Mixing By Weight And Struggling On My First Attempt - Help?

[ShowMeTwice]

You're right. Patience is the key to everything else I've tried. I haven't been patient with this, I admit.

Thank you for the advice. I'll definitely check out ELR. (And apologies for my strop earlier).

To learn how to mix I strongly recommend visiting the DIYorDIE website. It has information for mixers of all levels. It is the ONLY resource of its kind on the internet. There is a ton of very helpful and useful DIY information there.

Home - DIY OR DIE Vaping - DIY E-liquid Recipes & Tutorials

DIYorDIE is the home of DIY e-liquid mixing & do-it-yourself vaping. The best place for e-liquid recipes, tutorials, tips, tricks, podcast, videos & more!

diyordievaping.com

Wayne, of DIYorDIE, is one of the most knowledgeable mixers on planet Earth. Not many come close to his abilities or know-how. He develops juices for several retail companies. Wayne has 4 pages of recipes on ELR.

His username on ELR is ENYAWREKLAW. Look-up his recipes. Make some of them. See how he uses flavors in his mixes. He also has a channel on YouTube (DIYorDIE). His videos are very educational. Wayne is also active on Facebook, he has a DIYorDIE group on FB. Join that group. It's a decent group with good people. Many folks post recipes, questions, tips and more there.


On ELR look-up recipes by Rocky Toony and Lynda Marie. Those are two mixers who totally have their together. They know how to mix!!! They both understand how to use flavors in order to develop excellent mixes.

Look at all three of those folks recipes. Find profiles you might like and mix those. You will learn much in the process.

There are a handful, or two, of other top tier mixers on ELR, but the three I gave you will help you in getting started with DIY, big time.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

Trying very hard here to mix e-liquid by weight, but I cannot get the accuracy. Does anyone have any tips on how to pour the liquids without going over the weight? Every time I try, it goes over the weight and so there now seems little point in even having the scales.

It's very easy to get the accuracy your are after. Mixing 5ml or 10ml test mixes is a breeze with the right scale.

To mix small batches you will need a scale that weighs down to 0.001g.

For 5ml or 10ml batches I use a Smart Weigh 50g x 0.001 grams scale (pretty sure Amazon has them). It runs on batteries but unlike other scales that use batteries it has an option for disabling auto-shutdown (exactly what you want for DIY). With that scale my test mixes are very accurate.

I'm always creating new mixes and those are always either 5ml or 10ml. There is no point in mixing over 10ml for test mixes. It's a huge waste of ingredients if a 20ml or 30ml mix turns out like crap.

When I mix large batches (anything over 10ml) of ejuice I use an American Weigh Scales LB-501 (0.01g). The LB-501 is the most popular, and widely used, scale in DIY by far.


For testing mixes, I always use an RDA. It's quick and much easier than using an RTA or tank. I have 5-6 RDA's dedicated to testing mixes.


One of the best places to purchase flavors, concentrates, from is Nom Nomz (UK). They carry nearly all the DIY flavors. There isn't any other place that carries the number of flavors as Nom Nomz does. NN is an excellent company. Decent prices and they ship quick. I've purchased much from them over the years.

Nom Nomz - The Home of Flavours

We specialise in DIY eliquid flavour concentrates. With over 2000 products available to choose from the best brands, from the UK, US and Europe.

nomnomz.co.uk

 

[ShowMeTwice]

I bought from this place:
https://tmbnotes.co/concentrates

Never heard of them. Did you purchase their own flavors or flavors from well known flavor houses?

What brands of concentrates did you purchase from them? What companies?

The flavors/concentrates most used in DIY are made by the following flavor houses:

FW (Flavor West)
FA (Flavour Art)
INW (Inawera)
SSA (Sobucky Super Aromas)
VTA (Vape Train Australia)
CAP (Capella)
TFA (The Flavor Apprentice)
WF (Wonder Flavours)
FLV (Flavorah)
HA (Hangsen)
OOO (One On One)
FE (Flavors Express)
PUR (Purilum)
JF (Jungle Flavors)
LA (LorAnn)
VSO Flavors
LB (Liquid Barn)
MF (Medicine Flower)

Some of those companies make super concentrates, some are ultra concentrates, some are not very concentrated. With the more highly concentrated flavors you will use far less in a mix versus flavors from companies whose flavors are not highly concentrated.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

@Dan_V

I would highly suggest making very detailed notes on all your mixes. Get a couple notebooks. Record the recipes you mix (flavor names and percentages). When you test those mixes, record your detailed thoughts on the mix. Record any changes you might make going forward.

