I ordered some premixed base so now I just have to figure out which flavors I want.

My suggestion would be to get a handful of fruits and then add cotton candy, Bavarian cream, and vanilla custard. I have been making variations of Keith's recipe and changing the fruit out. Blue berry is my current fav but mango is nice as well. Even grape has a chance.

I think it's blueberry wild. Will report back if that's not it

Anyone try the Cactus flavor from Inawera?  Could be interesting.  I use to like the Snapples Element drinks when they were around, and the Rain flavor was cactus.

Where do you guys get your flavored? I've been using wizard labs but they are always out of most 30 ml flavor a that I want.

https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/default.aspx

http://www.bullcityvapor.com

it depends on what brand I want

E-cig express when I need a few of there brand flavors for my fruit loops juice

Bull City as mentioned above and Wizard labs


There might be one or 2 other vendors but between the three of them I can get my TFA, FA, FW and Cap brand flavors

I have a question. My math skills have never been my strong point! But I'm trying to get my latest mix to 19 or 20 nic level.

What I've read is (A+B)÷2=C
So my mix is 40ml of premixed 24mg nic and 30ml of zero nic flavors and mixes. The math says I'm around 12mg nic level. That's fine, but I have to vape more.

So how much of my 24mg premix 50/50 would I have to add back in to get to 20mg nic level overall?

What level do you want of nic

Is your flavor pg or vg

20mg nic level and all my flavors are pg based.

Eta: My total mixture is 70ml.

You may have to get a different nicotine bottle.  My calculations say 50+ ml for 20mg

1.2ml of Flavor West Sweet Cream
1.8ml of TFA/TPA Bavarian Cream
.8ml of 60mg/ml nic solution (50/50)
11.2ml of pure VG


Very creamy flavor. It's smooth and subtle. Eventually I'll tweak it and add things to it since it's rather subtle.

Well since MBV decided to discontinue my ADV it looks like I am taking the plunge on the DIY route.

Was using White Out 90% of the time with some thug juice and RY4(discontinued that one too) mixed in.  Going to try to recreate the white out and find an RY4 that I like.

Ordering supplies today and going to start with a White Tic Tac recipe that I found on vapingunderground.com

Damn you bastards, been sitting
at work reading this thread. Now I have to go home and order stuff.

Well, got my nic, pg and vg ordered and got 3 flavors from tfa. Picked up some apple, caramel and cranberry.

I have been using straight Apple all the time. I am going to try to make some caramel apple and some cranapple.

I do have a question concerning the cranberry, it said it was a flammable flavor, anything I need to do with this other than not try to vape it straight?
And also the caramel is a custard? Not really sure what that means, anyone care to explain?

Anyone order any nic from wizard labs lately?  Ordered some on Monday night and I haven't gotten my shipping confirmation yet. How long has it usually taken for everyone else to get there nic?

I ordered a 120ml bottle of nic, it was only 16 on sale. Hope they don't take too long. I am trying not too purchase any more juice

I only vape  6mg  so what I already have ordered will last me a long time. I will check them out next time I order.
You may want to update the OP. I ordered from wizard based on that.

fresh set of eyes helps sometimes.  that is a really good price from freedomsmokes!  just doing the math, I think a liter would last me like 3 years or something, that's why I just ordered the 120ml bottle.  I am a total noob to mixing so I ordered in smaller quantities until I figure things out.

just got done with my first mix!

made a caramel apple using 10% flavor 60VG/40PG at 6mg nic

made a 20 ml batch to try it out went with 7.5% apple and 2.5% caramel

I let it breath overnight as it smelled pretty strong, especially the caramel, just put it in my tank this morning (im using a TFV4 with the .17 ohm quad coil) and it is actually pretty good! I am very happy with my results so far. The caramel is a bit strong so I may change it to 9%apple and 1% caramel next time I mix it up.  Cant wait to see what this is like after it steeps for a day or two.

Using the calculator in the OP it cost me .96 cents to make this 20ml batch.  at my B&M that I usually buy my juice from that would be 10dollars.  with me going through roughly 50ml a week that is a huge savings!

ETA: edit to add that these were TFA flavors apple and caramel (original)

This juice mixing is harder than it sounds.    Not the math...just getting a good original flavor.

