radellaf

Twisting LX wicks seems to make the self-trimming a little less effective and thus makes a higher flame. That was with about one turn per inch. Half that might be better. With jars I don't worry about it, but it can be a problem with pillars. Even there, if I can get away with it, I'll just wick down. By chance I made one 3" with the wick pin off center about 1/4". I deliberately set the wick to curl towards the center, and got a perfectly centered burn pool, lucky me.

I haven't tried CDs wicks yet, though I just got in a sample pack of those and RRDs. However, in case this might help... I think only Candle Science carries them, but I've had excellent luck with their CSN 7 size on palm votives and 2-2.5" hex jar palm containers, 5% FO. They market them for Palm wax, but I find they're as good or better than ECO wicks in GB 464 and EcoSoya CBA. #14 in 2.5" and #16 in 3" palm pillars make for my most trouble free candles. (1" and 2" won't make a side wall and drip even with CSN 5 or 7, so I use 9 for best results. Usually OK, but not sure if it's possible to "drip proof" those sizes.)

You talking about which direction the wick is going to curl? When I multi-wick I prime a good amount and burn about an inch to see which way it curls, and then mark the side it curls towards. For my relatively small 4" pillars, I point the wicks towards the center, or towards each other. May not matter on 6" pillars, not sure. For a double wick jar, just guessing, but it would depend on the wick spacing, and I haven't seen any information on how to decide that. I'd think if the wicks were spaced closely, you'd have them curl out, but further apart, point them in towards each other?

Tried warming the mold for the first pour (initial 1/2") and a bit on the 2nd. All pours at 185, and waiting only long enough for a thick skin to form on the previous layer. The blue and red candles previously, I waited until there was no clear liquid in the previous layer (just "slush" under the skin). Any idea what's with the "frosting"? I like that the initial 1/2" (darkest part at the "top") has less of a seam, but the layer transitions were better in the other candles. Maybe wait as long as with the first ones before pouring, but still pour at 185 vs. 195? FWIW these are IGI 1274, 2% stearic, 3% FO, LX-10. My one 3% stearic tester burns too low with LX-10s, and the one with LX-12s looks like it might overflow after a couple of hours.

Not quite sure what the different characteristics of CD, HTP, RRD, and ECO wicks are, but having tried all but the RRD, I can say that the ECO wicks had the tightest curling effect. If I didn't have mushrooms, I'd think they'd keep a very even flame height. I tried them in GB464 so not sure if that would make them curl more, but just thought I'd throw it out there. For burning commercial jars, I always got less soot if I used one of those "candle cappers" on top. It makes the flame not dance around so much, especially on the 2nd half of the burn, and I think a lot of soot is thrown out when the flame moves around too much.

I used one of these smaller industrial heat guns at an electronics job, and it's definitely what I'd want for a gentler and smaller stream of air. $115, but would probably last forever. Cooper Tools 6966C

Better images of tops and bottoms. Not sure why the bottom of the blue one, especially, comes out so much worse than the yellow. The yellow was a straight one-shot pour at 175. The blue and red use the wick pins inserted into the wax after the bottom half inch or so cools. I poured the half-inch at 185, and the other 3 pours at 195 (trying to ensure bonding). Maybe I should warm the mold and/or pour at 185 but not wait so long between pouring the layers.

I think there may be some QC problems. I need to test my 2nd batch of feather to be sure. Starburst (all from CS) stuck in my molds a d needed the fridge, while feather shrank perfectly to get few air pockets with no wrecking and literally fell out of the molds (5% FO). CS support wasn't clear when I asked them: - Is there much batch to batch variation and - Does starburst tend to be harder to release than feather They gave me general mold release help instead and said palm wax should release pretty easily. Woe betide you with the glass glow in a mold, though. Had to put the votives in very hot water to de-mold those. I only did that b/c it worked before, but that was glass glow with maybe 5% beeswax or soyPB. A little of anything added seems to kill the metal bonding power. Feather palm is my favorite wax to work with. Only caveat is the shrinkage is quick, so timing is tight if you want multiple-layer pillars.

