racolvin

This sort of thing isn't needed in my usual line of work (candles), but I've had some requests to make scented lamp oil. I figure you B&B folks use lots more chemicals so you might know of a good supplier for this stuff. Any suggestions/recommendations appreciated Ronnie

Yea, my only goal is to eliminate frosting. Other than that I love the 464 Oh and before anyone suggests it, I tried using coconut oil in 464 and it never got rid of frosting to any appreciable degree

This is a question for those that either use a parasoy blend or that make their own. I'm considering adding in some paraffin to my colored GW464 candles strictly to get rid of frosting once and for all. Unfortunately I can't completely control my environment in my workshop area so frosting can still be an issue with my candles under certain circumstances and it really makes me crazy. If anyone else has blended GW464 with paraffin and is willing to share any "gotchas", I would appreciate it. I be particularly interested in any tips on the absolute minimal amount of paraffin I can use to accomplish my goal. Don't wanna use a 70/30 ratio if a 90/10 would work Thanks in advance! Ronnie

2nd pour results: I tried a 2nd time with the GW474 wax but I poured a bit cooler and the results were better. This time the sides stayed nice and smooth but the tops weren't great. However, that's not the fault of the mold 474 doesn't normally like to be poured cool so I'm not entirely surprised that the tops didn't come out great. Gonna remelt these and give it another try to zero in on a good pour temp. Hopefully that's all that difference needed.

I received this same 16-cavity mold today and tried it out with soy wax (GB474) and so far the results aren't great. First of all, the black material makes it next to impossible to judge the pour height inside the cavity, so you either pour short or you end up overpouring just a bit - either way its annoying. Second, the soy votive wax is brittle by nature anyway and the process for removing them from the cavity (pushing from the bottom) puts stress on the votive because the rubber material is being stretched away from the votive. Basically what happens is the top layer of wax (usually the smooth skin) is removed and left behind on the walls of the cavity - not an attractive look. This is of course messy as well. So far I can't say I recommend it for soy votives. I"m going to try again tho, pouring at a cooler temperature and see if it makes a difference.

I took a pair of pliers to one side of mine to flatten it out to hang my thermometer on

I use these pots (though I didn't get them from Sam's) and they work just dandy. They're just straight aluminum and I've never had any sort of "fragrance retention" issues with them

I'm not sure how their cart works in that respect. I'm sure there's got to be a way to hand off the gross product weight for each item number so that the UPS bit can figure it out from there. It should take the gross weight for an individual item, multiple that times the quantity of the item ordered and then be able to calculate the shipping cost from that number. I wish I could give you more specifics but my website does things a bit differently. I calculate the the weights and shipping costs before I ever hand off the numbers to the PayPal system, since I don't use their shopping cart function.

for candles you're absolutely better off to figure by weight than by dollar amount IMHO. Wax and glass weigh plenty and you'll end up eating the costs more often if you keep doing it by total of the order.

I put spigots in two presto pots and loved them. For me, ladles were messy (drips) and tipping the thing on its side to get the wax out was just an accident waiting to happen.

100% soy or a parasoy blend?

lol ..yea, I still haven't heard back from them yet myself

Ok Satin ... doggone it, every time I read your name here I start hearing the old Kermit the Frog version of "Rubber Ducky" playing in my head ... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I used Logoworks (www.logoworks.com) for my website, logo, and label design. Not the cheapest in the world I admit but I was quite happy with their work.

You're welcome to ride with me if you like but I'll be driving up early Sat. morning, rather than stay overnite.

Registered for this today It's an easy drive for me so I'll probably just come up on Saturday morning, though I hate that I'll miss the dinner gathering the night before. See you there!

Ooooh, I may have to make that. It's just a short drive north of me

Paraffin isn't any cheaper on a per ounce basis .. might as well stick with what you like

I fill my jars to a point where I like them. My 8oz apothecary will actually hold 10oz if I keep pouring up into the neck space but when I do my batch calculations, I figure those jars at 9oz. My label still says 8oz but that's just me being lazy My pricing is done purely based on what the market will bear compared to my costs. I don't try to do any "cost per ounce" sort of calculation at all. I price my 16oz apothecary jars at $18.99, exactly $1.00 less than a comparable 14.4oz jar from Yankee. My 8oz jars go for $12.99 and my little 3.5oz tureens go for $5.99. If I tried to do some sort of 4x of costs, the 8oz ones would be disproportionately expensive and wouldn't sell.

