jinker

Gotcha! Thanks, Stella!

Ahhh, gotcha...yeah, I was talking about the bottom, or underside, of the wick tab. Didn't think about other holes. Thanks!

Hi, I know that many use silicone adhesive to attach wick tabs to the bottoms of jars. It looks like folks usually use wick stickums or glue dots when using testers and the silicone for the finished product. Can you put the silicone on the bottoms of the wick tabs just to "seal" it, so to speak? For example, for a tester, you could put the silicone on the wick tab, let it harden, then use your regular wick stickum to attach the wick to the jar? Of course it won't necessarily prevent the wick from "wandering," but would it prevent hot wax from being sucked up into the wick and not self-extinguising? This might especially good for votive wick tabs, which folks don't generally use any adhesive with at all. Or is this just a plain stoopit idea? Don't hesitate to let me know if it is....:rolleyes2 -Jinker

Thanks, Stella, this helps a lot. I just looked at my LX wick assemblies...they're 6mm, from Candlescience. I have other wicks from Lonestar and they have taller necks. I think I will get the LXs from there next time. I don't mind if there's extra wax left at the bottom!! Thanks a bunch!

Hi, I've been searching the forum this morning but not found anything which addresses this. . . I've been making and testing container candles and votives. From my research I've learned that wick tabs need to be secured to the bottom of the jars for container candles for safety reasons (so that the wick tab will not come loose and float to the side of the jar when the wax starts liquefying at the bottom of the jar; so that wax will not be "wicked up" from the bottom of the wick, negating the self-extinguishing feature of the wick tab). But, what about votives? I have noticed that when my votives are getting down to the bottom of the votive holder, the wick tab has the potential to float around down there. I've been watching it carefully to make sure it stays centered, but should I be securing my votive wick tabs to the bottom of the votive holder in some way as I do with container candles? Does anyone do this? Or, should a properly made and wicked votive stay solid at the very bottom and never become liquid at all? From what I've read so far I don't think this is the case, but I'd like to be sure. (Just for information's sake, I made standard 2oz votives using IGI 4794 and Candlescience Lavender. Two of them with LX 10 wicks burned 13-14 hours in nice snug votive holders before I got nervous about the floating wick tab and put them out). Thanks everybody. I've learned so much on this board so far. :smiley2: Jinker

I got the 9% fragrance load figure from a supplier of the wax. Thanks for the tip about getting the handling sheet. I've been reading a lot on the forum and elsewhere, so I know I'm going to have to experiment quite a bit. I'm still working through all the various factors. I didn't realize that craters and such affected the fragrance-- I thought that was more of a cosmetic thing. Thanks!

Hi, I am new at this, so forgive me if this is obvious...I did poke around the forum and didn't see this exact issue addressed. I wasn't happy with the scent throw on the very first candle I made. I was using C-3 and used 6% FO. My question is, can I re-melt this sucker and try adding more fragrance? If so, is the procedure exactly the same as the original (double boiler, heat to 180-185, add fragrance (I had originally added it at about 150*), cool down (I cooled it down to about 115*) then pour? If C-3 has a fragrance load of 9%, do I assume that I can do 3% FO on the remelt (since I originally did 6%) without overloading the wax with oil? Or do I assume some of the FO has burned off/evaporated and add more? Or, is it a dumb idea all around? Also, if the reason I had no scent throw was not necessarily that I didn't use enough FO, but that I added the fragrance at too low of a temperature and it didn't "bind" with the wax, will heating it back up to the higher temperature achieve this effect? This is probably an extremely stupid question, but I'm dying to know. I'd really like to be able to re-use wax if possible. I'm just making these for fun for myself and ffor family and friends, and smell is the most important thing for me (I'll worry about all those sinkholes later!!) Thanks for any advice. I've been looking at this forum for about a week now and have found it quite helpful so far! -Jinker