DIY - Your first time

Puff&Pass said:
One more question Derick, I've noticed that the higher the PG concentration in juice the more it burns my throat, so have resulted in avoiding the higher PG blends I have. Is PG/VG equally safe for use? Maybe I'm just PG sensitive? Was thinkin of using maybe a little more distilled water in VG blends.
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Indeed, in addition to carrying flavour, PG is responsible for what we call throat hit - the kind of thump you get when you inhale vapour. PG is completely safe and the throat burn is normal - but it should generally not occur too much at 50/50 or lower PG ratios (65 PG 35 VG and up can be quite nasty on the throat). Higher nicotine levels can also cause throat irritation especially when combined with a high PG ratio.

But...some people are actually more sensitive to PG. Best way to find out is to share your juice with another vaper and get some feedback on whether they feel the same irritation (i.e. a juice issue) or not (i.e. personal sensitivity to PG) :D
 
free3dom said:
Indeed, in addition to carrying flavour, PG is responsible for what we call throat hit - the kind of thump you get when you inhale vapour. PG is completely safe and the throat burn is normal - but it should generally not occur too much at 50/50 or lower PG ratios (65 PG 35 VG and up can be quite nasty on the throat). Higher nicotine levels can also cause throat irritation especially when combined with a high PG ratio.

But...some people are actually more sensitive to PG. Best way to find out is to share your juice with another vaper and get some feedback on whether they feel the same irritation (i.e. a juice issue) or not (i.e. personal sensitivity to PG) :D
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Will play around with the PG then, I like the VG but seems to be a bit hectic on coil clogging, thanx for the info, 50/50 would be my start base then.
 
Puff&Pass said:
Will play around with the PG then, I like the VG but seems to be a bit hectic on coil clogging, thanx for the info, 50/50 would be my start base then.
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Yep, 50/50 is a good place to start, and if you go higher VG and get coil clogging issues you can add around 5% distilled water to thin it out
 
For the physics challenged among us, are distilled water, deionized water and purified water the same thing?
 
Viper_SA said:
For the physics challenged among us, are distilled water, deionized water and purified water the same thing?
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Not really, depend on the processes uses, distilled water is basically, steam condensate, so likely not to contain anything besides water.So basially water in it's purist form. Don't attempt t drink distilled or demineralised water it'll saturate itself with your minerals. But for vaping shoul be fine, still recommend bying it instead of making it as you can not do analysis on it. Purified water has been cleaned, irons, toxins removed but still contain minerals. Drinkable but I won't vape it.
 
I know demin water is bad for you, didn't realize it was the same thing as deionized water though. Think I'll stick to PG/VG mixes instead of water anyway.
 
I'm always wary of 'purified' water, as it can basically mean anything. If I pour some tap water through a dishcloth then in effect that is also 'purified' water. Plus sometimes the filters in these purification systems are not cleaned often enough, and they are a perfect breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria, so after purifying your end result could have more impurities and the water you started with :)
 
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Viper_SA said:
I know demin water is bad for you, didn't realize it was the same thing as deionized water though. Think I'll stick to PG/VG mixes instead of water anyway.
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I might not be the same, but a similar concept, just ions removed.
 
Since this has become a bit of a Q&A, can I just ask anyone who may have used it:

The Skyblue TFA cheesecake - is it the filling creamy part and crust? Or do you still need to add something for crust, like Graham Cracker?
 
r0gue z0mbie said:
Since this has become a bit of a Q&A, can I just ask anyone who may have used it:

The Skyblue TFA cheesecake - is it the filling creamy part and crust? Or do you still need to add something for crust, like Graham Cracker?
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For me all I get is the creamy part, but as has been said before, taste is subjective :)
 
Derick said:
I've been seeing an increase in the number of people wanting to try out DIY and I thought I would post a quick-start guide.

Note: This is my recommendation of how to get going, you can probably find plenty of other guides online or by talking to experienced DIY-ers.

With that out of the way let's start:
It seems daunting, I know. PG/VG, nicotine, flavours, percentages, calculators that give you weird error messages and omg can I mix it wrong and kill myself?

There are 2 ways you can mix DIY - The supremely accurate, scientific method, where everything works out exactly down to the 0.01 of a ml, or the not-so-accurate, but close enough (and easy) method.