I dunno if "wrong" is a good word to use in a case like this Personally, when you start getting into measurements into the hundreths of an ounce it's getting a bit too OCD for me Generally I add 1oz of FO to 16oz of wax (all by weight) and call it a day. I've only had a few candles be "weak" and those were usually with FO's that are light to begin with, so I'll up those to 1.5oz per 16oz of wax. Yes that means my 16oz apothecary jar actually ends up with 17oz total weight of product but that's ok by me Not sure if that helps much but all I can recommend is to try to keep things as simple as possible.

As far as I know, it isn't the soy that's the problem - it's the FO. I've had that happen to a few FO's in the past and it was really gross. But it's happened in paraffin as well, so that's why I don't think it's really connected to the soy. Only thing you can do about it is not use those FO's. That's why its important to test and know before you sell it to someone

hmmm ... 4" diameter, 5.25" height ... doesn't say the diameter of the actual opening If I were to try it with my usual wax (GW464), I'd start with double wicking LX-20's and work from there. Do I win?

Helen: I use an apothecary jar that is 4 inches in diameter through the body but the opening is probably 3.75. Does this sound like yours? I do double wick mine but I use LX-20's to do it. If you'll PM me with your email address, I'll send you a copy of a wicking template I use. It's sort of a target/crosshairs that you set the empty jar on and it's got markings every quarter of an inch. I place my wicks about 1.5 inches apart along the crosshairs and everything works out dandy.

Mushrooming is just a part of life in the scented candle world. I've just come to accept it. You can control it a little bit by varying the wick in a specific recipe, but there is always the possibility that it'll happen. I gave up trying to be so OCD about mushroom - it wasn't worth the grey hairs in my beard Flickering is hard to control only because sometimes its caused by the airflow in someone else's burning environment. It might not flicker when I have it here, in a burn box that has no cross-currents but out in the open on a coffee table, there's no way to know. Another one of those things that I've just learned to accept and move on Oddly enough, customers aren't nearly as picky as we are as candlemakers, as evidenced by some of the horrible candles that people keep buying from places like Wal-Mart that burn horribly, produce gawd-awful amounts of soot, etc - but they keep buying them.

The Problem: Lately there have been a few discussions here and other places about the rising price of soy wax that we use in our candles. This of course is tied to the rising prices of soy beans from the farm, since there are now more competing market forces vying for those same soy beans. There's lots of articles and links around for those, so I won't list them here. At first I was shocked myself, to see the drastic rise in prices but then I decided to do something different: I broke out my calculator and my web browser The Numbers: Now I should say that my numbers are based purely on one sample distributor: Alabaster. Why? Because that's who I use and that's all that matters to me personally Feel free to go to your own suppliers website and do this same exercise... J50 paraffin container wax now comes in a 65lb box. 65lbs is 1,040 ounces. Alabaster is currently charging $81 for this box, which breaks down to $0.078 per ounce of wax. This price does not include shipping of course, since those will vary widely depending on the destination. GW464 soy container wax comes in a 50lb box. 50lbs is 800 ounces. Alabaster currently charges $61 for this box, which breaks down to $0.077 per ounce of wax. Same shipping disclaimer as above. For comparison purposes, prior to their most recent price change, I was paying $0.06 per ounce for that same GW464 wax. This latest round of price increases would mean that my 16oz candle will now cost me $0.24 more to make - hardly a significant enough price increase to warrant a general panic in itself. It does however put my price into general parity with other candlemakers who use the J50 or other paraffin products. So in that sense, we're now all in the same boat, cost wise. Does this affect you? Of course your particular wax may have some other price variances, so check with your suppliers and do the math. Those of you who, like me, are fortunate enough to be close enough to your supplier to pick up your order and save yourself the shipping costs clearly have a pricing advantage over those who must have all their supplies - FO, glass, wax, etc - shipped to them. Sadly there is no help for this, it's just your cost of doing business. This wax price increase coupled with the shipping costs for that same wax might very well be significant enough to force you into some serious business questions. While I admit that this sample is statistically insignificant, I would be willing to bet that the soy price per ounce vs. the paraffin price per ounce on similar purpose waxes from other suppliers is pretty close to this mark. What can be done? Not much I'm afraid If you feel the prices will continue to rise and you have the spare funds, I would say "stock up" at the cheaper price. If you have a supplier remotely close to you but you've had your supplies shipped anyway because "it's just too far to drive", reconsider. My supplier is more than 100 miles from me and it costs me $40 in gas to make the round trip in my truck. However, when I'm buying 20 cases of glass (with glass lids), 250lbs of wax, and another 10+lbs of FO, I'm saving a TON in shipping charges. It may be out of your way but taking a half day and making a round trip in a truck could save you a couple of hundred bucks. Good night and good luck