Also, the best way to learn your flavors is to SFT (single flavor test) them. Make a 5ml of a single flavor. Give it some time to steep. Then test.

When I do SFT's I rarely test a flavor over 2%. Most times I use less than 2%. It all depends on the flavor house and how concentrated their flavors are.

As you vape a SFT, record detailed notes about the flavor. What does it taste like? Is it harsh or smooth? What is its level of sweetness? How is the mouthfeel? If a fruit, is it realistic or candy-like? If a bakery or dessert flavor, is it accurate? Is a flavor lacking notes that should be there? Is it a good flavor or a lousy one? Etc. Etc.

IOW, write down everything that comes to you as you test a flavor.

Doing SFT's is time consuming, but, there is no other way to learn your flavors. This is especially true for someone new to mixing. And very true if you plan on creating your own mixes.

Creating successful mixes comes from truly knowing your flavors and what each one brings to a mix.

Your notes will help you as you create mixes, as well as, down the road. Do not rely on the notes of others, at ELR or elsewhere, for example. With flavors that are new to me, I completely ignore whatever anyone else says, and test them myself, with an open mind. Everyone's sense of taste is different.

 

[bombastinator2]

I bought from this place:

https://tmbnotes.co/concentrates

In the end, I mixed up 30ml of tobacco, using a single concentrate. Decided not to try cutting it with anything (I originally tried for a marshmallow hint in the tobacco). It's what I'm vaping now and is actually quite decent. I found making 30ml much easier than trying to do 10ml. So not too bad a start.

Peanut Butter, Black Honey, 'Marshmellow', Banana... they did not work out how I had hoped they would. Chocolate was just... terrible!

Maybe it's just that I am a dyed-in-the-wool smoker. I love the idea of many flavours I see in print, but I just keep coming back to plain, old, tobacco.

Yeah chocolates suck. It’s one of the reasons chocolate is still so expensive. The only way to make it work is chocolate powder made of coco beans and cocoa butter. Not something you can do with a vape.

 

[bombastinator2]

"Monkey fart"

Yeah it’s got a Cavandish banana finish so you end with banana.

 

[Dan_V]

@Dan_V

I would highly suggest making very detailed notes on all your mixes. Get a couple notebooks. Record the recipes you mix (flavor names and percentages). When you test those mixes, record your detailed thoughts on the mix. Record any changes you might make going forward.

Also, the best way to learn your flavors is to SFT (single flavor test) them. Make a 5ml of a single flavor. Give it some time to steep. Then test.

When I do SFT's I rarely test a flavor over 2%. Most times I use less than 2%. It all depends on the flavor house and how concentrated their flavors are.

As you vape a SFT, record detailed notes about the flavor. What does it taste like? Is it harsh or smooth? What is its level of sweetness? How is the mouthfeel? If a fruit, is it realistic or candy-like? If a bakery or dessert flavor, is it accurate? Is a flavor lacking notes that should be there? Is it a good flavor or a lousy one? Etc. Etc.

IOW, write down everything that comes to you as you test a flavor.

Doing SFT's is time consuming, but, there is no other way to learn your flavors. This is especially true for someone new to mixing. And very true if you plan on creating your own mixes.

Creating successful mixes comes from truly knowing your flavors and what each one brings to a mix.

Your notes will help you as you create mixes, as well as, down the road. Do not rely on the notes of others, at ELR or elsewhere, for example. With flavors that are new to me, I completely ignore whatever anyone else says, and test them myself, with an open mind. Everyone's sense of taste is different.

Your advice is fantastic. I'm following it. Everything is making sense now. Thank you very much.

 

[Letitia]

Thank you for that.

And please forgive me. I'm in some pain with my joints and it's making me stroppy. Even my food doesn't taste right.

But I think I know what's going wrong. Flavours. I'm trying to do something other than tobacco. I've discovered I only really like tobacco flavours. I just wanted to experiment with something new.

Plum is beautiful with a nice tobacco with a hint of rich cream in the background.