Introduction: Mini Project #12: Cotton Pad, PJ & Wax Fire Starters
Hi Instructables Community,
this week we will make some of the probably easiest fire starters in this series (so far). This time I decided to make a video Instructable and spent some considerable effort on the editing which is why have only prepared an overview of the steps on the second page. I would appreciate if you could check the video and let me know what you think since I tried a new editing style.
Difficulty: | Easy |
Time: | 10 - 20 Minutes |
Safety Concerns: | Hot liquids, open flames & fumes - Use appropriate safety equipment |
Primary Use: | Easy to use fire starter |
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I would also love to see pictures of the fire starters you made and hear about your experiences with them.
Take care, stay safe and
Merry Christmas
Cheers Alex
Step 1: The Steps at a Glance
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Tools: |
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Step 1: | Separate a cotton pad and apply some petroleum jelly to one half. Put the halves back together and gently massage the PJ to ensure a good saturation. |
Step 2: | Add the paraffin wax to your melting pot. |
Step 3: | Get your heat source going and preheat it to medium heat. |
Step 4: | Melt the wax while ensuring it doesn't get too hot. If you see smoke rising take the melting pot from the heat source. |
Step 5: | Drop a prepped cotton pad into the molten wax for a few seconds. Use your tweezers to remove it and wait until excess wax stops dripping from the cotton pad. |
Step 6: | Place the pads on a non-stick surface and let them cool down for at least 10 to 15 minutes. |
Step 7: | Once they have cooled down you can put them in a plastic ziploc bag until you want to use them. As far as I can tell these fire starters have a very long shelf life if kept away from UV light and heat. |
Use: | Once you get to the point where you want to use them remove one pad from your bag. Gently break the wax and try to separate the two halves. Each of them is a separate fire starter (if you want) but you could cut the pads into smaller pieces. You can ignite the fire starter with a single strike from your ferro rod but also use matches or a lighter. |