DIYing basic recipe, step by step

[~Mary23]

I started purchasing diy supplies soon after I started vaping. I've used those to enhance purchased juices as well as doing some slap-dash, not-really-a-recipe diy. Some of those worked, some didn't. Okay, so I'm ready to start doing the real diy. Have slowly but surely accumulated all the supplies, measuring syringes, cleaned & sanitized empty bottles...Oh, I've also read everything related to diy on these and that other forum several times. Using tips and tricks from all that I've read, something a friend told me the other day, and what I remember from trying to diy so far, here is what I did today. Please, experts, if I goofed anything - do tell! I'm ready to get serious with this. I'm tired of ordering my cheap juice, I want to make it. That way I can afford more of the good stuff!

The main thing I learned from trying to diy before is NOT TO USE DROPS as a measurement. Droppers vary!!!!! Using syringes to measure is more accurate.

First, I get out the supplies I need: NIC, PGA, PG, VG (not diluted), Ethyl Malto and Agave Nectar in PG ratios like DaveJ suggests. I have all of these in clearly labeled medium sized bottles for ease of use. I put all this in an acrylic tray and get ready a glass half full of PGA for cleaning syringes, my measuring syringes (I used the little 1ml ones that we used for filling cartos with no needles for some, my 3ml with no needle for the PG), papertowels, alcohol wipes, empty bottles, my labeler, index cards, and an organizer to put my finished bottles in. *The tray is important if you spill! Learned that the hard way more than once.

I'm going to play with Capella flavorings today. From experimenting with these before, I know these will all need sweetening and that 10% is a good starting point for Capella brand flavoring. http://capellaflavordrops.com/ I also use these in my coffee, tea, protein shakes, and baking recipes so I knew I could use them even if they didn't make good ejuice. I LOVE the Vanilla Custard!

I open up Excel and use the handy spreadsheet calculator RDW made to calculate my basic recipe. Yours will vary depending on your mg of Nic, your percentage of VG, etc. I'll post mine just so I can keep a record of it. The NIC I have is 50PG/50VG, 36mg. I want to make 5ml of 8mg so I use 6ml bottles to give me some room to play with later. BTW, I like SWEET juice. Adjust your calculator to your own needs. I used more than the standard 10% PGA to VG ratio b/c my nic has VG in it. These turned out a little thin, but I'm hoping they work well in tanks. If not, I'll reduce the PGA on my next batch.

BASIC 10% Sweet Recipe for 36mg->8mg target NIC (50/50), 5ml
Nic 1.1 ml
VG 1.0 ml
Capella flavoring 0.5ml
Agave/PG 0.2 ml
EM/PG 0.2 ml
PGA 0.2ml
---shake---
PG 1.8 ml
---shake---

I lined up my empty bottles in a row and I put the NIC, VG, PGA, and sweeteners in each bottle
- putting each syringe in the glass of PGA to clean. This way I don't contaminate by accidentally using the same syringe in another ingredient. (Thanks, Kele, for the making a bunch in a row trick! Saves SO much cleaning!)

I added one flavoring to the first bottle, shook, added PG, shook, put the dropper in and capped. Wiped the bottle with an alcohol wipe. Printed my label and attached. The first few I taste tested but I ran out of clean attys so the majority of them will get tested later. Those first few were good!!! I'll let them sit for a while, then I will test all of them. If they are good, I'll test further in tanks, LR attys, etc. If not, I'll mark them to be tweaked.

Tomorrow I'll do the same thing but with TPA fruits. Those I usually start at 5%-15% depending on how strong the website suggests (I use it as a reference). Usually most fruits I don't sweeten so I'll leave the EM and PG out until I taste it first.

The flavors I made today, using all Capella flavorings, which are just one ingredient (they come premixed) are:
French Toast (smells good!)
Kahlua & Cream
Peanut Butter
Peaches & Cream
Strawberries & Cream
Orange Dreamsicle
Chocolate Raspberry (accidentally tested on an atty that had creamy menthol in it but it was good combo!)
Capuccino (good!)
Cinnamon Danish (awesome so far)
Chocolate Fudge Brownie (awesome so far and smells divine)

I love how the Capella flavorings come pre-designed as a full flavor. No guess work of this much Peach, this much Cream, etc. I like easy. A lot of the JB juices come in FlavorPaks pre-mixed like this. So cool.

Now, if they taste good as they are, I'm done! The trick is that all diy flavors don't taste right the first try. The sweetness is good on all of these - not too sweet, needs no more sweetening. Some may need a drop of another ingredient to enhance it - some may not work at all. Some I already know I will combine, at least in my tank, like Peanut Butter with French Toast. Mmmm. Will keep you posted.

