How can I make my own e-liquid?

[Dan_V]

I have no idea what I'm doing (LOL).
I took a 100ml mixing bottle that I washed out.
I bought 4 nic shots that are 18mg (100%vg). Each one is 10ml
I have a small bottle of tobacco essence flavour I got from SR Vapes.
I went along with the guides they have on the SR Vapes page, going by weight, but for 100ml my VG/ PG came to only a fraction of the bottle. Nowhere near the 100ml.
I looked up a calculator online and it said add 50ml of nicotine to100ml of liquid to get 6mg strength. THAT'S HALF THE BOTTLE!!! How can that be right? That sounds like it would kill me, LOL.
So in the end, I dumped in the ingredients until it came roughly to 100 ml and used enough flavouring so the colour looked right.
Dumped in two nicotine shots and shook it up.
I have no idea what I've just done. It seems to vape alright, but I don't know.
None of what I've read online makes any sense.
Are measurements really that important? Can I estimate it by sight? I do pretty much everything else like that.
Please can I have some guidance?
Thanks, but please note, I am dyscalculic and will need whoever helps me to be VERY patient.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

 

[Dan_V]

Will that work on my Mac?

Edit: I just tried it and it would not install.

 

[Dan_V]

Basically, I need to know - If I mix up 100ml of zero liquid - how many nic shots do I add to get 6mg strength, if the nic shots are 18mg each?

Honestly, I can't do all those calculations. Too many numbers!

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

Will that work on my Mac?

Edit: I just tried it and it would not install.

He mentions EjuiceMeUp calculator which is only for windows. So on a mac you'd have to try it on a Windows emulator. But that's old hat TBH. I use a different program "app" on my android.

Mac and Iphone users generally have to use an online calculator as I don't believe there are any apps/programs for either.

You can see a little list of calculators on my nic base blog post. Scroll down a bit Buy nicotine concentrate nic base for vaping

Regardless, the video is still useful for learning DIY by weight. If you prefer to mix by volume using syringes and whatnot, I'm sure there' s a YT video on that. Still need a calc, of course.

 

[Dan_V]

This is really bugging me, though. How can you put 50ml of nicotine into 100ml juice? It makes no sense. That would be like, 50/50 juice and nicotine. That would just kill you.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

That calc is correct.

If you have 100ml of non-nic base and you want to turn that into 6mg juice using 18mg nic base, then yeah, you'd have to mix 50ml of that 18mg "nic shot" into it.

Look at it his way. Forget about actual volumes for now. Let's just use "part".

1 part 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 9mg (18mg divided by 2 parts is 9mg). You are dividing that 18mg between 2 equal parts.

so

2 parts 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 6mg (18mg divided by 3 parts is 6mg). You are dividing that 18mg among 3 equal parts (50ml, 50ml and 50ml). That's the only way you can get 6 out of 18. 18/6=3

I'm not good at teaching so that's all I can tell ya. There are a lot of ways to look at this, in the end the calc is right.

 

[Dan_V]

That calc is correct.

If you have 100ml of non-nic base and you want to turn that into 6mg juice using 18mg nic base, then yeah, you'd have to mix 50ml of that 18mg "nic shot" into it.

Look at it his way. Forget about actual volumes for now. Let's just use "part".

1 part 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 9mg (18mg divided by 2 parts is 9mg). You are dividing that 18mg between 2 equal parts.

so

2 parts 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 6mg (18mg divided by 3 parts is 6mg). You are dividing that 18mg among 3 equal parts (50ml, 50ml and 50ml). That's the only way you can get 6 out of 18. 18/6=3

I'm not good at teaching so that's all I can tell ya. There are a lot of ways to look at this, in the end the calc is right.

Then that's going to cost more than buying juice from a vape store. I added it up and it's costing £11 in flavour and nic shots, before I've even added the PG & VG.

