My concerns

[BD1]

From my costs, 30mls of 70PG/30VG 18mg/ml base would be 94p ... I'd say @BD1 buys his nic in larger quantities and from a cheaper supplier than I do.

I bought 5 litres for £320, just incase the government wants to try and start taxing nicotine. Should last me a decade if i can drop down to 6mg in the next few months.

 

[scrumpox]

You got it

I'll be getting minimal quantities to start (250 nic and the smallest PG/VG they do) so one stop is the most convenient for now.

I would make 250ml of 'base' then experiment with different flavour mixes.

I think the key to getting it right and reproducibility is documentation and careful measurements (particularly in the small quantities I'll be doing) so I'll have to get better at writing things down and fast!

Potentially the risks are tiny, especially compared to smoking, if a vanilla note is 10% of your flavour and your flavour is 10% of your juice then that's not a massive amount. It's a conundrum though for sure.

Well, the smaller the samples the more tricky it is to get the flavour concentrate measurements right, if you're mixing flavours that is.
Much easier if you're a one concentrate per bottle kinda mixer but then less need to trial so small, by which I mean in vials of 2-3ml.
One thing you have got right, take detailed notes on everything!!

 

[scrumpox]

I bought 5 litres for £320, just incase the government wants to try and start taxing nicotine. Should last me a decade if i can drop down to 6mg in the next few months.

Yup, I remember seeing that post of yours when you decanted it into 250ml bottles. I'm not up for that kind of buying yet ... just 3 months at a time ...

 

[Sarin]

BD1 Are you not concerned with the potential nicotine degradation over that period of time?

 

[BD1]

@BD1 Are you not concerned with the potential nicotine degradation over that period of time?

Nah, bottles are nearly brimmed and in the freezer, any degradation should be negligible.

 

[scrumpox]

There are different ways to look at the costs schlinky

There is the theoretical cost of the contents of one 10ml bottle ... bottle plus the nic, diluent and concentrate that's in there. Maybe the label costs you nothing, maybe your time isn't factored in either, so you have a theoretical cost of around 50-60p if you're doing well. There is zero wastage factored in here.

I take a more realistic view of the costs. I add up everything I have spent, including syringes, bottle stock and all unused concentrates, diluents etc and divide by the number of finished, vapable bottles I've actually produced. When you start out there is a wide gap between the theoretical and the realistic, over a few months the gap between the two numbers closes up ... the theoretical number is slightly higher than I first calculated because I actually use a higher percentage of concentrate in my mixes than I imagined I would. The realistic number has dropped a fair bit.

For me, 10mls of home made juice costs ~£1.25

 

[Sarin]

Nah, bottles are nearly brimmed and in the freezer, any degradation should be negligible.

Fair enough. Did you know that VG freezes at +17 degrees centigrade? A little bit of trivia

 

[schlinky]

There are different ways to look at the costs schlinky

There is the theoretical cost of the contents of one 10ml bottle ... bottle plus the nic, diluent and concentrate that's in there. Maybe the label costs you nothing, maybe your time isn't factored in either, so you have a theoretical cost of around 50-60p if you're doing well. There is zero wastage factored in here.

I take a more realistic view of the costs. I add up everything I have spent, including syringes, bottle stock and all unused concentrates, diluents etc and divide by the number of finished, vapable bottles I've actually produced. When you start out there is a wide gap between the theoretical and the realistic, over a few months the gap between the two numbers closes up ... the theoretical number is slightly higher than I first calculated because I actually use a higher percentage of concentrate in my mixes than I imagined I would. The realistic number has dropped a fair bit.

For me, 10mls of home made juice costs ~£1.25

Thanks for that, I've done a bit of rough costing:
250ml vg £2.99
250ml pg £3.99
250ml nic £19.99
flavours £30
Bottles £10
Syringes £6

That's £73 to make a start, so my first 30ml bottles are going to be at least £5 a time factoring in some wastage. I figure it's worth a punt for trying to create something I love and is tailored to my tastebuds

Still not sure what to do about the flavourings, all the ones I like the sound of seem to have a warning!

 

[scrumpox]

Thanks for that, I've done a bit of rough costing:
250ml vg £2.99
250ml pg £3.99
250ml nic £19.99
flavours £30
Bottles £10
Syringes £6

That's £73 to make a start, so my first 30ml bottles are going to be at least £5 a time factoring in some wastage. I figure it's worth a punt for trying to create something I love and is tailored to my tastebuds

Still not sure what to do about the flavourings, all the ones I like the sound of seem to have a warning!

The good news is that you're saving money straight away, it took me two months to hit the cash breakeven between buying juice and making my own. Also you have much more potential saving in your nic and diluent costs, you can reuse the bottles at nil cost and the syringes last a while.
Good luck with the warnings ... I take it you used to smoke?

 

[Diche]

With regards to the flavourings, if you are using a vaping supplier you should be avoiding the most dangerous one OIL.

After that the known risky ones are Diacetyl and it's little friends. Diacetyl has been known about for a while and you will come across flavours certified as diacetyl free. The problem is that sometimes the diacetyl has been replaced with one of its little companions which whilst not diacetyl itself can break down into diacetyl when exposed to HEAT. The dangers of the companion chemicals like acetoin and acetyl propionyl haven't been known about for as long as diacetyl, so the industry is still playing catch up. The end result of this is at the moment it is pretty difficult to avoid vaping the stuff. It tends to be used in creamy flavours and buttery ones so you might reduce your chances of coming across it by avoiding these.

However as you rightly say it is in cigarette smoke and generally in far larger quantities than it is in eliquid so it is not exactly a new chemical you would be introducing to your system, just one that with care and attention by the suppliers we should be able to avoid in future. Problem is that it is going to take time to get there.