Candle moulds cleaner, 2 easy ways to remove wax from tools
Do you know the right way to clean candle moulds?
Some of my students didn’t know how to clean tools for candle making when they came to my candle making class first time. I thought some beginner creators around the world might not know how to clean the tools as well. It is necessary to remove completely wax from your moulds if you want to make beautiful candle products and sell them. So, I would like to tell you how to clean pots, moulds, thermometers and other tools for candle making!
Some major candle making lesson in Tokyo, the teachers do many steps instead of students because they need to dismiss the class on time and want to teach many students at once. So some students just learn to melt the wax, add colour dyes and pour wax to a mould. I think it is impossible that those students make the same candles they learned in those class and improve their skills for candle making at home if the teachers still keep the teaching style.
I hope the people who like candles enjoy creating beautiful candles, and hope you improve your candle making skill at home. I will show many technique and mind to create hand-made products on my blog.
1st cleaning step: Wiping
Wiping is basic skill to clean candle making tools.
It is a very simple way, take some toilet paper and hold it by chopsticks or tongs. Heat your pan a little on an induction cooking stove. If you can see white smoke, turn off the stove, then wipe remained wax from the pan.
It seems like to wipe some oil from a pan when you cook.
Please don’t overheat the pot. Some brown burnt stain may appear on the bottom of it if you heat your pot long time.
2nd cleaning step: Using a heat gun
Please use a heat gun for DIY if you want to remove wax from candle moulds. (Plastic mould, silicone or aluminium moulds.)
It is a necessary step if you want to make a beautiful candle at home. If there are remained wax inside a mould, your candle surface would not be pretty good after getting your candle rid of a mould.
You can buy heat gun online or DIY shop, they have two types of heat guns. One of them, it is a big one for DIY or industrial products. Another is a small one, it is for embossing cards.
I highly recommend using a small heat gun (emboss heater) for candle making because it is not only cleaning moulds but also adjusting the candle design.
Using a heat gun to plastic moulds and aluminium moulds
Take some toilet paper and set it under your mould. Take some toilet paper again, and melt remained wax little by little on the mould by a heat gun and wipe the wax out.
Plastic mould temperature limit is 120 ℃ / 248℉, the mould would be melt if you heat the one part of the mould long time.
Using a heat gun to silicone moulds
You can see some slightly thin wax flakes on silicone moulds when you get your candle rid of a mould.
Cleaning up the silicone moulds is easy because the thin wax flakes are quickly melted, but they blow off in the air and stick to the floor. So I recommend heating gradually your mould by a lower power heat gun( a small heat gun).
Cleaning silicone mould is the same way with plastic moulds. Set toilet paper under your mould, and melt remained wax little by little on the mould by a heat gun and wipe the wax out.
Tools you can clean by a heat gun
I’d like to show you some candle making tools you can clean by a heat gun.
・Pot handles
Candle creators often clean inside of pans, however, the handles will be dirty as well. Please keep clean your pan handles.
・Induction cooking stove (unheated parts ; switch, edges of the stove)
Candle wax often stick the unheated parts of an induction cooking stove, so if you teach how to make candles to someone or want to keep the good condition for your products, I suggest you keep clean those parts.
・Thermometer
It is easy to remove wax the front edge of thermometer but the tail part is difficult a little to remove wax, so use a heat gun.
・Tweezers and Nippers
We often use tweezers and nippers for making candles. Those tools are very small, so it is useful to use a heat gun to remove wax.
Finally
I didn’t know how to clean tools three years ago when I started to make candles. At the time, I had experienced not to fun to create candles because of dirty tools. The messy workplace may affect your creative mind, so keep clean your workplace for your beautiful products.
I would be glad if this article helps you to improve your creative skill for candle making.
