ragnarock47

Yep TDTD, I like the My Weigh brand. I am harldy an expert in scales, but I base that statement on the fact that both of my scales are My Weigh and I love 'em.

Carrie, that scale will weigh in grams, lbs, ounces, and kilograms. Max weight is 15lbs, 7 oz. The stats are listed about half way down the page. That scale looks like it will do what you want it to do...unless you were so sleepy when you posted, I didn't get what you were asking... or maybe I am so sleepy now I didn't get what you are asking

If I was looking at the same one as you, the 3000 something or other that weighed up to 6.6lbs, it had a +/- of 0.1 oz, that'd be great in my book Don't forget to go to his auction site store I also linked to above to get a way better price.

I've bought two scales from this company: http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/ The prices on his web site are a lot higher than the same scales he sells on the auction site. His store their is: http://stores.ebay.com/www-OLDWILLKNOTT-com Excellent customer service and great prices. I got a shipping scale from him many many moons ago, pre candle making, it's a 55lb shipping scale, since I am not selling and still in the testing stage, I got a 550 gram scale from him a few weeks ago. That's about 2 lbs. The reason for getting the "pocket scale" is the accuracy on the 55lb scale is something like +/- 2 oz which is too great when I am measuring less than the accuracy margin for my FO's. Anyhow, I can recommend them highly and they have all kinds of scales.

No problems Wanda I hope someone answers your hijack question Moonshadow, for my first few candles the pool was way to much to soon. But as I made more I got the ratios and ingredients more the way they should be and the MP's are ok as far as I am aware. They do seem to go full diameter sooner than what I have read they should, but the depths are good. I sincerely appreciate you helping me in troubleshooting. Maybe the wicking/testing will be fun once I get a candle that works and have a baseline to go from. Right now it sucks. I know this is the glass is half empty thinking but I alter something to try another test, and have to wait 4-5 days to see it not work. Seeing as I have had no success as of yet, it's just frustrating. I think I will try the 4636 (former J-50). I have had 2 batches of Joy Wax, so I wouldn't think it was a bad batch... it most likely has to be something in my technique.

Hi Jill, WSP has the CD12's listed as 3.5-4" diameter jars. The HTP41's are for 2" diameter I can't answer the cotton core question you had asked.

Mostly I am using 10 oz jelly jars Geek. I do let them cure Fire. All but one cured for at least 4 days. No throw and I'd put them back on the shelf and fire them back up in a few days after that. I am not sure is the Joy Wax is more veggie or paraffin. NG says they don't know the ratio of the blend as their supplier doesn't let them know. Of course the big reason I am gonna bail on the Joy Wax is because I can't get it to work. The other reason is because I think they should let people know what the blend ratio is. So now I am trying to figure out which wax to go with. I am thinking to go with an commonly available wax, not a proprietary blend from one supplier.... like NG's Joy Wax, or the numerous offerings from other suppliers. I am thinking just going with an IGI.

I've made a whole lot of candles and cannot get a good hot throw. I've been using NG's Joy Wax and have tried: - Various FO amounts from 6-10% - Different wicks: mostly zinc in 44, 51, 61, I tried CD and HTP - Different pour temps, different add FO temps - I used the same container for most all of them They all have great cold throw. The only somewhat, but less than good hot throws were NG's Cinnamon Bun and a pine blend from either WSP or NG. I also tried some of JS's 123 and one of their blends, which I am not sure as Becky was cool enough to throw the samples in when I placed an FO order. I only made one container of each so I can't really make an evaluation cuz I didn't really test them, but thr throws on those aren't good either. I am pretty frustrated.

Fredron, Have you tried this yet? I am looking for a new wax to go with. Thanks

The Infra-red thermometers are great. They have tons of uses.. of course only for temperature . Just as in anything else, there are many makers of these and some are good, some are not. Check the error +/- a lot of the ones I've seen are +/- 4 degrees and for candle making, I think that may be a bit to much.

From my knowledge, search engine submission sites are for the most part passe'. They did serve a purpose in the 20th century, but the bazillions of search engines have either been bought out or just stopped. Now, the majority of the most used search engines use web crawler/robots to index web sites. The most used are of course Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, and AOL's engines. Most of the less used engines such as About, Askjeeves, etc. will find your site either by being affiliated with one of the bigger ones, or straight up returning the bigger ones results, or by seeing your site listed on another engine. The keys to getting results with higher listings (page 1 instead of page 23) has to do with not only your meta tags (these are not used by some web crawlers), but also how many times your meta-tag keywords are in the web page. For instance, if one of your keywords is "votives" and you have votives 15 times on your web page, good. If you only have it once, that is not as good. This is why sometime when you go to a web site, you may see a bunch of keywords at the top and bottom of the page, sometimes listed a whole bunch of times. Some web crawlers ignore pages that have this type of "search engine spam". Another way to get higher rankings for your page is to have your link as many places as you can on the net. Then when the web crawlers go to those sites, they will follow the link to your page. This may be where using a search engine submission site will help. The smaller engines will get your site, then the bigger engines will see that when they "crawl" the net. And then, to get high listings on some engines, if you give them $$$ = higher ranking, such as Google Adwords

My apologies for the hijack Bill... I was looking at heat guns and the ones I saw were all really high temps, like 650F max. Most had 2 or 3 temp settings. Are these the guns you all are using? 650F seems pretty high, even mid 200's and up. When you fix tops with the gun, how far do you hold the gun from the container?

Hi SS, I use http://www.startlogic.com/ . Their tech support is awesome including a 24/7 phone #, not just e-mail tech support. They do have web page builder, two types of shoppng carts: Agora and osCommerce. They also have a Paypal Cart plug in. They are priced great also. I pay $50/yr and that includeds dealing with the URL. If oyu already have your URL/domain name, you may be able to get hooked up for less.

