EricofAZ

Robert, I realize that wax rarely is melted over 200 degrees. The exception might be microcrystaline or gel. So high temp plastic sounds good, but keep in mind that the pot itself goes much higher in temp and if you are going to modify a pot with a product that does not hold up to the pot's capability. If there is ever a product liability issue, the modification will be a defense to the pot manufacturer. I have to assume that somebody, somewhere, sometime might over temp the pot and melt the plastic so you won't catch me doing that. So I respectfully disagree, I think it is crazy to use plastic for that purpose. Now a plastic high temp ladle that is only in contact with the wax is probably OK. I think we did see some legitimate reasons to not use a spigot. I mentioned one - clogging. If I make hurricanes with 165 degree wax or micro for wick priming, it gets into the spigot. If I then use the pot for low temp container wax, it never gets hot enough to melt the wax in the spigot and I don't want to overheat the wax. So since I'm only using one pot and not multiple ones, I run into this problem. Also, the spigot that came with my pot is not parallel to a plumb bob when the pot is level so it pours funny and I don't always like that. Hence I tend to use a ladle a lot. I agree about not tipping the pot unless it is the last little bit that a ladle won't pick up. Definitely a bad habit that will eventually result in a spill. I hope nobody here gets burned and for goodness sake, watch the cat under your feet when you're assuming the risk.

Yes, very nice. Good color choices too.

Presto is great, glad I got one. I'm undecided about the spigot. Sometimes it clogs and sometimes it is just awkward to use. I end up with the ladle a lot so maybe my next pot won't have the spigot.

Well, a lot of us are still experimenting and learning. I've used just about every kind of IGI wax and most of the soy wax. I've used every kind of Palm and a healthy sampling of proprietary blends from the suppliers. It depends on what I'm making. For pillars, I'm happy with 4625. IGI 1274 mottling wax is fun. Sometimes a feathering palm. For cut/curl I like IGI 1343 or Candlewic 4045EP For tapers I like IGI 4807 for dripless. Feathering or starburst palm makes for some interesting patterns, but they drip like crazy. For hurricanes I have not settled on a wax yet, but I think the IGI 1260 will be just fine (I've been using a lower MP and obviously need to raise it). For forever candles that have a glass tealight insert, same thing, high MP wax, doesn't matter which one. For containers, I have not settled on a wax yet. Front runners are J50 and J223 followed by IGI 4786 and then Harmony. Just about everything else I've tried is not the real me. Tealights work with just about any container wax. Tarts - still experimenting. For votives I'm still experimenting. The left over goes into firestarters. For restaurant type table candles, any kind of soy with no scent is fine for me. For gel's, I'm still experimenting. There's pretty much only one game in town though and the choices are low, medium or high density. I choose a wick series for the wax and go up or down in that series depending on the FO. Rarely do I change series just for an FO, but if I make an EO candle, well, that's a whole different story. So is it appropriate to use 12 different wax products for 12 different candles? I guess it depends. 12 different types of candles from hurricanes to containers to pillars to tapers might necessitate a different wax. But 12 different containers will probably all get the same wax and I don't change wax to accommodate an FO.

Good suggestions above. Just a piece of tile from Home Depot is enough. They make heat resistant counter savers for the kitchen that is nothing more than pyrex with a few glass beads underneath to keep the surface above counter with air flow underneath. One caution on the heat gun is to make sure you go ahead and warm up the entire glass. Just soaking the top of the candle will cause the top of the glass to heat up, while the glass below the wax line remains cool. You can crack the glass by doing that. I think the key is to keep the temp at 300 and only briefly go to 600, but never above. I have cracked glass at 600 by heating the top too long and not heating the rest of the glass.

Hi Claire, glad you're having fun. Michaels is OK to start with. Sometimes it is fun to look at the books they have and stuff they sell. They'll get you to your first candle. To go beyond that and give Slatkin a run for the money, there are some better places to buy. Depends on where you live. Usually, a supplier near you has cheaper shipping so that's a huge consideration even if the price is a few pennies more. You might want to check out a kit from one of the more standard suppliers. Peaks, lonestar, PalmBeach Candles, etc. Learn the lingo and definitions so you can follow the comments in the forum. I'd suggest you use a good quality wax. Most can be bought in 10 pound sizes or less which is fine to start out with. Starting with paraffin is easier. If you want to make containers, consider something popular like Harmony wax or IGI 4786 or J50. The J50 is kinda gloppy or oily to work with, less so the harmony and the 4786 is dry to the touch. Some of the kits have boiler pots and thermometers. Whatever you do, stick with quality and candle approved products. Anything else is like tossing that $20 bill out the window. Come share with us and I'm sure everyone here will be helpful.

