LRC06301983

When people talk about chilling a mold, or doing a cold pour, how cold are they talking? Should I put my mold in the freezer or an hour so its frosty? Or just in the fridge for two minutes so its cool to the touch? Will pouring the wax at a cooler temperature help with this at all as well? Maybe pour when it is starting to get cloudy? I know this is simple stuff, but I've looked online for answers and I can't find these specifics. Thanks a lot for any help -Luke-

Charlotte... first of all charlotte is one of my favorite names. Dunno why, just like the way it rolls off the tongue. I had looked at stovepipe first along with PVC and the largest it comes is 8" As part of my creative license I have as a candle making idiot savant I demant that the diameter be 10". Actually I worked it out that 10" is what I'm comfortable with to ensure I have room between the walls and the inner votive candle so the walls won't melt etc... If I went to 8" using PVC or Stovepipe then I would have to shorten them to around a foot tall. which is still a pretty good sized hurricane, but not impossible. I have to do the impossible 2-2 1/2 foot because someone who makes candles told me I couldn't.

I'd thought about on a few of them heating up a cookie cutter red hot with one of my torches and melting a cutout into the side of it...not sure how well it would work but it was an idea.... has anyone done that with a cookie cutter before? this before?

Make candles naked?!?! sorry, its my turrets. I know, shameless... Thats what my mother says..

Satinducky: there is no such thing as pushing the issue with me. I'm as stubborn as they come and in my youth I'm sure I'm guilty of not listening to everything I should. I think I like the dipping idea. You've really hit on something I wouldn't have thought about with the only being 1/3 full of wax but the displacement actually coats the entirety of the candle. Very nice. The only real problem is I have to find something two feet deep that melts wax and is at least 11 inches wide. I wonder how deep that turkey roaster thing is? It looked pretty big. I mean someone said it could hold 50lbs of wax. Creative: Good idea with the putty. I was thinking plumbers putty might work just on the inside of the inner shell. And as it is I usually don't pour a bottom in the hurricanes at first. I only pour the shell. I have a whole other process for putting in the bottoms later. lol. Were still just working on a better way to make the walls. Stop getting ahead of all the slow thinkers, it makes them feel bad!

I know its horrible. My initials and some numbers. lol. the L stands for Luke. Its the best I have to offer. I had not thought of pricing like this. I was usually being very conservative in pricing my creations (even though I haven't sold anything yet) because I felt greedy. But this is actually a very healthy view to have on marketing. Good insights. Thank you very much. Hmmm...something to think about... Thanks a lot! -Luke-

once again, really good suggestion. Acutally your suggestion would be the miracle that would work. this was originally my idea and still my hope that something like this would work. However, you are right there is a problem. I have look at PVC, Bowls, restraunt supply places, Lowes, etc... and the problem with this idea is that most corporations who manufacture cooking items, or PVC etc.. Do it in increments of 2 inches and my walls are 1/2" to 2/3" thick. so I would need something that is ten inches in diameter, and then I would need something that is exactly 9 1/3 inches in diameter. See what I mean? I looked at PVC comes in 2", 4", 6", 8" etc... and it stops at 8" unless you buy it for a commercial job and have it specially manufactured to a specific size. But you have to buy in bulk and I didn't need enough to redo the sewer system for a small town. lol. Likewise, cooking pots, pans, silverare holders, etc... I have been unable to find anything with a ten inch diameter, and when I do find something with a diameter than I can be mildly content with I cannot find anything that is slightly smaller. I hvae found some stuff that is 2" shorter in dameter, but if the walls were 2" thick then no light would come through. however, in theory your suggestion is ideal AND if you find something that would worl like this, I will fall down and call you blessed! the pump siphon thing was a really slick idea! I'm definently gonna have to think about that. Maybe also to get wax from the melting pot to the mold in the first place cause they are both pretty large. Thanks for your suggestion. Keep them coming. Lots of you have had so many good ideas I'm actually writting down a "to buy list" and drawing them out on a sketchpad and thinking through what could work! -Luke-

I'll bet that is amazing flickering in the dark! I'm really jealous. do you give classes? just kidding -luke-

You didn't miss anything. The catch is that, the one in the pics is one of the first ones I made (the other few are out on loan) and I want to start to imbed things in the wall. Additionally, since I'm doing this on the side, I don't want to buy and melt 200lbs of wax so I can pour a mold full of the 50lbs of wax it would take. See what I mean? As it is I pour only the walls which means that if I heat up 50lbs of wax I can actually pour almost 5 shells instead of one candle using the old hurricane method. Does that make sense? Additionally, I don't have the means yet to heat up that much wax anyway. Not sure I would want the means to heat up that much wax. I don't wan't 200 lbs of melted wax...and do you know how long it would take to melt that...lol Good question though. As you can tell I love talking about this and people have really given me some good suggestions. I like it too that I've seen some people's attention get sparked. There is enough here to share/go around. Who wants to patent creativity anyway... I hope more of you start figuring out how to make these... Mystical Angel, Hello. thank you for your gracious welcome. I'll have to look there because I went to the website of the place that manufactures the turkey roasters themselves and they said they MSRP for $199.00 which was as much as a regular melter. lol $79.99 sounds a lit better to me! thanks everyone! -luke-

