Help with Pillars

[craftiejean]

Morning everyone..

I'm trying my hand at Pillars.. But I'm not having much luck.. I'm using 1343 wax, 1/2 tsp Vybar, 3tbp Stearic Acid, 24ply wick & 1 oz of FO (vanilla) to a pound of wax. When I did a burn test yesterday I did 3, 3hr burns and VERY little burned down but I did have a nice size pool. I also notice that it looked like it was sweating on the sides but when I touched it, it was Fo. I know that vanilla is a hard scent to work with and know that most likely I will have to wick up but what can I do about the sweating...

Any help would be great...

Jeanna

[Scented]

Just off the top of my head, make sure your FO is mixed into your wax well. I find it easier to mix vanillas by warming them before putting them into wax. Make sure you're weighing your FO. And to cut back on the sweating you could probably lower the amt of FO. Don't know that you need to use vybar and steric together either. Maybe one or the other or UA. And if your candle is sweating, you could wrap it in a paper towel till it dries. Soooo many things to try lol! Keep tinkering cuz something will work!

[eugenia]

Try a 30ply, especially if the FO is heavy.

e

[SnowCow]

exactly what scented said! usually not a need to use stearic and vybar together. you also may want to cut back a little on the fo. vanilla's are heavy and you don't always need a full ounce to get a good throw. my pillars usually don't burn down too much the first burn. i just wait for them to get a good melt pool, then extinguish.

[Pam W]

that's exactly what happend to me when I first used the 1343 - according to other threads, the 1343 doesn't hold as much FO as other waxes. Those darn candles weeped & sweated till they were all burned down. They burned great but I had to wash my hands after each hugging to get the FO off. Haven't poured any more since but I have a case of the stuff stashed under my bed, I'm sure I'll try it again.

[topofmurrayhill]

Yeah that's a whole lot of FO for 1343 and it's really not nice when it sweats like that. As a good starting point for that sort of candle you might try dropping it down to 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz FO and double or triple the Vybar.

Finding the right amount of Vybar should be sufficient to harden the candle and hold the FO. It's nice to keep things simple. You might trade off a little Vybar for stearic later if you decide you need a higher melting point for purposes of wicking and burn characteristics. Vybar won't do that.

It's also critical to mix that vanilla really well even if you have to spend twice as much time doing it. With vanilla you'll usually see droplets on the bottom of the pot, so make sure you keep stirring unless those are gone. Completely.

[Candle Man]

I use 1 1/2oz of FO per Lb with vibar and mine never sweat.

[topofmurrayhill]

I use 1 1/2oz of FO per Lb with vibar and mine never sweat.

Using IGI 1343?

[craftiejean]

Thanks for your input everyone..I just printed out the messages so I could have them on have for the next time..And I keep everyone up dated with what happens..

Again Thanks..