Where Has The Vg Gone!?!?

[VapeFiend]

I've spent the last 3 days calling every grocery, health food, pharmacy, and cake supply within 20 miles of my house. The only store that carried VG (usp, I checked) was Sprouts in Claremont. WalMart didn't even have their non-VG "Humco", the pharmacies only carried "glycerine suppositories" and everyone else answered "NO!" like I was trying to make anthrax or something. When I called Sprouts, they finally found it after looking in the vitamin area (used as a topical moisturizer apparently, but still usp), and asked if I'd like for them to hold it...

I should have said yes, because when I arrived there 20 min later they had sold it to somebody else and the next shipment would not arrive for another week

So, if anybody is wondering where to buy it, and you live in the (909), Sprouts is the only place I have found (Claremont; the next closest is in Riverside which is 30+mi from me)

[TeriJo]

Someone said they got theirs at a feed store.

Do you have maybe a Walgreens you could check? EDIT yes you did.... I read too fast LOL

Online there are zillions but ya do gotta wait for shipping.

http://www.nextag.com/glycerine-usp/products-html lists a mess of them. I haven't looked real hard for local around me, I'm afraid.

Edited March 30, 2010 by TeriJo

[ddavelarsen]

LOL! I've had that same reaction asking about propylene glycol... I think it's the 'chemical-sounding' words that people react to, when they've no clue what the actual product you're referring to is. I'd bet all, or at least most of, those stores have it, it's just that whoever answers the phone is not ... informed.

[mcquinn]

It is usually in the skin care isle and the employees usually do not know what it is or that it is there.I get mine at CVS drugstore .

[Fritchard]

It is usually in the skin care isle and the employees usually do not know what it is or that it is there.I get mine at CVS drugstore .

I get mine from Michael's or Hobby Lobby (there are other similar places) in the cake section.

DELICIOUS CAKE!

[Steve32]

I found some at a hobby store called Michaels here in Canada . It just said glycerine but also said it was for adding consistancy to icing sugar , that sounded like it was edible so I assumed it was the safe stuff .

Also it vaporizes really well better than the stuff I got from walmart which called itself a skin emolient , burn treatment .

[actor92191]

Usually health food stores have them. There' a place in Manhattan called "Westerly Market" that has a HUGE bottle of USP food grade vegetable glycerin for 10 bucks.

[FTJoe]

I posted this in the noob section, wordup, tw and I noticed others have VG and PG for sale. I got a bunch of VG off ebay, seemed okay, but I'd rather go with an e-store...

Edited April 1, 2010 by FTJoe

[VapeFiend]

Thanks for all the tips. I ended up finding a couple bottles at Michaels (even though over the phone they said they didn't have any). I was there shopping for pipettes and I saw it there. Wilton brand. I can't tell anything different except every recipe I have made so far tastes like asphalt and the glycerin makes it really hard to drip. I'm not sure if it's the glycerin, the flavoring, the fact that I'm using cartomizers, or the brand of nicotine I'm using but something is horribly wrong with my recipe. I'm using (1)Nicotine 36mg + (1)Glycerin + (1) Lorann flavoring, to get a 12mg strength. The result is a very very harsh throat hit and the smell of "extract" without the actual food flavor that it's named after. For instance, my english toffee extract tastes like extract. My coconut extract tastes like extract and smells a bit like coconut. The smell of these flavorings is NAUSEATING and even though I only opened a couple bottles to take out a few drops, my room smells like an empty bottle of brandy. I have left the doors open with the fan blowing for 6 hours now and it still smells like a homeless guy's breath. I REALLY wish someone would have mentioned the ****ing smell factor so I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch! I've destroyed a cartomizer already because it says on their website to take out the filling before dripping, but the wire that (I guess) makes the atomizer work is wrapped around the filling, and removing the filling breaks the wire, making the cartomizer inoperable. They gave me a syringe to inject but the bore was so small and the viscosity was so high that it couldn't extract the liquid from the bottle...

So I'm stuck with a smelly room, 4 trashed cartomizers and a terrible headache. Anyone have ideas on how to salvage this trainwreck?