Uhh I can tell you it would cost enough to make it worth making. for me I only work for around 3 hours really hard on the candle. a lot of it is waiting, but then again I don't leave the candles or the wax unatended. so I would estimate I do a medium amount of labor for roughly 6 hours to make a candle give a couple extra hours for a batch of multiple candles. It is not unusual for me to start melting in the morning-midmorning on a summer day, and be pulling it out of the mold after dark in the evening. The real catch is these things take a LONG TIME to cool down even in a waterbath I would imagine. I dunno I have to talk to Danita about that a little more if she tries it. If I'm making a really nice one, with decorations in the side, nice wax, some good additives to harden it up, and I put my seal/artists signature into it which takes a little etc... you know make a good one... I don't have the breakdown but I'll say that materials alone costs $30 I use a wax that costs roughly a dollar a pound and the candles themselves are upwards of 15lbs when completed. They are solid. Not chunky, but solid. Put in the plaster and the dyes etc... Roughly $30. then add whatever you want for your time and then profit. I haven't sold one yet but its not for lack of people wanting them. If I were to sell it I usually say tripple your materials. So we are looking at a $90 give or take candle. But when they are done they are truly gorgeous. I'm sure you could make them cheaper, nothing in the walls, cheaper wax like a parafin with a hardener etc.. Pluse I have a special method I use to achieve an antiqued look on the outer surface because I don't like the completely smooth look. I acutally have a lady on the west coast who is a friend of an artist friend and saw some prototypes and said she would give me $200 plus pay for shipping for one. I think thats a little high myself but it gives you an idea. I hope that helped. however...the real cost is in getting the set up I have to make something like this. Imagine how much room, and wax, and tools you use for little candles... Instead of a heat gun...I have a four foot wand roofing torch that hooks up to a propane tank like the ones glass blowers use...it makes it easier to get the wax to do what I want... I mean the operation is time, material, and room intensive/extensive.

I will have to look at Walmart. I originally was looking at trash-cans months ago when I started making these things, but a lot of them were tapered too severly. But I will take a look at that cause I am rethinking my mold, I couldn't find the trashcans on their website, but there is a store close. That might really work. How do you think I could temporarily attach the inner mold to the bottom of the trashcan? plumbers caulk putty?

Nice! It says it can hold between 30-40 lbs of melted wax. That would be enough for me to do 3-4 complete outer shells. Very cool. I'll start looking for this. Even if it isn't big enough to dip out of, this solves my other problem which was heating up enough wax to do more than one candle at a time since making one shell takes me most of the day if you factor in cooling and melting time. the presto pots are cool but I have to have like 5 of them or more... Thanks a lot for this candlefreak. See this is exactl why you are the ENIGMA and I am still a lowly wax drip... But a wax drip can dream... I'll be an enigma someday... Just kidding. This really was helpful. Thanks again. -Luke-

hey question to Donita who appears to be the resident expert on candles that purportedly "can't be made" Why would I need a waterbath? Actually anyone can answer this one. I've never really used one before. I did for the first time the other night making a small hurricane in a coffee tin of sorts etc... But I mean, what are the physics behind it? does it give the candle a different finish? I thought it was just to help it cool down faster and facilitate the dissipation of heat? Okay free for all time, correct me where I'm wrong. Thank you all for being soo receptive to a new poster. -Luke-

okay Donita I'll bite:) Usually I'm pretty prideful, but I can beg for a link to these pictures Candlefreak has alluded too in very short order if required. lol. So here is what I'm imagining... A traditional hurricane candle mold, circular, seamless maybe, but of sturdy construction maybe 1/8 inch thick walls or more... And I would want an insert for it so I would only have to fill up the walls though. can you think of a good way to seal the insert to the bottom of the mold temporarily so I could still remove it later? Could I maybe put the insert in and then pour a half inch of wax into the mold and let it leak into the inner circle but it will seal it down. Possibly, even though I will have a pour-line half an inch up my candle, the wax in the bottow will stay hard even when I pour in all the other wax because the heat will be dissipating quickly? Is this possible? I'd like to avoid filling my mould full of 50lbs of wax, and just do the walls, you know what I mean? Who is Jeff, does he have any suggestions on this? Okay suggestions donita? Anyone? Thanks a lot, this has give me some good hope! -luke-

The candles at Target were actually the small versions that caught my eye...I just saw them and though, "I could do that, but I want them bigger!" how do you think they made those round balls though? probably a bowl, waterbaloon type mold? I dunno, the playing field really changes when you have a factory, lots of people, designers...a virtual assembly line! Lol. I did think those round globe ones were pretty sexy though.

