Self Mixing - Learn from my mistakes (and yours?)

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

Seeing several different threads on Self Mixing errors I thought I would share my mistakes so you can learn from them:

1: Flavour Percentages
Check the suppliers recommended flavour % amount - I made a 20% mix instead of 5% when it actually said 5% on the website after looking in hindsight.
(if you cannot find it then ask here, someone usually has the answer).
Lesson - Make sure you know the percentage before you calculate your recipe.

2: Mixing Bottles
Always mix in a larger bottle than your mix.
My mistake was to mix 30ml into 30ml bottles leaving little air to steep and shake, it makes a huge difference to the air mixing, normally I shake the living daylight out of my mixes and you can see it go murky, my 30ml bottle mixes hardly bubble at all and are taking too long to steep, I had to give up and transfer them into 50ml bottles, results are much better.
Lesson - Mix in bigger bottles.

3: Nic Shots PG/VG
I am a flavour chaser and care little about the clouds, PG carries flavour better than VG so naturally I bought PG based nic shots, MISTAKE as this limited my recipes, I tried a few 70/30 recipes into a calculator only to find 'This Cannot Be Mixed' due to a minus figure on the PG, due to PG in the nicotine and PG in the flavour (on higher percentage flavours 20% for example).
Lesson - buy either VG based Nicotine Shots or 50/50 PG/VG.
(this mostly applies to thicker mixes like 70/30, 80/20 for example but on 50/50 recipes it made no difference).

4: Labelling
Perhaps the most obvious, but my first mixes I didn't label the date or what it was!
Lesson - Label Your Bottles!
I hit myself over the head with a plank for being so stupid.
(I now over label, including exact recipe mixture, date mixed, expected steep date, flavour, PG/VG amount, Nic Strength)

5: Buying Flavours.
I decided 'right I'm going to mix my own' so off I went and bought a ton of assorted flavours I liked the sound of.
My mistake there was I had no clue what to mix or recipes and floundered with most of my flavours still untouched due to not knowing what to do with them.
Lesson - Have recipes in mind BEFORE you buy flavours, then you can buy the flavours you will use, this lesson was learned the hard way and the answer was so simple and got that advise on here. (thank you again for that advice)

6: PG / VG Bottle amounts.
I feel pretty silly about this one, I was buying 1 Litre of VG and 1 Litre of PG but a member saved me from making this mistake before I hit the 'PROCEED TO CHECKOUT' button.
So after advice I bought 2 Litres of VG and 1 Litre of PG (even that is higher PG than I need)
Almost all recipes use a lot more VG than PG.
Lesson - Buy a larger amount of VG than PG

These are just a few of my mistakes, I don't claim to be an expert but my newbie errors hopefully will prevent others from making my mistakes.

Any mistakes in my advice please feel free to correct me - still learning (and enjoying it)

Anyone else with any new mixers tips?

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

A couple of shots of good and bad;
1st one is using too small bottles and struggling to shake air in them, I hardly get any bubbles.
2nd one is ideal for me, larger bottles (100ml) and full info label (OCD for sure!) and I can shake these soo much easier and get millions of bubbles (these are steeping a lot faster than the 30ml overfilled bottles)
I called them TW@ Juice due to my tw@ mistakes along the way...

 

[rtni]

Very informative. Thank you and good luck m8

 

[BULLDOG1964]

hi mate two great posts there lots of info for me and others who are just starting out on the diy road ..

 

[zouzounaki]

I think I’m a bit of a half arsed mixer. I usually just write the first initial, or two or three letters, on the bottom with a marker. No dates, I can usually remember roughly and after a few weeks it’s irrelevant to me. Mix with measuring cylinders, make changes to my recipes on a whim most times I’m mixing, and never ever take any notes. Works well for me!

 

[Mr Numpty]

Nice thread.
One of the biggest and most common mistakes we see on here is people buying pre-mixed PG/VG base. Far from making things easier, this makes things much more complicated than they need to be. Buy VG and PG separately.

If you're looking to design your own recipes over time, make sure you use an ejuice calculator that allows you to save your recipes and allows for note taking, then make sure you make detailed notes on every single thing you mix, from single flavour mixes and up. How was the strength of the % you used? What would improve it for version 2? Was it shit, mediocre, good or great.

 

[eightbitraptor]

@Vapeneezer Scrooge where did you get those needle topped bottles please?

A lot of good advice here.

My biggest mixing recommendation is to bite the bullet and learn to mix by weight. Or at least use graduated measuring cylinders and dripper bottles.

I couldn’t believe how much quicker, easier and less messy mixing was when I finally binned the syringes. No more faffing with those annoying flavouring bottles.

I’ve got nic in a 100ml unicorn bottle, big squeezy kebab shop style ketchup bottles for pg and vg. And I buy concentrates mostly from Darkstar and always buy the optional dropper nozzles.

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

@Vapeneezer Scrooge where did you get those needle topped bottles please?.

I got them from Amazon but don't bother, the needle tip is way too thin, takes ages and a very strong grip to get your juice out, so much so I find it quicker and less hassle to open the bottle and use a syringe.

 

[zouzounaki]

@Vapeneezer Scrooge where did you get those needle topped bottles please?

A lot of good advice here.

My biggest mixing recommendation is to bite the bullet and learn to mix by weight. Or at least use graduated measuring cylinders and dripper bottles.

I couldn’t believe how much quicker, easier and less messy mixing was when I finally binned the syringes. No more faffing with those annoying flavouring bottles.

I’ve got nic in a 100ml unicorn bottle, big squeezy kebab shop style ketchup bottles for pg and vg. And I buy concentrates mostly from Darkstar and always buy the optional dropper nozzles.

I’ve been buying flavours from dark star and didn’t even know about optional nozzles for the bottles. You should see me trying to tip 0.25 ml out of them...

 

[eightbitraptor]

I got them from Amazon but don't bother, the needle tip is way too thin, takes ages and a very strong grip to get your juice out, so much so I find it quicker and less hassle to open the bottle and use a syringe.

Thanks. Have you only used 70/30 with them? I mostly use 50/50 so my liquid is significantly thinner than that. I need something with a needle point on it to make filling my Aiolos easier - it's a slow process dripping juice onto the filler and waiting for it to soak in

I’ve been buying flavours from dark star and didn’t even know about optional nozzles for the bottles. You should see me trying to tip 0.25 ml out of them...

Yeah - they're fantastic especially the way they arrive, the dripper is inside the lid - so you just screw the whole assembly onto your bottle and it fits the dripper properly for you. They're completely worth the extra few pence. Although when I bought my scales I also had to buy about 40 of these and sit there for ages attaching them to all my flavours.