New guy saying hi here. I'm as green as you can get at this. lil history how this adventure came about. We've been married 27 happy years and have traveled a lot. In those travels, and life in general, we have collected a lot of coffee mugs. They keep getting moved and stored. Some have sentimental value; like one from our first set we bought when we 'setup ' house. We've always burned candles in our home. And for the past few years have spent a lot on scented candles. So..I decided it would be good to learn how to pour my own scented candles in these mugs and use them around the house and camper. So, last week I stopped by a local scented candle store and got a quick lesson in 'waxology' from the owner. Soy flakes. And it went ok. We don't get the scent in the house after burning that we'd expected. Warm Jazz scent. I don't think I got the percentage right. I just sort of guessed at it, it smelled good in the pot. I didn't want to overdo it. Or it maybe just that scent. So, after a couple of pours I have some questions. I'm sure I'll wander around and find some of these answers on this board, but here are some newb questions, but I mostly wanted to introduce myself here. my major confusion is about percentages/weights etc. Appears to be lots of measuring needed. I need to get me a kitchen scale I guess first. But, anyways, I see so many different opinions/thoughts online that it's hard to know WHAT to do. Weigh wax...add scent (by weight or by a volume ? One place said 1 tsp to a pound of wax). How do you clean the wax/scent from things you use to melt/pour? As the newbie, I'm using the coffeecan in a boiling pot with a candy thermometer and that's working ok I guess. I read to keep it at 180. I also read about people using other thing to melt/pour out of and am curious how you clean those pots where the scent isn't in the next pour? I put my stuff on a cookie sheet with newspapers in the oven and turned it on low and got most of it off and wiped it out. But...still the old scent is on them. yea, I can get another coffee can, but there has to be a better method of cleaning. Oils vs Fragrances seems to be an ongoing dilemma. Does it really matter? wood wicks vs cotton? My son and I decided we'd make a 'mandle'..a man candle. :laugh2:So, we got a wood wick, some patchouli scent and poured in a big Titanic exhibit mug. (added a lil blue coloring crayon..how newb..but that's all we had to color with. It made it blue though). It's doing ok, but the wood wick is not really flaming..just sorta glowing. That normal? I thought it'd sizzle like those woodwick candles we bought. The local store is very expensive for supplies and his oils don't say "essential oils". I see a lot of candlemaking supplies on Ebay. Have you guys had good luck with that route? or do you prefer to buy locally and pay the difference because you can hand pick? So anyway, there you go. It's good to have a good resource for information. Thanks and have a good day, Mark