FWIW my beeswax tapers and 1" pillars did well with #4/0 wicks. I used 2/0 in 3" eggs and 2" pillars (minor drips on the pillars). Never made anything larger than those. Going to make some .5"x4" hand dipped soon an got 5/0 to try for that, or LX12 or 14 esp if doing a 50/50 with soy PB.

Oooo... hoping it didn't get any further down the pipes, I'd remove the trap and clean that out. (Heat it?) If it's still in the trap, I wouldn't think you'd want to heat it and cause it to clog in a harder to get to area. How much wax?

Had success making a 6.5" one: Solved the problem of positioning the bottom of the wick pins by using the wax itself to hold them in position. I poured a 1/2" of wax into the mold, let it mostly cool, and then used a paper template and a needle to mark the positions. Heated the end of the wick pin, stuck them in, put the jig on top, and they stayed in position nicely. With the votive pins, using the bottom of the mold as the top of the candle would create an odd looking top... that looks like the bottom of 3 votives. With the base-less pillar wick pins and the taller candle, I could just as easily flip it over. 4" 3-wick supplies, well, I've never seen any - neither drilled molds, or top bars. As for premade candles, only Partylite, from what I can find on the web, makes one. My experience with commercial, and homemade, 4" 1-wick pillars, though, is that it's hard to keep them from sooting. OTOH, they have nice thick spill-proof walls. My tests so far have very thin walls but haven't spilled yet... 8 hour burn: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/4338703452/in/photostream/ I'd love to try the one commercial 4" 3-wick, but my bet is that you wouldn't want to burn it on an unstable surface either. Perhaps that is why the size is rare? If I go to 5 or 6" molds drilled to hold the pins, I'll definitely want the pin holders at http://www.wickcenteringtool.com for the top. Not sure if it's significant on the bigger sizes, but for these I'm being careful about which way the (LX) wicks curl, so that they all point to the center. Pointing to each other would probably be OK too.

I was trying to determine if that was a reasonable maximum, or if the ad-copy for 343 was right and it's possible to make 7-8% mottled pillars. Sounds like, unequivocally, that's too much. The commercial mottles I mentioned (copper bases) don't throw much scent, and get oily on the surface while burning. Others may stay dry, but commercial pillars of any type rarely seem to be that strongly scented. I'm sure there are some brands that are exceptionally good, but I also think I can easily work in the 2-3% FO range and get "industry normal" or better strength candles. And...I think I'll be happier if I don't try to outdo the best, at least so long as I'm working at a loss on a workbench. Give me time, money, and industrial process controls, though, and I'd be game

This will probably be my last post to this thread, as my experiments have gone to larger mottled candles and I'll put results and photos here: 3-Wick 4" Pillars Not trying to get you to reveal your trade secrets, just wanted to get a sense of what's a realistic goal. If you never got 4% to work, I'd save myself time trying. However, moot question by the next day, as both the 3% 343 and the 5% stearic 2" pillars are holding 5% FO well enough. You get a film on your fingers touching the top 1/2" or so after they've been lit, but, while not ideal, I wouldn't call that a problem. The 2% 343 is still seeping, so I have to say that I disagree with the mfgr recommendations (max 1%), at least in 1274. I can see how that would make strong FOs a high priority. I'm certainly looking for them as I can't think of any place I'd prefer to have to use more FO. Hard to find much concrete information on fragrances, though. I assume that's because they behave so differently in each wax. Agreed. No stearic and 3xLX-10 in the 4" didn't breach the sides, but I'd be happy to have smaller flames. 3 hours into the same design with 3% stearic and I have 1/4"+ walls and 1/2" flames. They're a bit small land less pretty looking, but the burn so far is about right. Might be better for fragrance throw? The bayberry is certainly coming out of it nicely. I'm hoping the 2% stearic burns "just right", but anything between the two is good enough. Didn't know those were your favorites, but I'm with ya, they're mine. Buying a couple on clearance at BB&B had something to do with getting me interested in making my own. They were under $10 3x6" and had a unique feature - a copper (metal) bottom permanently attached to the candle. 1274 seems to be a good wax for the mottling effect I like. Better than 1343 for a full mottle. Shouldn't be too many more testers before I'm satisfied with the result, at least for a couple of scents.