Satin Ducky is spot on. I saw a small hurricane once upon a time and I says to myself, self I says, that would look really cool at night, a bunch of them placed in the garden among the flowers during summer. Or perhaps a bunch of them in different sizes lighting a path, or maybe a few on the deck for an evening BBQ, or maybe one of them in the corner of the bathroom for the wife when she's having a relaxing bath.... And wouldn't it be cool if one was almost transparent cream and really bright..and if one was deep blood red that gave off the most deep and barely discernable of glows... Come on tell me that doesn't sound pretty cool... I started making them because there is nothing wrong with pillars, and votive candles and all the others, its just not what I'm interested in. My wife has tons of them in the house and its great, but I started out making somthing this complex because that was what I wanted and what interested me. Also I wanted to be able to make them myself incase I broke one and wanted another. Finally, no one made them as big as I wanted, and when I started asking candle makers if they could make one or if I could they told me it was nearly impossible. I love it when people tell me something can't be done, just makes you want to do it more doesn't it? SATIN DUCKY: Great idea on the dipping, the only problem is that I can't find a dipping container that holds enough wax melted other than a professional $1500 melting tank etc.. Those presto pots are great but they aren't that big. Know what I mean? I had considered this idea but the problems are if I melt wax and then pour it into a bucket or a trashcan as a dipping vat, it will harden before I can fully dip out a candle and then I just have to rechop and melt an entire kitchen trashcan of wax. Additionally, to make them sturdy I actually have walls that are around a half inch thick or a little more on some of the lighter colored ones and dipping that would get very time consuming and really heavy....I dunno, dipping didn't seem practical NOT BECAUSE IT ISN"T A GOOD IDEA, but because the set-up for it was more than I could achieve. Great suggestion though, please keep them coming, the dipping thing did get me rethinking maybe making a smaller hurricane that had a smaller diameter but was still tall and maybe dipping the top half and then the bottom and attaching them etc... I'll think about that... Again I apologize, my posts are long. Thanks a lot!

That is truly gorgeous. how much did it cost you to get the molds made?

These are pictures of the very first one I made. It is a rough prototype but should give you a general idea of where I'm going with this. It doesn't have much dye in it, and you can't see the texture of the shell very well but it is kind of a rustic, textured, marred ourter shell. Please critique my work as much as you like, and suggestions are profoundly welcome, I'm getting really tired of thinking out this whole thing myself. lol. Again thanks everyone! -Luke- FYI: They glow much more than picture 005 shows, but the only candle I had to put in the shell at the time was a tall one. In all reality, the entire length of the shell starting from a few inches up at the bottom all the way to the top lights up bright enough to read a book if you are sitting next to it

Good suggestion Pam. Thank you very much I'll look into that. FYI: I posted a few pictures of one of the first hurricanes I poured on the gallery page if you feel like it, take a look and offer any critiques or suggestions you have. Again, the kitchen supply is a good one. Perhaps the kitchen supply will have a large enough container to serve as the outer mold itself, and then I could use some sheet metal/flashing and weld myself an insert of the right diameter. This is one of my struggles is I would like to be able to pour multiple candles at a time since something on this scale is REALLY time consuming. But before I went out and bought more materials, I am trying to find a better mold than what I hvae currently. Thanks again Pam! -Luke-

Hello everyone, Recently, I succesfully made a hurricane candle/wax lantern that is 10" in diameter and nearly 2' tall from a mold that I manufactured myself. Has anyone ever made, or knows someone who has made a hurricane candle but on this large of a scale? If so, how did you do it and what did you use for a mold? The only place I've seen candles that are smiliar (although mine have yet to become this intricate) is at this website for a gentleman who makes them all by hand in the Philipenes. Then again, these people have an entire factory and lots of people to make them, and huge wax melters, and all of that candle making equipment that costs thousands of dollars that we are all jealous of. http://www.docscandles.com/wax_lantern_sub.htm However, if someone feels like looking at the pictures of the candles on the above site and maybe giving me some suggestions on how they were possibly made that would be wonderful. Maybe that isn't possible from the pictures. But because most of you are much more experienced than I am at making candles (in fact this hurricane is the first candle that I have ever made) you might have some insights. I e-mailed the guy who makes those candles because it never hurts to ask but he won't disclose anything. Currently I use a mold of my own design that is slightly different from the traditional hurricane molds. In traditional hurricane molds (as you are all aware) you pour the entire container full of wax and then when the walls have hardened to the desired thickness you pour out the still melted wax in the center. However, I had to make a variation on this because otherwise I would have to pour/work with/handle a candle mold containing 50lbs+ of hot wax and I'm strong, but thats just stupid. haha. In the end the hurricane that I have managed to make is anywhere from 9-15 lbs depending on the height and how thick I make the floor. Sorry this post got soo long but you all have no idea how long I have searched for the little bits of candle making information that apply to a project this large. Sadly, everything I have accomplished so far I've learned the hard way and done from scratch. Again, any help anyone can be would be really appreciated. Soon I will have some questions that I have been struggling with about wax types and candle finishes that I will post for all of you candle guru's but I think this tome is sufficient for now. Thanks in advance! -Luke-