If I can stick to one-flavoring recipes and make enough to afford my premium blended juices (JB), then I'll be happy. Did I do it right?

[liveaboard]

Send them to me and I'll let you know

[davej]

Great job Mary, you should move this to the DIY Masterlist thread.

BTW your timing is perfect, someone emailed me today asking for just this exact type of run through, which time constraints prevented me from providing. Fortunately I did point him to the DIY threads here on the Volcano forums, so with any luck he will find this post right away.

The only observation I would share, and you may very well have done this, but just neglected to mention it, is to get really accurate measurements (since many of your components are in 1/10th of a milliliter) is to 'clear' your needle when measuring.

What this means is to draw in roughly the correct amount, with a little overage, then pull the plunger up until air bubbles come to the top of the syringe. At this point there is little or no liquid in the actual needle, an amount which can vary quite a bit depending upon the length and gauge of your needle, and the viscosity of the liquid. Work the plunger down until you get the reading for the exact amount you want to dispense, keeping in mind to read from the bottom of the bubble. Now add your ingredient, and work the plunger a few times to make sure all of the liquid clears the needle.

On large scale batches this is not nearly as critical as small ones, but there can easily be .1 - .2ml variance in what is in the needle body, in addition to what shows inside your syringe according to the gauge.

[~Mary23]

Arclight's calculator gave me 1.11111 but that's harder to measure than 1.1... And I do overmeasure in the syringe then slowly get it back to the correct point - I think I'm doing what you said. You mentioned one time that it isn't a recipe unless you can replicate it - so the ones of these that turn out well I will replicate before they are empty and compare. Hopefully my measurements were on.

Am happily vaping a combination of the PB and French Toast right now. Those are going to be replicated soon and combined! It's the chocolates I worry about b/c sometimes they get bitter after they steep.

Oh, and thank you. I want to start doing diy the right way from now on. Thank you for all your help!

[liveaboard]

When you do your EM & Agave nectar in the 1:9 & 1:30 ratios - are you first dissolving the EM in PGA and THEN mixing with the PG?

[~Mary23]

When you do your EM & Agave nectar in the 1:9 & 1:30 ratios - are you first dissolving the EM in PGA and THEN mixing with the PG?

For today I used the EM liquid I had left mixed 1ml of EM to 9ml of PG to make 10ml. Now I'm out so I will have to mix up my EM powder into EM liquid using PGA and then mix with PG. I think the answer to your question is yes...

I don't even make up the 1:29 ratios b/c I like my juice sweet. That is so tiny of an amount for me! I never make 3ml testers anymore. 5ml is my minimum amount to be able to tell if I like it or not.

[liveaboard]

That's one of those areas where I start to go brain dead -

So if I put EM crystals in w/PGA aren't I already diluting it? Or are you just using enough PGA to dissolve the crystals?

If you're going to add PGA to your mixes anyway - wouldn't it be easier to use PGA instead of PG so that you aren't having to measure out two smaller quantities?

EM is still a mystery to me - I know I like it - but have yet to really figure out how to prepare and use it - I bought one of DaveJ's sweetner kits and got a vial of TPA's but I'd like to "understand" it and make my own.

[~Mary23]

I just got my first bottle of the powder to start making my own liquid. I haven't done it yet. Think of it like Menthol crystals. You add 1 part crystals to 9 parts PGA to dissolve. Same thing with EM.

Then, b/c EM is very sweet, you can either use the liquid as a flavoring to make Cotton Candy, OR you can dilute it with PG in the same 1 to 9 parts and use it as a sweetener. Straight EM liquid would be too sweet by itself, that's why DaveJ told us to dilute it. I used to use it straight!

Does that make sense?

You will have EM crystals in your next goody box from me if I can figure out how to move them from one bottle to another without breathing them.

The EM liquid I used to get from DIYFS was diluted with PGA. The EM liquid from TPA is diluted with PG and heated. You can dilute the crystals either way. I will use PGA b/c it's just easier.

I keep the powder, the liquid version, and the diluted with PG versions in my diy cabinet. When I diy, all I will use will be the diluted with PG version.

[geekdgirl]

I have to say, Mary, I'm impressed! Sounds like you've developed a handy little system to begin mass producing juices..I might be a bit jealous Congrats! BTW I finally sifted through stuff and have a nice big ziplock put together to pack up for the PIF...next step is packing it up to mail out...but the first step has been completed

[~Mary23]

Don't be impressed! I'm still learning how to make just a 1 flavoring juice. No way am I ready to start recipes or anything. Mostly all I've done until today was try to make all VG juices (some flavors just disappear into VG like they were never there) or fix bad juice.
The assembly line thing was inspired by Liveaboard. If you are using the same basic recipe and only changing the one flavoring, it sure goes much faster, easier, and with a LOT less mess.