Altoids Tin Emergency Candle:
This project was one that I continually get round to doing every six months or so. I get through a fair few of the little marvels that are Altoids mints, so naturally I have a load of the tims left over. If ever there was a measurement that was set as a standard for pouches, bags, kits or otherwise, forget cubic inches, forget litres and centimeters...the unit of measurements sould be in Altoids tins. They have been used for absolutely everything including the cult classic Altoids Tin Emergency Survival Kit and Fishing Kits. Search on YouTube and you will find an amazing array of uses for these tins. I had a bunch left over, along with a whole bag of candle lights and with a little imagination, the emergency candle was born! In actual fact I am not claiming credit for inventing these at all. I didnt get inspiration from anywhere else for these, but later searches on the internet do show a few people having made videos on these before me so...
People have asked me why I bothered deliberately melting down perfectly good tea light candles, just to pour the hot was in a small flat tin. Well, its because I hate tea lights. They are limited in use, they have no reflective containers, they blow out easily, they are a pain to store, once they have burned down the containers are good for just about nothing, I just dont like them. Once in the tin you have options, you can put as few or as many wicks as you have taken out of tea lights, you can light just one wick at a time or you can light all of them, giving you just a single candle powers worth of light, or more, the reflective lid speaks for itself in bouncing some light in an intended direction, the tin can be used afterwards again, for making char cloth for example, the lid itself can be used to safely, and without burning your hands, move or carry the light around in a dark place. The whole arrangement in my mind just gives me more options.
To make the Altoids Tin Emergency candle is pretty straightforward and simple, one of the reasons I have started this projects section off with it, you take some tea light candles, take out the wicks, melt them down and pour into Altoids Tins. But there are just a couple of things to note, which from my experience will make life easier and less messy for you, so I will put these in bullet points below:
1) The Altoids tin itself has hinges approx 3/4 of the way up the side of the tins...
2) It works better if you pour just a small amount of wax in the tin first, set the wicks in place and let the wax cool to hold them in position, and then top up with wax.
People have asked me why I bothered deliberately melting down perfectly good tea light candles, just to pour the hot was in a small flat tin. Well, its because I hate tea lights. They are limited in use, they have no reflective containers, they blow out easily, they are a pain to store, once they have burned down the containers are good for just about nothing, I just dont like them. Once in the tin you have options, you can put as few or as many wicks as you have taken out of tea lights, you can light just one wick at a time or you can light all of them, giving you just a single candle powers worth of light, or more, the reflective lid speaks for itself in bouncing some light in an intended direction, the tin can be used afterwards again, for making char cloth for example, the lid itself can be used to safely, and without burning your hands, move or carry the light around in a dark place. The whole arrangement in my mind just gives me more options.
To make the Altoids Tin Emergency candle is pretty straightforward and simple, one of the reasons I have started this projects section off with it, you take some tea light candles, take out the wicks, melt them down and pour into Altoids Tins. But there are just a couple of things to note, which from my experience will make life easier and less messy for you, so I will put these in bullet points below:
1) The Altoids tin itself has hinges approx 3/4 of the way up the side of the tins...
2) It works better if you pour just a small amount of wax in the tin first, set the wicks in place and let the wax cool to hold them in position, and then top up with wax.