coconut

I also have the Harbor Freight gun, since Christmas. Use it every weekend. Works fine-never dropped it though.

Thanks for sharing-I will have to try some Candle Science wicks. I buy my wax from them too and very happy with their service so far.

I have also received cracked and bent wicks from a number of suppliers and I am debating tabbing my own so I can get nice straight wicks. Does anyone feel these damaged wicks affect the quality of the burn as well? I find they tend to tilt over in a good melt pool in a small jar. :undecided

Thanks-I thought so too. Must say, my peeps all love Peak's and say they smell as good or better than anything they have ever bought!

Just curious-when you get a same-name FO from a different supplier, do you have to test all over again? I love Peak's Black Raspberry Vanilla but can't get it to wick right. Would this scent be different from another supplier? Any thoughts? Thanks.

Candleman, your trimmers look great. Do they have any effect in preventing or limiting the size of the mushroom?

On a postal scale- 4 oz. bottle with cap, .7 oz, without cap .6. That's as precise as I can get with my scale.

Wow, that's exciting! I will try it. I really don't want to give up on this wax because it throws so well, looks great, and it is easy to work with (except wicking heavy FO.) Thank you very much for your reply! :highfive:

Hi y'all. I have searched this forum endlessly and tested to my wit's end and I would love your opinions/thoughts. I love this wax-great color, great throw. On the light scents (Rose, Jasmine), no problem. But I can't wick the heavy scents-Black Raspberry Vanilla, Amish Harvest, Clove, Blackberry Sage. The odd thing is, I get good melt pool, great throw, good initial flame, but after an hour or two, the flame gets teeny tiny. If I wick up a lot I get too much flame, otherwise tiny. No medium flame, ever. I have tried wicking up, wicking down, and every wick I can readily get my hands on except Eco. I have tried HTP, CD, RRD, LX, Peak's cotton, and A&P cotton. (Can't use Zinc, customers don't like it). Has anyone tried ECO or paper core wicks with this wax? Am I forced to cut down on the FO to .5 oz per pound? Are these scents effective at this load? I use IGI Harmony Blend (4630), Peak's FOs at 1 oz per pound of wax, Peak's liquid dye, and 4 oz. jelly jars (2.5" diameter). Thanks to everyone, all help is appreciated. Julie

I have never wicked a heart this large. I did do the little Reynolds foil heart pans and used a single wick. I was able to get a nice burn with just a little unmelted wax in the tips of the hearts. I traced a round circle inside the heart so it touched the edges and the tip that points down from the top, then bumped the circle up into that tip just a bit. (hard to explain). Don't know if that helps-good luck!

I do not make mini loaf pan candles but for a while I did make candles in the little foil pans from Reynolds. Stars, hears, etc. Be careful. I quit using these because people liked to put them on candle warmers and for some reason they would leak out of the bottom even though I could not find any holes. Perhaps if you make them like pillars they will be ok. As far as lids, I buy these pans to make pot-pies at my local Winn-Dixie and they are sold with plastic lids in the kitchen section. Good luck with your candles!

I use a metal wire strainer and pour the melted wax through it. Sometimes I put cheesecloth (from kitchen department of the supermarket) in the strainer to catch the fine bits. To clean the strainer, all metal ones can go in the oven at 150 degrees Farenheit, on a cookie sheet with a paper towel. Use a junk cookie sheet, not a good one. If the strainer has a plastic handle, you can use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt the wax before you re-use the strainer. I am also testing this wax with Jelly jars and find it is good until near the bottom when the flame is too high. Be sure to test your jars all the way to the end. I have since switched to cotton wicks which don't seem to get so hot in the bottom of the jar. Good Luck!

Looks like you are using Peak's cotton wicks-nice product. I don't know what wax you use and that makes a big difference. I use IGI 4630 paraffin. I find that the RRD wicks burn much hotter than the C series. In my experience, the C30 is close to an LX-8 or HTP 41 and I use them in a 2.25" diameter container. At this size the RRD 27 is a huge flame. Good luck with your testing.

Your plan is a bit ambitious-but if you don't have to work and can stay home and test your candles all day everyday, you may get a few ready in time. If you have a job, I doubt you can get candles tested and ready in time. (I work and if I get the combo right the very first time, it takes a month to test a give scent.) However, this schedule can create added stress because if your candles sell, people will beg you for new scents and you will spend all your time trying to perfect new scents! Start with the jar you plan to stay with because you will have to start testing all over again for each container. Go with small quantities, even though they cost more, at first. 10 lbs. of wax, 1 oz or 2 oz samples, and wick sample packs. Search this forum and you will find many suggestions on combinations and great suppliers. Ask everyone you know what kind of candles they buy, what they like, what they don't like. This helps you figure out what sells in your area. Good luck and sell no candle before its time! :tiptoe:

Great information, and I will keep testing and figure this thing out. Thanks again, topofmurrayhill, I see why you are a supastar! :highfive:

I don't use your wax but I found Peak's Jamaica Me Crazy to be not as strong as their other scents, so I went up to 1.5 oz per pound of wax and I am getting better throw now.