For this post, I'm just going to talk about the easy method. It does not work out your nic level to the exact mg/ml, but gets it pretty close and it errs on the side of caution (so you nic level will be a bit lower if anything).

So let's get some terminology out of the way first:
Nic
Nicotine and generally measured in mg per ml, or % per volume. Coincidentally the two measurement methods have pretty much a 1:1 relationship - i.e. 36mg/ml = 3.6% Vol.
PG
Propylene Glycol - it is a superior flavour carrier and solvent (makes your flavours mix and not separate), also adds to the throat hit.
VG
Vegetable Glycerin or just Gylcerin - The vapour producer, but not so great at carrying flavours, easy on the throat

The easy (but not so accurate) method:
1. Premix your DIY e-liquid to the correct PG/VG ratio and nic strength.
2. Add Flavour to a small sample
3. Vape

Yep, as easy as that, but I'll explain a bit more
When starting out, I recommend you do a 50/50 PG/VG mix, here you get the best of both worlds (flavour vs vapour) - later when you get better at mixing, you can do higher VG mixes for those 'sick clouds' or for whatever ratio you later find you prefer. 50/50 is also the easiest to mix.

When starting out, use the PG and VG that have no nicotine in it, it is by far cheaper than the PG and VG that contain nic, so if it is a total unvapable disaster, at least you are wasting the cheap stuff.

1. So add 5ml of pure, no nic PG to 5ml of pure no nic VG and you now have a 10ml 50/50 PG/VG mix with no nicotine.

2. Add 0.8ml of the flavour you want to try - 0.8ml of 10ml works out to 8% strength and 8% is a good place to start with most flavours.

3. Vape - here I recommend using a dripper, purely because it is easier to try a small sample with a dripper, with a tank you would either have to vape the tank empty, or wash it out between tastings, but there is nothing wrong with using a tank, just a bit more 'work'

Now you can mess with the flavour percentage, add a bit more if you like it stronger, add more PG/VG if you like it weaker. Add specific amounts, so you can have some idea of what he final percentage is that you like.

Beginners tend to add too much flavouring to start off with, the upside to a lot of flavour is that it tastes really great in the short term, but you will get sick of the flavour a lot quicker. With TFA and Capella flavours I recommend that you go no higher than about 12% strength.

And that's it for this post - next post will be in a day or two, depending on my schedule, but I'll continue with the easy method and talk about making mixes with nicotine.

Feel free to ask questions on this post, will answer as I see them

EDIT: I will use this as a kind of 'series' and take you through to the advanced stuff, so you should be able to become a master mixer if you follow these posts. I will also include some info on steeping and address some of the myths, do's and don't's etc.
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I ordered yesterday, very excited to start, this is also my reduction from 12mg to 6mg...should be arriving today...wooHooO! Oh and great thread Derick.
 
Hi guys,

Picked up a DIY kit from Sky Blue yesterday gonna give this a bash, read through @Derick tutorial it was very informative and helpful
 
kbgvirus said:
Hi guys,

Picked up a DIY kit from Sky Blue yesterday gonna give this a bash, read through @Derick tutorial it was very informative and helpful
Click to expand...

Cool... enjoy :)

Have a look through the recipe threads. Its a helluva lot easier following one, until you get the hang of it.

http://ecigssa.co.za/some-recipes-from-around-the-web.t9584/
http://ecigssa.co.za/clone-recipes.t9698/
http://ecigssa.co.za/calling-all-diyers.t10799/page-3#post-218323

Or make a few single or duo/flavoured juices to start.
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1430809604.150808.jpg

Oh yeah. Just arrived.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@Derick I like the new labels for the PG, VG and Nic! Nice and easy to see from a distance! That'll help me when I'm scrounging around at night making myself e liquids in a dimly lit load shed house ;)
 
First Question :D is Sky Blue and Valley Vapour the only local vendors that stock TFA concentrates amongst the other big name brands?
 
UnholyMunk said:
@Derick I like the new labels for the PG, VG and Nic! Nice and easy to see from a distance! That'll help me when I'm scrounging around at night making myself e liquids in a dimly lit load shed house ;)
Click to expand...

@UnholyMunk thanks we had a DIYer dilute his Nicotine with his nicotine and got a nice 36mg vape going, so we decided to change the labels a bit to make it a bit more distinguishable :D
 
I love how easily those labels peel off without leaving a sticky residue. So mayne uses for both the glass and plastic bottels once they are empty.
 
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