CandleAddict_RN

Here is a link to candletech do it yourself presto pot. You don't have to make the spout but I find it helpful. Since I inherited mine I never tried putting the spout in myself though. I've seen them at Walmart but they looked a lot smaller than the one I have.

http://www.candletech.com/general-information/do-it-yourself-wax-melter/

Very Nice!

They are Awesom!! Love the colors!

Congratulations! Glad it didn't take you long to jump in Now the REAL addiction begins:yay:

RN, here's what I would do. Go buy a few different Scentsy bars, burn and test them, and then make it your goal to make yours better. That way you have a base from which to work up from. If you've never tried Scentsy, you won't ever know how yours compare.

That's probably a good idea. I have never used any scentsy products. I did buy some melts from a on line candle company a couple years ago and used the only tea light melter that I had for them. I don't remember how long they lasted but do remember them starting to smell like burnt wax after a while. I now have an electric warmer since it looks like that is the trend. I need to get my hands on one of those night light plug in warmers and a one of those candle warmers with the bowl too. A lot of my co-workers with kids have requested the wickless stuff.

Anyway, it sounds like I am on the right track though. I made a bunch of clamshells and tarts a few weeks ago and of the two that I have tested lasted pretty darn long...... I think. I tried the Honeysuckle from CS, which I thought was kind of a light scent, and it filled my family room and flowed into the kitchen and out into the foyer for the first day or two, about 8-10 hours each day. It started to fade after that. 2nd was Mediterranian Fig from CS and pretty much same results. I can still smell it after a few days but very light & only in the family room, more so if passing by it. I can't wait to test some of the stronger scents like the Winter Candy Apple which is my absolute favorite

So I'm wondering what your expectations are for HT in your tarts/clamshells before selling them?

Approximately how long to you expect to get a strong HT from them? Hours? Days?

Do you expect them to just fill a room?(say a large room) Flow into other rooms? Or fill the house?

Hope I'm asking these so that you understand. I just don't know what I should expect of my tarts/clamshells:confused:

Looks fine to me but I'm a newbie to all this. Thanks for sharing the photo.

Believe me, I consider myself very much a newbi also and still learning. I starting making candles last August and still trying to get that "perfect" burn in a jar:( , so all these threads and posts are very helpful.

Yes, I think there is too little remaining and that is a safety issue. The whole idea of safety tabs is that they self-extinguish at the top of the tab. It doesn't appear that yours did that. It looks like it continued sucking wax from underneath the tab. If a wick doesn't self-extinguish properly, it is at greater risk of heating up and causing a problem. Sure that leaves unburned wax at the bottom, but I would rather have a candle that errs on the side of safety and is NOT dependent upon the customer to extinguish it sensibly. Some folks will burn 'em until there's absolutely nothing left and that's foolish.

The National Candle Association recommends 1/2" for a reason:

http://www.candles.org/safety_rules.html

Most warning labels reflect that. I am good with that.

Somehow I just knew this response was coming from you Stella:smiley2: I have read MANY threads where you have reinforced this info/advice and very good info/advice it is!! When I first burned a candle with the 10mm neck I mentioned to my friend how much wax it left. That's when I started using the shorter tabs, of course prior to reading all these threads :smiley2: So for now I will use these shorter tabbed wicks for testing since I have tons of them. Once I find my right wick with my right jar I will use the 10mm necks. I also want to pick up some of that permatex that you have mentioned in prior threads to help prevent the wick from sucking up the wax.

I do HATE that wasted wax though.

Here is what's left in a small libby square jar using a para-soy and an HTP 62 with a 6mm neck. Do you think this is to little left to be a safety issue?

I had bought some wicks from Lone Star also and ended up re-tabbing them with shorter wick tabs. BCS sells 6mm neck CD wicks and they also all come in 6" length which is nice too. I have a small jar that is finished burning and had a 6mm tab. I'll try and get the picture up so you can see what's left.

Those are AWESOME! Love them all!!

BCS sells all their CD wicks in 6" length. And they have CD 5's. Wish I could get my melt pools to even come close to looking like that!! I have never had a melt pool show the depth down the side of the container. They get close to the edge but that's about it:sad2: It does catch up though after a couple burns. Of course I use a para-soy, so maybe it burns differently

I generally use 8% for candles, 9% for tarts and wickless.

ymmv

What type of wax are you using for the candles? Do you use the same wax for both the wicked candles and wick-less candles? Do you also use a para-soy blend for your tarts in order to hold that much FO? .........Questons, Questions, Questions:confused:

Those are beautiful!!!! Love the colors!

