New to board w/questions

[PRHS Lions]

I teach manufacturing in high school. I've decided to start making some candles to show the casting process to my students. This is alot easier (not that is easy) and safer than working with liquid metal.

Could someone give me basic list of stuff that I need to buy to get started? I have 20 students in my class. I want enough so each student can make one. Thanks for your time and I look forward to viewing you responses.

[tcarr5]

I would start with a kit

[Scented]

Given you're going for 20 students, a kit doesn't exactly sound like the thing to do. But how elaborate do you want to get? For instance, if you made pillars, there's the cost of the molds for 20 (or eliminate that by having them bring their own mold) but 2 slabs of paraffin ought to get you through )of everyone did like a 3x3). However, depends on if you want to do the additives and picking the wick isn't that simple either ... given there were be such a variance in sizes if they all brought their own.

And then there's the matter of if you know what you're doing when dealing with wax. Sure it isn't like pouring melted metal, but it has its fire hazards.

[RobinInOR]

I'd buy a couple slabs of paraffin at Michaels, and try to find something local to do pillar molds. It's kind of grade school, but you can use quart milk cartons, or maybe even soda cans. Or, if you're teaching the casting process, maybe you've already got plaster molds or something similar? Anything porous would need to be coated with something like ModPodge to seal it.

Michaels has wicks as well, but their colors and scents aren't very good. There's basic instructions on the candletech pages to the left for making pillars, you can look through those.

[kdmorgan]

If you are teaching casting methods, I'm assuming you will want to use a two-piece mold. The link below is a great supplier for molds and has a wide variety to choose from.

http://www.pourette.com/

HTH,

Kim