chris77

very very informative tutorial...thank you. I have one question...and I'm not trying to start anything here...but in your post you showed a picture of a marathon burn and said that "This is what I woke up to.".....tell me you didn't go to sleep and leave your candle unattended????

Well, come night, when I have time to candle, my room temp is about 65 and dropping... what room temp do you recommend?

our place is usually around 70. It does pretty well like that...otherwise I'll pour and then cover it up....have played with pouring the jar while it's in a small cooler and sort of "tempering" it for 24 hours.

That's just not right chris77! It will hit here before it gets to Geek! It's already cold enough. :laugh2:

Congrats on your findings, what's your secret?

room temp jars and actually pouring just before the slushy stage

we're all going to have to wear matching shirts or something so we can group together...

I Just signed up...100 spots as of yesterday. Guess I might be 101. As fun as it would be staying at the hotel with everyone, I get to save some cash as I'm about 40 minutes from the event. Can't wait!!!

thanks everyone....just hope I can keep duplicating it! and Geek...I'm sending thoughts of subzero temperatures your way

WTG!!!! Chris....

Hey Sherri...good to see another Minnesotan on the board! :highfive:

I've been working with soy for months as time allows and finally got a perfect top that I don't have to heat gun. I could not have imagined such a smooth top was possible with soy! I couldn't be more excited tonight!

thanks so much!

I must be looking in the wrong place...I can't find the sign up page?...let alone any info on the event

the ky125 should supposedly burn well most of the time if not year round. It was found that some batches of the ky125 did burn differently enough during some of the cooler months that the 115 made the burn easier. With that being said, when I ordered some ky125 and 115, Vickey said that I probably would not need the 115 to blend.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=44948&cat=1,43326

I think she was pointing out that someone already gave her the answer to her question in another post that she was participating in.....

Could be mistaken, but I think Beanpod is associated in some way, maybe owned, by Enchanted Lites.

it's sort of the other way around....both are divisions of soy basics

Geek...I put my tin foil hat on and I think you are right!

Hell, we all know that these guys are buying soys from the same manufacturers that supply our suppliers. I don't believe for a minute that there's some little lab tech mixing, blending, pouring, and testing without some major help from a major manufacturer. Trade Secrets my ***

Somewhere along the line some genius like Geek is going to shake and sniff, hope I'm not getting too personal here dude, and figure out which wax they are using.

I wondered if or when someone who has tested and worked with so many waxes would be able to spot a wax and notice a familiarity...and spill the Bean Pod. It was only a matter of time.

Kudos, Geek! Very astute.

Fascinating info on the "AD" lingo.

Isn't it odd that we 'home crafters' are turning out to be the truest to the craft...no fancy lawyering to help us sleeze out some sales with legal jargin that the average consumer would undoubtedly think is dishonest, or misleading. Deception is legal as long as it's worded correctly....?

The rats can't win all the rat races.

BeanPod candles are stablilized yes, but it doesn't contain any paraffin though....

People make candles dangerous by burning them in unsafe conditions...under a curtain, marathon burning, falling asleep, leaving the house....heard of one guy that burnt them in his semi while driving!

Candles can be dangerous in the wrong type of container...gets too hot and cracks, spilling your melt pool and exposing more of the wick, thus you have a torch! Same thing with pillars if you have a major blowout and your wick "grows" as the melt pool gushes out.

Also if the glass is too hot and you have a little child touch it or pick it up...first gets burned...then drops the candle, possibly breaking glass and either way you have hot wax all over them and anything in it's way....if the glass breaks and the flame gets loose, well, there goes the home and the child.

Any time you add fire to anything, the danger level rises. As long as we make the candles as safely as we can, they will only be as dangerous as the people that burn them...which in itself can be pretty dangerous! Thank goodness for insurance!

I'm wondering something...not trying to attack anyone or start a fight...just wondering about someone else doing the testing on jars and telling what wick to use. Isn't it like bypassing the testing phase, learning about your candles and your wicks and skipping the whole learning procedure about how your candles respond to what wicks? Wouldn't that handicap you in the future if your wax changes from batch to batch, or you use a different FO? As nice as it would be to have someone else test for me and save me a bunch of time, I think in the end I'll be thankful that I took the time to test myself and understand my candles inside and out.

Just my random thoughts....no harm meant....

I tested my sample with votive type wicks and it performed well...however I won't be ordering it as much as I liked it.....The jar arrived with several cracks and the lid does not sit right.

www.wicksunlimited.com will test your candles and suggest the proper wick for your candle at no cost. Then they will send you samples of the wicks that they found in your candle at no cost. Sounds too good to be true. They ask for 3 candles of each scent you want tested. I called them last week and am getting ready to ship them a few candles. We'll see how it works out.

Shine

I think the only catch might be that they'll maybe expect you to buy your wicks from them? maybe? and I believe they have a 10,000 unit minimum

I suspect they are made out of EL Millenium blend wax as the Millenium blend shrinks as does not adhere to the glass. Hence why all beanpod candles are in containers with narrower tops. To prevent the candle from falling out. EL and Beanpod/Soybasics are the same people. Still no parrafin though.

And here I've been holding on to that little secret hoping no one would find out while I'm testing....muahahahahahaha

the site looks great!

BCN has the 8 oz country comfort...is that too much smaller than the 10oz for you? and what was the place near des moines that you are thinking of?

I'm also looking at placing an order with Fairwayglass in about a month

if you don't want to order a pallet, order the 200 lb weight...also if you have the them deliver to a commercial address instead of residential, that will drop your shipping cost....buying one box at a time will kill you...they say 5 boxes of same jar will get you a lower price. If you play with the shipping calculator, you'll find sometimes adding an extra box only raises the price a couple of dollars.

Remember, they were free samples that you could see what the jars looked like close up and in person. It may just be their policy when sending free samples to send their "irraegular" jars. Otherwise too many people might be asking for samples.

Just a thought. I don't really know.

it's a good theory...however I did call and talk to the sales rep and she was shocked that the samples were flawed...she went and looked at some of their samples to see if they had the same problems. She said the samples are the same as the other glass......now if you were a company trying to get build business, would you give second rate or irregular product and expect anyone to order from you?