EricofAZ

I started making carved candles two years ago before I had to put everything in storage. Got an industrial food cooker/warmer with the pots. Made a rack to hold while carving. Got some videos.

I saw the video that you posted. It is a good one.

There is some technique to the temperature and dipping time and how fast you get to it to avoid carving a cold candle. Has to be carved hot.

I agree with the presto pot idea. I agree a lot! It will be the best $50 you have ever spent in your life.

I have a spool of the RRD 29. It is a directional wick. For the life of me, I have not had anyone including the folks at RRD tell me how to determine which way to use the wick.

Put one in a parking lot, call your friends, light it, time it. Measure the height. Make sure you don't set the asphalt on fire.

I look for 10 minutes or so and I look for a 6 inch flame that is about an inch in diameter.

I then look to see if it was entirely consumed or if there was wax left over. If in a fireplace, leftover wax is not good. Most consume themselves entirely. If there is residue, can you discard it easily (like cleaning a fireplace)? If so, fine.

If not, then they are outdoor campfire only.

I load a dixi cup with hamster wood. I pack it well then just pour some wax to where it shows in the top with the wood. A woody top is fine.

Here are my 3x4 pillar notes (3x4.5) with 4625... If a wick was so badly off that I knew better, then I did not make notes. I only noted the ones that were close.

LX-18 burns tall and bright and melt pool is about right for a 4 hour burn. The problem is excess soot trail from the flame. Too bad, the flame is like 4 inches tall and small diameter which is pretty delightful.

CD-10 not so good, it soots a bit. Second burn seemed to not soot. Pool was fine at first. Need a power burn on this one.

CD-14 too hot. Melt pool to large and runs over the side

44-32-18 Cotton. Not a large flame and tends to tunnel. This was originally thought to be a bit too small for the pillar. However, the first power burn of 12 hours worked out just fine and the second spilled at the 10 hour mark. On restart there is some initial sooting. There is mushrooming. Some other candlemakers have expressed that a smaller flame is better for customers. This may be a better wick than the 60-44. // This has become the wick of choice, however, one tester said it soots when blown out. Otherwise, perfect burn.

60-44-18 Cotton. This has turned out to be about the perfect wick IF you limit to a 4 hour burn time. It pools large enough for good HT and the sides curl in. 6 hours is about it. 8 hours and the sides open up and the pool leaks. No sooting except on re-start. Lots of mushrooming.

62-52-18 cotton tends to leak over the side at the 4 hour mark. Very little sooting except if there is an airflow and wick flickering.

Your build is almost identical to mine. I use mostly the 60-44-18 Cotton. This has turned out to be nearly the perfect wick for me. I have tried your wicks, didn't like them.

The 44-32-18 Cotton tends to tunnel and the 62-52-19 Cotton core tends to leak and overflow on longer burns.

I get the least amount of soot with those. If I were to ever change, I would consider retesting with ECO's or HTP's.

Hi, welcome to chat. Your wicks are ECO 12's. While the ECO series may do very well with soy, I rather wonder that the size is a bit to large for the container you bought.

No worries, getting smaller wicks is cheap. You might want to go directly to the CandleScience website (or Peaks which hosts this forum) for wicks.

I agree that starting with 1 oz per pound of FO is good. Two per pound might be a bit high. I sometimes go 1.5 per pound. For me, sometimes 1 oz per pound is not enough.

Since you are using soy, the folks in the soy forum can help you more. I found soy to be a bit difficult to work with to get a good hot throw, but others here can really make it right.

Go ahead and build your candle. Try pouring at 135. Don't worry about making it pretty. Just let it cool. Maybe a second pour to kinda even up the top. Cool. Let it sit for at least 24 hours. Then test it. During the test, 4 hour burns are appropriate. Sometimes I do a "power burn" for double that when I think the 4 hour burn looks good. You're looking for 1/4 inch melt pool and glass that is not too hot. I think 175 degrees might be the max for glass temperature. I never let my candles get that hot. 150 is fine for me.

If your melt pool is deeper than 1/2 inch, then you're way too hot.

Now, two things you might want. Get something to glue the metal wick safety tab to the glass. Oh, they make all kinds of stuff but if you have a dollar store and buy a glue gun with glue sticks, that works the best. And something to center the top of the wick. Maybe a couple of wood sticks in an x pattern glued together with your favorite new glue gun and some kid's putty to hold the wick to the stick.

If all this doesn't work out, consider a candle kit from one of the common suppliers here. They usually do a good job at matching the wax, wick, jar, and FO and give you a good formula to start off with.

Oh, I just saw something. Be careful about potpourrie. I understand that can be toxic to cats.

I quit using wicks because a long nose lighter will get the rim going and it takes off from there. But if I were to use wicks, they would be scraps. The whole thing about firestarters is to find a way of making your scrap stuff useful.

