DIY & Electronic Cigarettes

   I am a DIY kind of guy. Few of my hobbies, interests, or habits have escaped this predilection. I want to understand what I am doing, control it, improve it, and/or pay less for it. So it was natural, even unavoidable, for me to dig into ecig DIY.

  I started off on the DIY journey pretty early in my vaping career, making a box mod from spare parts laying around - an act of desperation, as I had broken my Ego battery, and it was late on a Saturday before there were B&M ecig shops ion my city, just a few mall kiosks that were closed on sundays. Next up, the marketplace was entered by the Rebuildable Atomizer, and I was sold as soon as I saw one. I got the Vivi rebuildable tanks, a v1 and a few v2's. While not in the class that more recent RBA's and RTA's are in, this device was good enough to replace disposables. When I got my 1st Igo W RDA, I was finally there, I had arrived at an option that was better - far better - than a disposable Cart. The experience was very close to smoking, and in a different world entirely from the vapor produced by the cigarette-looking devices that were my first intro to vaping.

  The next step in my DIY odyssey was making my own ejuice. This step was a bit more ballsy, as screwing up here could have serious consequences. So I spent a lot more time researching and educating myself. And I took the first steps very conservatively: I bought nicotine base that was just a step more strong than the concentration I was aiming for (started with 36 mg/ml base, to make batches of 24mg/ml strength). The initial cost was pretty much what I was spending on store-bought ejuice, but the yield was a substantial multiple of my monthly 'juice purchase.

  The trick to making DIY 'juice a practical move, is getting a finished product that you like. You can make safe, properly constituted ejuice at a fraction of the price of buying it retail; but if it doesnt taste great, its a waste of your time and money. So in addition to researching the proper way to make ejuice,  there is a whole other realm of study that you cannot really do without - Flavor.

  Flavor is relative, subjective, and personal. One persons' sense of taste, their palate, is an organ that feeds objective information to that person. But that data cannot leave the person in an objective format - it becomes subjective in transit. There is a science of flavor; but its subjective qualities cannot be avoided. So, choosing a flavor using any sense other than your own sense of taste is a difficult thing to do. Finding your perfect, great tasting flavor concentrates is a difficult task.

  One way I found to ease the difficulties of crafting ejuice flavors, is by reading and posting on ecig Forum sites. I really get a lot of use out of the "Electronic Cigarette Forum", for a wide variety of topics including DIY flavors/flavoring. Another means of gathering info is to read the comments about flavor concentrates on Vendor Sites. Ecig Express and RTS Vapes both have good customer comment/review threads attached to the flavor concentrates listed on their sites.

 The easiest way to guarantee you will like a flavor, is to obtain a flavor concentrate of a ready-made ejuice flavor you have tried already, and enjoy. The easiest path here is to use Dekang flavors, as they are available all over the place. I.D. a Dekang brand ejuice that you like, then order the concentrate - easy as pie.

The first question is, How do I quit?

  Well, the answer is different for each of is, in some sense. And exactly the same, in another. You quit by stopping - ceasing the behavior. So, the real meat of the question is, really, how do I prepare to quit? That is what the first answer, "different for each of us" is really asking. We took different roads to arrive where we are - each in our own unique current location. But whatever that path was, it led us somewhere we would as soon avoid. I took the path I chose, and wound up addicted to tobacco. Like a lover, I made a place for it in my heart of hearts - and now, as I cut it out of me, it leaves a void that will not ever be repaired. I woke a hunger in me, that will be a part of my passions, my desires, for my lifetime. How do I alter this behavior, that is so closely related to my sense of well being?

  Certainly, there are many paths to freedom from tobacco. The way that is working for me is electronic cigarettes. I flirted with them for a long while, using them as a fill in. But with some preparation, I was able to switch to just vaping, no smoking. I made it work by following three concepts;

  1. Preparation - I cut down on a schedule for two weeks prior to stopping

  2. Follow through - I had my ecig rig all set up and ready on my quit day, and I was resolute in trying to stop smoking.

  3. Determined & stubborn - I was committed to quitting. I tried three times over a spring and early summer, never allowing myself to give up the war, even when I lost a battle.

  Please direct off topic correspondence to FB