Very nice job! Are those candy sprinkles that use used on top?

A while back I emailed Clarus regarding their 3022 wax as I wanted to know if it was the same that GreenLeaf use to sell as GL70/30 because I have a slab of that on hand. This is the reply that I got:

Thank you for contacting Clarus. Yes our 3022 is a wax that Greeleaf used

to market. We warehouse all of our candle products in Dallas (Texas Star

Warehouse). We do sell to the public and you are free to pick your products

directly from the warehouse to avoid shipping costs. We typically sell by

the pallet (2000+ pounds) - but we do offer the product in less than pallet

quantities. The smallest quantity we can offer for sale is one case (60ish

pounds). Pricing for all of our products is done by the pound. Case price

for 3022 is $1.55 per pound. Please let me know if you have any questions

or if I can be of further assistance. Thank you again for contacting

Clarus. HTH

So I don't know where you live WillowBoo but it might be something to look into. Of course I don't know what their shipping costs are as I only live about 35 minutes from their warehouse. I inherited this slab of GL70/30 but haven't tried it yet, although I've heard good things about it. I've been working with 6006 right now trying to concur that:smiley2:

Glad to hear some good reviews on Lone Star's liquid dyes:smiley2: The liquid dye's I inherited are all JC's, which are apparently no longer around:sad2: So anything I can get from Lone Star and be happy with is a good thing with them being only a 45 minute drive

I've been using 6006 for some time now and have had great HT with most FO. But with this last batch I tried mixing 464 at 15% as a suggestion and so far am VERY disappointed. It might be that these first 3 candles I'm testing are light scents, but I don't know. They are Peaks-Twillight woods, CS-Mango-Papaya, & CS Lemon Verbena. Anyone else find these to be very light scents?? I even let them cure for over a week. Used CD 10 & 12's in a 3" status jar with 6% FO load. The flames seem to be just right. A little mushroom on some and got just about a FMP on the first burn. I have never tried the 4627 but have heard great things about it. Might have to try it someday

Get it at Autozone or in automotive sections.

http://www.permatex.com/products/Automotive/automotive_gasketing/gasket_makers/auto_Permatex_High-Temp_Red_RTV_Silicone_Gasket.htm

I just told my DH about this and he said he has a ton of it at work & could get some for me to try

Thanks for the informational thread:) I can pick up clamshells at LS but even at their case of 875 it would be $0.25/piece(actually more as I don't have a tax ID yet) vs. the $0.19/piece including shipping from PanicPlastics

TN 70/30 is Soy/Pariffin

http://tennesseecandlesupplies.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=18_25_27&zenid=8bf1ad6587afc5a7768d76f5c2a5706d

When I am ready to start adding my dyes & FO, I usually throw on a pair of latex/nylon gloves. Sometimes I just wear them the whole time. Otherwise I could end up with multi-colored, multi-scented hands:laugh2:

I made some clamshells & tarts with Jamaica Me Crazy today colored aqua/teal.

I'm glad I'm not the only one!! I poured Peaks Mango papaya yesterday and I can't even smell it:( Of course I haven't burned it yet. Letting it cure a while hoping that the scent will pick up.

I started making some this morning but making only 2 tarts & 2 clamshells. That way I still have a little of the FO sample left for a small container candle to see how it works in that wax also:smiley2:

I'd like to know what clamshell holds over 3oz also. I bought mine from LoneStar but after putting in on the scale and pouring, I could only squeeze 2.7oz in it!

Thanks! I'm just starting out making them and I made some a couple weeks ago and some of my co-workers took some to test. Waiting to hear back on how they compared to their "precious scentsy" tarts, lol. I only had a tea light tart melter until I bought an electric one at walmart and I don't think the scent throws very well in the electric one.

So, Steve, I know from several of your posts that you use Palm and soy, but do you use any additive when using 8% FO load in your tarts/clamshells? I used my own blend of 4794 & 15% 464 with still only 6% FO load. Can you load up a little more on the FO with tarts/clamshells since your not dealing with wicks??

Thanks for any help you can offer.