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Ready to go - but a wick question


Henryk

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Finally got my supplies. (Haven't made anything yet but have some ideas.)

I really thought this stuff was going to be messy - its easily the cleanest wax I have touched - just like touching hunks of silicone - clean and dry (when I first saw I thought - this is going to be a slimmy mess).

:)

Anyway, one of my ideas was a "double glassing" one - so I was going to try to make Gel tealights in the clear plastic holders - thats safe to do I assume?

And naturally, a wick question on them. I found a grid recommending an HTP41 for the gel tealights - so, I figured either them or a w36-24-24Z would be a good point to start testing? How long of a neck on the wick tabs do you use for gel tealights? Safe to get away with the standard 15mm tealight tabs for gel tealights?

TIA

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Henry I like the HTP 31 in my tealights that gives room for error. I also use a standard tab. They don't burn long enough to be a problem I get about 8 hours out of mine.

The only thing with this wax is watch out for gel burgers they get every where and I mean everywhere.

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henry,

you have to be very careful with the plastic tealight containers. not all of them are safe for gel wax. i would suggest asking the supplier if the containers are safe for gel. gel wx burns hotter than other waxes.

and vicky is right about the gel boogers, my daughter and i used to groom each other like orangutans do after we made candles....

cheryl

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IMHO plastic and gel are a big no-no I don't care if they (the seller) tells you they are safe or not....they aren't....if you can't find glass tealite holders try using the smaller votive holders...will give you a longer burn also and displace more of the gel in the inside container which is a good thing.

You can use the shorter neck tabs when double glassing and I also suggest trying the zinc wicks...they will not slump as badly as some of the others will (after a while, the gel works its way into the wick and softens it and it will start to slump in the wax, since zincs have a metal core they tend to stand up better)....again, this is just MHO and years of working with the stuff.

....and the very first thing I thought of when I read your post was "wait until the gel boogers hit" :laugh2:

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Henry we too stay away from plastic or poly as they are. Not only are the temps worriesome, fragrance seems to be a factor with them where gel is concerned. I think Penreco may have something on their site about this, it has been awhile since I checked it out.

We use alot of oyster cups for double glassing if we're working with gel, they give a long burn time and most often do a candle out of gel, insert a glass tealight holder and a soy or paraffin tealight. They look pretty too and sometimes help to alleviate any concerns customers may have about burning gel. (These darn stories still pop up occasionally!).

Have fun and oh yes, we use alot of LX wicking in gel, not the norm but it works for our applications. The only thing is all our wicking in LX is pretabbed therefore waxed and it does mean popping trays of wicks into the oven between paper toweling to remove the wax.

Post some pics of your creations.

Wendy

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Not having any luck :(

Well, my first masterpiece was truley garbage-worthy. I tried to double-glass some embeds because one, they were soy so the meltpoint was probably really low, and two, the FO was probably not safe to use in gel. I learned that even though you pour gel hot, hitting all the small embeds (candy corn) made it cool really fast - so it never was able to get down to the bottom of the container.

My second one was just a container candle - it glowed really nice, but I wasn't too sure about the wick - it was zinc, but it had the absolute worse mushroom I had EVER seen in a candle. Basically, you could only burn it for an hour because the shroom got so big that the flame got so small it almost would go out. So I had to trim that every hour. I'm sure I shouldn't have to do that. So, I don't know if it was the FO or what.

My third was the same as the second, but I tried an LX - I had never seen a wick smoke like this - it was a flat flame if you can imagine that - with a near constrant stream of soot - even though the flame was only about .5" in height. So, scratch that.

So, when I get time, I will go back to the zinc and a different FO.

All in all - not having any success.

Back to the zincs - this burned really nice - for an hour or so - but then had a terrible shroom - is this normal? Surely I should be able to burn a 3" candle for 3 hours straight right?

TIA

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Here's what I did:

  • 3" glass tumbler (10 oz.)
  • 5% gel safe FO
  • 51-32-18 Zinc
  • 1/4 of hunter green dye chip
  • poured at 200F
  • Medium density gel

I did not take off the priming from the wick - and I didn't see it coming off in the gel. I'm not sure if this was the correct wick size as I only burned it a couple times before I just gave up.

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Well, my first masterpiece was truley garbage-worthy. I tried to double-glass some embeds because one, they were soy so the meltpoint was probably really low, and two, the FO was probably not safe to use in gel. I learned that even though you pour gel hot, hitting all the small embeds (candy corn) made it cool really fast - so it never was able to get down to the bottom of the container.

I should have went back and reread you can smack me later for not.

Pour this in layers. Layer gel corn gel corn gel corn you will be much happier with the results.

Now to wick if you left it primed you would most likely see a clouding right around the wick and in darker color like you did you might not even see it at all but in uncolored or light colors it would show up more.

That is the wick I would have chosen for that container you might drop a percent off of your FO you may be using a heavier FO and this might be the problem. I error on the side of caution in my gel and use 4.5%. I still think you will be getting some mushrooming but nothing like you described.

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Thanks everyone.

I will try to go down on the FO - and I will also melt off the priming - I'll use my BCN zincs because I know pretty much how they behave in other waxes (I used a different suppliers before - maybe that had something to do with it too - I don't know).

I'll let you know how it goes.

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It might have been just a corner of one when I say "1/4" of a chip - yes, it was still a medium shade - but the lx one that I did before that - that was a full 1/2 chip - boy was THAT dark! Yes I learned just a bit goes a long way in gel. I am going to cut down on the color also - its sort of defeats the whole purpose of gel if its too dark.

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