Newbie need advice

Hi everyone Sam here 57years old and been smoking 30 a day for 40 years
Started vaping for about four weeks now but don't really know what Im doing.
I have an istick TC40w and a Nautilus mini with 1.8 coil that I probably payed three times more than its worth and bought 10 different flavours only to realise there was no nicotine in them.I have now found a online store that I can buy juice with nicotine in it but its around $40.00 for 30ml.
My questions are what wattage should I be using and can you recommend were I can buy vapour with nicotine in it.
Thanks

 

Hi Sam, welcome to Vape.to.

I recommend buying doublers from an Aussie vendor & mixing your own nicotine, PG&VG base into them.
Doublers are designed to be mixed 50/50 to make double the amount of liquid & have full flavor.
You can buy 1L of 100mg/ml nicotine in 100% PG base from somewhere like vapingzone.com relatively cheaply, which you can store in the freezer to keep it fresh & just take out 50 or 100ml at a time to have ready for use (1L will last around 2 years of vaping but will store for much longer).
You will also need some USP grade PG & some USP grade VG, 200ml of each will be enough to get you started if the budget is tight but you can buy 1L of each for better savings.

As you are a new vaper, I recommend you try vaping at 18mg/ml to start with, which should work well with the kit you have.
So to mix a 10ml bottle using a doubler you would put in the bottle:
5ml doubler
1.8ml of 100mg/ml nicotine
3.2ml of PG &/or VG
The PG & VG will depend on what ratio of juice you are after, with the mini Nautilus I would be inclined to use a 70PG/30VG mix or a 60/40 mix, at least initially until you find a ratio you prefer, you can experiment with the ratio in later mixes.
The amount of each you need to add will depend on what PG/VG ratio the doubler is, if you can get a 50/50 PG/VG doubler, this will help keep things simple.
So if the doubler is 50/50 to make a 70/30 juice you will need to add (out of the 3.2ml above):
2.7ml PG
0.5ml VG

Once the juice is made shake it vigorously for a few minutes, it can be vaped immediately after that but it will probably taste better after sitting for a day or so.

With the gear you have, I would start at 10W & increase it slowly to find what suits you best.

 

Hi Noe thanks for your reply but it sounds to complicated to me all this USP,PG,VG,I don't know what this all means. Can I just buy something all ready mixed ?

 

You can buy juice with nicotine but it will have to be bought from outside of Australia and that comes at a cost. You pay extra for both our bad $ and postage, plus it's normally a little more as they have done all the mixing. There are many sites in the U.S. And UK that sell nice juice.
It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with what noe said as it makes it all so much cheaper and you get to utilize Aussie flavors. It's not hard at all once you get your head around it.

 

Hi Sam, it does sound a little daunting all written out like that but in reality it is much like mixing cordial, just that you are being more specific with the amounts.
Once you have done it once or twice you'll be surprised at just how easy it is & the best part is knowing that you have an adequate supply of nicotine for years to come, which most vapers find reassuring.

You could try Heavens gifts or Health Cabin (both vendors on this forum take a look in the vendor section) if you want pre-mixed juice in a hurry, use an express shipping otion like EMS or DHL & you could have it here probably before the new year, maybe before xmas (though that's doubtful). Hangsen or Dekang brands are pretty cheap & come in many flavors, I'd still get 18mg/ml & 70/30 or 60/40 PG/VG, mixing your own from doublers costs about the same as buying these pre-mixed does but the flavor of doublers is much better.

 

Hi Sam. Yeah it all sounds a bit confusing at first but you will get the hang of it. I recently returned to vaping ( I tried it a few years ago and it didn't work but at least this time I'm already familiar with most of the jargon) . A Nautilus Mini at 1.8 ohms is a good tank to start with, I have 2 of them and like mentioned above around 10W is a good place to start with that setup. Different juices seem to like slightly different wattages, I have one juice that is perfect at 10W and another that tastes like wet hay at that power. Bump it up to 13W and it shines!

If it seems all a bit confusing, here is an easy way to get set up. Not the cheapest way, but simple... I'm basing this on products I've used and the fact that the Nautilus Mini will, in my limited experience, handle a roughly 50PG/VG mixture just fine. You can find out all about PG and VG later, you don't need to worry about that right now.

1. Go here: Unflavored 3-48mg/mL Nicotine Base 250ML - DIY E-Liquid Base 3-200mg/ml - DIY - Wholesale E Cigarette Liquid , Buy liquid nicotine online, Buy E liquid nicotine wholesale and order some 36mg/ml unflavoured nicotine. Order it as a 50% PG/VG mix.
2. Go here: VapeKing Premium Eliquids pick some flavours you think you may like BUT make sure you get them as "Doublers" and in a 60/40% PG/VG if it is available (it is for most of them).
3. Wait for the postman to arrive then mix them 1/2 and 1/2. That will give you an 18% e-liquid that will give you a good vape. They will improve with time together in the bottle, perhaps up to a week is needed but usually 3 days is fine. A near 50/50 ratio is a good trade off between flavour, throat hit and vapour production. The VG helps with the vapour production so it is aesthetically/visually pleasing.

Feel free to pick other vendors, they're just two I've used without issue.

Later on when you get up to speed, you can get stronger nicotine like 100mg/ml and bottles of PG and VG, etc and tailor your recipes to what you like the best.

EDIT: As Noe mentioned above, you can get premixed direct from China and it is cheap. I've done that too but most of their juice is virtually all PG which is too harsh on my throat plus most of their flavours were, to me, pretty blagggrhhh

 

Welcome Sam and congrats on the switch. Kick back and enjoy the journey. Lots of helpful folks here to assist if you need it

 

First of all, welcome to the forum! This forum is devoted to vaping and there are many people ready to help you on this forum. You said that the price of nicotine is around $40 for 30ml. Well, there are many online stores from which you can buy the same liquid at very cheap rates. I would recommend you to buy this from the Internet.

 

The wattage would depend on your preference. The higher the wattage, the warmer the vapor would be which has an impact on the throat hit. Since you are a heavy smoker, I would also recommend not dropping to low nicotine e-juices for the 1st 3 months or so. Gradually lower your nicotine intake. I started with 12mg nicotine for about 4 months and dropped to 6mg and currently now at 4mg nicotine. Never ever drop to very low nicotine e-juice as this will just make you go back to cigarettes and this is based on people I know who started vaping and started with 0 nicotine or low nicotine e-juice.

 

Hi Sam, I think you got some really great advice here and I don't want to pile on with a bunch more. Take in what everyone else has told you and ask anymore questions if you need. This forum is a great place for that kind of talk and it's loaded with great information. Also feel free to toss me a private message if you need anything! Welcome!!