Peach ice cream was an abysmal failure.  

Blackberry lemonade was spectacular when I first mixed it, really complex and you could taste all the different flavors I put in...but after a bit of steep time, the lemon overwhelms everything...even the sweetener. So next I'll probably try this one again and drop the lemon by at least half.

I started out with 20ml batches in 30ml bottles to give myself room to tweak things...but I only thought about adding flavors to fix something, not reducing...so I'm cutting back to 10ml test batches to reduce waste when I make a total dud.

New process will be 10ml of VG, and all flavors will be walked up in 0.5ml increments.

I may try to make a dripper build that just uses a little plug of a wick that can be popped out super quick for faster sampling without flavor contamination.  Just enough cotton to hold juice for 1 cool hit.  Hmmm...I wonder if I could make one I could just slide a cotton swab into...swab down the coil, then put the swab in the coil?  Is there anything incredibly stupid about this idea?

So I decided to pursue this idea and bought another dripper today that looks perfect for the job.  Then I built this stupid big 17 or 18 wrap 4mm coil with 24 gauge kanthal...lol.  At first it was 2 ohms, but wasn't firing well....a little tweaking, and it was firing beautifully at 2.2 ohms, and I should have left it alone.  Next little adjustment, and I was at 4 ohms, would barely fire...trashed.

I'm going to try again with some heavier gauge wire, this was just futzing around with the coil I had on hand, anyway.  Going to re-wick it constantly, and there was no way this thing was holding up.

As for the wicking itself, apparently there are Cotton Bacon Bits specifically for this sort of thing, so will be looking into that this evening.

I know this is the DIY juice thread, not a coil building thread, but since the point of this is to make a good sampling tool, I figured it was relevant.  

I made The Coil at the vape shop tonight...8 4mm wraps of 20 gauge.  0.39 ohms.  It's a tank of a coil that hits AMAZING, better than my Kennedy build...I'll definitely be stepping up my game on the Kennedy.  The atty is a Shado Vapor MGNT Atomizer V1.5 and is stupid easy to re-wick, which is probably true of all single-coil decks, but I think I picked the right tool for the job.

Now with some juice recipe coaching from fatty, I'll start mixing in earnest, and hopefully come up with some recipes worthy of sharing!

you'll have a lifetime supply of Jap cotton incoming shortly which is not in any way, shape, or form equal to the value of the tanks you sent me. And some kanthal.  

Got it!  And a coil jig I have no idea how to use, and wire, and a syringe that's WAY easier to use for flavorings...thanks man!

Re-wicked everything this morning...honestly, I didn't expect the cotton to make that big a difference, but it doesn't take a second to tell the difference in feel, and the vape is smooth and consistent...the Jap cotton thing is no myth.  I'm going to give the smaller packs out to the guys at the shop as tokens of gratitude, and I know it will be appreciated.

I also made 4 new flavors this morning using the syringe.  I remade the blackberry lemonade, and I made a berry colada, banana split, and a fruit punch for lack of better term.  They're just about ready to come out of the hot water bath, but I'll probably have to wait until this evening to start sampling.  Hopefully there's a winner or two in there!

I haven't made anything with wire that small yet, but I'm coming to realize it's all about surface area.  I've been building nothing but the biggest coils that will fit on a given deck, but with all this fine wire you sent, I'm going to have to start looking at doing some more elaborate multi-coil builds.

First batch of 3mg "Drooler" steeping away, along with 5 test batches...working with the flavors that have thus far defeated me, ice cream, pina colada, banana, peach, cherry.  And added milk to the lineup...not sure about that one, smells faintly of coconut, but we'll see how it goes.  Backed off the ml amounts and used drops of this or that in most of the recipes, going for a more subtle approach, and they all smell a lot more promising than my initial attempts.

Yeah, I know there are tried-and-true recipes out there...but what fun is that?

2 weeks later, and I'm down to the last tiny bit of Drooler, with 800ml that just won't steep fast enough.  The first batch was a spectacular hit...people are saving their last drops for just the right time, just in case there isn't any more, but batches 2 and 3 just aren't coming along.

I thought the flavorings were shelf stable, but I'm growing concerned that my apricot or lemon flavoring has gone off.  The smell is spot on, but the flavor is so bitter-lemon it's horrifying.  Now I have the monumental task of determining if it's my supplier, my storage, or my steeping conditions.

