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xxxAlpha71xxx

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Everything posted by xxxAlpha71xxx

  1. 8 ) Is it possible for a candle to be so overwicked that it inhibits the melt pool growth? 9) Why does my edit button disappear on posts?
  2. Back around 2005 or so I bought several of their candles and actually visited their shop. At that point you could buy 8 oz jar candles from them for 5.95 and a lot of the time get them BOGO. The candles I bought from them were actually fairly strong but I only bought a few scents and all 8 oz jars. Yummy! https://www.etsy.com/shop/CandlelitDesserts
  3. I posted some pics the other day of some candles that I saw at a local craft/antique multi vendor type thing. I had a Macintosh apple in a jar just like theirs so I bought their version just to do a comparison. After 4 hours burning in our bedroom with the doors closed you could barely smell the one I bought. The next day I lit mine (6%) and even with the doors closed you could smell it all throughout the house....and I don't even know what I'm doing yet. She sure had some pretty labels though.
  4. As I've said I'm very new to this and have learned quite a bit already but I have several questions related to situations I've seen. Since I have multiple questions mostly about wicks but related to different issues I thought I would post them in one handy, dandy summary versus making a bunch of posts. 1) Zinc Wicks. Do Zinc wicks always mushroom or will that issue minimize itself if a candle is wicked properly? 2) Mushrooming. If a candle starts mushrooming can it correct itself as it burns or will it always get worse once it starts? This relates to another issue. Until yesterday I had always assumed that a mushrooming wick meant that the candle was over wicked, so I had been steadily going down sizes on some of my wick tests. Yesterday, I ran across a post that indicated that mushrooming could just as easily mean that the candle was under wicked. I went back to the wick I started with and found that going up 2 sizes gave awesome results but began mushrooming a couple of hours in. Which leads me to yet again another mushrooming question. Why is it that a candle can burn fine for several hours then out of the blue start mushrooming. It seems that if there is too much/too little fuel that it would show long before the 2 or 3 hour mark. 3) When doing wick testing should I expect to see a full melt pull on day 1 after 4 hours? 4) Is there a chart out there that will at least give a good starting point for 6006 wax? CS has one but contrary to what I've heard about ECO wicks not being that great in 6006 their chart indicates ECO wicks across the board. 5) Why do some wicks give better HT than others? For instance, I love the way Premiers burn and the fact that there are so many sizes but the HT on them is considerably less than the others I've tried. Zincs burn well but I've experienced quite a bit of mushrooming with them which could, of course, be related to my mistaken understanding of what causes mushrooming. CD's seem to be giving me the best HT but they seem to burn to one side meaning a perfectly centered wick ends up melting more on one side or the other. I have tried LX's but didn't have any large enough for the container I'm using. I haven't tried HTP's yet but have both larger sizes of LX and HTP's on the way, so they're next on the list. 6) Melt pool. Should I always look for my candle to have a full melt pool across the width of the candle or is it ok for the candle to tunnel a bit as long as it melts the side wax as it burns lower? Wouldn't the lack of a full melt pool affect the HT? 7) Forrest gives the following wick list, which was great and has been a valuable tool but it stops at Zinc 60. The post I read last night had someone with a 3 inch glass jar that was using a CD18 so I decided to give CD 16 a chance and it's burning perfectly. Full 1/4 inch melt pool, good HT, around a 1" flame, glass no hotter than a cup of coffee. Is there anyone out there than can fill in the blanks above CD 10 and Zinc 60 that are the max on Forrest's list? Zinc 60 CD10 WI755 LX18 Zinc 51 CD8 WI745 Zinc44 LX16 CD6 LX14 WI740 I think that's it. Thanks for your patience and all that knowledge you guys pass around. I told the wife that maybe I should be a butcher or a baker.
  5. Exactly and you'll even see this sort of thing from some of the larger candle makers. Windy Hill states that they use 11% FO in all of their candles while "most other candles contain 2-5% FO". Fist of all, while I'm sure there are some posts out there regarding using less than 6% the majority of posts I've read indicate that people are using 6-8. Secondly, while I'm new to this I've already learned that the same FO % is not going to work for all wax/scent/container combinations and more is not necessarily better.
  6. I wasn't miserable with the HT from Premiers but I rewicked with LX and there is a considerable improvement. Maybe a little too much with this red hot Cinnamon.
  7. Understanding that various scent and container combinations will have different wicking requirements do you find that a particular series of wicks seems to work more often than the other series in 6006 wax?
  8. I did a similar test with various CD's and LX's. My results were similar to yours. Particularly interesting to me is the LX's. The diameter of your 16 was smaller than your 14. My results were similar except my 18 had a smaller diameter than my 16, with the 18 having a melt pool roughly the depth of a swimming pool.
  9. FC's Pina Colada is nice but it's also not a true coconut scent. I'll check out FB's cinnamon and give them a whirl. Thanks!
  10. Does anyone out there know of a supplier with a good plain coconut scent? IA good Cinnamon? I'm playing with FCs red got Cinnamon and while it's ok I'm just not sure it's what I'm looking for. Of course, I tried searching and I'm sure you can guess what type of posts turned up with a search for "coconut". Also not sure if this is the proper place to post this but my wife will tell you I'm not very good with directions.