Does anyone consider shipping their candles signature required? Then the package won't be left out in the hot sun. At UPS in the summer, the trucks sit in the sun and often reach well over 100 degrees. The guys used crayons to mark the boxes, and they melted really well on the hot sides of the trucks. I don't know how to keep the candles cool-can they be chilled or frozen and then bubble wrapped? Regarding breakage, I can't speak for the post office but I can tell you how things are at UPS-if a person can't reach the conveyor belt the package goes on, they just throw the package. Then when packages are loaded, the loader builds a "wall" of packages according to size, not weight. A small light package may be required to support a much heavier package so make sure you pack accordingly. A box rated for "200 lbs" under the burst test is your best bet. This information is usually available on the bottom of the box. I buy and sell glass on ebay and if you double-box, the glassware usually arrives intact. Prepare for the worst when shipping and your package usually gets there ok.

I totally agree about the sharp crease at the neck tab. I don't mind tabbing my own and even priming them if need be. I'm not sure if my wicks really need to be primed or not-I am doing small containers with IGI 4630 Harmony Blend. The first ones I made did not have primed wicks and the wicks tended to fall over but these were flat braid wicks. Searching this board, I got the impression that it would be better to be using cored wicks primed with a high-melt wax. I would love to know your thoughts on this-thanks for sharing your knowledge with me. Thanks again to everyone who replied to me on this. Does anyone have any favorite wick for this wax? I have tried HTP but the flame gets too hot at the bottom of the container. RRD does not come small enough. I am using Peak's cottons and these are pretty good, and also LX wicks. My problem is there seems to be a big jump between the C-40 and the C-50, so I thought I would try the A&P cottons. On some of the "heavy" FO's, I get a tiny flame with the C-40 and a huge flame with the C-50, so I am looking for something in-between.

Thanks for the tip and timely reply. I checked out their site and also explored the custom wick builder. If I can find the right wicks for my application, 500 is a reasonable purchase. I don't mind tabbing my own wicks, either. I have read on this site that the time-savings is worth buying the pre-tabbed wicks. The down side is they often arrive bent from being bagged up. Any thoughts on this? Do you know if Candlewic will ship wicks via USPS? Again, many thanks for your help.

I have searched the internet and Candletech for hours but cannot find one supplier that will sell small quantities of small cotton and paper core wicks, much less sample packs. Wicks Unlimited offers them and Wickit sells these wicks-even Atkins & Pearce sells them. I know they all offer sample packs but I am not ready to start buying in the thousands of wicks after testing. I am still small time so I am looking for a supplier that offers packs of a hundred. My problem is that I am looking for all of the smallest sizes of these wicks and most suppliers only offer the larger sizes. Looking for: Cotton=S330T,10-38C,28-24C,32-24C,34-40C,34-40SPC. Paper=10-38P,28-24P,34-40P,34-40P,34-24P,36-24-24P. Thanks for any and all leads.

The Frosted Carrot Cake smells much better in wax than OOB. In fact, it is my husband's favorite. Not my best seller, but not the worst either. It is popular with folks who like bakery scents. I can't compare it to any other as it is the only Carrot Cake I have tried. :smiley2:

Thanks for that info. I will definitely look into that for the future.

I'm not familiar with the deep cycle battery but that sounds better than using a UPS. A UPS is not designed to be used as a frequently recharged power source and if the battery drains to dead, it may be dead for good. I lost two batteries in UPS's that were drained to dead after Hurricane Charley when I could not get back home to turn them off (both had very small loads on them-one a very small fishtank and the other had a DirecTV box on it). These batteries had to be replaced and at that time the battery store told me this happens often. Good luck and I would like to hear more about this credit card machine, although I am not doing shows yet.

Thanks for the reviews! I am testing Peak's Jasmine and debating if I need to go up to 9%. It seemed a little light at 6% which is what I normally use for Peak's oils (using 4630 Harmony blend wax). Now I guess I'll bump it up!

Instructional video? These guys? No, I have to make idiot-proof candles because I know idiots will buy them. I did suspect that it would not be cost-effective to tab my own wicks. Thank you for confirming that. I am going to try different wicks and hope their flame gets smaller rather than larger as it burns down. Today I am testing C-30 and LX-8 (can you believe such small wicks for containers? Must be our oxygen rich enviroment-I am at 10 feet above sea-level.) I love the 4630 wax-great throw, great color, one-pour. But it is sooo hard to wick! Thanks again for your input!