I tried to accelerate the steeping with some heat.  The original went into almost-boiling water and allowed to come back down to room temperature, then a couple of days later it was good-to-go.  Batch 2 followed the exact same process, but it just wouldn't tone down.  So I made Batch 3 two nights ago, and compared it to Batch 2 without steeping, and they tasted the same.  So I used my sous vide circulator to bring them to 120F and let one go for 12 hours and the other for 24...still no difference.

Tonight I'm double checking all my flavorings, both smell and taste, and if everything checks out there and the juice hasn't progressed, then I'm going to try 180F for 4 hours on Batch 2 and 8 hours on Batch 3.

Need to buy a notebook at lunch and really start detailing all this out on paper, because I am gonna have to science the fuck out of this if I want to get good at it.  

It was the apricot all right.  Got home and compared, they aren't even the same color, one is clear, the other is light gold.  I have e-mails into both MFS and Capella to find out who should get the stink eye.

UPDATE:  MFS believes they sent me the wrong apricot...probably some young dude packaging who thought I wouldn't notice the difference.  They're sending me another 125ml bottle.  A good lesson to learn early, I guess, QC starts with the ingredients, not with the finished product.  Going to order some small clear glass vials I can use for control samples.

Another update:  Manufacturer responded and confirmed that the clear juice is theirs, so the mystery fully answered and I can order with confidence.

Great successes on the last batch of test flavors.  

Peach Pomegranate was just an instant keeper...came out a lot more floral than I expected, but flavor was just amazing.
The blackberry milk was a second attempt at a flavor, and it's a success.  Toned down the milk and added my super secret flavor that fixes everything (apricot).
Someone wanted an Atomic Fireball flavor.  I couldn't have gotten any closer.  Right down to the building burn of cinnamon overload, nailed it.  Happy to share that recipe, just don't have the brand of flavoring on me at the moment, if you're interested I'll post it.  But it's 10 parts VG, 1 part sweetener, 0.5 parts red hot flavoring.
Made a nearly straight menthol...menthol flavoring, menthol crystals, and just a few drops of the red hot flavoring...it was so over-the-top menthol...instantly cleared everyone's sinuses, fuck me if I didn't feel my ears drain...almost impossible to hit, but entertaining as hell.  Will definitely use if I get some congestion.
Finally, just a straight cappuccino to check out the flavor.  Incredibly yummy, not chemically at all...this will definitely be an outstanding base for some very rich, decadent flavors.
Honeybun...honestly, I really liked this one, just a rich honey flavor that does it for me.  Had some very slight chemical notes to it, though, so we're going to let it steep a bit longer to see if those settle out, otherwise I'll tone down the flavorings a small notch and try again.

Mixing up as big a batch of Drooler tonight as my ingredients will allow, hoping it's the full 400+ because half of that has already been requested.  Had yet another person tell me they're saving their last little bit for clean cotton and some reason to celebrate...lemme tell you, that kind of praise sure makes it enjoyable to make this stuff.  Gotta get more ingredients ordered asap.

It's two parts valium, one part muscle relaxant, an ambien, and a twist of Oban 18.  Don't hit it if you've got stuff to do.


Twelvepack, I'm really glad to see you're having fun with this and that you've got potential customers lined up.  This is awesome!

Drooler is my blackberry lemonade recipe.  Actually lemon/sweetener/apricot/blackberry...and it's so tasty it makes you drool, according to one of my tasters, so I named it Drooler.

The peach-pomegranate juice I just made will be named "Cory Owns More Land In Hawaii Than You Do" because I have a fondness for long non-sensical names that clearly have a story behind them.

Fatty, I'm probably going to end up being a victim of my own standards...without stockpiling supplies and creating some significant production space, I can't make this stuff in a manner I feel is worthy of charging for, and just not willing to take the plunge and make that investment.  In 5 years I'll have my pension secured and don't have to worry about relying too much on my children...I don't want to be a burden on them in their 20s...and I can cut loose and devote real time and effort to this, or something like it.

Thanks to my asshole state I'm really interested in getting into DIY.  Plus, I'd like to save some money in the long run.

Curious if the info, links and what not, on the first page are still applicable before I get started.

