EricofAZ

Out of curiosity, when the glitter in the melt pool contacts the wick flame, does it flare?

Big Lots has a recall of 30,000 candle "torches." They flare up and have burned a few people. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/big-lots-recalls-tabletop-torches-due-to-fire-and-burn-hazards-218840311.html All y'all (that's plural for y'all) be careful, ya hear? Eric

I have some. As I recall, it was a hodge podge of left over scents all mixed together. I bet you can make your own with leftovers.

I didn't see a side shot. How deep is your melt pool at 4 hours? I prefer 1/8 inch. Many others prefer double that. How hot is the glass (get an infrared temperature gun for that)? I don't see soot which is good, but might also mean hot temperatures (and that is something you have to regulate). Be careful about the wick that drops off and makes the black wick parts in the wax. One of those that floats close to the flame will burn and then you have a problem. I'm guessing you didn't trim the wick, which is good, cuz your customers will fail to do that no matter how well you educate them. You'll need to burn it all the way to the end to see what happens. A tall wick base will be good in a candle like that. From what I can see, the burn is fine, but I don't know your clock time. The last set of photos seem to show a 1/4 inch pool. If you got that after an hour and it stayed that way to 4 hours, great. It does seem a bit hot to me though (but I tend to underwick). If it got to the 1/4 inch depth at a half hour, then its overwicked IMHO.

Gotta make sure the wick does not touch the water below the candle. It will soak up the water and extinguish. Floaters take more testing than just wicking. They need a base in the water, a funnel type shape. You might want to weight it with a metal wick holder, small in height as candybee says. Think about how a boat is designed, the lower part under the water gets narrow. The part of a boat around the water line is pretty wide and gets wider above. Not all floater molds are designed well. Imagine a funnel that you use in the kitchen. Wide on the top, dramatically narrow on the bottom.

I prefer 4625 for pillars. I think I made some votives with 4794. But try them both.

I like 4786 for containers. The 4630/33 is also good, but I do blend. The blend tends to reduce wet spots. What I found is that the pre-blended wax sometimes tends to be pretty high in additives and I've had better luck diluting the additives with non blend waxes with similar melt points. General Wax in Los Angeles sells a non-blended wax. I don't think it matters much if you use the Harmony or the J233. They both are heavily saturated with additives. 70 percent 4786 and 30 percent the 4630/33 for me works fine. If I want to push the scent to 18 percent I dilute it with about 10 percent non-additive wax. I don't recommend that. High scent contents tend to make wicking nightmares and I use that only for myself. I don't make them available to others. ECO is the only wick I found that works with the high scent content and I pre-soak the wicks in high temp micro wax. Remember that your 4630/33 is lower melt temp so you may need to wick down a bit to get it to work with your normal 4786 build. I also tend to build candles that are underwicked for safety reasons. Keep the glass cool, lets the candle work for abuse for those that burn more than the recommended burn time. Takes longer to get a scent throw, but when it forms a full melt pool, its awesome. Please do not try to build an 18 percent FO candle. It is dangerous and you will have a tough time getting a steady flame. Never sell one.

Look into the ECO wicks. I've had great luck with soy/paraffin blends reducing soot and burning well.

We all know not to leave candles unattended, and we know not to use water to put out a candle fire. I hope we take the time to educate our buyers. ........................... http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/candle-causes-fire-destroys-home-s-shed/article_6c1fb072-fd7e-11e2-871b-0019bb2963f4.html A backyard shed was destroyed Saturday when an unattended candle started a fire. Crews were called at about 3:20 p.m. to the home in the 2000 block of West Calle Placida, in the area of North La Cholla Boulevard and West St. Mary's Road, Capt. Barrett Baker, spokes-man for the Tucson Fire Department, said in a news release. The owner of the home tried to douse the fire using a garden hose and sustained minor burns to his legs, but did not want medical attention, Baker said. Fire crews kept the flames away from the house, which received some heat damage. It took firefighters about 16 minutes to put out the fire. The cost of the damage had not been determined.

I've done that too. Its better than using a dry spool wick and I don't notice very much difference between the micro and just the wax that is in the pot. There is some difference like the higher MP micro helping the wick to stand better, but I tend to underwick my candles so the wicks don't really have much of a problem with standing in containers.

