Mold Separation After First Pour

[hyp0r]

For some reason my candles have complete separated from the molds after the first pour. While I was trying to poke some relief hols the candle broke free and was rotating around the wick. I pour some other candles just a couple of hours earlier and this did not happen. My guess is that it was colder when I did the second batch which caused it to cool too quickly or something. I covered everything with a cardboard box to try and keep them from cooling too quickly.

So, my real question is, should I remelt that wax and do the initial pour again? I'm not sure how it would work if I did a second pour, wax would run down between the candle and the mold. What should I do? And do you agree that this could have been caused by cold temperatures?

Separated candle.

Other candles I poured a couple of hours earlier.

Edited November 21, 2012 by hyp0r

[Georgia]

a second pour would definitely run down between the mold and candle and most likely would just peal off after unmolding. A remelt and repour is neccessary. I have never seen wax shrink that much no matter how cold it is in my basement. What kind of wax is it and did you add anything to it?

[Sharon in KY]

They do look like two different waxes. Maybe you should add a little softer wax to the blue batch cause remelting doesn't look like it will work for the shrinking issue.

[Pam W]

Being adventurous, I'd remelt & repour 3 of them but do a second pour on one with a different color of wax, letting the wax seep down the sides and see what comes out - might produce something kewl.

[Judy, USMC]

What wax are you using? I usually use 4786 which is a 2-pour container wax. Found that if I do the initial pour cool it tends to shrink less. Hot pours really pull away from the container sides. Don't know if that will help.

Another thought - something I've seen done by another chandler. They only do the second pour to the bottom of the pillar; before it would overflow the candle into the mold and then level it off. Hope that can help some.

[Scented]

Well not necessarily. You can do a pour from a plastic cup type of thing and fill your holes ... only the holes, don't let the wax come out. You can level off anything with heat.

What intrigues me the most is did you have to drill your chopstick or whatever you used to create the holes into your candle? That's what it looks like to me in the first pic. There's just too much crumbly looking wax there that makes me curious.

Curious also, why you did not fill the candle completely to begin with? Were you going for a specific size? It's easier to hide the line from the second pour if you go to the top and try not to let the candle cool completely so that it does pull away.

But you know ... if you overpour trying to fill the candle you can cover up any of the imperfections quite easily by grubbing the outside or you can use those candles to be a core candle in something else etc. Hope that makes sense to you.

And your last question about could it have been caused by cold temp. Maybe. Cold temps tend to lead to the candle pulling away from the sides as it cools, but how long did your candle initially set before you made the holes? The wax I'm using and have always used has been pulling this trick on me lately and the thing is it's still warm around the wick pin that I use.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Scented