Any other advice would be most welcome

They look good to me.  I order a lot of stuff through MyFreedomSmokes, and except for one incident they've done well by me.  The Flavor Apprentice, Capella, and LorAnn are all good flavor manufacturers you can buy through MFS, but they have a LOT more flavors on their own websites.  Capella is slow to ship, but I've gotten great customer service from them, and their flavorings are top-notch.

Hmmm...flavor-wise, if you are doing any fruit flavors at all, buy some apricot.  It truly is my secret ingredient, and it's a flavor that's used in cooking just like I use it in juice...it mellows out tart flavors, and enriches other flavors.  Avoid Flavor West apricot, it's horrible, I use Capella.

For test batches, I roll with 10ml of VG and 1ml of sweetener as a base.  I tried to halve that, and it was too hard to stay consistent, the measurements have to be too precise.

Speaking of sweetener, it's just PG, water, and sucralose.  You could probably make your own a lot cheaper, or possibly even just add straight sucralose to your juice, but I haven't gone there and doubt I will.

Flavors vary WIDELY between manufacturers.  If you find a recipe on the Interwebs that doesn't include the manufacturer of the flavors, you haven't found a recipe at all.  Not saying not to try it, but don't go mixing 16 ounces of juice until you've done a test batch.  If you get a tried-and-true recipe, make sure to QC any new flavors you get in before you mix...that's what screwed me with MFS, they sent me Flavor West apricot labeled as Capella, and it ruined 800ml of juice.  They replaced the bad flavoring they sent me, but I was still out a good $50 in other ingredients.

Nicotine...if you're just mixing for yourself, I highly recommend just getting it in 100% VG at the level you want it.  Still buy some regular VG for testing...it's cheaper so you don't feel so bad about dud recipes...but if you can avoid playing with high concentrations of nicotine, do it.  If you're mixing different levels of nic for other people, though, I went with 100mg nic in 100% VG, so I can hit any nic level I need to by offsetting the regular VG in the recipe without screwing up my ratios.

2 liters of VG goes faster than you'd think, especially if you're experimenting a lot.

Glass Bottle Warehouse.  If you really get into DIY juice, buy a flat of 1 ounce dripper bottles and a dozen 16 ounce brown glass bottles...make sure to get the lids with poly cones on the brown bottles, the foil caps really get nasty quick.  It'll cost you $100, but every flavor you come up with is going to change over time, so unless it's just baaad, having enough bottles will let you keep mixing while the test subjects get some steep time in.  And it sure as hell beats washing bottles constantly.

You can buy a bunch of syringes, or you can go to CVS or Walgreens and ask for some oral syringes at the pharmacy.  They're generally pretty happy to give you a handful for free.  Then go home, and use a 7/64 drill bit to open up the syringe opening just a tad, and the drip tip that the 60ml flavorings come with will fit snuggly into it....allowing you to quickly and easily measure out your flavorings with no mess.  For larger flavoring bottles, go to the children's medicine section of CVS and look for an oral syringe with a bottle adapter...its a rubber stepped cone that fits into most bottle openings and allows you to fill your syringe easily.

That's all the advice I can think of at the moment.  It's a lot of fun, I love to take half a dozen sample batches to the vape shop at night, a bunch of us will sit around and judge them.  Good times!

Thanks a bunch!  Very helpful info!

I've saved all my empty glass bottles of juice.  Can these be washed effectively enough to be reused?  Also, what size bottles are good for for me to store samples in before I decide to make bigger batches?

Yep, I started out reusing bottles.  Wash them with mild dish soap, rinse thoroughly and air dry.  I sat mine on a heat pad to speed that up.

The drippers can be fully disassembled and washed as well.  Sometimes there's a mild adhesive attaching the bulb to the glass tube, but more often than not it is already broken loose or non-existent.  I've only had one that was stubborn.

The 1 ounce bottles (30ml) are fine to store samples.  I use yellow electric tape to label mine, it holds up better than masking tape and comes off easily.

I'm assembling a shopping list of all the supplies and ingredients so I can get into this side of the hobby.  I'm not going to be strict on my VG/PG ratio but i'm aiming for 70/30 to 80/20.  If my VG ends up being higher I am totally ok with that.  I just don't want anymore than 30 PG if I can help it.  I'll also be shooting for 3mg nic in all my juices.

