Making my own vape juice

I don’t know where to put this so hope this is fine.

Experiment A - 7 grams ILGM Skywalker OG ground fine in 1 cup (250mL) food grade vegetable glycerin, cold extraction, shake ~10 times a day (it’s on a counter). Also have a second jar of same exact thing with ILGM Black Widow. Plan to sample at day 60,90, and hopefully complete at day 120.

Experiment B - 7 grams ILGM Black widow ground fine in Mason jar, 1 cup food grade VG covering it. Put it in a pot of water, bring up to boil. Some sites say cook for hours, some say do a hot/cold cycle five or six times of warming y
To 200deg them back down to room temp. Im going to try Crock-Pot for 24 hours first.

Interesting to note - glycerin can only hold 1/3 as much cannabinoids as grain alcohol at saturation so if making VG for tinctures or for use in edibles be aware It may take up to 3x as much dosage. Also, when extracting, make sure you have ample volume of liquid. If aiming to brew a super concentrated batch by adding more fresh herbs in and doing a second extraction into the same VG, then you should aim for 3x the volume as you would with everclear.

I just got my Rubi vape pen in. Looks nice, hope it’s nice. Got extra pods for different strains. I’ll be filtering the hot extraction about this time tomorrow, hope to have good results to share.

Does anyone else make their own vape juice? Anybody add PG for “throat feel” as all the sites say? I’m keeping it simple and as safe as I can on my first step in.

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I read vegetable glycerin is the base for cough syrup it’s in industrial restaurant scrambled eggs as a thinner, it’s in hundreds amd thousands of things we use daily. Hmm.

Here is an article I thought was good for Vape

Advanced E-Liquid Guide

March 20, 2015 By Mr.Vape

I’ve written two previous guides on how to make cannabis e-liquid from loose leaf which have received a ton of attention and lots of e-mails. However, I’ve recently discovered a new method which produces some incredibly potent e-liquid starting out with loose leaf that I feel the need to share with readers here. Although this method has produced the strongest e-juice of any loose-leaf method I’ve used so far, it involves a lot more work than the other guides (but the end result makes it well worth it) and you’ll need to follow the steps closely.

The process is done in two steps (which is why it works so well); the first step creates a potent concentrate, and the second step disperses the concentrate into e-liquid (the same kind found in e-cigarettes, but without any nicotine) in the most efficient manner possible. One of the biggest changes compared to the previous guides is the substitution of tradition e-cigarette juice with EJ Mix. EJ Mix is a special PG mix (less viscous, still food grade) used to transform cannabis concentrates into a liquid form which produces a much better result than with traditional e-liquid bases. This means better vaporization with less atomizer clogging. Batches require 1-2mL of mix so expect a bottle to last quite some time! Furthermore, you can substitute the loose leaf cannabis with already vaped bud (AVB) or a concentrate (which you can make from AVB!), just skip ahead to the appropriate section in the guide (start at Part One, Step 3 for AVB and Part Two for Concentrates!). Moreover, you can also use the Rosin Technique (see my guide) to make a potent concentrate and then skip ahead to step 2.

First you’ll need to obtain all the necessary ingredients and materials before you start the process. In order to make the advanced e-liquid, you’ll require the following items:

  • EJ Mix (from Amazon). EJ Mix is ‘heavier’ Propylene Glycol (PG400 in particular). PG400 does a much better job of suspending psychoactive material compared to standard PG used in most cannabis e-juice recipes.
  • High Proof (190+) Grain Alcohol (something like Everclear will work). You must use at least 190 proof for the extraction to be as efficient as possible.
  • Blunt Tip Sringes (like these). Syringes are essential to the process as they make the liquid transfer steps easier, mess-free, and more efficient.
  • Some dropper bottles (these work well and are opaque to prevent sunlight exposure)
  • Optional: LorAnn Flavoring (the same kind used in e-cigarette liquids) to give your product some taste!
  • Coffee Filters
  • Parchment Paper
  • 2 Mason Jars. Larger jars are better for making and storing higher quantities of liquid. If possible use opaque jars as they prevent light from degrading the THC in your juice.
  • Stove pot (big enough so that you can put one of the mason jars in it almost halfway submerged).
  • A minimum of 3.5 grams of high quality loose leaf bud.

