[Jan]

Hello
I found the old post on your forum and was curious about the reason for the answer given:

‘I’m in the process of designing and making my own candles but I’m not able to find any candle containers that I like so I’m thinking of designing my own. My plan is to…..use resin…to make the container I want. I would pour the wax directly into the resin container.
My concern is the interactions of the wax and the resin as well as the flame of the candle and the heat of the melted wax.
Would any of this work?

The response was ‘no, because resin is not made for that purpose.’

I have been placing candles directly into a resin mold (very thick walled one) without any problems with melting resin, smoking, etc.
Is there another reason for resin not being suitable for this purpose? Does it perhaps emit toxic odourless fumes?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Jan,

Cured resin cannot withstand the heat of a direct flame.

[Jan]

Thank you for your response Katherine.
However, as I said, I have used epoxy resin containers many times with wax melted directly inside the resin container (no glass holder between the candle and resin), with no problems with cracking, melting, or any other visible problem. Each time the candle had finished burning, I examined the pots and there definitely was no damage or faults at all.
So, I am still left confused about the reason why it is not suitable, but thank you for your time taken to respond.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Jan,

I appreciate that it using resin in a candle holder has worked out for you. When developing resin formulas in a laboratory setting, we test for things like tensile strength, hardness, heat resistance, etc. The data tells us that cured resin cannot withstand the heat of a direct flame.

Of course, in the real world, things can always play out different. 🙂

[Jan]

Hi Katherine,

Thanks again for your reply.
It now makes sense to me why you advised as you did and I should have given more consideration to your legal responsibility, rather than personal opinion.
I was just a little confused because I had assumed that other people must surely have experienced the same outcome as me, otherwise I was repeatedly having extremely good luck, or alternatively was unknowingly causing odourless toxic fumes to fill my home!

[Author]

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