And as for price, The cup and wood I have to buy but they are pennies. The wax is scrap, but hey, it still costs $25/slab these days so I figure it costs about $0.10 to make a firestarter. A 2/3 dixi cup will burn for 6-10 minutes. A full cup will burn for about 20 if done right. 10 minutes is usually enough to get a log fire started unless the wood is moist or hardwood that doesn't want to cooperate. So if I make a dozen of the starters that are around 6-10 minutes and I get $5 for the bag, I'm happy.

I don't look at firestarters as a business that will feed my retirement account. I look at it as a way to "recycle" sorta, and recoup my costs and make a little to take care of my time.

Georgia, I never wondered about the dollar bills in my wallet, but I have seen some that had a crease in them longways. Is that the same thing?

4About 3D printers...

This is not a machine that you put something in like famous French tower and produce duplicates.

3D printers print from .stl or IGES format. Those are CAD programs that require no open edges. You need to either find a 3D model of what you want, or build it yourself.

There are a ton of 3D models out there, but most have open edges.

And, once you get the 3D polygon modeling down pat after learning how to model yourself, you need to decide if you want an additive or subtractive 3D modeler.

The additive versions use their own plastic material to build what you have in your image. Then you need to mold it and it will be difficult.

Subtractive printers will take a block of foam and cut out a shape that you can use as well.

So....

Additive to build a shape and make a mold around it that will eventually hold your wax...

or...

Subtractive that makes the mold and with another process gets converted to a mold builder

Either way, it is costly and not a one step process.

I am looking into this, have been for a while. I am able to now build things like a BMW car or an airplane in 3D mesh (I use autodesk softimage xsi and there are many others like autocad, max, maya, blender, wings, silo, modo, etc.) and I can save in stl or iges if I make sure I have no open edges.

From there, its probably cheaper for me to rent a machine or send the file to a printer. Resolution is everything once you have the mesh right. If the resolution of the print machine (your 3D file will be well beyond the machine) is too course, you will hate your mold.

The airplane is a closed edge. So I can export in stl or iges.

The BMW car is a work in progress (WIP) and might be finished in a week or two as far as the building of the mesh. Blue lines are not connected, so it won't print in 3D.

All that said, I think it would be easy enough for me to make something like a dolphin in a posed position (Poser I think will close edges and export in .obj that might be converted to iges) and then subtracted from a mold with a 3D printer (or added) and a candle mold made from it. Additive has its advantages.

Once you get your molds, its a matter of reproduction and how well the master holds up.

Is Golden Brand in Phoenix, AZ? I know a company there. Maybe its canyon something.

I'm sure you will find someone here nearby.

Many of us are skeptical. Share a bit more. Thanks.

Your wax should have a melting point. Lower that by 10 percent after you add fragrance and additives.

If you have tall wicks that are still centered with a device, then the was temp (adjusted as above) should be fine. I would not store higher because that would result in a burnoff of the FO.

Now that said, consider storing lower. Don't freeze. No need to crack the wax or container.

But maybe 65-70 degrees would be fine? That should capture the FO and keep the candle pretty solid.

But if you want to share the wax formula with us, we might have better info for you.

Yeah, you're getting to anal here. Take a dixi cup and fill it 2/3 with either sawdust or hamster wood from a pet store (really cheap) and pour wax. Temp is irrelevant. Too hot and you you melt the wax on the cup and leak. Too cool and nobody cares as long as it pours.

This is a lighter science. wood, leftover wax, easy instructions to the buyer .... Dear buyer, remember that this will burn and will light stuff on fire, use responsibly. To start a fireplace fire, place one under the wood, light the rim of the cup, enjoy a fine evening.

Have only used 6006 a little bit and a long time ago. I've used zinc wicks and don't like them. Not enough fabric to wick the wax. The core does hold the wick straight up but so does high temperature paper (HTP wicks) and wicks primed with microcrystaline wax.

I get too much soot off of zinc and find other wicks that address my problems. Sorry, I'm not a zinc fan.

Welcome. from what I can see, you have a centered wick and the diameter looks good for a test. Flat top. For a first candle, it looks better than many I have seen on the market. Now for the real hard work, testing. Make sure start to finish it works well. Testing takes you beyond cosmetics to the level of a functional system that will work well.

Well, I lost my reply. Guess I took to long to post and the website ditched it.

Yankme is popular because they spend millions in advertising. They have formulas that can be made in mass production in specific containers with specific wicks that have been well tested.

So many on this board can do well better in scent throw than Yankme. But to do it consistently on an automated production is another story.

We get down to the nitty gritty. 70/30 paraffin/soy means nothing to us. There are a couple dozen paraffins on the market, a dozen soys, 800 wicks, a hundred or more containers that we all use, thousands of FO's/EO's, and the variation of dyes and oh my, additives.

So if you want hard core feedback on your build, share with us what you are using.

