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Wandering wick!


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The weirdest thing has just happened - every candle I made and burned this week has had its wick wander way off-centre. I pre-wick all my pillars and give them a good ol' tug after pouring in the wax. All that I can think of is that I poured these pillars at approx. 80F, and I normally pour cooler than that, and maybe didn't tug hard enough as I find that a good tug at a higher temp will sometimes dislodge the wick entirely. Has anyone else experienced this strange phenomena, and if so, what did you do to solve it? TIA. Mozzie

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Hi Mozzie

sorry I can't help you, it's the first time I hear something like this.

How do you seal the wick hole?

I use Pongo (that rubber thing children play with to make shapes and animals..) and I find if that wax is too hot or I use the heat gun the pongo gets hot and detaches from the wick hole, so wick becomes loose.

I have to retighten it, using cooler pongo to seal.

HTH

Cheers

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:yes:

Pongo (or "plastilina" in italian) works really well, it's cheap, I can find it almost everywhere.

I don't have problems unless I use too much heat, but usually I don't.

I use pongo with aluminium molds also, they are perfectly sealed and I don't have to use metal tape!

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I use blu-tac with tape over the top of it. Sabrina, I think that your "pongo" is the same as our "playdo". It's like plasticene and kids roll it into different shapes. Scents for me, I'll see if I can get hold of plumbers putty as it may take heat a bit better than the blu-tac. Thanks for the idea. Mozz

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:yes:

Pongo (or "plastilina" in italian) works really well, it's cheap, I can find it almost everywhere.

I don't have problems unless I use too much heat, but usually I don't.

I use pongo with aluminium molds also, they are perfectly sealed and I don't have to use metal tape!

WOW - I haven't heard about that stuff for ages!!!! We also had it in South Africa, and I used to love it as a child! It was called plasticine, and it is somewhat like a cross between playdoh, and plumbers putty. I assume it would work great for plugging up the molds......

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Mozzie, I had the same problem with my wicks a few times, and I figured it was when I let the candle cool too much before poking my relief holes. It seems that the wax that was cooling inside tended to pull the wick off center. I use wick pins now so I don't have that problem anymore, but when I do wick before pouring, I make sure I have open relief holes to allow the wax to cool more evenly. Am I waffling, or does that make sense?!?!?!?

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Mozzie, I had the same problem with my wicks a few times, and I figured it was when I let the candle cool too much before poking my relief holes.

M, I'm starting to poke relief holes at the one hour mark - does that seem too late to you? Also, I always poke 4 holes, all about 1/2" away from the wick, and then keep them open til the candle cools - does that seem okay?

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