I was looking at bottle sealing wax to cap off some of my soon to be inventory so that it may be stored in our unfinished grungy basement. But at ~$18/lb I find that kinda expensive for a single use item. So I used my Google-Fu and came up with some serious amounts of data to sift through, and came up with a winner here: Homebrewtalk.com. No need to read it all, I'll have a synopsis below.
I came up with my own proportions of course. Mainly because I ordered some industrial crayons called "Staonal" that have massive amounts of pigment in them instead of the cheaper but much more plentiful kids crayons. The kids crayons are great if you have kids, or if you are around kids a lot, but no kids here, and my youngest nephew is 18...
So short story long is this:
You use household grade, NOT industrial grade, hot melt glue sticks and ordinary kids crayons obtained in bulk color of your choice to make bottle sealing wax. The recipe is pretty simple:
1) Find a suitable container to melt everything in, remember that taller is generally better than wider to make sure you can get a good dip.
2) Obtain suitable quantities of crayons and glue sticks of choice.
3) Put them into the container.
4) Melt and stir to make homogeneous.
5) Test dip and get the temp, consistency, and method down. Recycle the old wax into the pot, it is 100% recyclable if clean.
6) Wax seal your bottles in your choice of color(s)/style(s).
Unused crayons can go to kids (or you) to have fun with (crayons are not just for kids you know!). Glue sticks to the person in charge of the hot glue gun for projects and crafts. And a win/win/win situation with goodies for three different areas of home crafting.
I used:
6 ........ 10" All temp hot melt glue sticks
3 ........ Red Staonal crayons
2oz .... Paraffin wax
Heated in a 16oz soup can on our electric stove, directly on the burner, at about the "medium" heat setting, staying there with it the entire time I was futzing around to make sure that I didn't start a fire. For stirring it I just used one of our old long dandled DULL knives to stir, and a pair of pliers to hold onto the can once it gets hot. When done I had a waxy goo that when dipped just right, and at the correct heat level, would make a nice thickness overall, whilst also making a nice dribble of waxa la Makers Mark. It was not too difficult to remove, in part or whole, with or without a pull tab/string underneath. I actually prefered using fiber reinforced packing tape for my own stock, or a decorative ribbon held in place with a blob of sealing wax with a stamp in it a la Grand Mariner for gifts.
The above recipe makes 8oz and uses 1/4 of my glue sticks, and crayons and paraffin are cheap, so my costs are:
Glue sticks ................ $5.97
Staonal crayons ......... $1.80
Paraffin wax .............. $4.11
TOTAL ...................... $14.88
Less than $18/lb. And will make me 2 pounds before needing to restock on glue and crayons depending on how deep I want the red to be (the paraffin will last 8 batches, or 4 pounds). I could honestly use 2 staonal crayons because they do have so much pigment in them, but I wanted it to be much richer.
OK, so tutorial over, chiming in begins.....
I came up with my own proportions of course. Mainly because I ordered some industrial crayons called "Staonal" that have massive amounts of pigment in them instead of the cheaper but much more plentiful kids crayons. The kids crayons are great if you have kids, or if you are around kids a lot, but no kids here, and my youngest nephew is 18...
So short story long is this:
You use household grade, NOT industrial grade, hot melt glue sticks and ordinary kids crayons obtained in bulk color of your choice to make bottle sealing wax. The recipe is pretty simple:
1) Find a suitable container to melt everything in, remember that taller is generally better than wider to make sure you can get a good dip.
2) Obtain suitable quantities of crayons and glue sticks of choice.
3) Put them into the container.
4) Melt and stir to make homogeneous.
5) Test dip and get the temp, consistency, and method down. Recycle the old wax into the pot, it is 100% recyclable if clean.
6) Wax seal your bottles in your choice of color(s)/style(s).
Unused crayons can go to kids (or you) to have fun with (crayons are not just for kids you know!). Glue sticks to the person in charge of the hot glue gun for projects and crafts. And a win/win/win situation with goodies for three different areas of home crafting.
I used:
6 ........ 10" All temp hot melt glue sticks
3 ........ Red Staonal crayons
2oz .... Paraffin wax
Heated in a 16oz soup can on our electric stove, directly on the burner, at about the "medium" heat setting, staying there with it the entire time I was futzing around to make sure that I didn't start a fire. For stirring it I just used one of our old long dandled DULL knives to stir, and a pair of pliers to hold onto the can once it gets hot. When done I had a waxy goo that when dipped just right, and at the correct heat level, would make a nice thickness overall, whilst also making a nice dribble of waxa la Makers Mark. It was not too difficult to remove, in part or whole, with or without a pull tab/string underneath. I actually prefered using fiber reinforced packing tape for my own stock, or a decorative ribbon held in place with a blob of sealing wax with a stamp in it a la Grand Mariner for gifts.
The above recipe makes 8oz and uses 1/4 of my glue sticks, and crayons and paraffin are cheap, so my costs are:
Glue sticks ................ $5.97
Staonal crayons ......... $1.80
Paraffin wax .............. $4.11
TOTAL ...................... $14.88
Less than $18/lb. And will make me 2 pounds before needing to restock on glue and crayons depending on how deep I want the red to be (the paraffin will last 8 batches, or 4 pounds). I could honestly use 2 staonal crayons because they do have so much pigment in them, but I wanted it to be much richer.
OK, so tutorial over, chiming in begins.....
