Sawdust and wax firelighters

[RedShirtGuy]

Thought I'd share these impressive little doodads...firelighters made from sawdust and candle wax in egg cartons.

Firelighters.jpg

One 3/4 depth capsule gave me an effective burn of 9-10 minutes and went out at 13 minutes on the dot.


HOWTO
- Melt the wax in a simmering double boiler. This will take a while, and don't let the wax boil. Make sure to keep a decent water level in the boiler by adding more if needed. Don't let it dry out.
*** Preferably electric heat source ***
Flames and wax/vapours don't go well together. Keep a quantity of flour handy in case of fire.
DO NOT USE WATER ON A WAX FIRE!!
Never leave the melting wax unattended.
- Pack the sawdust into the egg cartons. Not too tight...a medium density so the wax can get through...experiment with what works best for you.
- Pour the melted wax over the top of the sawdust. This is very hot and messy so wear mits and line your work area with grease proof paper. You might need to do it a couple of times if the wax gets completely absorbed.
- Let the wax cool to the point that it's still soft on top and gently press in more sawdust (long tails are great for this bit) to act as a wick to light. Careful, you might break the skin and get a squirt of much hotter liquid wax.
- Let everything cool completely and cut them up. I bashed the edge of a strip of steel between each capsule. A brick chisel would work. The wax gunks up a handsaw blade pretty quickly making it useless. Try to keep the cardboard intact as there could be unwaxed sawdust at the bottom...it's handy to keep in, but not absolutely necessary.

The cardboard or wicks can be lit, but lighting the surface sawdust works pretty well too.


I want to experiment with mixing the sawdust in while the wax is still in the double boiler and scooping out warm dessert spoon nuggets or rolling balls in my hands - I don't go through many eggs to get many cartons.

[Bushmiller]

RSG

Nice idea. I've got three bags of sawdust (from the DC) just waiting for some wax .

Regards
Paul

[RedShirtGuy]

You're gonna need a hell of a lot of wax for all that dust. Better start picking some ears

To fill two egg cartons (top slab and bottom capsules) it was maybe 8-10 double handfuls of dust (a relatively small amount) and about half a 1kg milo tin of melted wax. I haven't priced wax or cheap scummy candles so I can't say for sure how cost effective it is - not to mention the eggs cartons and cholesterol problem of having to eat so many googies - I just happened to have two big (~70mm sq) aromatic candles lying around that had slumped in the heat and were otherwise useless.

[cava]

I haven't priced it lately, however raw beeswax used to sell in 1 Kg blocks for $5. That may be an option.

[Old-Biker-UK]

Plenty of wax (candle ends) available at your nearest Church, the 'higher' the better (more candles!).
Make friends with Vicar, Church Warden, Sacristan or whoever is i/c candles.
I have kilos of the stuff from the time when the LOML was Church Warden.
Christmas is a good time!

Mark

[Christopha]

Plenty of wax (candle ends) available at your nearest Church, the 'higher' the better (more candles!).
Make friends with Vicar, Church Warden, Sacristan or whoever is i/c candles.
I have kilos of the stuff from the time when the LOML was Church Warden.
Christmas is a good time!

Mark

Church!!!!

This is an Aussie site mate and most of us wouldn't be seen dead (or married) witin 50 bloody miles (80 kms) of one of those flamin' Gawd awful places!

My old father in laws' recipe for fire lighters is to soak sweetcorn cobs in a mixture of kero and diesel. They work like a train....

[Old-Biker-UK]

Church!!!!

Know the feeling - Me, I'm a 'born again Athiest', only times I go to church are weddings, funerals (more of them as I get older), grandchildren's nativity plays and (most often) when they want something fixed.
I know you can't get to heaven with good works but you never know, a few points might come in handy. Anyway I've also got my sweat rag & No.8 shovel ready just in case.

....... mixture of kero and diesel.

With diesel at £1.40 a litre I'm gonna stick with my free wax.

Mark

[arose62]

Not sure it's a good idea to suggest throwing flour on a fire to try to extinguish it - in the right concentration, flour dust is explosive!

Just google "flour explosion" or "dust explosion" ...

It would be much safer to have a proper fire blanket on hand, or a suitable extinguisher, or a bucket of sand.

I've done the small scale experiment with a puff of flour through a straw, into a container with a lit candle, and was surprised by the resulting explosion!!

Cheers,
Andrew

[RedShirtGuy]

Not sure it's a good idea to suggest throwing flour on a fire to try to extinguish it - in the right concentration, flour dust is explosive!

Weeeeeeelllll........that's true...but water in almost any quantity required to put out this kind of fire will cause a highly dangerous fire ball/splash fire. I'm just going by what is recommended by the fire authorities primarily, and personal experience second. There is a huge difference between a highly aerated puff of flour into a flame compared to an oxygen suffocating layer thrown on at once. The professional consensus is that for this kind of flash fire in the kitchen, if you don't have a fire blanket, or sand (which I agree is optimal), a good dose of flour (a common kitchen item), or other oxygen depriving solution (chopping block that covers the entire pot) is the next best thing...with water being a very far last, if not, not included at all.

[rsser]

Bugger me.

(That's not an invitation btw).

Will have to try some of these.

[RedShirtGuy]

(That's not an invitation btw)

I've since done another batch and tried mixing the dust in with the wax while it was in the double boiler thinking I'd be able to roll out spoonfuls of the mix in my hands.

Nope.

Maybe I hadn't let it cool enough but mostly all that happened was the wax squeezed out of the dust and stuck to my hands...in the way that something very hot does. *ouchies* The mix needed to be pressed together otherwise it just crumbled, so I ended up having to quickly make a slab out of the mix in a baking tray lined with wax paper and broke it up later with a brick chisel ...which was pretty messy and a bit wasteful.

Stick with the egg carton capsules. Although, I'd be interested in seeing if it can be done in some el-cheapo, flexible, ice cube trays (given a spray of oil first).

[FenceFurniture]

Reckon you could use ice cube trays for the forming, and they'd come out nice and cleanly (esp if you sit the tray in hot water for a minute before extraction, or maybe a quick nuke in the microwave oven).

I've been saving up all my plane shavings and using them for fire lighters - She Oak shavings work a treat.

As for a cheap wax component, does ear-wax count? Plenty of that "on-hand" here.