ddavelarsen

I'm trying to make menthol juice for my brother. I've used menthol crystals he bought from ecigexpress. One problem -- the main thing -- is that the menthol seems to die out after a couple of days. Not sure what's going on with that. Another is that when I attempt to dissolve them in VG, the crystals don't stay in suspension. I can get them to dissolve when the VG is warmed, but they precipitate out when it cools. This does not happen when it's mixed with the other components of the e liquid though. Any ideas? Does menthol come in a liquid form? What do suppliers use for their menthol, that retains its strength over time? Thanks for any help!

Welcome to VT Kristin, I hope you'll share a lot of your experience here as well. We're all about being educated and safe. Thanks for the petition heads up, too.

The only piece of info that i can add to what these two wonderful vapers have said is that I've refilled some cartos now more than three times, and they're still going strong. My habit is to have four or five filled with different flavors, though each one normally gets used exclusively for a full day. It appears to me that a 510 carto holds about 1 ml, maybe just a touch more.

Yeah, the magnet idea is a good one. Woody has a magnet to hold the back on, but it's not strong enough. I might go check Brian's magnet site to see if I can find a stronger one, and maybe do a little stocking up.

Signed and verified. Kristin, please check PM. Thank you. Thank you for all of your hard work! I'll also print and mail to each recipient, along with my congressional reps.

Yes, the very one, with the boot. It'd be a little big, but that might leave room for, say, and auto-fill mechanism should I ever find a good tutorial on how that might work. I've gotten used to carrying Woodimus around, and this wouldn't be any worse than Woody is.

I'm with Brian, that's cool stuff! You can search by size and there's a form to input desired size. I sure bookmarked that after seeing about 15 boxes I wanted.

Well said Bro. FTJoe I think we're generally on the same page. Personally though, I will deeply resent having my options restricted because we live in a litigous society or the nanny govt thinks I'm too stupid to take care of myself (or that others are). Anyway, it's because of these realities that I'm prepared to learn how to derive my own nic. Don't worry - I'll never share it with anyone else! (Just to be sure they don't sue me out of my home when they do something stupid.) I still do believe that ECF has every right to describe how their forum can be used. Same goes for VT! I'll try my best to abide by the rules and general courtesy in this or any public venue.

No - lawyers make tons of money because of people who do not assume personal responsibility.

I'll weigh in on this one. My feeling is that ECF has every right to manage what its vendors represent to customers on their forum. However, they don't have the right to tell those vendors what they're allowed to sell. A generally free economy is what provides for the standard of living Americans enjoy. But personally I am totally willing to assume whatever risk is necessary to provide for my nicotine in the event of a ban; and to that end, I'm stocking up nic base until I have at least a two-year supply. Then, I'm going to start deriving my own nicotine from tobacco. I have a habit of making many of the things I use everyday - knives, aftershave, beer, wine, whatever. That's generally because i) I can't buy some of the things I want or ii) I can make better stuff than I could buy. I've never built a still, but that's to be one of my retirement projects. I will make fine whiskey! I've found that I can learn most anything I need to, to provide for my family. I'm an American; no one needs to protect me from myself - or from anyone else. I'm responsible for my own wellbeing and trust me -- I'm proactive about that. I disrespect fear; I honor caution. And preparedness.

Glad you found what you were looking for! Had I been paying attention I'd have mentioned that eBay is a great place for that kind of stuff, if you're patient. Graduated cylinders were the first thing I bought when I determined I was going to start mixing, but in fact I haven't yet used them. Still mixing in too-small batches I guess. Perhaps I will some day.

Amen. Like nana said, the more people we can bring into vaping the harder we will be to ignore. And if it become necessary, I say scofflaw away!

I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys find about your kits, and it's cool that you ordered from different suppliers for comparison. Sometimes I wish I'd have started that way rather than piece-at-a-time the way I did, I may not have made so many mistakes. I haven't looked obviously, so I hope you'll bear with me; does either kit include a syringe for measuring? I've been using a baby medicine syringe for proportions rather than counting drops, and it's proven to be much better since volume is volume, and drops are often different sizes. Just curious, of course I could go look for myself but short on time this morning. Sigh. I'm sure I'll check it out eventually.

