giedre11 Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 I seem to have a rather strange situation on my hands and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I hope I'm even posting this in the right section! I got some embeds that I've used to make a drink candle...but it's not a gel candle, it's a J-50 wax candle. It's a very large cup {24oz.} that I filled with wax {J-50} and added 1.5 oz of vanilla fo per pound. Actually I made two of them. One I triple wicked with htp 52 wicks, the other I triple wicked with htp 83 wicks. I then proceeded to put a whipped cream dollop over each wick {they're pre-drilled} and added a cinammon stick, a couple of cherries and some chocolate chip embeds. They were added when the wax was set up some already so I could just push the embeds down a little into the liquid wax and not have the embeds sink. I let them sit for several days and decided it was time to test them. I was hoping the candles were not overwicked. Well let me tell you was I surprised when the candles barely and I mean very barely burned. I tried pushing some of the embeds around and moving some of the melted wax to the side in hopes of seeing some type of better burn. Well, nothing doing. I then put the candles out and pushed htp 104's in each spot. That didn't work. I then did the same thing with htp 1212's and finally got a burn that looks fairly normal, but nothing at all that one would expect, I mean there are three htp 1212's...the cups are 4.5 inches in diameter and straight up and down sides. Actually the 1212's are giving me a rather small melt pool considering their size...maybe about a 1 inch melt pool for each wick. Heck I use them to burn my palm pillars and get a great burn. I don't understand what's going on. Could it possibly be the high melt point of the embed wax? Then I was thinking I made a mistake in calculating fo amount, but I really don't think so. I have pushed fo to the extreme and still was able to get a decent burn in my pillars{paraffin} Sorry for the overly long rant, but I'm just totally lost. Anybody else do these types of candles? What are your thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twoscentsworth Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Embed wax is generally made with a high melt point paraffin, sometimes as high as 200degrees.. Gel wax generally has a higher melt temp around 275 degrees so the embed wax needs to have a high melt temp.J-50 has a melt pool of abut 128 degrees sooooo....you can see where a problem might develope. Find out from the person/place that sold you the embeds what type of wax, any additives and the melt point of the embeds are. That might give you a clue. Plus the fact that you placed an embed over the wick is probably where your problems are. Try it without placing the embed over your wick and see if that will help. You can still use the embeds if you keep them to the side of your container. They may not melt but will still look good.edited to add info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giedre11 Posted May 3, 2006 Author Share Posted May 3, 2006 Thanks Twoscentsworth for your reply. I am pulling my hair out on this one, so I've decided to start all over again. I do realize the vast difference between the embed melt point and the J-50 melt point, but I figured after a certain point in burning the candle, the two waxes would mix and it would burn adequately. This morning I fired it up again, and I've now gotten a full melt pool, but it amazes me that the flame height from the 1212's is only about a half an inch! I guess it's just my "newbiness" lol, that I have'nt had much experience with really high melt point waxes. The following are pics of the candles before I lit them, and the second where they are lit. The lit candle pic is not too clear, but if you look closely, you'll see where I have already inserted the bigger wicks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twoscentsworth Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 You are very welcome. First let me say those candles look scrumptious those big dollops are what's holding you back....it takes a lot to get that high a meltpoint wax melting....what if you just put a dollop in the middle of the wicks? Once the wicks get going and start melting the wax it might work out. The tin will also eventually get hot and help some.thanks for the pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giedre11 Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 Thanks I'm going to give that a shot. First I'm going to just check the J-50 itself, just to see if there are any problems there, then I'm going to add the "toppings" a little at a time and see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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