Once you have all the necessary ingredients, you can get started with the actual process. Make sure to choose a well ventilated workspace which vents to the outside (and use only an electric stove with no open flame -no gas!). I take no responsibility for any accidents resulting from inadequate safety measures while following this guide!

Part One

  • First, grind your loose leaf into fine pieces and place it on a baking tray covered in parchment paper.
  • Next you’ll need to decarboxylate your bud (see my ultimate cannabis e-liquid guide if you’d like to know the rationale behind why this step is so important!), so Preheat your oven to 100C (220F) and insert your baking tray containing your ground loose leaf for about twenty-five to forty minutes until it turns light brown in color.

Once your bud has been decarboxylated, place it into one of your mason jars and pour in enough high proof alcohol the loose leaf is submerged with 1/2″ (1.27cm) of alcohol on top. It is also possible to use Acetone and cut the evaporation time down significantly.

Then place a lid on your jar and place it in a cool dark place for at least 48 hours (but the longer the better). Each day give the liquid a light shake to mix up the active ingredients and encourage extraction.

After at least 48 hours has passed, remove the jar and prepare your second mason jar as well as 2 syringes and a coffee filter.

Unscrew the blunt tip needles from your two syringes, remove the plunger from one of them and insert half a coffee filter inside. This step increases filtration while minimizing losses which would be absorbed by normal filtration methods.

Take your syringe without the filter and begin sucking up the liquid from your first mason jar and squirt it into the syringe which contains the filter, then replace the plunger. Squeeze this liquid (which will now be filtered) into your second jar and keep repeating this step until no solution remains in the first jar.

Seal your second jar and put it in your freezer for 48 hours. This step increases purity by allowing any undesirable contents to settle at the bottom of the jar.

Carefully remove the jar from the freezer and filter it by using the same process outlined in steps 6-7. Then let the mixture warm up to room temperature before you proceed. This step is highly important as heating up cold alcohol can be dangerous!

Take the lid off your jar, place it in your stove pot and then fill the pot with enough water to cover almost half the jar to create a bain marie. Turn your stove vent on high and then bring the water to just under a boil and watch closely until all the alcohol boils off. Once this happens you should be left with a dark, thick oil at the bottom of the jar. Using 3.5 grams of potent loose leaf should leave with just under one gram of strong concentrate which you can now turn into an e-liquid using the next part of this guide.

Step Two

  • Using your pot, fill it again to halfway with water with your mason jar containing the oil inside. I recommend putting a knife or fork at the bottom of one side of the jar so that the liquid will pool to one side (making removing it easier)
  • Using a new syringe, measure 1mL of EJ mix for every gram of concentrate that you have inside your jar. Feel free to experiment with a little less or little more EJ Mix to alter potency, but this is what worked for me.

Again, bring your water to just under a boil, but you won’t need a lot of heat for this step (just enough so that the oil gets dissolved into the EJ Mix). It should take about five minutes before the oil is fully dissolved.

Take your syringe and transfer the solution into a dropper bottle for storage. You can also mix in a tiny bit of flavor (be careful as the flavors can be potent) in order to give your liquid a great taste!

A box mod personal vaporizer (PV) is great for medicating stealthily on the go! Pictured above is the Siglei 150 Watt PV which is great for running subohm coil builds.

Congratulations, you’ve now made a highly potent cannabis e-liquid! One drop of juice on an atomizer coil (like the BlackoutX) should produce several hits which give you effects of a dab but much less harsh and much more portable. You can use the e-juice in almost any e-cig, and its highly filtered nature will prevent any clogs (I only recommend using a tank system if you plan on making larger quantities of liquid though). I recommend storing the finished product in a cool, dark place away from light as Erowid has this to say on the subject:

“Solutions of pure cannabinoids, nine samples of herbal and two of resin cannabis (one freshly prepared) were stored in varying conditions for up to 2 years. Exposure to light (not direct sunlight) was shown to be the greatest single factors in loss of cannabinoids especially in solutions, which should therefore be protected from light during analytical and phytochemical operations. Previous claims that solutions in ethanol were stable have not been substantiated. The effect of temperature, up to 20 degrees, was insignificant but air oxidation did lead to significant losses. These could be reduced if care was taken to minimize damage to the glands which act as “well filled, well closed containers”. Loss of tetrahydrocannabinol after exposure to light does not lead to an increase in cannabinol, but air oxidation in the dark does. It is concluded that carefully prepared herbal or resin cannabis or extracts are reasonably stable for 1 to 2 years if stored in the dark at room temperature.”