[ddavelarsen]

LOL! Oh, Fiend, that's so righteous! Man I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you. That was a paragraph for the books man, total awesomeness. You're my hero for today, just for writing that.

Okay, maybe some help. (But dang man, I can't quit grinning long enough to type.) I don't know that you'll be able to salvage the cartos but you can try rinsing them out with warm water, maybe under running tap water, and letting them dry for an extended period - possibly a week or more - to let the filling dry completely.

I believe you're using too much Lorann flavoring; that stuff is very concentrated, and I'd recommend no more than 3 or 4 drops per 3 ml, and work up from there. You can thin the VG with distilled water (another item your grocery store helpers may not know they have) to make it easier to drip. If you wanted more TH you could thin the VG with a bit of grain alcohol (Everclear). I think the strong TH you're getting from the current experiment may be due to excessive flavoring. Maybe someone with more experience will say otherwise though.

As to filling cartos. I've only used KR808s but the way I do it is to carefully pry off the white mouthpiece end, and drip 3 or 4 drops on the inside of the barrel, letting the liquid run onto the wicking. Holding the barrel at about 45 degrees facilitates this. I usually fill 6 or 8 at a time, so I just put a few drops in each in rotation until I have about 20 drops in each one. Then recap and let them set overnight to smooth out the distribution of liquid.

I hope this helps some. I really feel for your frustration. I've thrown out an awful lot of DIY supplies myself over the last few weeks. Just hang in there, maybe try your mixing by direct dripping until you get something you like, to prevent harming expensive cartos. Since you're not mixing flavors yet this won't apply but often I use 0 nic juice to test flavors; you wouldn't believe how bad some of my attempts have tasted! Or maybe you would. Hang in there man, it'll come together. Really.

[Fritchard]

You didn't use this did you?

[VapeFiend]

You didn't use this did you?

lmao

[VapeFiend]

Thanks dave I always appreciate your input I'll try filling a few more carts today and waiting a few hours before vaping them. I'll try 20gtts nic:25 gtts vg: 8gtts water: 7drops flavor. I'll post again tomorrow w/ the results.

[mcquinn]

I have had pretty good luck enhancing the flavor of weak liquid but my home made liquids are just missing something ,and I usually end up throwing them out.

[VapeFiend]

I have had pretty good luck enhancing the flavor of weak liquid but my home made liquids are just missing something ,and I usually end up throwing them out.

That's looking like what I'm gonna do. Hopefully I can get a partial refund for some of this crap, then maybe I can afford some decent e-cig like a janty stick or the vt passthru and some e-liquids that other people actually like. At least I can use the flavoring oils for making cookies and stuff

[ddavelarsen]

I have had pretty good luck enhancing the flavor of weak liquid but my home made liquids are just missing something ,and I usually end up throwing them out.

Man I sure know where you're coming from. I've thrown out a lot of horrible flavor experiments; at least I eventually learned not to use any nic when I'm trying different recipes. Another problem can be residual flavor in the atty; I may not always get the true flavor of what I'm testing. So I often do a 'huffing dry burn' between tests to clear any leftover juice from the prior test. That does help but it slows the process down quite a bit, and will probably reduce the life of attys too. But I'm just so cheap, and trying to get that HV sweet spot, I'm going to continue my mad science for a while yet.

Fiend, we like cookies around here!

[Mike]

I have had pretty good luck enhancing the flavor of weak liquid but my home made liquids are just missing something ,and I usually end up throwing them out.

I know what you mean. There is a flavor ingredient that I just have to get but I don't know what it is. If you have tried Halo juice or American Spirit from wordup, this is the flavor I'm talking about. I did just come up with a decent homade. I extracted the flavor from a backwoods cigar in vg and added loran marshmallow and EC and it is the best tobacco flavor that I've made that is totally homemade but I still crave Harley 56.

[WillBlack]

Well I'll add my 2¢. Most good liquids need more than just one flavor. You need a few very subtle undertones. Adding more/too much flavor usually results in more off-tastes rather than more flavor. Remember these flavors are just chemical equivalents. When you mix up a batch you should let it rest, it will always taste different the next day.

One reason it's hard to find VG is because the USP only has a monograph for Glycerin, USP. There is no USP listing for vegetable glycerin.