1 oz FO per pound of paraffin is fine, in fact, its the standard these days --- as long as you are not using a raw Chinese wax. Any IGI should take that amount. Yaley and GeneralWax might not. I'm not thinking that the FO was a big issue. One chip of dye for a pound of paraffin is fine, no big deal there. Yeah, its on the heavy side, but OK. One block of dye is way too much. I noticed the wick was off center. Get yourself a wick centering tool of some sort. Hold it upright during the cooling process. Definitely more heat. A 133 MP wax (hobby lobby) needs to go to 170 or so and then add your dye and stir then add the FO and stir a lot. Let it cool to 150 or so to pour. Temp is not as critical as it sounds. Stay away from 190 and above, stay away from 140 and below. Soy sometimes pours well when slushy, but not paraffin. Stir for 2 minutes or so before pouring. I've experimented with Hobby Lobby 133. It doesn't hold high amounts of FO but it should hold 1 oz/per pound. I don't like stearic in that wax, I prefer vybar. If you really are using HL 133, then either vybar will work because you're pretty close to the cutoff temp between VB 103 and 260. Either will work. I prefer the lower temp which is the higher number = 260, but like I said, either will work for that temp MP wax. The actual cutoff is 145 degree MP wax. Stearic doesn't do much to increase FO load, but it does harden a wax more. Vybar tends to increase FO load. IGI waxes have these already formulated in so even though they cost a tad more to buy, you really don't need to add stuff to make it work really well. I'm not entirely certain, but I suspect HL 133 has some additive already. I've used the Chinese wax with no additive and HL 133 has a higher FO load. Someone posted that HL 133 is not an inferior wax, just meant for things other than containers and I agree with that, but it also doesn't measure up to most IGI blends. J50 is awesome, so is J223. As for the pour temp, the higher the temp at pouring, the more the wax sinks. I can make a multi pour wax work with one pour and a light top off if I pour at low temps. I can make a low shrink wax leave a crater in the center by pouring hot. Wax expands with temperature and shrinks with cooling. All wax does, so one of the keys to single pour is the temp. However, the cooler the pour, the more lumpy the tops so its a delicate balance and the manufacturer has already figured that out when they give you temp recommendations.

I've had a good experience with the quality and shipping from Lonestar. I had a problem with their billing one time that caused me to stop doing business with them for the time being. Maybe next year I'll order again, but I was so turned off at the incident that I worked pretty hard to find other suppliers. I think their customer support was OK. They are well aware of the billing issue and promised to fix it so maybe I'll try them again. I wonder if the oily stuff was just a bit of seepage of the FO.

There are probably 50 different kinds of paraffin on the market from Yaley to HL to HB to IGI, to proprietary blends. Many do require a re-pour (the sunken thing) but some don't. A good paraffin is a strong thrower and there are tart blends. However, a good soy is also a delight to work with. I'm glad you found a soy you like and if it works for you, stick with it. I remember my first experience with soy. It was ecosoy 135. What a scent killer. Turned me off big time. I went to paraffin and palm and learned that getting the right paraffin was important. So I went back to try C3 and 464 and 444 and CB and found that they were all way better than 135, but by then, I was pretty sold on a couple of paraffin blends and I've pretty much stayed with paraffin. Best wishes on the soy. Maybe some day we'll have a challenge between your soy and Stella's!

ADent1, I am concerned that you are using a very hot burning wax and its not working right for you and you plan to sell. Do you have insurance? You can get it affordably and there are some folks on the business forum that can direct you. As for testing, I agree with Stella, we can help you if you post all the info and then test a bit after we share with you. We're not looking for your formulas, we have our own, a lot actually, so our help really is based on knowing all the details.

I'd like to hear from the EO people on this. While its fine to have FO candles that mimic aromatherapy, I think only the EO's have any real ability to affect us. I have a candle that is a relaxing EO. Yeah, it has bulgarian lavender in it, among other EO's. It gets a bit spendy to make, but gee does it really relax me. I put together a group of EO's that are believed to have a positive effect on lowering blood pressure and while I don't think it has a dramatic effect, it is nice. There are other EO's that are good for stimulating a person during the day, etc. I understand that the fruit mangosteen (not mango) is good for chemo. You can get it in pills or buy the liquid. You cannot buy the fruit itself in the US.

