The Recycapple Candle

[frustratedearthmother]

I used solar powered landscape lights during a hurricane and the 2 powerless weeks after. They were new and had never been exposed to the elements. I would put them in a sunny window during the day and they gave light until I'd go to bed. That was Hurricane Ike - quite a few years ago in 2008. Maybe they were made better back then. Oh....and I got them on sale - only paid a buck apiece!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Is it layered with all the different candle wax colors? It looks a really pretty red color in the photo.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Here's another photo of it unlit to show a bit of the layering if you can tell.

 

[Nifty]

This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!

I have some weird addiction with candles... especially taking the remaining bits of old candles and putting them together into new candles.

The problem I have is always with the wicks. It seems (for reasons beyond my area of expertise) that the candles always just go out after a bit after being lit.

Are the wicks too big, too small, too skinny, too fat... wrong kind? I have no idea

Any suggestions?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I used to make candles WAY, WAY, WAY back in my teens/early adult years. Now... I'm trying to recall the experience from 4 - 5 decades ago! IIRC, the secret to getting the wicks to burn well was to be sure they were soaked in wax before pouring the candle. I think I would dip/soak the wick at least 3 times to be sure it was well saturated, then place it in the form, and pour the candle. One of my favorite types of candles to pour was: Place a standard taper candle in the middle of your form. Fill the form with crushed ice. Then, pour a wax of a different color into the form. The resulting candle would look like Swiss cheese. When burning, it was important to put the candle in a good sized container to catch the lava wax that would spill out of the Swiss cheese holes.

 

[Nifty]

most of those look like those little tea light candle wicks which may not really be able to do much at all.

Yeah, you are correct. I'm going to try re-melting the others and putting 3 of the taper candles in the new one... that should solve the problem

 

[Nifty]

Thanks! I'll be very mindful of the safety of the situation!

Yeah, good point regarding different types of waxes, etc. There's probably a bit of a mix

Also, I would not advise using 3 taper candles in a jar. That is a lot of heat.

Hmmm... this is really a problem / issue? I thought these jars were made for candles and the high-wax temps, no? (they aren't mason jars, but thick candle jars). Is the worry that the glass will explode or something, or just that the jar will get hot and then be a safety issue with the heat? (the former would be more of a concern than the latter).

Did you try just one taper candle in a jar with your melted wax mix around it?

I thought I had in the past and had issues, but can't remember exactly... I didn't try it this time around, but maybe I should?

I just noticed the big candle has a significantly larger wick... which makes sense. The two taper candles in my smaller jar seem to be doing a mostly good job

 

[Britesea]

That's one of the main reasons I have olive oil lamps for emergency lights, especially for the bedroom. If they get tipped over, the oil smothers the flame and it goes out. They can give a decent amount of light- enough to read by, and you can use other oils- I've heard of people using castor oil or cod liver oil- although they sound like they wouldn't smell that great. You can use rancid oil too- the fuel itself might stink, but the burning fuel won't. My only problem is that olive trees won't grow here. I plan on experimenting with sunflower seed oil, since I have an oil press and sunflowers grow easily.

Here's some more information about oil lamps and some simple DIY lamp ideas: https://www.primalsurvivor.net/vegetable-oil-lamp/

 

[Nifty]

Well, y'all got me sufficiently freaked out!

I had 3 taper candles in the big thick jar, melted a ton of leftover candles, and had poured them in. All the wax was about 90% solid until I read all the posts, pulled out the 3 taper candles, remelted the entire thing again, and put one single taper candle in the middle.

Here it is after burning for about 3 hours. Looks like I'll need to do either 2-3 of these smaller taper candles, or get a bigger wick.

 

[Hinotori]

That wax pool looks like you could get away with 2 wicks of that size in there.