Right now I am trying to select which nicotine to buy.  I've previously read where 24mg nicotine base is a wise choice to buy as a novice as it is a lot safer to handle if something goes wrong.  So unless someone recommends a different ratio,for whatever reason, please let me know.  As far as if my nic should be PG based or VG based I am totally clueless.  Is one more stable than the other?  Maybe less throat hit if its VG based?  Again, I'm not being uber precise with my overall VG/PG ratio.

One last thing.  I was perusing the DIY e-liquid recipe site and noticed a few entries for a nic base, I assume to make juice mixing more convenient at a later time.  Such as this CLICK MEH.  Do any of you do this as a matter of convenience?  Any drawbacks to this method?

ETA:  While browsing Amazon for syringes I noticed they sell VG.  I plan to buy my nic and flavorings from MFS.  Any reason why I shouldn't use Amazon for VG?

It's actually pretty hard to get over 80% VG with any flavor without going to straight extracts (as opposed to PG-based flavorings) or VG-based flavoring.  That 70-80% VG range you're shooting for is, in my opinion, ideal...allows for plenty of room for flavorings, with great vapor production.

Earlier I suggested getting your nic at the level you're going to vape, but I didn't think that through, lol...have to account for flavoring dilution.  I roll with 100mg nic in 100% VG...the stuff is THICK, thicker than regular VG, a spill is not going to go all over the place unless you drop the bottle from about 5 feet.  And while it's not something you want to get on you at all, there are e-juices out there at 36mg, so I'm not tooooo worried about 100mg.

Using straight VG for your nic base just makes the math easier, and it's about the only way you'll stay in your 70-80% VG range.  You'll get all your PG from the flavorings.

Making a base is an outstanding idea (I can't see the link from here, though), as long as you stick to a set volume of flavoring, or don't care if the nic levels or VG/PG ratios wander a bit.  Take the Drooler recipe for example, and just treat the flavorings as variables:

Base:
12ml - 100mg Nicotine in 100%VG
288ml - VG

Add:
30ml - Flavor A
30ml - Flavor B
30ml - Flavor C
15ml - Flavor D

If you go with fewer flavorings, it's going to increase the VG% and nic level, but not by a huge amount.

Personally, I'm diabetic and I like sweeter juices to satisfy my sweet tooth, so I'd roll with:

Base:
12ml - 100mg Nicotine in 100%VG
288ml - VG
30ml - Sweetener

Add:
30ml - Flavor A
30ml - Flavor B
15ml - Flavor C

If you were going to be using nicotine in your test samples, no question that you'd be wanting to use a base like this.  Always minimize how often you handle stronger concentrations.

No reason I can think of not to use Amazon, except one, and that's a conditional reason.  At many sites, orders over a certain $ amount ($75 at MFS) ship for free...so it could be a significant savings if you get everything from one source.  Just depends how close you are to the free shipping threshold...it's not uncommon for me to save money by adding one more little item to my cart.

Thanks a million dude!  You've been an incredible help!

Any time, I love bullshitting about this stuff.  

I got all my supplies from Amazon and MFS today, which I'll say I was expecting the Amazon order to arrive so quickly, but not MFS.  I ordered several 10 packs of syringes of various sizes from Amazon for around $6 - $8 per pack.  All the liquids were ordered from MFS.  Can't wait to mix up my first batch this weekend!  Hopefully I can reasonably replicate Doh'nuts since that $22 a bottle habit is costing me so much.

I drop my homebrew exclusively now, and I formulate and test everything for a dripper.  Someone recently started using it in a tank, and they want more flavor out of it.  The obvious fix is to reduce VG and increase flavorings...do any of you have any sort of trusted ratio when converting a dripper juice to a tank juice?

My first impulse is to just double down on the flavorings, but that would be like a 50/50 juice.  Too loose for a subohm tank?

Yeah, I'm at 75/25, PG is all flavoring as well.

To be honest, the Drooler just mostly tastes sweet to me (after vaping about a liter of it, no surprise), so I may halve the sweetener to 15ml and up all the other flavors by 5ml each.  That'll keep it at the same VG/PG ratio but should amp the flavors up a bit.