First Batch!

[Swim_Bike_Run]

Hi everyone! We have been reading and researching, and reading some more. Finally got everything together...got the room ready and ordered the supplies. Did our first batch yesterday and they turned out pretty good, considering it was our first try ever and something like this....neither my wife nor myself are really craft-savvy but love candles. Our plan was to learn to make a few great smelling, cool looking soy candles for ourselves and maybe friends and see where it takes us. I wanted to post a couple pics of our first product and also ask a few questions....

CANDLE ROOM:

FIRST BATCH - SUGAR COOKIE - TOP VIEW:

FIRST BATCH - SIDE VIEW:

Here are some notes and questions from our first effort.

We are happy we did not burn the house down or catch any of the pets on fire. We are also pleased that we made a decent candle to smelled good and burned evenly all the way across. We are using a Hamilton Beach 18Q Roaster for wax and we melted 3 lbs for the first batch. Containers are 12.5 oz Libbey Interlude so we estimated about 9oz candles. We got 5.5 candles out of this first amount. I am somewhat questioning if this was truly 4 lbs evenly though we measured it with our digital food scale - it was barely a third of the 10lb bag of - Naturewax C3 soy wax we got from Cajun Candles. Wax melted in about 1.5 hours at 200 degress and then we gradually turned up the temp on the roaster 25 degrees at a time until the wax finally got up to 185 degrees so we could add the fragrance and dye. It took another hour to hour and 15 minutes for the wax temp to get to 185 degrees and the roaster was at 350 degrees when we were done.

Questions:

1. Once wax is melted, do we need to gradually up the roaster temp like we did or should we go ahead and turn it up to 300-350 degrees so we can add the fragrance and dye? We were not sure so we just went slow.

2. If you look at the top of our candle pic above - you can see several white circles or "splotches"...is this a result of something we did? Can we do anything to avoid these?

3. The side pic does not show it very well, but there is a white or light colored "band" - about an inch wide or so going around.....again, is this a result of something we did incorrectly?

***Note - all 5 of our candles have the white splotches at the top and the white band around the side.

They do burn evenly and smell great so that is a good thing.

Any other feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks for all the info.

SBR (Brian)

[topofmurrayhill]

You may have noticed a roaster oven is way slow and inefficient for melting and heating wax. Not enough heat from the bottom where the wax is and too much from the sides, so most of the energy just escapes instead of doing what you want.

A Presto kitchen kettle will do the job in a fraction of the time. A double boiler approach would be very effective too -- you can place a pot of wax inside a pot of barely simmering water.

[kimmeroo]

Congrats on your first batch! I have 3 prestos and also use C3 wax..it melts on 200* in minutes. I never actually timed it but I love my Presto's! I see you had a little frost on top of the candle..if you have a heat gun you can zap the top and it should go away..I will give you an overrun of what I do..just to give you an idea...

I add the wax to my presto..let it melt..I prepare my jars which I set on a tea towel so the heat will distribute evenly, and our house is always 73-75*,

once the wax is melted I pour what I need into my pouring pot , I usually don't add dye..but lately ppl want colored candles so I use blocks..I have found that liquid makes C3 frost horrible! The blocks don't,or haven't for me anyhow...then I add fo and stir,stir,stir usually a couple of minutes..then pour into jars,no, I don't pre-heat my jars. I usually get perfect tops..no frost or holes.I try to pour as hot as I can it works for me.

Also I do temper my wax..Stella has this down pat, if you do a search it will help alot..especially with C3..but I would imagine this technique will work w/ any wax.(soy)

May I ask what kind and size wick you used for that jar? I think it looks beautiful..just think how many candles you will put out with a couple Presto's! Good Luck..

Kim

[Stella1952]

If you take a peek in the Veggie Wax forum, you will find loads of information about NatureWax C3 which would possibly answer your questions. There's also a site search tool that's very helpful.

Glad you're having fun!

[Swim_Bike_Run]

Thanks for the replies...is this the Presto Kitchen pot you everyone is referring to?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=888144

[Stella1952]

Yep - that's the one. The Presto Cooking Kettle. Wonderful thing! When I bought ours, I even bought an extra to use for cooking! *faint* :laugh2:

Don't toss out that roaster, though - it has many uses for candlemaking such as warming containers, remelting candles, keeping pour pouts warm when pouring layered candles, melting wax out of spent containers and off tools, etc. I wish I had one so I could give my kitchen oven a break... much more economical to use!

Edited December 14, 2009 by Stella1952

[mparadise]

I have a roaster that I use for warming jars in the cooler seasons and for melting my wax when I do dipped bears. I once I am done dipping a few of them I can shut it off and just put a big wire rack over the top to let them drip while I fluff them. So much less messy!

That said I didn't have much luck in using it for melting wax for regular production because it takes way too long. The presto is the way to go! I have 4 of them (1 pillar, 1 container, 1 as a double boiler for remelts & 1 extra in case I need to do larger custom colored batches or as a backup if one of my regulars die ). I have a commercial sized melter too but I still use the prestos when I only have a couple of candles to pour rather than waiting on the "monster" to melt.

[barbaranj]

You may want to check this site out...it tells you how you can install a spigot on your presto pot for easy wax transfer into your pouring pot.

http://www.candlecauldron.com/prestopot.html

[Swim_Bike_Run]

Kimeroo - you were asking about what wicks I used:

Heinz verhaegh - Stabilo CD-18 (6")... I got them at the Cajun Candles site.

Brian

[kimmeroo]

Kimeroo - you were asking about what wicks I used:

Heinz verhaegh - Stabilo CD-18 (6")... I got them at the Cajun Candles site.

Brian

Thanks ...I do love that candle! Kim

[soy327]

I have some of those jar's and I do find they cool quicker than most I put my poured candle in a heated to about 150 degree oven turned off to cool overnight.

They look great:yay: Keep us posted.

Linda

[Circle]

They look great, but I think you should fill them a little more as they look a little on the "ran out of wax" side and the libbey interlude is just lovely. Are you putting lids on them?