LRC06301983

I usually put my large slabs of wax wrapped in plastic into a large plastic storage bin/container. those are good suggestions. I will try them. Let me get one thing straight though, I can pour my hot wax at a cool temperature directly into a heavy duty ziplock storage bag?

the unfortunate thing for all of you is that A.) my body is young and I can handle the steroids and B.) I live life for speed, danger and ever increasing amounts of liquified paraffin. Be ye forewarded. I am a professional. do not try this at home. however if you do, and it turns out well, please PM me we need to talk. lol.

Lets say I have melted a batch of wax and I don't use it all... I would just let it harden and remelt it later...but lets say I want to pour it out and into block form so I can label it and store it like a slab of wax... If this makes sense? Does anyone else do this and what do you pour it into? Glass baking dish? disposable tin baking pan from the grocery store, etc... anyone got a good suggestion? Thanks a lot! -Luke-

those are really really cool looking... it looks though like each layer is a different type of wax as one is mottled and the other rustic/swirl and different colors... Does that affect your burn at all?

amateur... JUST KIDDING it really does look good. I have always enjoyed how good you were with the pressed flowers you use. Now you know why I usually go rustic...overdipping these mothers is a tricky business. I have an idea for that as well though I can tell you about of you want. how big am I going to go? Uhh in all honesty? I'm working on plans for a seven footer... I still have to work a bunch of stuff out though so we will see how quickly that plan comes together... yeah I think your 10" by 11" is one of the lager ones ON THE MARKET and should be quite the novelty item.

Lol way ahead of you Donita... as an artist...I know that you always put an odd number of seagulls in the painting... lol

it would probably be worth it to set a tealight on a hard surface and touch the tip of a glass thermometer to the side of it and just leave it there for 3 to five hours and record the temperature. alternately a digital thermometer would help a lot. This might give you an idea of how high your wax MP needs to be in the minimum. When it doubt, start testing everything.

Does anyone know where they have foam that I can buy? Like the stuff they pack compueter that are going to be shipped or the stuff they store microphones in. The semi-spongy stuff. not styrafoam, the other kind. Thanks for any suggestions!

I actually have a fridge sized freezer that is solely for my candles that I was planning on ripping the shelves out of... I haven't played around with it too much...but I regularly throw my votives into the freezer 5-10 minutes after I have poured them and i don't have any problems with cracking. It causes them to sink a little bit more but I'll try it... However, I had not envisioned HOW I was going to get this mold into the fridge other than just brute force and some heat golves...I like the heavy duty support shelving... I dunno the completed mold with wax should only weigh 50-75lbs or more...thats not too heavy. lol

But once again, I still need the mold first. lol. actually I have a mold that is barely usable that I made. I really need someone who can make me like 5 of these custom jobs then I don't have to spend three whole days pouring only one candle. I can pour enough of them to make it worth my while. I've got a couple options of people I've been put in contact with. We will see what happens. I'm still open to suggestions of builders though. I don't think I was ever at Wynoka, I was only there for like six months maybe a little more. Is Waynoka pretty cool?

first question anyone is going to ask is...what type of was are you using? Is it a suitable pillar wax? Have you tried adding any stearic acid to make the candle stronger? that will also lower the MP which might help the walls melt inwards a little quicker. additionally you might still have a wick that is too large or small. Too small and it isn't melting the walls before it tunnels down and makes the candle bulge...

could you treat the wax more like you would putty patch you smear over holes in the walls? I.E. melt some wax and then wait for it to get like icing and swirl in some dyes like you would typically do for a marbled pour...and then just use a putty knife one of the big ones to get a glob and then force it accross the tart mold or whatever forcing it into the mold. almost like laying mortar for brick and cement work... don't try to pour them, make marbled wax and then use it like putty... Would something like that work? Additionally, you said you had tried it in the pour pot but some came out swirl and some came out solid.... if you wait for the wax to cool longer (under the assumption that you wont be pouring you will be using it like putty smearing the swirl wax into the tart mold) and then it will swirl better and you don't have to worry about additional mixing on the pour or through the heat causing the dye to travel when they cool... hey also I know tart molds are shallow...but it might almost be worth putting the little molds in like a cake pan of water because it will cause the wax to harden and the dye to set up faster. sometimes when I am trying to make a streak candle if I don't use a waterbath to lock the streaks in where I want them, they will keep on traveling. Does any of this make sense? Sorry if I wasted your time. I don't usually make tarts.

