geekrunner Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 As many of you know, I have been an advocate of pouring cool, with the wax being cloudy to slushy, and pouring into room temp jars. I've had pretty good luck with it, no sinkholes and smooth tops, but have not been real happy with wet spots. Problem is the wax either adheres to the jar well, but then pulls away enough to cause wet spots. Only when it pulls away completely there are no wet spots.Ever since I've been testing new waxes and blends, I've been playing around with pour temps and pre-heating jars. Nothing has worked out so far, until just recently.I just warmed up a jar a little, and poured wax at 120*. After it cooled completely, it had no wet spots and total wax adhesion to the jar! It did have a slight sinkhole in the middle, so I poked it throroughly and heat gunned. So far, so good!Next, I tried what I have seen some do here. This time I pre-heated the jar till it was almost too hot to touch, poured at 145, then set a small cardboard box over the top of the jar to hold in the heat and allow to cool slowly. The 145 temp cam after I added Pryme color, then FO, and stirred for about three minutes, and it cooled to that temp. As I was stirring with left hand I was preheating the jar with my heat gun in the right.anyway, after it cooled overnight it had a slightly textured top but was relatively smooth. I poked with a knife and it was pretty solid in the middle! Not spongy or full of holes.I'm sure I just discovered something alot of others have already known, but just thought I'd pass it along in case anyone want to try it too.your Mad Scientist geek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyn Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Thanks much for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granjan Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Geek,I agree with Marilyn, thank you for sharing.Funny, yesterday I poured at about 115 deg with preheated tins in oven to about 100 deg. Put filled tins on a piece of wood so they wouldn't cool to fast then put a box over them also. I live in Florida so yesterday the house was about 80 deg. We didn't have the A/C on. They are my best looking ones yet. Now I want to try this with my bulb jars that have always given me fits!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainey Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Geek ~If you have a microwave nearby, you might want to try heating your container in it first, then add your wicks (experiment with the time to get the right temp for your container, i.e., 30 secs or 1 minute, depending on the wattage of your micro). It's a lot easier than blasting the container with the heat gun. :whoohoo: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeana Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 I hope this works for you. I keep my containers in the oven until I am ready to pour the wax in them, at about 160. This alows me to pour cooler to avoid the big pits. If I pour this wax into a cool container it reacts poorly. But unfortuntately, even though I have been preheating, I still haven't been able to avoid the wax pulling away completely when it has finished setting up. I just got a sample additive that is supposed to help with wetspots. I'm going to try it this weekend. I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekrunner Posted February 25, 2006 Author Share Posted February 25, 2006 Thanks for all the tips! I'm on the verge of a breakthrough here. I was told once, that learning occurs at the very edge of frustration. Hopefully I am nearing a light bulb moment!geek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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