I have to say that when I first joined I was asked to give the formula. I thought ill of that and reacted badly. After all, it was my formula. I later learned that nobody wants to steal my formula, they just want to help the best they can. Not saying you are safe, just that the best advice comes from the chandler who understands what you are building.

So I went to my monthly lawyer lunch and to talk lawyer talk and brought a bunch of tarts. Everyone asked what they were. I explained you can buy a thing at walmart with a 15 watt bulb that heats up a dish and the wax melts and smells nice. Didn't work. Then I talked about candle warmers. No go. Then I talked about tealights under a half spherical tray with oil in it except use these cubes of wax instead of oil.

Oh my, it is priceless to have half a dozen lawyers look you in the eye like a deer facing headlights.

Then I said "They are like sentsy." and one lawyer lit up like the IQ just went off. She jumped in and explained to others what they were. Again, blank stares.

So another lawyer was trying to explain a car collision and grabbed my tarts by color. Red in the front, yellow behind, green behind that, blue in the back... move this to show a pass on the right. Move that to show a pass on the left. Move this to show the person who drove up the middle and crashed...

Then he said he got it wrong and rearranged and showed again. It was like 4 walnut shells with a pea under one, move them around, where is the pea?

I just wanted to bang my head on the desk.

No wick needed in a firestarter. Just light the rim of the dixi cup with a long lighter and you're good to go.

The trick that everyone uses is to twist the wick. I give it 3 or 4 full rotations. That way as it burns down the curved part spins and evens it out.

You asked about unprimed wicks. I've used unprimed wicks a lot. The first burn will be a little funky, but after that the wicks seem to do fine. I've also been known to take a few feet of wick off a roll and drop it in the presto with the wax for a couple of minutes until the air foams out of the center and it saturates. The hotter the better, but just work with your normal temperatures. Once in a while I might use some high temp microcrystalline wax to prime. Quite frankly, I don't notice much difference.

I'm not so fancy. I use those small dixi cups at Costco that are like 2 ounces or so. I fill the cup half way with my firestarter materials (wood/wax) and stack them when they cool. I can get 6 in a ziplock sandwich bag. I put two ziplocks in a brown lunchbag (also cheap at Costco). The brown bag has warnings printed on it cuz it runs through my printer just like envelopes. So a bag of 12 for $4 bucks or whatever I can get is just fine. I end up giving most to friends who go camping in the winter.

A few thoughts. First, the FO is often the culprit for creating mushrooms. I'm guessing that you have heavy load and that some of it sweats out a bit at the top creating a higher concentration for the first burn?

I am also wondering if the FO isn't mixed well and is concentrated at that end of the candle. Unlikely though. I'm sure you stir in the FO thoroughly before pouring. I assume you are using a candle FO that is meant for candle wax.

Now I have noticed that the first burn is sometimes not the best. I mostly use wick material off a spool and either prime it myself or use it unprimed. The first burn does tend to rely on the priming more than the wax as far as saturating the wick. After the wick starts to burn down it gets a bit more saturated with the actual wax that you use and that might be less likely to mushroom.

However, I think the cause is more likely how the FO is acting with the wick. Might be the wick is somehow picking up the FO on the first burn.

One of the suggestions on this board a while back was to group the molds close to each other and take a cardboard box and turn it upside down and cover the molds. Keeps the air still and holds the heat a bit.

Yup, if the wax cools too fast, it won't feather as much. Some folks put them in a box or put a box upside down around the molds to hold in the heat a bit longer. I'm betting that the location of your two molds was such that one cooled faster than the other.

yeah, get a bunch of small dixi cups (they are one or two ounce) at costco. Go to a pet store and get a bag of hamster wood. Fill the cups 2/3 way with wood and then pour your wax into it to the same level. They make great firestarters.

I think you have too many waxes to blend. 4625 is what I use for pillars. But it has less additives than 4786 or 4633. So it might work as the low additive wax to blend. But it increases the melt point and wet spots like crazy in a container. The introduction of soy to this mix is an outlier. I say that because you have 3 paraffins and a soy which is very unusual.

Ok, so if I were to mix those four for a container.... I'd take my first shot at it by using 50 percent 4786, 25 percent 4633, 12 percent 4625 and 12 percent 415.

I would use a bold FO because soy tends to not throw FO"s well unless they are formulated for Soy and cured well.

I would then test the wicks after 12 hours to see if the burn looks kinda right. Right flame height, steady flame. Ignore throw. Pay attention to jar temperature and pool depth at 2 hours and 4 hours. If at 4 hours you have full width and less than 1/4 inch depth, fine.

Then when you have that right, make a few more and age them for a week. See if they burn right and if the throw is good.

My two cents to what you are playing with. Do not try to test the throw on your 4 wax / parrafin - soy blend in less than a week.

Best wishes. Eric