candlentn

See, I guess this is where the experience just comes in.

I dunno what my "formula" is yet....I just want to make a good smellin candle.

Sorry, us new guys.

I have 1 oz of a FO Pear and Pomegranate and I wanna pour a candle. Plenty of soy blend.

That's all I have left and I wanna pour it and take it with us this weekend on a camp trip.

And I'm getting ready to order a sample pack from Peak with 10-1oz samples.

So, I wondered how much wax to melt/pour with 1 oz FO.

Umm, this maybe a crazy question, but let's say you had 1 oz of a scent and you wanted to pour a candle just to 'test' it.

How much wax, soy blend, would you use?

I just want to pour in a container.

*I know scents have different throws....Just a quesstimate how much wax....

Thanks!

With these 1 oz samples..I know there is a variance in what the throw is, but i'm just pouring up 8-10 oz coffee mugs now.

I want to learn what these scents are like.

If you were just gonna pour up 8-10 oz mugs, how much FO would you put in them?

*I know some FOs are stronger than others, but just as a rough estimate.

I like that peak candle site. Very user friendly and updated. I like how it gives instructions and insights as well. I also like that smaller pour pot cause is just a hobby for me. But the main reason is the sampler FO's.

Think I'll place an order for that small pour pot, some cotton wick samples pack, some dye chips and those 10 samples : Citronella (because we camp a lot and i can use our souvenier mugs to fill for outside), clean cotton, nag champa (nice manly one :smiley2:) Orange, patchouli, Tuscan nights, cranberry apple, beach daisies (that just sounds funky enough I wanna smell it) asian sandlewood and rose.

Thanks for the headsup for that site.

Got it..makes sense.

That's a huge list of suppliers. I can see that the FO are a lot cheaper on these online stores than from where I got mine locally, actually 1/2 of his price. But there's shipping on those, so it might end up about the same or.... .86 diff. :rolleyes2

I don't even know what most of those scents are. So far, all I've used is Warm Jazz and Patchouli and tonite I poured Pear Pomegranate (that's just about too sweet).

The Patchouli I like for my office but this was essential oil and honestly..it just stunk, didn't smell like a patchouli candle at all. I think I'm gonna toss it.

My 19 year old son came in tonite from a date and asked if I'd make him one for his room in this clear mug he found. LOL.

May turn out to be a family event. I'll get the stuff ready and let him pour his own.

When I have a container/mold I'm not sure of, I put it on the scale, tare the weight, fill it with water and then multiply that by .86.

What is the .86 relevant to?

Thanks!

Here are my initial thoughts after a pour or two:

-Wood wicks suck.

-I can wipe my coffeecans out and the scents don't seem to carry over.

-Keep all my candle making junk in one place.

-i got myself a scale (believe it or not that was hard to find..but I found one at a Kmart)

-stick my wicks to the bottom and use a clothes pin to straddle the mug and hold the wick up.

-keep papertowels on standby.

Some questions:

-I have to find a more reasonable supplier for scents. The only one I have local charges $10.00 for 2 ozs of FO. (It's quality oil, he runs a candle making business...very successful) Is there a particular online resource you guys can recommend? for quality and cost?

-I guess I need myself a pourpot.

-I remelted a couple and how do you get those black flakes out??

-I'm using this formula..is it about right for scented candles in containers?

And I'm adding 1 oz (30 cc) of fragrance when it reaches 170 and stir for a couple of minutes.

That bout right??

Overall, I'm enjoying it..for some weird reason, it's fun.

Thanks!

Mark

#1 - you need a scale - everything to do with candlemaking is by weight....no measuring with teaspoons.

"]Will do..tried at WalMart and Lowes last nite and to my surprise, neither had one.

#2 - No crayons for coloring - use only dyes made specifically for candles (liquid or blocks) I prefer liquid.

Ya, I thought it wouldn't be a good idea, but I'm just testing and playing around now. But, it made it a lil blue and that's what i was going for.

#3 - Using a coffee can is ok for now, but life is easier with a pour pot. Craftstores usually have them but their wax, FOs & wicks are overpriced and not really good quality.

Will look for one. Some say they just get an old coffeepot. Google said FO is fragrance oil.

#4 - Not all scents work in soy - it's all a matter of testing. (heck, even some scents don't have much of a throw in paraffin either) Some scents like Patchouli can be difficult to wick along with vanilla & cinnamon. Essential oils don't usually have much of a hot throw and they are rather expensive to use in candles.

"throw"..I guess that means how the scent spreads in the house. I guess this means also that I'll just have to play around with diff scents and such. Yes, the FO is expensive, I found some that were just Fragrance and were a LOT cheaper. But, I had read somewhere online to only use Essential oil, so here again, lesson learned.

#5 - cleaning the pots - heating in the oven is fine. If you cleaned the equip well, the little bit of lingering scent won't make any difference once you scent your next batch. You'll do well if you get yourself a heatgun - a Chandler's best friend!!

"A candle manufacturer is traditionally known as a chandler." I'd have missed that on a trivia question. How'd I live this long and not know that? I'll have to find out why I need a heatgun.

#6 - Get your supplies from a reputable candle supply company.

See here in my city we don't have any except one and he's very expensive. I will just have to do some searching I guess.

Again, thanks for the answers here.

Mod please delete...thanks.

Thanks for your reply and yea, I realize right now it's cheaper to buy them premade.

But honestly, I really enjoyed my first candlemaking try...dunno why, I just did.

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