point of it being cost effective, because of what I have spent on mods, atty’s, flavorings, etc. But if I could mix all my supplies right now, I’d have close to 5 gallons of juice. Plus the gallon or so I have already mixed. But depending on how crazy you get in the beginning you can quickly save a lot of money in diy.
Yes you do. Everyone deserves fun, especially those with chests of Snap Ons and please can I borrow some? I love quality tools. Almost as much as I love quality juices and the lovely people here.
Lol, Yup. I keep saying “that’s it”, “enough stuff”. Then I find something else. Having said that, I will say that the items have gone from new mods to things like a precision screwdriver/hexdriver set. So the cost outlay is going in the right direction. Ever enough? I doubt it. There is always something new. Something convenient. But isn’t that what a hobby is all about?
I was a smoker for 35 years and I really hated being one. I realized the time at 5-7 min a smoke was wasted forever. The money side of it was absolutely useless, never being able to quit, pissed off for not being able to stop. Feeling like shit health wise. I just want to say, we have one life to live that we know of. Enjoy it and if this makes you happy, its peanuts compared to dying a premature death or throwing your money into shitty smokes and flicking them into gutter at over 60 cents a smoke. IMO. I have spent probably 1500 bucks between my wife and myself in vape gear, flavours, batteries, chargers etc. in 2.5 months. Its your new hobby, enjoy all of it even if it goes extreme. I too am an extreme guy, have to get to the top of hobby as fast as possible. But hell, I’m almost 50, no one knows how long we are here on the planet. To me, it makes me happy that I can share it with the great people on this forum. I know no one else near me that vapes or has such a passion for it. Enjoy my friend we are all in this rabbit hole and sinking fast together. I feel healthier, happier, more ambitious than I have ever felt when I smoked. Just over two months, I am like the T1 terminator for energy and ambition. Smokes killed that, made me lazy, felt like shit, smoked just because I had to. So much money spent on this is well spent to make you happy and feel great, ENJOY, its your escape. Have fun, its what life is about. At least this stuff didn’t burn up and tossed away, you have it in front of you.
Dawg…out!
it is so funny to read someone else’s post and think about how much we are alike in so many ways our jobs might have different names and/or titles, we might live thousands of miles apart but at the end of the day we all for the most part trying to reach the same place. i think? its to be healthy and happy no matter the cost… just my 2 cents… keep your head in the clouds friends…
Nah, your fine dude, just obsessive about things that really interest you. you’re not alone
I feel your pain. It’s all a hobby for me. Always asking myself do I really need to buy this. Still buying here…just trying to buy smart.
@City You wrote exactly what I was thinking after reading @DiezelDawg69 post. And like @Chuck6, I’m starting to get a little more savvy with picking better equipment. Between finding a few DIY recipes that are mainstays and building my own coils, the cost of consumables is way down compared to analogs. Looking at the hobby in those terms, I have a couple hundred a month in savings discretionary for new toys like the goofy Fumy-Tech Crystal Ball I just picked up. Why not, What the heck!