DIY e Liquid Tutorial
Spinfuel cannot be held responsible for individuals causing injury or even death to themselves or others by following the information contained in this DIY e Liquid Tutorial.
Mixing in its easiest form is taking one bottle of liquid and mixing it with another. You can dilute the nicotine intensity or combine flavors. For example, mixing a 10ml bottle of 16mg with a 10ml bottle of 0mg of juice gives you 20ml of 8mg of juice. Mixing flavors is also simple: take a bottle of grape, and a bottle of peanut butter and you have peanut butter and jelly flavor. Also you can mix Glycerin or Propylene Glycol to your juice to enhance the vapor.
Why should I Mix?
There are several reasons to mix.
Enhance the flavor or make your own.
To make multiple strengths from a single base liquid.
Increase the vapor.
What do I need to mix my own?
Based on exactly what you are mixing you can use one or more of the following.
Base liquid – Usually a nicotine liquid there are varying strengths available to use as a base liquid as well as any of your flavored liquids you already use.
Flavor – A concentrated version of your required strength or a mix of flavors to produce a new flavor.
Bottle for your mix: Eye dropper, syringe, pipette, for moving liquid from one container to another.
This will make it easier to select the exact volumes to be transferred or mixed.
PG,VG,AG and PEG400 considered dilutants. This is what makes the vapor and throat hit.
PG – Propylene Glycol
PG is the most common used ingredient in liquid. Most of the pre-made juices have around 80% PG. It is good for adding throat hit to a mix but is not a great vapor producer so normally another dilutant is added to the mix to increase vapor production. A small percentage of people find they have a reaction to PG and have to find alternative liquids for mixing there juice.
VG – Vegetable Glycerin
VG is normally used to add vapor but has very little throat hit. It also adds a slight sweetness to a mix. It normally makes up around 20% of the premixed liquids. Although most people refer to VG normally they are referring to AG (see below) VG is a very thick liquid and needs to be thinned for most uses in vaping .
AG – Aqueous Glycerin
AG is basically VG that has already been thinned so it isn’t so thick normally using distilled or deionized water at around 15% water.
PEG 400 – Poly Ethylene Glycol
PEG400 is normally used by experienced vaporer’s and people that have problems with PG. It has both good throat hit and vapor.
Nicotine Strength
Nicotine strength can be quite confusing at first but is quite simple once you get the basic understanding of it. Firstly the strength description 36mg isn’t the amount that is in the bottle but the concentration per ml. So it makes it easy to reduce the strength if say you mixed your 36mg 50/50 with a nicotine free liquid you would get 18mg liquid regardless of quantity as long as you stick to the ratio 50/50.
Alcohol
High strength vodka is normally used to add throat hit to a mix but be careful with using too much as it will water down the mix. This works well adding throat hit to a all VG mix.
Distilled or Deionized Water
Normally added to VG to thin the mix a little.
Flavoring
The clue is in the name. It is there to add flavor. The average is around 15% flavor to a mix. Some can be very strong like menthol and the best part of mixing is that you can adjust the strength accordingly. Most of the flavors are predominantly PG based. You can also use more than one so you can make your own custom flavors another good reason to mix.
Mixing Calculator
A mixing calculator is a program for automatically telling you how many drops or quantity of each part of your mix to give you your required strength or flavor concentration. It takes the entire complicated math out of the equation and just makes life easier.
Ejuice Web Based Calculator
http://www.todmuller.com/ejuice/ejuice.php
One tip if you’re not using any water or alcohol in your mix you can use that for another dilutant if you have multiple dilutants in your mix.
Before attempting DYI eliquids you should know the cold hard facts about liquid nicotine.
The handling of high strength nicotine and other chemicals needed to create eliquid should only be done by those who are qualified to work with dangerous chemicals.
Nicotine is extremely toxic. More than arsenic. Anyone who stores, extracts or mixes Nicotine poses a significant risk to the user and anyone who might come in contact with it. Nicotine needs a well ventilated room. User should use protective gloves as nicotine is absorbed quickly by the skin.
Children and Pets can get very ill even die if they come in contact with high strength nicotine.
Nicotine is classified as hazardous waste and must be disposed of properly. Please contact local officials to find out how to dispose of left over, or spilled nicotine.
Ingredients in eliquids are flammable and must be safe guarded from fire and heat.
If you do not have experience in handling dangerous chemicals you should not attempt to do any DIY liquid manufacture. Buy your e-liquid supplies instead from one of the many manufacturers that already exist.
Spinfuel cannot be held responsible for individuals causing injury or even death to themselves or others by following the information contained in this tutorial.
Wendy Bivona / Premium eCigs