Thread: Sawdust and wax firelighters

RSG

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

Regards
Paul

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.

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

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

Originally Posted by 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

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....

Originally Posted by Christopha

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.

Originally Posted by Christopha

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

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

Mark

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

Originally Posted by 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!

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.

Bugger me.

(That's not an invitation btw).

Will have to try some of these.

Originally Posted by rsser

(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).

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.