Cold method to concentrate plant and store for later extraction

  • Use isopropanol (91% rubbing alcohol works) for a cold extraction.
  • Grind buds to a relatively fine consistency, place it loosely (do not pack) in a suitable glass container with a tight fitting lid.
  • Fill the container with solvent and put it in a cool dark place. Shake as often as you think about it over the length time you are willing to wait on product.
  • When you can’t wait another day strain the solvent from cannabis and allow it to evaporate till it is approximately 10% of the original volume.
  • Add a portion of the cannabis from the cold extraction to the container you are using for evaporation.
  • Allow the concentrated liquid to evaporate until dried.
  • Add more solvent and more cannabis to your cold extraction container for a second pull on the original material.
  • Continue evaporating and drying your first extraction until all traces of solvent are removed.
  • At this point the cannabis, which is now quite concentrated can be vacuum sealed or put it in a jar and freeze.

At this point you have a stable concentrate which will store for the long term. I then do your basic BHO extraction on small amounts of the concentrate as I have need, thus not exposing my oil or shatter to the problems of degradation suffered by changes in temperature and light. If you take anything away from here, The worst enemies of THC are heat, air and light.

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Thanks.

I’ve seen a few like that - using everclear or other alcohol to make the extraction. This is because glycerin is a weak alcohol from what I read - it’s jot your ideal solvent for extraction

Methods I’ve seen are the ones you posted, make a wax, buy additional product to thin the wax into a PG or VG.

Also I’ve seen to mix the alcohol directly in with your VG, do an extraction with the alcohol/VG mix, evaporate off the alcohol.

Ive read it’s possible to extract directly into the VG (what I’m doing), this saves multiple steps and $.

I’m following as I plan to make vape liquid as well.

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Well it’s been around 24 hours so I went ahead and opened up my vape pen package and have it charging.

I’ve been stirring when I can - I stir with a digital meat probe thermometer and it gets me a temperature too. Crock-Pot and boiling on stove will never burn your product. This time, however, while pulling the meat probe out after stirring i let the drops of glycerin run off into my transfer tube instead of back into the Mason jar. And I stirred the extraction again and caught all the drops in my transfer tube again (the tube they give u with your vape pen to transfer juice into your pod/cartridge)

After only five times of letting a few drops run off into thr tube it was full and I filled one of my Rubi pods

I took a fee drags amd it’s hard to get big hits with this so far, but at the same time every hit is pretty good and consistent unlike with my dry herb vaping experience.

I decided to let it go 48 hours in Crock-Pot, I’m going to take it out a few times and let it cool to room temp then back in Crock-Pot in that period as well.

In a little while my pen should be fully charged and ill vape for a day or two to see my results. Excited so far, I filled a pod up and didn’t even make a dent in this batch of glycerin - to which 7grams were used up. If this works at all it could be very economical

I’m already feeling a strong head stone coming hut ive been licking all the spills of glycerin, it’s very sweet. Mmm. Lol

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I’ve been chonging it up and I knew it was working when I reached for the guitar.

It’s not how I want it at all yet. I probably took 6-10 long as I could drags on it and now that everything’s primed up in the pen I’m blowing little mini clouds. Respectable from a discreet handheld pen

I also have a headache probably from too many big hits back to back - lack of oxygen or something.

I fear this ultimately will be like dry herb vaping in how it’s not a full spectrum high- but I don’t know that yet.

I also fear I will regret this pen purchase - there’s no adjustments and while it seems to be good where it setup, bigger hits are impossible. Thr coil shuts itself off after so long and the air port isn’t that big I think that’s why I have a headache trying to pull a lot of air thru a small restriction. I may have to go to an actual vape store and buy one of those rigs.

But it’s still early

I vape on a pretty high powered setup. I’m curious how well the liquid will work. I can tell you from my knowledge of vaping and making my own nicotine liquid for over 5 years now I have learned a few things. Most notable is that you need much less nicotine with higher power and higher airflow. The reason is because with the higher heat (which needs higher airflow) the nicotine becomes more of a gas and can be absorbed at a higher rate. And for those that don’t know 90% of the absorption is through the skin in your mouth. Not lungs. I’m not sure if that will apply to thc but it’s something I’ll be planning to test.

