easy ways for a newbi to start mixing??

trying to understand this is from others posts is making my head hurt lol im thinking if i ask my own Qs ill get answers that i will understand. im thinking of starting to mix myself and want to vape about 8-12 mg nico. i like 70vg30pg ratios. someone told me to start with nico thats pg based cos it keeps better and longer and then dilute with vg(no probs so far) after that im lost. what would i want to buy?
1 liter of pg mixed with nico with XXmg and dilute with vg+concentrate?
or 300mlpg, 700ml vg and buy XXmg add it in after???
personally i dont want to handle real strong nico and at the same time i want to make it easy. is it possible to get unflavoured pg mixed with nico ready to be diluted with vg+concentrate??? and if i went that way, what strength do i buy to achieve 8-12mg 70vg/30pg?

 

will try and answer, although i'm no expert, but did my very first mix today.

I literally sat and played with the numbers, and used a basic online calculator that didn't do the PG/VG ratio, but helped initially to visualize things. I played with the numbers and worked it all out and then found this site eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator where you download software and it is a calculator app, lets you put in the starting nic base strength, desired nic strength, desired PG/VG ratio for final mix etc. Wish i'd looked before all the pencil work (although I find that fun, yes I know, i'm disturbed) .comse it works great and is simple to use.

Essentially there are several ways you can go about it. You can get Nic base at desired ratio of say 60/40 and dilute it down with the same ratio PG/VG, but will be thrown off once you add flavours, and some flavours may need more or less than planned according to taste and experimenting.

I have been vaping 50/50 mix, so wanted somewhere around that or 60/40 for final blend. I decided to buy 100% PG as it keeps better long term in freezer. So with that, I got some concentrates and decided I would mix my 36mg/ml nic down to about 6mg/ml, and run the concentrates at 20%. This way I would use mostly VG to dilute the rest of the way with a little PG.

For 5ml samples I mixed today, the following applied to get 6mg/ml mix at 60/40 PG/VG:
36mg/ml 100% PG base = 0.83 ml (16.6%)
PG= 1.17 ml (23.4%)
VG= 2 ml (40%)
Flavour 100% PG= 1 ml (20%)

I got a 236 ml of 36mg/ml from mtbaker at 100% PG, and bought 250 ml of PG and 750 ml VG from vapeking. I got a heap of concentrates from vapeking and mt baker, did the vk ones today, and they are recommended strength from 15-25%.

Hope I've made sense, check out the calculator and have a play with the numbers, and ask away here ,

EDIT: forgot to mention, the nic strength you buy just dicatates how much you need to dilute further with PG/VG. Many use around 48mg/ml which is reasonably safe for handling, others use the 100mg/ml but need to be a bit more careful with handling.

For example, if you had 100mg/ml and wanted to mix up a base with 10mg/ml strength, you would use 1 ml nic base and 9 ml PG/VG
For the 48mg/ml you would use about 2 ml nic base to 8 ml PG/VG (roughly)

 

As Slayer says grab eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

I'd suggest getting 48 ng nic in a VG base.
Imput the data into e-juice me up, tell it the strength of your base nic and what strength you want it to finally be it will calculate it all for you, on top of that mix your flavours into pg and then top with vg. Watch this videos series the guy goes into a lot of detail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSWbn-b.com.

Other than that i'd just say small batches and dont be afraid to experiment (10 mil batches arent too much heartache to loose.)

 

could try doublers from one of the local suppliers? Then add 36mg nic 1:1 to give 18mg.

 

As far as I know, there are no vendors doing VG based concentrates.
What is usually available is single, doublers and (sometimes) tripler 0 nicotine eliquids.
Some vendors also sell a range of concentrates, where you add your own PG, VG and nicotine using anywhere between 0.5% and 25% concentrate.

A gentle introduction to DIY would be to buy yourself some doublers or triplers to play with.
With doublers, you use half the 0 nic eliquid flavouring and mix in your own nicotine, VG and PG.
With triplers, you use 1/3rd of the 0 nic eliquid flavouring and 2/3rds PG and VG and nicotine.
If you like a stronger flavour, you can decrease the amount of PG and VG used to suit your taste, and if you like a weaker flavour, you can increase the PG and VG to taste.

You can purchase flavourless nicotine in pretty much any mg/mL you like. Some vendors from overseas let you select exactly down to the mg/mL that you wish to purchase.

A number of people buy the nicotine at double the strength they wish to vape ie. 36mg/mL if you plan to vape 18mg/mL. Makes mixing up doublers really simple. You just mix your nicotine liquid and your flavour liquid in equal quantities. However, this doesn't take into account that you are likely to change the strength of your nicotine over time, and the maths can become a bit .comnting if you're trying to reduce by a few mg/mL. If you do buy it like this, try to buy everything in the ratio of PG/VG you want to vape.

The maths is pretty easy if you purchase 100mg/mL. If you think of it in terms of percentages.
18mg/mL is 1.8%, or 18% using 100mg/mL. With 100mg/mL, you would add 1.8mL of nicotine liquid for each 10mL of eliquid (ie 1.8mL nicotine liquid and 8.2mL eliquid flavouring makes 10mL)

12mg/mL is 1.2%, or 12% using 100mg/mL. With 100mg/mL, you would add 1.2mL of nicotine liquid for each 10mL of eliquid(ie 1.2mL nicotine liquid and 8.8mL eliquid flavouring makes 10mL)

(What would you mix to make 6mg/mL?)

The nicotine is the most important thing to get right. I'm not a fan of using calculators unless you have an understanding of the maths, be.comse you won't have a clue if you've made a mistake in entering your data and could potentially make yourself ill if you use too much or get cravings for a smoke if you haven't added enough. A 0 or decimal point in the wrong place in a calculator could get you in a pickle!

When it comes to PG/VG ratio, most concentrates are PG based, and if you're using concentrates, should be considered as part of the overall PG content.