I'm a huge fan of ECO wicks and used them in the Harmony and the J waxes. The cotton cores work better for me in the pillars. That's about it. One of the things I've tried to do was wick so that if the candle was blown out (instead of wick drowning), the smoke would be minimal and the ECO's do that for me. I don't know if I'm using wicks that get the max HT, but not having excessive smoke is a plus.

I've noticed that a good stable conainer candle build with vybar and a slightly under wick choice tends to burn the same no matter what FO I put in, especially if I keep the FO around the 6 percent or less ratio. So in that situation, I would suspect that a custom mix would probably work out fine for the most part. For a pillar, no way, gotta test each one. For an overscented container, no way, gotta test each one. So maybe a light scent can be done "on the fly" if the supplier remains constant and the mix is something the builder has had years of experience with.

ksranch has a point, cool them slower. When you finish pouring, put a box over the containers to hold the heat in a bit. Make sure you don't add vybar. Mineral oil will probably compete with your FO for the amount of FO that the wax can hold so use that lightly methinks.

Some of the cups are low temp which is not good for us. I'd try a sample first. The ellipso ones work fine but for some reason I thought the black ones were not as good for temperature.

I usually prime in microcrystalline wax. You can get some really high MP stuff, like 200 degree or so. The high MP prime burns just fine and yes, it does stand better. I also sort of think it gives a more consistent burn. The way I prime is melting the micro in the presto then dropping in some of the wick (about 10 feet or so) and let it stay there until the wick foams (pushing the air out of the core) and then the foaming stops. When I pull it out, I drape it so that it dries straight. It does tend to form beads on the outside a bit. One of these days I'll figure out a way to run it through a set of hand held rollers when extracting from the pot to get rid of the excess.

Absolutely delightful to look at. Good job with this one.

One thing I can point out about the additives is the combination of scent throw and hardness. A Piller for example can be made with piller wax that probably has a MP around 135 degrees or so. The IGI's that do this have additives and they hold 6-8 percent FO. A little stearic makes the wax harder and whiter. The flip side would be to buy a harder wax. You'll probably notice that they don't hold as much FO. Around 3 percent. (and they tend to be less in the way of pre blended additives) So in that case, adding a bit of vybar to get the FO load back up to 6 or 7 percent is a worth while thing. So low MP pre blended with a little stearic or high MP non blended with a little Vybar are two good combinations. For a while I was actually adding some unblended wax to the Harmony because I thought the Harmony had too much pre blended stuff in it. I was trying to dilute it a bit. I thought the burn and throw were a little better when diluted. I agree with Stella completely, get the feel for the basic wax types first before blending or using additives. This holds true for Paraffin as well as soy.

Sometimes, as I recall, vybar can reduce spotting or wet spots in container candles made in paraffin. Probably no need to add vybar with IGI waxes. Many blends come with that already added. Stearic does whiten and harden paraffin.

Very good indeed. I'd love to learn this techninque.

Well, I tried 4786 straight and mixed. All my tarts stuck to the clamshell. Some deformed. I thougt at first it was too high of a pouring temp so I tried to cool it down as much as I could and still pour. Still stuck, but not so bad.

Smaller than tealights. But the wick/flame is way big for that so I guess the bottle top will get hot. Would be maybe OK for a floater. I wonder if folks who damage the top with a cheap beer bottle opener would experience leakage. Should be nice and toasty to anyone who wants to relocate it.

Ok, thanks for the education. If I dillute, what would be appropriate? DPG?

Anyone use Chevron 143 wax? I'm interested in cut/curl candles and use IGI 1343, but wondering if Chevron 143 will work with that? Or, if it is better for dipping tapers, are they dripless like 4807 wax? Thanks.

I made a few of the thick scent paper hanging thingies for the car mirror that had leather. They were great. A friend that details cars liked to put on in after a job and got some good reviews. However, I am starting to use up some of my older (but still good smelling) FO's in a fine mister. I'm just using them straight and they are strong which is good. I understand that a base should be used but I don't really want to do that. What is the reason for a base (other than cutting cost)? Is it necessary? Any safety concerns with just straight FO?

I'm considering the purchase of a bunch of 2 oz fine mist sprayers and loading them with FO that I have here (excess). Been doing that for the bathroom and its way better and stronger than any bathroom sprays in the store. So are there any safety concerns? Someone suggested that they need to be cut but I really don't want to do that. I want the "concentrated" or some such marketing idea that conveys that the spray is strong and uncut. What should I be concerned about when making these for others? Thanks.