  11. I'm burning Flaming Candles Pina Colada (6%), which is a pretty mellow scent. It's sitting in the middles of a room that's about 250 ft2. It fills that room and about 15 feet down the hallway that leads to it. I don't have enough experience to know whether that's good or bad. :). But it smells good
  12. I've had some of these issues myself and am experimenting with different ways to slow the cooling process. I've played around with preheating my jars on a pan in the oven at 150F, opening the oven door, pouring the candles then turning the oven off and letting them cool as the oven cools. Have also taken the candles and put them in a large pot of hot water and let them cool as the water cooled. Both scenarios worked well but poses the question how long is too long? As an aside, my wife and I went to Cracker barrel this morning and instead of just looking at candles I actually saw candles. The first three are $25-35 Yankee Candles and Wood Wick (who I believe is owned by Yankee Candle). Wife and I then went to an antique and craft store that's set up kind of like an indoor flea market with a variety of different vendors so I could check out the local competition. The last three are some of their candles. These are nowhere near the worst that I saw but I have discovered that a 6'1 250 pound guy walking around taking pictures of candles draws some funny looks. I've already realized that there is no such thing as perfection but am I wrong to be less than impressed with these candles? I've spent 30 years in quality control so I'm generally pretty critical of flaws In this case am I expecting too much? Is this the norm for retail candles?
  13. Hey Forrest, have you done any testing of premium wicks with 6006? I've got a WI 750 in a 2.6 " jar and so far it's beautiful. Steady flame, no smoke, no mushrooming. Plan on continuing testing until the candle is dead. If it works out I'll upload some pics.
  14. I bought both the single and the multi wick setter. I just pulled them out again and the single isn't all that bad wiggle wise but the multi is terrible. Of course, it doesn't matter since they don't fit any of my containers. Going to get in touch with Candle Science and see if they have an alternate way to contact the manufacturer. I sent an email to the address that was on the insert but it bounced.
  15. Yeah. The wick setter was a waste of money. I have one containerthat it does fit but there's so much wiggle to the shaft that I could probably set it 1/2 in from center in any direction.
  16. I'm right there with you on the reset. When I started this I thought all you did to make a candle was grab some wax and scent, mix it together, pour it in a jar with a wick and presto. When I realized that wasn't the case I found this board and learned about the testing process, which I jumped into with both feet without ever putting together any kind if plan. Pretty sad for a guy that's been in quality control for 30 years On the subject of wick testing:. I've learned just how important it can be for the wick to be straight from the bottom to the top. The top is easy enough but how do you guys manage to center the bottom? I have one of those wick setters but they don't fit my containers. The company that makes then says they will size them if you ship them the device almond with one of your containers. That'd great and all but so far I haven't been able to get an email to go through. So, about that center on the bottom thing. How do you guys do it?
  17. Yeah, I knew I couldn't put a lot of faith coming straight out of the bottle. I put together a candle at 7% using 464 and while really strong the scent was just as bad as sniffing the bottle. I've got another that I'll wait another couple of weeks on and see what happens. I've been really happy with the other scents I've got from FC. This one had all 5 star ratings so I'm sure it either just needs to cure for quite awhile or something happened to this batch/bottle. I'm going to get in touch with FC and get some direction from them.
  18. Google and I didn't sleep much last night and I eventually found a 16 oz Mason jar with handle that is "perfect for candle making". Jar and lid 1.50 each delivered to my door. I can live with that
  19. *Stares impatiently in his closet*
  20. Back to the subject of containers. My wife and I go to quite a few farmer's markets and the like and without fail I end up seeing someone selling candles in one of those mason jar mugs. You know the ones-looks like a canning jar but has a handle on the side. Regular canning jars don't give me a lot of concern because they are designed for high heat while under pressure. Looking around the web there are many places that sell the mason jar mugs but, other than one site that said their jars were not suitable for canning, I haven't seen any information on temperature limitations or their suitability for use as a candle vessel. "Dishwasher safe" is the best information I've ran across. Any of you guys using these things? Without manufacturer information what would it take for you to be comfortable using them from a safety perspective? I grabbed a couple of empty jars to test. They are fairly thick-as thick as a normal mason jar-and seem to burn with no issues yet I'm still a bit cautious.
  21. How long after doing the wickectomy do you wait to start the burn on the new wick?
  22. I'm just starting down this treacherous path so I'm just drinking my FO, not mainlining it. If you had to pick one FO supplier which would it be based on variety of scents and quality of fragrances? I've ordered from CS and Flaming Candle so far. Just wondering if there's maybe a quality supplier out there that isn't one of the top 5 on Google.
  23. I'll report back here with full results in a couple of weeks when I do a burn but my first instinct out of the bottle is UGGGGH In the meantime, has anyone else used Pumpkin Souffle from Flaming Candle? Can I look forward to something better when I burn the candle?
  24. Hmmm. I thought for sure there was a way to edit my post but can't seem to find it. Anyway, ignore my question-unless I'm wrong-read a few more pages into my search and seems that somewhere around 2 weeks is about right.
  25. I've done some searching but never really came up with any sort of consensus. As this thread is about cure times I figured this was as good a place as any. What do you guys recommend as a minimum cure time for wick testing? I know that can vary based on wax time so I'll narrow it down to 464 and 6006. Thanks!
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