Making Your Own Cigarettes

In late January 2004, I started making my own cigarettes. The quality of the finished product far surpasses the quality (well, the lack of quality) of most pre-made, mass-manufactured cigarettes. This page provides information about making your own cigarettes and links to my favorite MYO (make your own) sites and information.

I started making my own cigarettes to save money, but after I discovered how much better they were, I stuck with it. How much money do I save? Here's a cost breakdown for making my own:

MYO Cost Breakdown
1 lb. Tobacco (D&R S.J. Rimboche)$21.95
200 Tubes (McClintock Full Flavor)2.91
1 Machine (Premier Supermatic)44.95
Total (with machine)69.81
Total (without machine)24.71
Cigarettes421
Cost/stick (with machine)0.17
Cost/stick (without machine)0.06

So, if you include the cost of the injector (a one-time cost), the cost per cigarette is $0.17, or $3.40/pack. After the initial purchase of the injector, the cost drops to $0.06/cigarette or $1.20/pack.

Some Terminology

MYO
Make Your Own is the term I use to refer generically to making your own cigarettes, whether by the traditional roll-your-own method or the newer method of stuffing pre-made filtered or unfiltered tubes. Others use the MYO acronym to refer solely to using machines to stuff pre-made tubes.

RYO
Roll Your Own almost always refers to using papers and loose tobacco to roll your own cigarettes. Historically, RYO cigarettes have been unfiltered and non-mentholated and have been rolled by hand. These days, you can choose from an amazing variety of rolling machines, rolling mats, and rolling boxes to create much finer hand-rolled cigarettes. Failing that, you can try a homemade rolling machine.. In addition, you can choose from a wide variety of regular, mentholated, and flavored tobaccos. If you prefer filtered cigarettes, you can purchase filter plugs that can be used in both hand- and machine-rolled cigarettes. This ain't your Daddy's roll-your-own...
SYO
Stuff Your Own denotes the process of using pre-made cigarette tubes (filtered and unfiltered), loose tobacco, and one of a variety of machines to stuff tobacco into the tube. The result is a nicely-finished cigarette that is difficult to distinguish, in terms of appearance, from the mass-manufactured cigarettes produced by cigarette companies. The machines, tobacco, and supplies are increasingly easy to find and steadily improving in quality. The SYO industry as a whole is starting, IMHO, to reach critical mass.

MYO sites that I visit frequently include:

Stuff Your Own is a great community-supported clearinghouse of information, tips, hints, and news for MYO enthusiasts. It was the first non-vendor, non-commercial site I found, is actively maintained and frequently updated.

Roll Your Own Magazine is the Web site that got me started stuffing my own. I was searching for Balkan-Sobranie cigarettes on Google and followed a link to this online magazine. It opened up to me a whole world that I didn't know existed.

D&R Tobacco sells a variety of top-quality, premium rolling tobaccos, along with a broad range of tubes and papers, machines, cigarette cases, and other smoking accessories. My personal favorites from their rolling tobacco include: