My foray into mixing, Round 2.

[jordan]

So I decided to give mixing another go, but before I go any further I will explain the shambles that was my first mixing attempt a few months ago.

I was happily Vaping liberty flights PG range and though I would give this mixing lark a go, I looked into it (not as much as I should have done in hindsight) and decided to buy some 54mg pg nic base, some pg and some flavourings. Mixed up a few bottles and although the flavour was coming through it was extremely harsh and produced puny amounts of vapour. Well I was stumped, I had followed the mixing calculator perfectly, and was left with a few useless bottles of harsh tasting rubbish. Ahh well back to pre mixed for me it was.

Then I actually read more into how to mix properly and looked in the mixing sections of the forums (yes I should have done this in the first place I know, I know) and realised where I had gone wrong. No VG! Determined to have another go my foolproof plan was to not bother with the 54mg base I had sat in my supplies and to buy some 18mg unflavoured base at 50/50 pg/vg this way surely I can't get it wrong all I need to do is add flavour right? Well that was the plan until a friend of mine came to my house for a mixing session and brought VG with him to dilute my 54mg base nic. Panic mode kicked in a bit but with the help of the e juice me up calculator we mixed up 5 x 10ml bottles of juice at 24 mg for him with only one slight incident.

The incident was just pure lack of concentration on my part. I was mixing a 10ml bottle of spearmint and had already added the nic and the VG to the empty bottle, instead of using my dropper pipette to take flavour and put it into the awaiting bottle, I took the diluted nic base and put it into the spearmint bottle. Then complained for 2 minutes that these stupid bottles didn't hold 10ml as it was full to the brim now and had no room to shake it up, I did eventually realise the full bottle had a spearmint sticker on it   Sort of fixed it by just adding the top layer of the liquid in the spearmint bottle into the now depleted bottle of base, gave it a shake up and then put it into a 306 dripper. On the plus side it tasted great buuuuuuut it might not have been exactly 24mg anymore lol.

After he had gone home I got my 18mg base nic out and managed to mix 200ml of liquid without further incident. 100ml of spearmint and 10 x 10ml bottles of various other flavours. Everything is steeping away in a box now so hopefully this time around my mixing attempt will be a sucess. If not then I will no doubt try again but at least it will be the right strength and a good pg/vg ratio so it will be vapeable to some degree or another =p


Has anyone else made silly mistakes like mine when you first started mixing? Or is it just me that's intellectually challenged =p

[Roscopecotrain]

Oh you are not alone mate, when i first started mixing i stuck to single flavours and he took me ages to mix just 2 bottles, i was so worried i was going to mess it up i went over and over everything so many times.
They still turned out tasting weird.
Stick with it mate, any questions just ask away. When you do finally get that perfect mix that tastes amazing it is all worth it.

[jordan]

These that I mixed up are all single flavours =p Once i have them nailed I'm going to try figure out a recipe for strawberry lime with an aniseed undertone. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself there

[Perpetua]

I think we've all been there initially Jordan, through over enthusiasm or lack of research . . . the worst mistakes I made were mixing up too large volumes, rather than sticking to small 5/10ml bottles before I got the hang of it all.

Then adding too much flavouring as the word steeping was just a twinkle in my mixing eye.

None of it deterred me though, if at first you don't succeed . . . and I'm a firm believer that mistakes are just as educational as any successes.

[a1laserboy]

I found the best way for me is to line up everything you are going to use liquid-wise, then go down the recipe in order. Then when used, place it well away from you, or back in the box it's kept in. If it helps, write the recipe down on paper and tick off each as it's used. I use small digital scales and a combination of kiddies medicine syringes and glass droppers, one per ingredient. I have forgotten to reset the scales between ingredients, but that has become less frequent recently as it really annoys me when I lose valuable ingredients.

I only ever mix 20ml at a time unless I know I'm going away for a while, then I'll make up 2x20ml batches (i found that 20ml in a 30ml bottle gives lots of space for shaking which in my mind helps and its quite therapeutic to have a good shake)

[Karma]

I only ever have one bottle open at a time when mixing, a tip I picked up on here that is very useful when you are a clumsy clot like I am

[Roscopecotrain]

Sept 15, 2013 16:30:53 GMT Karma said:

I only ever have one bottle open at a time when mixing, a tip I picked up on here that is very useful when you are a clumsy clot like I am

I know what you mean there i knocked my bottle of nicotine over the other day. Thankfully i was in the kitchen and sucked it all up and back in the bottle. I normally mix in the living room so iy would have been a nightmare.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2

[Karma]

Roscopecotrain how did you manage to 'suck it all back up' ???

Perhaps I shouldn't ask

[Promethian]

Sept 15, 2013 16:30:53 GMT Karma said:

I only ever have one bottle open at a time when mixing, a tip I picked up on here that is very useful when you are a clumsy clot like I am

The carpet in my man shed smells like a cooks boudoir from all the accidents I've had lol

[Roscopecotrain]

Sept 15, 2013 16:59:34 GMT Karma said:

Roscopecotrain how did you manage to 'suck it all back up' ???

Perhaps I shouldn't ask

With my mouth Karma, one hell of a nicotine hit i can tell you!

With one of my syringes, sucked it up and squirted it back in the bottle and then scooped the rest along the work top and dripped it into the bottle on the edge, desperate times means desperate measures.

[Promethian]

Sept 15, 2013 17:06:30 GMT Roscopecotrain said:

Sept 15, 2013 16:59:34 GMT Karma said:

Roscopecotrain how did you manage to 'suck it all back up' ???

Perhaps I shouldn't ask

With my mouth Karma, one hell of a nicotine hit i can tell you!

With one of my syringes, sucked it up and squirted it back in the bottle and then scooped the rest along the work top and dripped it into the bottle on the edge, desperate times means desperate measures.

lol... I've done the same... I'm glad I'm not the only one who cant see good liquid go to waste...  I always wonder if I sucked up the varnish from my desk with it ..lol