I don't get it. I thought DIY was supposed to be cheaper than buying ready made!? I can get 2x120ml for £20 at my local vape shop. This makes no sense.

Also, there wouldn't be room in my 100ml bottle for another 50ml.

I'll just go out and buy some juice from a shop. What I've made tastes horrible anyway. It's going down the sink.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

I have no idea what all the materials cost on the UK, nor do I have any clue what percentage of flavoring you're mixing-in. But I refuse to believe DIY juice costs more than commercial juice in the UK.

I'm in USA and my DIY juice costs so little it's not even worth quantifying. But I will...

Here's a tally of what 1 liter of DIY juice costs me at
- 50%PG/50%VG,
- 15mg nic strength (freebase, not salts)
- 7% flavor

All this is at today's cheapest market prices for all ingredients...

- 100mg nicotine base (PG based) - 150ml - $17
- PG - 315ml - $2.80
- VG - 465ml - $3.44
- Flavor @ 7% (PG based) - 70ml - $4.14

Total cost for 1 liter of vapable juice = $27.38 USD (£21.41)

That comes out to $3.29 (£2.57) per 120ml bottle.

That'll last me roughly 2 months.

Also, there wouldn't be room in my 100ml bottle for another 50ml in nic shots.

If your bottles aren't big enough, then just mix smaller batches at a time. That's all in your control.

========================

But I'm not gonna lie: DIY isn't for everyone.

I'm no t a huge fan of it, but it's easy for me becuase I'm happy with my simple 1-flavor juices. No complex recipes for me. And I don't have a mixing lab with a bunch of flavor bottles, just a couple different flavors.

Getting complex multi-flavor recipes just right to your taste can take some time even if you are using a recipe you found on one of the recipe sites. Tweaking can take time. Also some recipes need to "steep" so you can't really vape them as soon as you mmix them or they will taste like crap.

If you put the ultimate value on convenience, then DIY isn't for you. I don't. My biggest value is on how much money is in my pocket becuase money is hard to come by for me.

It's up to you. But in terms of cost, I think you need to learn more about DIYing before you figure out what it'll cost you becuse something seems off.

 

[Dan_V]

That calc is correct.

If you have 100ml of non-nic base and you want to turn that into 6mg juice using 18mg nic base, then yeah, you'd have to mix 50ml of that 18mg "nic shot" into it.

Look at it his way. Forget about actual volumes for now. Let's just use "part".

1 part 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 9mg (18mg divided by 2 parts is 9mg). You are dividing that 18mg between 2 equal parts.

so

2 parts 0mg + 1 part 18mg = 6mg (18mg divided by 3 parts is 6mg). You are dividing that 18mg among 3 equal parts (50ml, 50ml and 50ml). That's the only way you can get 6 out of 18. 18/6=3

I'm not good at teaching so that's all I can tell ya. There are a lot of ways to look at this, in the end the calc is right.

I realise you are right. I looked up the info on the short fill bottles on the store's website and it says:

You can usually add up to 2 10ml nic shots to create a maximum of 3mg nicotine. Most e-liquid shortfill bottles come in 50ml shortfills or 100ml shortfill sizes

I think that means I'd need 4 shots to create 6mg in 100ml of base. That would be 40ml, I suppose.

That's 10ml less than you said, so now I'm confused.

The store I use is just up the road. I'll drop in and see if they can help. I know everyone there and they've been good for advice over the years.

I also found a website selling DIY mixing kits, with all the syringes and mixing bottles. The prices seem good. Turns out I bought a VERY expensive tobacco essence. It was £12.99 for 10ml. That's $16.61 in US Dollars! So I can see where I've gone wrong.

I need this to be cheap, because money is tight at the moment for me, too. I am willing to put the work in to make it economical. I just need to find a method that suits how my brain works.

I have really bad anxiety around numbers because I struggle with number dyslexia. My mind goes blank, I start to panic and then I feel ashamed and angry at myself. So thank you for your help and patience.