What I have learned about DIY e-liquid making, so far

Waine

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When you first read about vapers doing DIY, it looks a bit intimidating. You think: "No, I cannot do this, it's too technical and time consuming." The truth is that once you take the time to research it properly, you realize that it is not rocket science. It can be done. The time spent is worth it. In the beginning you are over cautious, afraid of making a mistake. But you learn from your mistakes.

After making your first few batches, you wonder why you never started earlier. It is so much fun trying out different recipes and tweaking them to your own liking.

You also awaken to the fact that DIY saves you a toilet full of money. And decide that there is no need to buy commercial juice again. It costs about R30 to R40 to make a 30ml Bottle.

You make a total excess of juice, thinking that this is justified as they must steep for so long. You must keep the cycle going. You just have to keep on making juice with this newfound knowledge.

When you make your first few successful batches, you feel so clever, like a "Mad scientist". You may even be tempted to believe you can become a juice master, and start selling your own juice. This is a different ball game entirely, one which requires serious practice, patience and good marketing skills in an industry that is almost flooded with so many self acclaimed "juiciteers". The competition is tight and it requires an enormous amount of willpower and dedication to sell your own brand of juice. It's tough to penetrate the market. You also appreciate the effort and time that juice sellers put into making marketable e-liquid.

You awaken to a new dimension of vaping which enriches the hobby giving you a sense of empowerment and control. It's awesome to chose your own Nicotine levels, VG/PG ratios and quantities.

Lastly, you vape so much more than before as you have a cupboard full of e-juice that can last you a year. You stock up on bottles of VG, PG and nicotine afraid that it may go out of stock or become banned by "smoking" regulations. It almost becomes confusing asking yourself, "Which do I try next?" Your desk is littered with many bottles of half filled juice — and you tell yourself: "Calm down, re group, and go back to basics".

For those contemplating getting into DIY, dive in, you won't look back! It was one of the best vaping decisions I ever took.







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People like to drink beer but not all beer drinkers brew their own beer.

That's the difference between diy and commercial.

Commercial - someone is controlling and responsible for the output

Diy - you are responsible for the output

Diy is great though.
 
Awesome writeup @Waine !
Thanks
 
Exactly! Nicely put man.

The curse of DIY is off-course that as you delve deeper and deeper into this new found 'mad scientist endeavor a.k.a DIY, we are always plagued by by the never ending 'one missing ingredient syndrome' which negates the cost saving rationale for me.

I now proudly boast 250 odd different concentrates (to my wife's horror) and low and behold, I still find awesome recipes with that one ingredient which I don't have! This is part of the exploration and fun of DIY and long may it continue.

I regularly cull some of the "half filled juice" bottles as hard as it is... After-all I spent good money creating this stunning double Tiramisu with 5% of Tiramisu! I know deep down that that Jagermeister juice I made sounded fabulous at the time but it actually tastes shite and I'm never gonna finish that 50ml bottle - even when I whip it out at at a braai after many, many beers...

This is all part of the journey and I am a lot more selective with the recipes I make - I know that 5% Torrone is not a good idea and that any decent custard based recipe is never a shake and vape! I also know that Silly Rabbit concentrate sounds intriguing but has almost no use...ever.

So, yes, dive in, experiment, play, have fun and learn!

Now, let's just hope the government have more important matters to occupy themselves with...



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I think the most important thing here is mixing to what YOUR palate caters for. Much like the hardware vaping industry its easy to get caught up in the 'hype'. I can see like most things the juice industry going back to basics one to three concentrate mixes.....
 
Glad it's working for you, @Waine. Are you still just using TFA concentrates? Nothing wrong with that, TFA make some excellent flavours and you can craft tasty juices from them. But once you start leveraging the power of the good concentrates from FA, Cap, FW, Inw and the soon-to-be-released Jungle Flavors line, your DIY will again move up to a new level. It's an exciting venture that keeps on bringing rewards. Making my own coils and mixing my own juices were two excellent decisions. I'm glad I made them early in my vaping journey. Every day delayed is a day wasted.
 
What I've learnt is that which looks good on paper does not always equate to being a good mix
 
I found that looking into flavour combinations that is used in the baking industry really helps when determining what flavours work in vaping. The only thing then is to get the percentages correct

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Glad it's working for you, @Waine. Are you still just using TFA concentrates? Nothing wrong with that, TFA make some excellent flavours and you can craft tasty juices from them. But once you start leveraging the power of the good concentrates from FA, Cap, FW, Inw and the soon-to-be-released Jungle Flavors line, your DIY will again move up to a new level. It's an exciting venture that keeps on bringing rewards. Making my own coils and mixing my own juices were two excellent decisions. I'm glad I made them early in my vaping journey. Every day delayed is a day wasted.

