Where Do You Start
Firstly we need to think about supplies. What ratio of e-liquid are you looking to make, do you have propylene glycol allergies and all that jazz. A great place to make your first foray into DIY juice making is My Freedom Smokes as they have everything you will need, especially the things you had no idea about. The things that you need are all self-explanatory:
- PG/VG base: they start you off at 250ml bottles, but go all the way up to 5 gallon buckets. Start small, a 1000 ml bottle should last you a while. Just remember, VG makes thicker clouds, PG helps to carry the flavor. Personally, I rarely use PG. If you are going to be using tanks you will need to thin out your e-liquid to allow it to flow to the coils.
- Unflavored Nicotine: While we are ordering liquid nicotine we need to be extremely aware of the dangers associated with it. When it is in your e-liquid it is highly diluted and relatively safe, but getting bottles that are 100 mg/ml can be dangerous if handled improperly. We will have an entire section dedicated to safe handling.
- Flavoring: The flavoring used in e-liquid is basically the same you would use to make candy. Be aware, before you buy any flavoring that it is not oil based as these can have detrimental effects on your health. All of the flavoring site offered on My Freedom Smokes are deemed safe to use for vaping and are generally the same companies that professional juice makers will use.
- Sweetener and menthol crystals: To get the perfect blend, you may want to premix some crystals with pg to add to your e-liquid. Sweeteners, menthol and koolada can all be purchased on-line.
- Bottles and caps: You are going to need somewhere to store all of your freshly made e-liquid. If like myself you are environmentally conscious (and cheap skate hoarders) you may have already acquired a stock pile of e-liquid bottles from your purchases before you decided to make your own. Glass bottles can be washed out and reused, although people generally tell you not to refill the plastic bottles ( I don’t listen to them, I reuse those too). If you have no stockpile, have no fear as bottles are very inexpensive.
Everything mentioned above can be purchased here.
The Things You Didn’t Think Of
Below are the things you will need and probably hadn’t crossed your mind, after all you aren’t a chemist..(or are you )…
- Nitrile gloves: The final product (if you have made it correctly) will be something that is safe to vape. Some of the ingredients, when undiluted are definitely not safe to get on your skin. Even professionals take precautions, so make sure you have, and use gloves.
- Tri-pour beakers: You need a cauldron for your witches brew. Beakers that can be used for mixing and pouring with ease will make everything simpler. When I first started, I used over sized bottles to combine my ingredients. I quickly found the error in my ways and have been using beakers ever since.
- Syringes: As a DIY juice maker you will find that syringes quickly become your best friend. We use blunt tip needles, nothing that you can accidentally stab yourself with, if the plunger has a tip on the end at all. The reason I love syringes for measuring ingredients is they are marked with cc’s, which is just another way of saying ml’s ( 1 cc = 1 ml ). When working with liquid nicotine you have to extremely precise with your measurements, as a 30 ml bottle of juice requires 0.9ml to make it a 3 mg/ml strength. They come in a variety of sizes but you will find that the sizes you drift towards will be 30 cc and 10 cc syringes. Vegetable Glycerin is a very viscous liquid and you will find taking the end off the needle will make them much easier to work with.
- Pippettes: Come in handy when transferring your mixed e-liquid to bottles if you don’t feel comfortable using the pouring spout on your beaker. While not a necessary piece of equipment, at times they can be life savers.
Everything I have just mentioned can be purchased here.