Hey i'm stupid and dangerous... But I wear a seatbelt. Thats just good Karma.

if you could liken the scent "monky farts" to something or a combination of something what would it be?

Lived in scottsdale for a short while. Yuma is fun. rolled a buggy my first time out... I'm a little bit of a speek freak. lol. The fridge idea is good. probably pretty cheap to do as well... could probably caulk the piping into the fridge so as to reseal the drill hole after I cut it...

I'm in columbus so I can't help you a whole lot. But there is one individual on the forum who goes by the hand realmarcha and she is from Michigan. You might try PMing her and seeing what she suggests. Additionally, I think someone else here is from Toledo. If they see this posting they should probably drop a line here. I don't remember who they were though... Hope that helps some... -Luke-

Man thanks for all the good suggestions everyone. Lol this posting is up to six pages in what 24hours ish? Yes most of that is Top/Bruce/Myself duscussing the feasibility of creating a wax masterpiece while innebriated using a malt chiller and sheet metal but still... Donita, I dunno if the ice thing would work only cause to make a huge difference in a 55 gallon drum of water that is cooling I'd end up using a lot of ice...I mean these things usually take a good day to cool at least. it would be easier to regulate it if I had a cooling unit with a thermal gauge on it... I could set the copper tubing to what 50 degrees and the water could remain at that temperature... Now that would be slick. lol. the aquarium ones might have better thermostat controls as well since they are used for animals as delicate as fish often are... Good advice Pam...I'll look into all of this.

thanks a lot for the website realmarcha. I'll check that out. sorry I'm late but I'm not usually in the vegetable wax forum. again thanks a lot for the link! -Luke-

Top: your right. however, as embarassing as it is for me to admit it, I of course have not reached the levels of nirvana you have, and as such will now attempt to pour a candle WHILE drinking beer.... again, if no one hears from me again, tell my wife I love her and Donita gets my big candle molds...unless someone beats her to them... Mei-Mei: thats such a pretty internet handle... thank you so much for the offer. I'll PM you.

yes we would be unstoppable, and we would have to do it out of the country. no insurance would have us. If it can be made out of wax I can figure out how. Top is good at explosive and I mean come on...you always need a demolitions guy...(I watch movies, its how I know these things) and you could carve beautiful pictures into the sides of these candles... we could make some serious money Bruce...think about it... lol

lol Bruce you spoke the very thoughts I was having... it might make for a cool spiral effect... I guess we will see. This is something I will probably do, but I'm still about a year away (six months if I didn't have college and a wife and a part time job etc.. lol) from mass producing or being able to make. We will see... now I just need some custom molds!

No its quite a compliment to me, so far I'm keeping up with the old guard. Lol. Besides you gave me two more pices of info that are important. A.) a thermo switch to regulate temperature exists. i.e. I could start it circulating and get the temperature constant before I dropped the loops around the mold. and they have things like this for a saltwater aquarium I can look at as well.. it would actually be cool to submerge one of these immersion coolers WITH a thermal swtich IN my already existing cold water bath that way I could just use the immersion cooler to cool off the water bath and I wont have to worry about frost lines from where the piping touches the mold...

Very cool top. I'm actually shopping for one right now online. You can actually get an electric one that cools itself for around $50 give or take the size. I dunno though, they say these can take a 5 gallons of a liquid from boiling to 65 degrees or less depending on the model in 15 minutes! Thats a fast cool... Do you think that that will allow time for the wax to crystalize properly? I dunno if it will crack it or not. I can probably just switch it on for two minutes, off for two minutes, on, off, on, off and that way drop the temperature fast but not fast enough to cause cracking. this quantity of wax does take a couple of days to cool. this would be a nice upgrade...

ah I have a solution that I'm using for that as well. lol. I haven't revealed all my secrets yet! but yes, it is extreemly difficult because often I am working with a mold containing in excess of 30-50lbs of hot melted paraffin. I have a lot of aloe plants. I had one of my molds come appart on me once...thankfully I was pouring cool for a rustic. There was so much wax everywhere...

a good rule of thumb is... testing with two wicks is probably twice as hard as wicking with one!