calan

And yet, I'm still wondering what the purpose of this post was.

Kinda like logging in to a high-performance 'vette forum for the first time and saying "I prefer a Prius". 

1 hour ago, barbaranj said:

Actually, many food item containers ( cottage cheese, spreadable butter, etc.) have the number 5 recycle code.  Just check. 

Cool! Just found an almost empty Country Crock butter bin in the frig that now has a new lease on life.  lol

1 hour ago, barbaranj said:

You can use any glass container too.  Just be sure it has a lid. 

Ya. That would be my first choice, but I don't have any big jars to toss melts in while I work on packaging. And the candle jars cost enough on their own. 

I'mma gonna be looking for little numbers on the bottoms of the cheapo Glad plastic section at wally world the next time grocery shopping day rolls around. 

Well it figures. Mine have "Made in China" and a "2".  

16 minutes ago, barbaranj said:

You can also safely use any plastic container with the number 5 on the bottom. 

I can honestly say that in 40 years or so, I've never noticed a number on the bottom of my plastic containers.   

Care to expand on that? Are you talking about the typical semi-disposable Glad bowls and stuff at Walmart?

So...  I just need to spend $10/ounce for FO's and this candle-making-why-the-hell-won't-it-throw migraine will go away?

First post in a hand-crafted candle forum is "I prefer fake candles"?

I think the autobots have stepped up their game. 

Assuming you don't package them immediately (which I assume a lot of you pros do  )... what is the best way to store melts? I figured out very quickly that ziplock bags aren't the best.

Are there some inexpensive cello bags or something else that will not leach fragrance if I need to store them a while after pouring a bunch? 

11 minutes ago, bfroberts said:

How long has it cured?  If it’s freshly poured, put it on the shelf and revisit in a week.  

About 3 days before I started burning it. (4636)

I may just dump the candles and make melts and cute tarts. I'm sure I can get a few candles that I'm happy with eventually, but hell...  I'm getting old. 

7 hours ago, TallTayl said:

it’s not the worst idea to have sample packs of many different wick series on hand. Just recently I had to resort to a series I NEVER use for several problematic fragrances. It was a Hail Mary pass that thankfully hit the target.

I have sample packs of just about everything, except CSN's and the paper core (the one's numbered like zincs).

I have one candle right now that just won't wick at all. It's "Dicken's Christmas" from LS, same 6% in 4636, 9 oz jar. I started with zinc 51 which at least usually burns decent in that combo, but it wasn't even close. Then went to a zinc 60 (largest I have), and swicthed to LX. Went from 18 through 24, and am now trying a premier 760. All I get are diminishing flames and carbon balls, incomplete MP, and zero scent. If this doesn't do it, I may try a soy wick (CD or ECO) ... otherwise I'm done with that FO. 

I'm getting nice burns with the LX-16/18 or Zinc 51's in these 9 oz jars now with some other FO's...just not much scent. May just be my nose though, so as long as the burn is correct I'm making progress I guess.

EDIT:  I may throw a Hemp-1400 in it just for giggles. 

42 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

if The candle wax smells when the wax is heated like in a melter or with a heat gun then the problem points  to wick.
 

I would wick down and see if that improves things.

That was my first thought also. But wicking down causes a small flame, and a partial MP at even the 3rd or 4th burn.

It seems to only happen with certain FO's (and I'm only using 4636 now, although I have some leftover PB600 testers that I'm still burning just for points of reference)... but I notice it fairly often. Hit the top with a heat gun to either level it, or after changing wicks, and it throws like crazy. But as soon as I light the wick...nothing. At all.

I thought maybe I was too hot and burning off the FO, rather than letting it evaporate from the MP, but changing wicks and even wick series doesn't seem to make any difference.

I'm also wondering if I'm just not getting the FO and wax mixed properly, although I have no idea how that could be. I use a low speed mini-blender while adding the FO and dye at 175-180, making sure not to get any air mixed in, and then stir with a flat spoon for at least two minutes until the wax has cooled down to around 150, and then I immediately pour into heated jars. I sometimes can see an oil film on top as they cool...not sure if that is normal or not. This is all at 6%.

Just another mystery to solve. 

IGI 4636 (from LS) in 9 oz straight jar, 6% FO, 3 drops of candlewic liquid dye, both LX and zinc wicks.

Almost a full MP (1/4" deep) at around 170 degrees F and a nice burn after 2-3 hours, but literally zero hot throw. But, when hitting the top with a heat gun until the wax just starts to melt, or right after extinguishing the flame, the HT is excellent.

I've actually noticed this on a few different wax and FO combinations, but can't seem to find a common denominator.

5 hours ago, Hopie said:

So now, I'm testing this 9 oz status jar with the Problend 600 wax using an Eco 4 wick. We shall see! I love the look of this wax, but darned if I can find the proper wick for it. 

I loved the way it poured and the look of it, but just couldn't get any consistency out of it.