I have not tried the sweetener or ethyl maltol, so I'll look forward to your opinion. I've read somewhere that marshmallow is essentially ethyl maltol, and I have used Lorann's marshmallow before to top stuff off with great success. Let's hear what you find out! I'm not a menthol vaper but my brother is, and I recently tried my first hand a making him some menthol juice. It wasn't a total success but he said the menthol was just right. Need to try some FA tobaccos to see if any of those work better. Here's an experience that might be valuable though. I tried to dissolve the menthol in VG, and for several days nothing was happening. My brother suggested warming the liquid, and danged if that didn't work! The menthol dissolved in minutes in warm VG. But when the VG cooled overnight, the crystals separated out and floated to the top (I learned to store the bottle tip-down ). He says that has not happened when it's mixed in with other stuff to make the juice, so I guess that's a plus. Just an early observation.

Adam, I'm with kitsune on this one too. Miss k knows what she's talking about, so listen up. I did find some dram bottles of Lorran's flavoring at a local Hobby Lobby; they were in the cake decorating section. I got quite a few flavors there. I got USP glycerin at the local grocery in the pharmacy section. Oh - one of the best things you can get in my opinion is one of those baby medicine syringes. They cost about $2 and are marked in .2 ml, with a max volume of generally 5 ml. This has proven ideal for my purposes, as it gets around the problem of differing drop sizes with different liquids, since you're mixing with volume. Highly recommended. I found mine at Walgreens and have seen them in the grocery store too. I've also seen glass droppers in the grocery store, which are nice in many cases. But really, you won't find much locally; it's going to be a mail order enterprise I'm afraid. And there will be multiple shipping charges because you won't find everything you want at the same place. One thing I did when I started was make a spreadsheet with a list of everything I wanted to get; each flavor, different bases, bottles, nic liquid, and so on. Then I went shopping. I listed each supplier (hyperlink to their page) with the price, amount (volume), shipping charge, any coupon codes i could find, etc. Then I just sorted my list by supplier and started there. It did help to cut down on the number of orders I had to make, if only a little. Also, like commercial liquid, when purchasing flavors for the first time, I recommend buying a small quantity; when you find the ones you know you'll want to use over and over, you can buy the BIG bottles. I've run out of storage for my DIY stuff twice; I'm again looking for a proper container to organize all this stuff in. See? The fun just goes on and on. Once you have a few successful recipes under your belt I bet you'll be like a lot of us; eventually you won't buy much commercial e liquid anymore, because you've learned to make the stuff you like best. I've actually pretty much stopped buying pre-made juice; realizing the came as a real surprise, believe me. A pleasant one. DIY really is a great deal less expensive (once you get supplied and stop making "Uck!" juice) than purchasing. The only thing is, I have yet to create a decent replica of my fave 555. Sigh.

Hope I can help. Some Lorann's are oil based, but most are not. Somewhere out there is a list of all the Lorann's flavors showing which are appropriate for DIY liquid. I use Lorann's quite a bit, because they're among the most concentrated flavors there are. (This is not the list I was thinking of, but gives much the same Lorran's information.) Another good, concentrated flavor is Flavour Art. This is sold in the US by Liberty Flights. See JeffB's thread below for info on current availability. I like their tobacco flavors quite a lot. One of my favorite suppliers is Perfumer's Apprentice. They have introduced a nice line of flavors for vapers. I'm about to make another order from PA because some of their stuff is simply out of this world. Note that they're not as concentrated as Lorran's; they make up for this by being (my opinion) very clear and well made. I can't recommend them enough. I've also used Fairie's Finest, which are nice but not very strong (to my taste) so I haven't used any of them more than once. Other successful DIYers swear by them though. Perhaps my taste buds aren't very well developed. What's true for all brands of flavoring is that some by the same manufacturer are stronger than others. This is a kind of trial and error process, but it's fun. My most important recommendation is that when you're experimenting mixing flavors, do your taste testing with 0 nic base. That way when you go "Oh Awful!" you won't be throwing away valuable nicotine. Good luck and have fun! Once you get a few successes under your belt you probably won't buy commercial liquid very often again.