@RichJB Yes I am only using TFA as I am too kak lazy to order online and wait for flavors. I like instant gratification. But I find them somewhat satisfying. I also enjoy simple ingredients. When I use a recipe off the net, I just up the TFA by one or 2 % as they are a bit weak.

I am also not shy to experiment and tweak recipes to my perceived liking. I never make less than 30ml mixtures at a time, even when experimenting.

So far, so good. Only had one or three major cock ups. But it is a great journey. Loving it to bits.

Thanks to you and all those who encouraged me to taking the DIY leap.


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Last edited:
Haha, convincing you to take the plunge was quite the mission, bru. But we knew you'd enjoy it. ;)
 
Started out mixing Vap3 (Vanilla) with Mega Vape (Passion Potion) in about 50/50 ratio; in a 50 ml bottle. Was good but not as good as Orion (milky way, I think it's called) or NCV (Trinity). Got a few flavours from VapeOWave. Try not to laugh at what I'm going to say next. Bought some VG in a health shop in George, it is USP grade apparently but wouldn't buy it again. This was R120 for 500ML. Bought some PG (veteniary choice) in Agri also USP grade but also never again. This was R50 for 500ML so that was good. Didn't know much at that time, about BP grade. This time I know where to buy online and they selling here in George but a bit to overpriced for my liking. But hey beggars can't be choosers, so if you factor in shipping costs it will work out about the same. Anyways started to mix my own and holy smokes ain't never going back. Maybe sometimes just too treat myself and get fresh idea's.
 
When you first read about vapers doing DIY, it looks a bit intimidating. You think: "No, I cannot do this, it's too technical and time consuming." The truth is that once you take the time to research it properly, you realize that it is not rocket science. It can be done. The time spent is worth it. In the beginning you are over cautious, afraid of making a mistake. But you learn from your mistakes.

After making your first few batches, you wonder why you never started earlier. It is so much fun trying out different recipes and tweaking them to your own liking.

You also awaken to the fact that DIY saves you a toilet full of money. And decide that there is no need to buy commercial juice again. It costs about R30 to R40 to make a 30ml Bottle.

You make a total excess of juice, thinking that this is justified as they must steep for so long. You must keep the cycle going. You just have to keep on making juice with this newfound knowledge.

When you make your first few successful batches, you feel so clever, like a "Mad scientist". You may even be tempted to believe you can become a juice master, and start selling your own juice. This is a different ball game entirely, one which requires serious practice, patience and good marketing skills in an industry that is almost flooded with so many self acclaimed "juiciteers". The competition is tight and it requires an enormous amount of willpower and dedication to sell your own brand of juice. It's tough to penetrate the market. You also appreciate the effort and time that juice sellers put into making marketable e-liquid.

You awaken to a new dimension of vaping which enriches the hobby giving you a sense of empowerment and control. It's awesome to chose your own Nicotine levels, VG/PG ratios and quantities.

Lastly, you vape so much more than before as you have a cupboard full of e-juice that can last you a year. You stock up on bottles of VG, PG and nicotine afraid that it may go out of stock or become banned by "smoking" regulations. It almost becomes confusing asking yourself, "Which do I try next?" Your desk is littered with many bottles of half filled juice — and you tell yourself: "Calm down, re group, and go back to basics".

For those contemplating getting into DIY, dive in, you won't look back! It was one of the best vaping decisions I ever took.







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@Waine , right you are on all points.I've been vapeing my simple ry4 menthol for a couple of years and enjoying the taste and loving the savings.But finally my pallet yearned for something new so down to the BandM I go and sixty dollars later I'm hooked on canolli and cinnamon doughnut juices,obviously this can't go on or I 'll have to choose between food or ejuice (and I choose the latter) so I have been stocking up on supplies and gathering the courage to try a canolli recipe which consists of 6 flavors and high v.g. I am definitely ordering a digital scale as suggested on DIY or Die and it makes total sense to me.If I can nail this recipe I'll be in vapeing heaven,so here goes nothing!
 