Using the 9 oz straight sided jars and 7% to 8%, I had two FO's that just flat wouldn't work at all in it, with any wick type or size. (NG's Fireplace, and FC's Apple Cinnamon). Barely any hot or cold throw at all, and could never get the burn where I wanted it either. That was with a 2 week cure.

With FC's Woodland Foliage (basically pine) and Coffee House FO's, the throw was actually pretty good...but wicking it took forever. Eco-4's were too cold, Eco-6's were too hot. CD's were a sooty mess. Premiers were ok (something around a 750 or 755), but they weren't consistent. 

The best wick I found by far was an LX-16 or 18. Both worked about the same, and surprisingly had almost identical burn rates and melt pool temps. In fact in my tests with this setup, the LX-16 and LX-18 were for all practical purposes completely interchangeable (except the 18 had slightly better HT... which I don't understand since the MP temp and burn rate were the same as the 16)

I finally got tired of fighting it, and am now moving on to IGI 4636. I'll probably just use up the rest of my PB600 in some old jars for candles around the house.

On a semi-related note, the PB650 actually works pretty nicely for melts, with every FO I tried (about 10 of them). But I'm also going away from it and on to a pillar parafin, to simplify and cut down on shipping costs.

Good luck. If you stumble onto something, please post back!

4 hours ago, Sarah S said:

 

This is probably more opinion than you were looking for...

Never!  

Yeah, I'm not in a hurry on the palm wax. I'll just play with it a little while pouring a few parafin candles that I know will work. I've been reading everything I can find, and am making progress on the other waxes (settled on some 4636) once I admitted it was the FO and found a few issues with my temperature measurement. I'm just tweaking my process to minimize any wet spots and cave-ins around the wick.

I have a spreadsheet and custom program I wrote to collect and analyze data from all the burn tests with different waxes and wicks over the last 3 months or so, and it's helping a lot. I'm an engineer, so things have to be methodical, make sense, and have a reason for happening...or at least appear to.  LOL

On 3/20/2019 at 11:33 AM, Paintguru said:

Well I think I've landed on CD 20 as my baseline for the 9 oz straight sided jar.  Now I need to run it through my fragrances to see if that shifts things.  

 

I do like the wax thus far; at least how it burns and looks.  

Did you stay with the CD 20? I have the same jar and some glass glow, and am reading and trying to figure out which wick to start with. I have premiers, CD's and Ecos (and a few others)

... in a straight-sided 9 oz jar (2-5/8" inside dia) with a drop or two of color. I have CD's, Premier, Zinc, LX, ECO's, and some Hemp 1400's to choose from.

and, 3% FO right?

Just thought I would post an update.

I tried FC's Woodland Foliage (basically a Pine scent) at 8% in the PB600, straight-sided 9oz jar, with an LX-18 wick...and it works beautifully. (Maybe a little warm at halfway, so trying an LX-16). But the scent throw is really good for a parasoy that cured for just 3 or 4 days. And the Coffee House is still fantastic in anything.

I did find that I may have not been as hot as I thought when adding FO, but after resolving that I'm still going to chalk it up mostly to the Apple Cinnamon I was testing with. It just has zero hot or cold throw, in anythng. And unfortunately, the FIreplace FO isn't much better.

@bfroberts - Thanks for suggesting that I try the zinc wicks again. The 51-32-18 worked really well in a couple of 9 oz test candles I poured with the remaining 4630, using Coffee House and and Dragon's Blood. Apple Cinnamon was still a complete dud though.

16 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I tend to use a basic principle or two from economics: availability, and availability of substitutes.
 

4630 seems the most widely available, and has a decent track record. Lots of info about wicks that work with it. If I were looking to start and not wanting to blaze my own trails with wick an FO testing from scratch, I’d probably go with 4630. 

I pretty much flipped a coin and went with 10 lbs of 4636 to try.

Analysis paralysis. 

A week later and I still can't decide.  lol

Ughhhhh

11 hours ago, LivInTX said:

Got an email from Lonestar. Not as good as I hoped.

https://www.lonestarcandlesupply.com/2019-black-friday-sale-info

 

Yeah. I was hoping for something better, but I'll take what I can get. 

Have about $150 sitting in my cart, but waiting to pull the trigger while I'm paralyzed over which 46xx wax to buy. 

Trying to decide if I want to buy more 4630 on the black friday sales, or if I should try one of the other ones.

Do any of the major candle suppliers (specifically Lonestar) typically have Black Friday sales?

Yeah... I've read tons on them on the supplier sites. Just looking for some more specific info from old-timers that have experience with them and can help with the finer points. I've been testing the 4630 and it's not bad (once I worked through some issues this weekend), but just trying to decide if one of it's cousins would be a better fit. They all seem extremely similar.

I've gone back and forth on picking up some 4627 to test for a month or two. I just don't think I would like the consistency and mess. I think 4630 is about as gooey as I want to go. 

11 minutes ago, calan said:

Thanks for the info. But, now you've got me wanting to try yet another wax. 
 

Scratch that. Shipping is $23 for $19 of wax to test.