I have no idea Lori. I was just looking for info about the Pryme dyes and saw people were looking for dropper bottles and it occurred to me to check out this place for those folks, I had a hunch they'd have them.

I forgot to mention that the people looking for these were using the EVO liquid dyes.

I was searching the forums for info on Pryme dyes and saw in quite a few of the search results that people are looking for dropper bottles. I was dating a women a few years back near a place called American Science Surplus. I went to their web site and they have 10 glass dropper bottles for $3.95: http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm?category=80 They also have some cool jelly jars on the 3rd page of glass containers.

I've had a few problems with Paypal although they were minor. One was an auction site where the seller was not living up to their end of the transaction and I had payed via Paypal. Paypal was of no help until the third month of trying to get it rectified. The other problem was that my organization took up a collection for one of our compadre's that fell upon rough times. We collected something like $3500 for him and he had forgotten his PP password. He had sent them dozems of faxes with personal info, emails, etc to verify himself per their requests. Dave had to wait almost 60 days. Another thing I suggest is to not leave a large balance in your PP account. If anything should go wrong, and they decide to freeze your account, it's frozen. I've never kept more than a $250 balance in either of my PP accounts. Between my personal account and my organizations account, I have had over 700 verified transactions. A few notes on PP: I would NEVER EVER give them account info on a bank account other than opening a SEPERATE account JUST for PP, not your entire business, just as sweetcam suggested. Use the debit card for that account to add to your PP accout. This is based on the many things I am aware of due to P and them being kinda iffy at times. It is also due to the security of my finances. No one gets into any of my accounts... my employer can put money in, but no one takes money out automatically. I guess what I am trying to babble on about is open a seperate account for PP to insulate the rest of your financials. As for which account to get with PP, what it comes down to is how much money you can deal with as well as the fees if I am not mistaken. A premier account would be the way to go if you use it for business. Dallas, yes, when you pay using PP, it will come from the bank account linked to your PP account automatically. You do not need to do anything other than the checkout with PP process. Some more about the phishing e-mails; In e-mails from PP, they will ALWAYS use your real name in the first line. Even then, just go to PP's site manuallly, without clicking on the link in the e-mail. They'll let you know if anything needs attention. Going to a place manually, based on an e-mail also should go for the auction site, banks, credit card companies that appear to send you an e-mail. PP is a great place, in running a business, you have to accept credit cards. Beyond that, many people like the ease of PP. The fees are close to what getting a credit card set up via a bank or other type of business that does CC processing. If I were to run an internet based business, PP would be the answer for my CC needs until a certain point of growth. Just be careful and minimize the risks of PP and everything will be fine.

What's your work area? Is all your stuff laid out like a shop, or is it used and then stored until the next time? Are you a hobbyist, business person, or both? Garage, basement, kitchen, etc.?

I did find the base you asked about has cocamide DEA, which may cause issue if the pooches have sensitive skin. Most all the shampoo bases I looked at have either that or a laurethyl (or something along those lines) DEA, which also have issues with doggies with sensitive skin. I think any DEA will be a problem, but the cocamide isn't too bad, it's naturaly derived from the coconut. I think I may give it a shot!!!! My pooch is a bully, old, but a definite Bubba attitude.... which EO should I get??? No fru-fru smell for my dog...LOL. Actually, it's more appropriate to say I am her human than referring to her as "my dog" . (Edit to add) You can also add EO's or other things like aloe to prevent drying of the skin. Also keep in mind that the vet who said you should only wash your pooch once a month may have been referring to the chemical laden crap you buy at the pet or drug store.

Excellent question!!! I was curious as well, so I did some Googling. Millcreek's base is a coconut base and there was nothing they listed in their ingredients that appear to me, to be bad or harsh.

Very cool, thanks for the replies. I made 3 candles yesterday with a larger wick than I have been using. We'll let them sit and then test burn them and see how they throw. If all goes well, I'll rewick the ones who don't hot throw.

Hi TIA I am a newbie as well. I do not know from experience if oyu can use EO's in soy, but in my romping around and reading over the last few weeks, I did read some stuff: Essential oils (commonly referred to as EO's) are all natural oils derived from plants and flowers and are not artificially composed like fragrance oils. They are sometimes more concentrated and stronger than many fragrance oils, and in other cases they may not be as strong as their synthetic counterparts. Most EO's are also much more expensive than FO's. There are many differing opinions as to whether EO's can be used in candles due to their ability to bind with the wax. Some candlemakers have success with them, but many have said they do not blend and burn well. I do know that they work well in soy wax though. Howard

As a buyer and not a seller, just some thoughts on choosing a place to buy stuff on the web: I will not buy from a web site unless I can see what my shipping will be before I enter any personal info other than my zip code. On some shopping carts you can either enter your zip and it tallies shipping as you fill your cart. Others let you enter your zip when you are done adding items and hit "checkout" to get the charges, then you enter your personal info. So for me, a disclosed flat rate or the above, are an absolute for me to place an order via the web unless I cannot get the item/s elsewhere. Then, if there is no phone number for me to call to find out shipping, I will then decide to go without or not. Over the years of me being on the internet, and way too many unanswered e-mails, I usually won't hold my breath waiting for a reply. I know most web retailers do answer their e-mails timely, but some don't and I am not gonna waste my time. Just my perspective, I hope it helps you in your decision

I am thinking I know the answer to this, but here goes my question... and please remember, I may be stoopid, I don't look stoopid I want to go up a wick size, is it possible to warm the containers up to liquify the wax without messing up the FO then repour?

I am using NG's Joy Wax Carole: http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/candlemaking-soap-supplies/item/JW-2