@Waine , right you are on all points.I've been vapeing my simple ry4 menthol for a couple of years and enjoying the taste and loving the savings.But finally my pallet yearned for something new so down to the BandM I go and sixty dollars later I'm hooked on canolli and cinnamon doughnut juices,obviously this can't go on or I 'll have to choose between food or ejuice (and I choose the latter) so I have been stocking up on supplies and gathering the courage to try a canolli recipe which consists of 6 flavors and high v.g. I am definitely ordering a digital scale as suggested on DIY or Die and it makes total sense to me.If I can nail this recipe I'll be in vapeing heaven,so here goes nothing!

That sounds really interesting! Let us know how it goes! Goodluck
 
The best thing about DIY is you can make a juice that tastes like a old lady fart passing trough a onion and no one will ever know your dirty little secret:lipssealed:.
DIY sure is worth the time and effort, even if all you get from it is a bigger appreciation for some of the best juice makers out there.
 
It's weird how resistant we can be initially to the idea of mixing by weight. I remember when I first started DIY, I totally dismissed mixing by weight and wanted to do everything by volume. I guess because cooking generally uses volume with liquids. It was only my passionate hatred for washing up that drove me to mixing by weight. A scale is the best R150 you will ever spend in vaping.
 
I see my e-juice it up does not show the grams? Do I need to enter the individual weights for PG VG somewhere?
 
@Daniel, go to Tools -> Grams Set. You can enter 1.26 for VG, 1.036 for Nic, PG (if you use PG nic) and flavourings. It's not absolutely exact as flavourings have slightly different weights but you'll be pretty close. Otherwise just leave flavourings at 1.
 
@Daniel, go to Tools -> Grams Set. You can enter 1.26 for VG, 1.036 for Nic, PG (if you use PG nic) and flavourings. It's not absolutely exact as flavourings have slightly different weights but you'll be pretty close. Otherwise just leave flavourings at 1.
Legend! Sweet thx bru
 
It's debatable whether one should use 1 or 1.036 or the exact specific gravity of each flavour, which is available from ELR. Wayne uses 1 for all flavours so if you use either 1.036 or the exact weight, you'll be fractionally out on his recipes. I don't know if it's a biggie but you won't have the exact same juice he does. I'm usually slightly out anyway because, especially for small additions like 0.12g, one drop either way is going to be out. I don't think it's serious, though. The mere fact that most mixers work in half-percent increments indicates that it's ball-park rather than exact. If I mix a juice and the balance feels slightly out, I just adjust it next time.
 
When you first read about vapers doing DIY, it looks a bit intimidating. You think: "No, I cannot do this, it's too technical and time consuming." The truth is that once you take the time to research it properly, you realize that it is not rocket science. It can be done. The time spent is worth it. In the beginning you are over cautious, afraid of making a mistake. But you learn from your mistakes.

After making your first few batches, you wonder why you never started earlier. It is so much fun trying out different recipes and tweaking them to your own liking.

You also awaken to the fact that DIY saves you a toilet full of money. And decide that there is no need to buy commercial juice again. It costs about R30 to R40 to make a 30ml Bottle.

You make a total excess of juice, thinking that this is justified as they must steep for so long. You must keep the cycle going. You just have to keep on making juice with this newfound knowledge.

When you make your first few successful batches, you feel so clever, like a "Mad scientist". You may even be tempted to believe you can become a juice master, and start selling your own juice. This is a different ball game entirely, one which requires serious practice, patience and good marketing skills in an industry that is almost flooded with so many self acclaimed "juiciteers". The competition is tight and it requires an enormous amount of willpower and dedication to sell your own brand of juice. It's tough to penetrate the market. You also appreciate the effort and time that juice sellers put into making marketable e-liquid.

You awaken to a new dimension of vaping which enriches the hobby giving you a sense of empowerment and control. It's awesome to chose your own Nicotine levels, VG/PG ratios and quantities.

Lastly, you vape so much more than before as you have a cupboard full of e-juice that can last you a year. You stock up on bottles of VG, PG and nicotine afraid that it may go out of stock or become banned by "smoking" regulations. It almost becomes confusing asking yourself, "Which do I try next?" Your desk is littered with many bottles of half filled juice — and you tell yourself: "Calm down, re group, and go back to basics".

For those contemplating getting into DIY, dive in, you won't look back! It was one of the best vaping decisions I ever took.







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My experiences were quite different. I was never intimidated to get into DIY it was total logic to me. Never was over cautious just super prepared is how I see that one.
I never did or will consider only doing DIY and I keep supporting the locals because I just like to. So no money saved for me yet.
I also vape a fraction of what I used to not more. Yup cheap juice for a while and I over did it now I am easy to satisfy.

One experience I have in common is opening the cupboard and not knowing what to choose any more lol
 
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