I remembered, and found the link, to someone making faux bois silicone molds. For tapers, in this case: (scorpinn on eBay) Wouldn't be surprised if some of the companies out there wouldn't make a wood pillar mold. Be really nice to do it as a hurricane shell.

Are you able to put in 4+% of most fragrances? The 3 and 5% 343 candles are staying dry on the table, though the 3 did sweat some at the top during a 2hr burn. OTOH, the 5% stearic isn't doing any worse, although it has a more opaque look to it. Both burn OK so far, though the stearic with a low flame. 343 left only liquid in the mold, whereas the stearic left a harder to clean solid/granular residue. Wondering if excess FO didn't settle to the bottom of the mold (candle top), though. My 2% stearic 3% FO 3-wick is doing fine, so I call the problem solved. I'm just prone to perfectionism. Kinda ruined home photo printing for me, so I'm going to try to be satisfied with "good enough" on the candle front. Commercial mottled pillars I've tried certainly aren't any better than what I have now.

I looked at the Pacifica website. That's similar to what I got with a lot of my straight 1343 pillars. Not consistently, though. Well, have to say you all are right about the Vybar 343. As it is, doesn't look like the vybar is doing anything. Tried 2,3, and 5% with 5% FO (CS Sage Pomegranate) and a little red dye. All of them sweated quite a bit out of the mold. The 3% one did the least. After cleaning them off, only the 2% is continuing to sweat. For some reason it has an un-mottled region which could be contributing to that. Yet to see how they'll burn or throw. 5% is a good bit of FO for a pillar. And, if 5% of 343 can't prevent it from sweating then I'm guessing nothing will. So much for the claim : "This product enables you to achieve the 7-8% frangrance loads without the fragrance sweating out of the candle." Still waiting for the stearic test candles to cool, but I can see the 5% stearic (5% FO) is still mottling (maybe not full), and sweating. Trying a 7% stearic also, though from looking carefully at the wax in the pot, I don't think the 5% FO fully dissolved. I saw, not sure what to call it, distortions at the bottom, kind of like waves of heat in the air. This was with the pour pot off the heat, though. Maybe 3% stearic and 3% FO will be best for a full mottle and minimum bleed. 2% stearic still had surface oil, but very little, and clearly 3% stearic isn't going to kill the mottle in this 1274.

Success with the 2% proportion of Stearic in 1274. Mottling not inhibited at all, and surface pitting completely eliminated (175F pour). 1% still had flaws, but fewer of them. With 3% FO (CS Pineapple Coconut) the candle still had an oily surface coming out of the mold. Possibly more than 2.5% and no stearic. 1% Vybar 343 and 5% fragrance in a votive did sweat a lot initially, but after wiping off looks fine, and is burning well (LX-8). The patent is kind of interesting: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/pdfs/patent_id/6776808.html Now that the surface flaw issue is easily solved I'm going to go ahead and make some 2x3" pillars with 2 and 3% 343 and 5% FO and see what happens. Also compare with 3 and 4% stearic. I'd like to get a full 3% in these mottling pillars without any oil bleed, if possible.

I'm trying to make 3 wick 4 inch pillars. Only mold I could easily get was a 4x6.5" 1 wick. I almost always use wick pins, so I taped over the wick hole with metal duct tape. My "brilliant" idea was to use 3 votive pins like so: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/4328647397/ And it does work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/4324043830/ (3x LX-10, not burn tested yet) But, now that I see how pretty those can be, I'd like to make taller ones: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/4327492273/ (IGI 1274, 2.5% CS Cucumber Melon, LX-20, getting some mushrooms and it might tunnel, but the flame is on the edge of being too tall and sooting) And am trying to figure out how to position and hold 3 larger wick pins. I have several pins with no bases that I use by sticking them into the (taped over) wick hole for most of my 1 wick pillars. I came up with this idea for the top, using pipe hanger strap: http://www.flickr.com/photos/radellaf/4329382328/ But, can't figure out what I might use to secure the bottom of the wick pins. Might be able to just let their weight hold them, but I'd still need something at the bottom of the mold to show where exactly they should go. Thinking some sort of metal or plastic disc, or perhaps even wood. I suppose if I'm really dedicated to it, I should just drill the mold, but then I'm not sure how to be sure the holes were properly placed. Not even entirely sure, given that they were all at the right angles, and centered, how far from the center should they be. I'd guess a little closer to the center than the half-way mark.