I tend to like paraffin as well. If you find a supplier near you (the closer the supplier, generally, the cheaper the shipping) then let us know and maybe we can give you some info on the various kits that are offered.

www.snowdriftfarm.com is here in Tucson so I buy local from them. Good price on bulgarian lavender. Good quality.

Wow, I had no idea something so light would cost that much to ship to the US. Maybe I'll wait until the company gets a cheap shipping thing going in the US. They have an ebay store starting up but right now nothing on it. Jeanie, the HTP and TL are very different. I have a bunch of TL's. I can stay with the pre-made ones from that florida company I guess. I don't use them much.

I don't know about that. I have one of those units from Home and Garden from Walmart and I put the IR temp gun to it during a melt and the temp of the wax was 155, so they get pretty hot. Does anyone know if having a MP of the wax close to the temp of the unit = better throw? Like 140 MP wax at 155 might throw better than 128 wax at 155 degrees?

So a heat gun can be used (carefully) to re-shape the top of a candle. Sometimes it fixes the frost on a soy. Please don't try to use a heat gun to fix wet spots. You'll likely blow up the glass trying that.

KoalaGirl, yeah, I do like that. We can't buy spools in the US of that size. Palmbeachcandles I think is the only one that has the HTP 13's and they are pre-tabbed. Can I buy direct or can I trade you or something? I'd like to get my hands on a few spools. ... I was looking at the OP and realized the question was about FH for tealights. The FH will be pretty small - less than a half inch. I use the same burn test - barely wall to wall melt pool and touchable container. The plastic will melt if the FH is too tall. I get a 7 hour burn out of my tealights. There was a company that had to recall 7 million tealights because a customer reported one that melted the plastic. Ugh. I also realized you did say what wax -6006. I used that a bit but not for tealights. I've used harmony or J50 sometimes but more often I use harder wax that has container properties like 4786.

Definitely buy a slab before buying a case. Candlewic labels their wax by the intended use. Read the description and pick the one that most likely fits what you want to do. Candlewic has container blends, pillar blends, etc. For container, low melt temp wax makes sense. For pillars, a medium melt temp is important. For stuff like hurricanes and carved candles, higher melt temps work and candlewic identifies them as such.

Palm throws like crazy with just about any FO or EO. The problem I find is wicking so that the wax burns cool enough to not blow the daylights out of the glass container. I don't like hot containers. Palm pillars work out fine for me. I have not tried palm tarts but it makes a lot of sense to me and when I get my man cave back, I'll give it whirl.

I like tealights. I use the plastic ones that are about a half inch deep. Yes the TL wicks are tempermental. HTP-13 are the best but good luck finding them. Nobody sells the raw wick in that size. I use TL 15 or 21, that's it. My HTP-13 are about gone. What wax are you using? If the TL wicks aren't working for you and you have to go above the TL 15, my bet is on the wax type, not the FO.

All wax is going to shrink, some way more than others. So I guess the "low shrink" rating is a subjective term. The cooler you pour it, the less it will shrink because the wax expands as temp goes up. You mentioned a concave top and asked about safety. I hope you are anchoring your wick and using a wick holder at the top to keep the wick from being drawn down in the shrinkage. I think for safety if you don't use a wick holder that secures the top of the wick, it will draw down with the shrinkage and burn improperly. On my multi-pour candles, the wick forms a convex cone in the center of the concave shrink area and I just fill that in with a second pour.

I bought some kistka pens on ebay and have not yet used them, but the idea of writing on a candle in a different color wax sounds like it will work well with the one you want to burn.

When will they learn? Products More Gel Fuel Recalled The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of 39,000 bottles of PatioGlo Bio-Fuel Gel, manufactured by the Marshall Group. The agency reported that the fuel can unexpectedly ignite when poured into a fire pot that is still burning. This can produce severe burns to patrons standing in the area. The company has received four reports of sudden ignition, including three severe burns. Staff Report, Kansas City Info Zine 10/12/2011 Read Article: Kansas City Info Zine

This is a nice candle. Might not be what you were aiming for, but from my vantage point, its nice.

Robert, sounds like maybe the bubbles are forming on the wick pins? I've had bubbles form on the metal. A light mold release spray sometimes reduces that problem. I've used Pam in a pinch and that can get thick and while it does aid in mold release, it leaves pitts. A regular mold release spray does a better job. I can't imagine that temperature (expansion of the wick pin) would be an issue. The aluminum wick pin will grow with heat and shrink as it cools. I doubt that this will cause a void to form along the pin. More likely I'm thinking you're getting bubbles on the pin.