Measurement of wax

[crazzie]

When measuring out your wax do you do it when it is dry, or once it is melted?

 

[TallTayl]

Depends. If making a lot of candles and the big vat is heating a lot of wax, then while liquid. If making only a few, i weigh cold wax, then melt.

The weight is always the same whether solid or melted. The volume is different, of course. You always measure wax by weight, not volume.

[coachtom]

Ditto. I only have a small process and I will always re-weigh when melted prior to adding FO and dye. 

[Guest OldGlory]

As TallTayl said, weight is weight. What was solid will weigh the same when it is melted.

If you want to make one candle and you know the container will hold 13 oz net weight at it's ideal fullness, then you need to consider the combined weight of wax and FO. When you add fragrance at 6%, that would be 12.3 oz of wax and .7 oz of FO.

[Jcandleattic]

I make my candles by weight, so it doesn't matter if it's melted or solid. I make 5lbs at a time and usually use anywhere between 4-6% FO. 

[Chefmom]

I tried for a long time to weigh the exact amount of wax needed from the dry/solid stage.  Ugh.  Especially paraffin and beeswax (from solid blocks)

 

I only have one presto, and I use it like a water bath with 6 rotating pour pots.  I have two marked with what kind of wax is in the pot in bulk and I put that on to heat and melt.  When melted I put an empty pot on my scale and pour the liquid wax and proceed from there.

 

Multiple pour pots are the only way to go when working with different waxes and pouring back to back. 

[bmwnfun]

I got a muffin pan on suggestion from someone, and then played around with pour temps until I got near exact 2oz "pucks". Now when I get wax, I roughly break it up, then don't worry about how much I put in my melter, then pour into the pan. That way, when I go to make candles, I just grab the needed number of pucks for the amount of wax needed, and I'm very close to where I need to be. I'm rarely off by more than 1/2 to 1 oz, depending on how much wax i'm using, and to make up the difference, I usually pour 3 or 4 clamshells to keep with the pucks so I can break off a cube to get me where I need to be.