Which is generally what it has done for me. Others might pull away in one spot, this stuff might stay stuck in one spot. It's also not all that resistant to frosting. Best I can say is that it always has a "creamy top". Woohoo.

Well, the Vybar 343 sounds like it's specifically made for 4045H and IGI 1274, so I'd expect it would at least allow more FO or prevent sweating if it does anything. (Though, yes, I see you as much as said that it doesn't do anything...) The other Vybars would be the first thing I'd try if using Yaley or other non-mottling wax, sure. The pits would be all the more annoying on an un-mottled candle. Stearic didn't do much other than reduce mottling (even at 2%) in 1343 but it might be worth another try in the 1274. Perhaps since it's made to mottle, the effect will hold up. Except for a few poured for special effect at 140-150, I've always poured paraffin at 175-185. That would be the easiest process change to try so I'll give that a go today. Esp since mold release has been easy, and burning almost perfect once I wicked down vs. 1343. Also, I'd rather not use additives with a pre-blend without trying other things first...

About the worst thing a wax company could do is change a formula sold under the same name and not make that very clear. Given how much that can mess up your candles, I wouldn't be shy about calling that fraud, and all the more so if they won't admit they changed it. Ignoring a small customer's issues is bad, but over 1000 lbs? Not sure if the legal costs would be worth it, but they certainly should replace that wax. I have to agree that they do use too much hype. Especially for a raw material. Botanical oil I see all over, though it still seems like that should refer to EOs and not vegetable oil. Molecular Blueprinting, though? I'd think that meant doing chromatography or something to ensure consistent amounts of different components (molecular weights or crystal types). But, they don't say, so it might as well read "All our waxes have That Special Something!". Proof is in the trying, though. I bought a small amount of Advanced and it's OK, I'll probably try the new one, too. Unlike some hyped products, it should be pretty clear in short order whether it's any better. Took a half dozen candles and a read of this board to figure that Advanced is fine if you want it to look more like paraffin, and be finicky about fragrances. That "fragrance program" bit is so frustrating, though. They purport to give you help about what fragrances work, but then you find it only applies to companies selling fragrance wholesale. Thanks, NGI... Anyone had any luck getting suppliers to give CB-Advanced compatibility information? (even if none will say what mfgrs they use)

Is that a 2.5" diameter? For 4045H 3% I use a LX-14. The extra 2% could bump you up to 16, but likely 18 is just too big.

I'm having that exact kind of pitting with IGI 1274 (2.5% FO, no sweating) in plastic, poly, and metal molds. I'll try some of the Vybar 343, but didn't expect 1274 would need any additives. Usually, I don't mind the pitting, but some customers are picky. They're definitely not from air bubbles, though. I can see there are none after pouring, so I guess some sort of gas is being released by the wax as it cools.

LX-14 has worked with EcoSoya's PB (or Candlewic's, which is too greasy for anything but votives). I've also needed one that big for some IGI1343 votives. With 1274 or 4794, though, yeah, I've had even the small LX-10 can cause too big a flame depending on the shape of the holder. Options I've looked at but not tried include the CD-2,3,4 and TL-25,28,31 wicks.

CB X-CeL should be interesting. "If you want to make good candles, fragrance selection is totally part of the game." Seems so. I hope that most of the good ones will be good in more than one type of wax. I've been trying half a dozen brands of blueberry and sage fragrances as those are definitely two I want as regulars. I'm reading up on scent review but there is so little consensus as to what's a winner, and what's a reject. Still, some good info. Also found http://www.scentforum.com/