Also because the absorption is through the mouth not lungs there’s no need to hold the hit in. Just take the pull then exhale. There’s no need for anything else.

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Interesting. I’ve been wondering about do i hold it in or not. Im getting big clouds now every hit. Well medium. Very satisfied with pen so far.

After prob 30 draws I’ve looked at the pod and it’s moved down some but still has plenty left. I’m very surprised at how little is used up considering how many clouds I’ve blown.

I’m less thrilled about the juice (so far). I just added a shot of vodka and a capful of everclear to the Mason jar which is back at room temp now. I’m gonna shake it a few times over the next hour and put it back in Crock-Pot overnight with lids off to evap.

Test a batch tomorrow and if there’s any improvement, then either the additional 24 hours or the alcohol helped extract more into the glycerin. If no difference between the batches, then extraction wasn’t the issue (maybe no alcohol is needed) and also potency Is probably tbe issue. In that case I will double the recipe next time.

Onward!

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Yeah definitely make sure you let all the alcohol evaporate off either with heat or leave it uncovered for 24 hours. I appreciate the fact your testing results as you go though. Plus by keeping good notes it’ll be easier to recreate it.

Want to make a good tincture. Ground bud and then just coat with enough VG to make it wet. Put it in a double boiler between 200-240 degrees for 2 hours. Strain and bottle. Taste like honey and you can make vape, brownies, gummies, or just put it in your tea.

BTW if I make vape out of tincture, I treat it like 100mg nicotine. It’s concentrated and a little goes a long way. 2ml tincture if u are making 20ml of vape. Can be more if you want it stronger.

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Good to know. I use 100mg for mixing down into my base mix. So that makes sense. I’ll use that as a starting point to find the right dosage. Thank you.

Thats what I’ve made, a pretty effective sublingual tincture but I’m still not keen on vaping it.

The recipe I followed to begin with said use 14grams cannabis to 400-500mL Vg.

250mL is a cup, so I did 7grams to a cup. Same ratio.

After the 48 hours I can tell a slight improvement in effect which means either tbe extra time or the alcohol helped extract more. However the taste is even worse and it was kinda bad before.

Also I went looking again and now found a very different recipe, basically do an alcohol extraction and simmer it down to 5mL of volume and then add 20mL of VG and you’re done. This new ratio is about ten times stronger than the one I’ve made now so I’ll be trying that in a few weeks when my next harvest comes in.

I have five of these droppers full of VG tincture now, a very sweet complex taste in the mouth.

I think I will seal a jar with everclear for a few days, then strain, reduce volume of alcohol and add VG. Need more research materials!

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Wow the recipe I was going to follow said 10 grams to 100ml vg.

Yeah and my new one says put 6grams in the alcohol, simmer extract down to 5ml then add 20mL vg. So 6g cannabis in 25mL liquid.

Big differences! I knew it was too good to be true that just a quarter ounce would get me a cup of dank vape juice!

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Yeah seems like it’s going to be some trial and error to find the right ratio for each person. I think I’ll start with the 10 gram to 100ml and use that as a strong base to mix down into proper dosage for me.

Finally found the culprit. Searched amd searched and of course now I see tons of recipes like you and I are talking and then boom, the only one I found way far off in the numbers, he did say half an ounce to 2cups VG (500mL)

Nobody trust that place!

I found several other variables on others, some said to decarb for 55-65min at 250deg which is way too long. Another said add 2oz of VG to 5.5grams bud, but 2oz =60mL so it’s half strength as the new recipe i want to try, but not way off in outer space like this one.

SMH. I only had enough for one batch and i tried the one recipe from Mars there’s so many mistakes out there on websites this one also only has a few hour extraction with no alcohol, which I know now from experience that’s not good enough. Even if he had a good ratio of bud:VG

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I wondered if it even needs to be decarbed? It’s going to be heated when vaped… but then again I guess if you do decarb it first you’re not limited to only vaping it.

And yes every “recipe” I’ve seen is different. I definitely think stronger is better because you can always dilute it but once it’s made you can’t make it stronger.

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when looking at the concentration of the recipe, how do you know the saturation point of everclear or vg?

it seems like if there is more weed than the solution can hold itll just cause waste