Hi tamintn! Joe gave you good advice on the eGo - it's the same thing as the Tornado. 510 cartomizers are a good deal and I understand they work well on the eGo. A cartomizer is a one-piece unit that contains both the atomizer (heating element) and the cartridge that holds and delivers the e liquid. They're inexpensive and can be refilled several times before they begin to fade. You can also get regular 510 atomizers and either direct drip (recommended) or use a cartridge to hold and deliver the liquid. Have to leave for work now but will try to revisit this later. Good luck!

For what it's worth, I do get great TH from a 510 once it's broken in. Being the patient person I am, I usually do a concerted break in by vaping 0 nic, no flavor VG or PG or a mix, and hit it hard for a couple of loads. I direct drip. That will usually break it in quickly and just right. Using just bland base saves valuable liquid and doesn't prime the atty with any particular flavor. Just my experience, what works for me might not for anyone else. I haven't used a 901 but I've often read here that 901 is primo for flavor, less so for TH. Perhaps someone who actually knows what they're talking about will chime in soon.

Seconded, thanks kitsune! Whew.

Apology for the slow response here mcquinn, but Brian suggested blowing through the mouthpiece before putting the carto on your PV. He's right; filling it does get liquid in the tube, which will sure juice you! Since I've been doing that, no problem. Leave it to Brian, eh?

That's funny mcquinn. And too true. I hate to be a downer but nicorette gum is awful stuff for trying not to smoke. I still use it when I'm in a prolonged meeting (still don't have the huevos to vape in a meeting ), but I really need that TH for satisfaction. My wife still uses it as well as vaping. I bought some last evening; $60 for generic 4mg, 170 pcs. Of course, $5 of that was for the governor. FTJoe, I respectfully disagree that my brain, at least, sure as hell knows when I'm getting/not getting nic!

This is very good info Resa! Thanks so much. I'm not big on maintaining attys because it's never seemed to gain me much except -- dead attys. But then, I don't do anything until it's way late anyway. Brian, thanks for the great pics. I'm kinda with mcquinn on this one, not likely to try to repack one. But it's sure cool to see the tech.

Excellent, thanks Christopher; we can all use this site every day. We seriously need to band together and GET VOCAL with all state legislatures and the US Congress. The naysayers are doing nothing but attempting to doom us to an ugly, lingering death. This is unconscionable. But it's up to us to be heard; no one is going to do it for us. ecigban is a great place to get focused and start concerted action.

Rob you've gotten some real good info. While I haven't used either of these devices myself I would tend to recommend the eGo/Tornado just based on people's experience with their longevity. But something else to consider. Many people (not all) have found that they prefer higher voltage than these devices deliver, which is 3.7V. A lot of vapers believe that the 'sweet spot' is 5V and I admit it's great. You can get 5V with a number of mods and via many passthroughs. The Vaprlife VP PT is a great example, and a device I love. There are also a number of fantastic devices in the pipeline. One that is very intriguing to me is the VVPV. There's a macro running on my work machine right now so I can't copy/paste the URL, but if you look in NotCig's supplier forum you'll find a link to it. I'm willing to be that I will be one of the first owners of this device. But don't stop there. You might be well advised to just start looking through the supplier's websites. You'll find all kinds of neat stuff -- and come back here with more questions. That's okay; we love questions. Oh -- and Welcome to VT!

Thanks GDub. This would be handy if we started having to derive our own nicotine somehow. Mcquinn I hope at some point to do enough research to find what you have. If you care to PM me any links that would be great. I'm not a lab person really, but I am in the habit of making my own stuff when necessary or desirable. Uma, we're in the same boat. I think I'm just going to forgo paying something this month to get that final quantity that will get me to the two-year level. At that point it'll be time to start experimenting with making my own nic. These bans are just crazy. We're fighting big money, and it's an uphill battle. But look to the open source software community for ways to win despite big money rolling everything it has against you. OSS is taking the world, because people can band together to achieve great things. We need not roll over and give up, regardless how it often feels that's the only alternative. Let's fight the good fight on all fronts.