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How to reduce paraffin shrinkage?


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I am pouring paraffin and Vybar mix into 6,5 cm cylinder glass mould. As you can see from the picture below, a very deep shrinkage well does form (whole chilli fits inside). What are the techniques (like mould pre-heat, pre-cool, pour temperature and etc) or additives do reduce this shrinkage without making wax blend not suitable for moulded candles?

 

 

well.jpg

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That is the nature of pillar paraffins.  If you include additives in the formula to lessen shrinkage, then you get sticky paraffin that doesn't want to come out of the mold, and softer paraffin that doesn't hold up as a pillar.

 

Pillar paraffin needs two, sometimes three re-pours.  It's the nature of the beast.

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I use 4625 & pour about 180.  If that is a pillar you should be poking relief holes in your pillar.  Once you top off the pillar that should take care of "sink" holes.  What kind of paraffin pillar wax and why the vybar

Edited by grama
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In my country there is only one kind of paraffin suitable for candles that is P2. Without any additives surface is very mottled and not smooth (because P2 contains up to 0,5% oil), thus Vybar. Will also try out stearin and microcrystaline paraffin, once I get hold of them.

 

And thank you for advice, will try poking next time and see how it goes.

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It actually looks pretty normal. Do poke relief holes so you don't wind up with a sinkhole as the candle burns. Then top off with a repour to level the top. Make sure your repour is roughly 10 degrees hotter than the original pour so you have good adhesion and minimize pour lines.

Edited by Candybee
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Make sure your repour is roughly 10 degrees hotter than the original pour so you have good adhesion and minimize pour lines.

 

Per some advice on using glass moulds in candle making tutorials I do poor at 180 F. Wouldn't 198 F (water almost boils) be too much?

 

I think if you remove the vybar you won't get as much shrink or maybe use less and that will help some till you get some stearic

 

Thanks for the advice. Would still like to master mixes with Vybar, because in the near future I am planing to use custom made latex moulds and stearic is not compatible (maybe microcrystaline paraffin will help which will arrive in "just" 2,5 weeks :))

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Per some advice on using glass moulds in candle making tutorials I do poor at 180 F. Wouldn't 198 F (water almost boils) be too much?

If your first pour was at 180 then your repour should be 190. If you are pouring into a glass container made for candles it should be no problem. I use palm wax and I pour at 195 into my glass containers.

Remember your pouring heat and heating temps are not the same. You may heat to 180 but pour at 160. Just make sure you are heating and pouring at 10 degrees hotter than the original pour.

Edited by Candybee
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Actually you don't need a repour at 10 degrees higher if 198 bothers you, just pour them a little hotter so it melts the internal surface a little to bind with it. Water boils at 212.  

Poke poke relief holes deep enough and fill them. If you just poke and pour then there's a good chance of the base separating. On your repours don't pour higher than the original pour or you'll have a repour line that's hard to mask/hide if you're doing taper like shapes. Same holds true for pillars, unless you're decorating the surface of it. 

Edited by Scented
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Poking really helped with the shrink well. But I did encounter another problem after 2nd and 3rd pours. Looking from the top, candle looks fine, but looking from the side (first) I do see line of 3rd pour and (second) the rim/edge is very uneven. Why is that?

If it would be normal mould, this would be at the bottom and I could level it on a hot pan.

 

Top:

top.jpg

 

Side:

 

side.jpg

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You could level it. Traditional pillar molds make the where you pour to the top, the bottom of your candle, so it makes it not as noticeable. The "line" you can see is probably from letting the candle cool too much before your repour or not a hot enough repour.

 

With your mold, the top of the mold is the top of the pillar so leveling it might be a challenge. I have no advice for that other than maybe take a heat gun to it before you unmold? 

 

Good luck. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

When you poke your candle, use heat gun for few seconds and then re-pour. It helps to it will combine new layers and you won't see any differences. 

Another advice is that you shouldn't use microcrystaline paraffin because your shrink will be bigger. Of course the top of the molds is the bottom of the candles. You can pour higher and after removed from the mold, you can cut it how much you need. In my opinion vybar doesn't change shrinking. 

 

ps. We used P2 but it wasn't enough good for us

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I am from Poland. We have many types of straight paraffin wax. We make from them our own recipes. But for rustic candles we have paraffin wax from Israel. I don't know how many candles you do, but if you want I can send you ie. 25kg, I've checked the cost of transport - 17eur.

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To me Wilkas the picture you are showing looks like what will be the bottom of your pillar.  I use a small knife to trim the bottom when needed and you can also put it on a hot griddle or similar spin it around and help finish off the bottom.  If you are using pillar molds like we have then when you are pouring your pillar the open end of the mold you pour into will be the bottom of your finished pillar.  It looks like the way you are holding the pillar that what you are showing is actually the bottom of the actual pillar.   It would help to show us the complete pillar to see what the other end looks like.  Hope this makes sense!

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