Hi everyone, it's taken me a while to get to this point, so I thought I'd write about this: Monday Evening, I made my first batch of car wax that I was pleased with. I litterly have no Photo skills, that was a sheet of pure white paper, to judge the initial color of the wax from. And about a 100 grams / 2 oz. size also. It's 100% Natural! No Chemical Solvents used in it. It spreads very nicely and buffed off pretty good, to a nice shine too. Too hard for a buttery wax right now. More of a paste wax. I was surprised I was able to do this on my first try. It has a very high Carnauba content too. Now I am going to work on making it a lighter color. I've already increased the primary wax contents. From my initial test, it looks like it will be a wipe on, wipe off type. No powdering, and I noticed it hasn't stained textured black trim yet. So what is the consensus from people; do you prefer a white look in a paste wax? How about a smell; do you think it should have one? And if so, what would be a nice smell? I made that first one a coconut type smell. Not too bad I'd say. Hopefully after a lot more tweaking, I might have a few samples to send out. I'd like to hear what people think. And I'd like to report back on how this develops, after a lot more work on it to get it to a state I think might suit me. Smooth & Creamy.
Prefer that color, mainly because i have a white car. Smell wise, usually cherry or grape. Thing i'm curious on, where or what did you do to get the the material to try this ? Process used? Thanks.
curious about the process as well. I would love to be a mad scientist in my kitchen, and make my own:devil:
Ooohhhhhh, can I get a sample when ready!?! Who cares about color or smell,as they have no effect on gloss, shine or durability of wax.... Just focus in performance!!!
If you can make it neon green thad be sweet. nobody has a neon green wax! As for smell. Like a dodo or swissvax product.
Well done Playing with wax is great fun... did you have a look at the Rubbishboy's home brew thread on detailing world... an epic! 1) Why bother lightening the colour? Carnauba is pale yellow... looks fine to me. 2) Wipe on, wipe off won't allow enough time to cure/bond... these WOWO products tend to be silicone based and need less curing time; waxes like a little time to bond, although it';s not strictly necessary 3) You won't get powdering initially, but you will find it doing so once all the solvent dries out... carnauba naturally dries to a pale yellow powder and it will lose its wetness after a while... it won't be as bad as polish, but if it has a high carnauba content you will get some residue All the best DF
All the ingredients were found online. Actually that's how I ended up here. I had decided to try making my own wax and in researching it, I found DB, and then later Rubbishboy's thread. I've even purchased both Dodo's and RBOE. Key thing I've done (whether it will work or not) is, right now, no solvent. I tried natural waxes and oils to achieve something. I made it in my modern manufacturing facility with state of the art equipment. Wait til you see our scientist's! So, spoken like true believer's, people's tastes are not towards looks or smells, but pure performance. That's good to know as trying to reach that pure white state would be an added cost that doesn't need to be put into it, although my next batch will be lighter. Might test a cinnamon or almond smell. It basically has no smell as is. What I'd like to do is retain the 100% natural aspect, yet make it easy to use and worth using. I wasn't going to skip on quality ingredients. Thanks for the initial input, helps a lot. I was totally surprised when it cooled down, that it had such a white appearance to it as is. I know my next batch will have more Carnauba and other wax's in it to the point it becomes too hard to wipe on a rag for application, then I'll back off on that. When I ment a Wipe On, Wipe Off, was possibly that I didn't wait long enough for it too haze then. Then again, I've read other wax's say: don't wait for it to haze. But so far, it hasn't stained black trim, and I'm glad about that. Much, much more tweaking and testing, but thank you all for the encouragement, I have been waffling about all of this. And if nothing comes of it, I've learned more than when I started out.
That's what I mean... the products that say don't wait for it to haze could be the silicone heavy products where curing isn't an issue... so be careful what you read as being normal. What works for a mainstream product may be wrong for your natural recipe... Also, it will have a solvent in it. (It's probably called 'coconut oil' Any solution that can carry a solid within it is by definition a solvent... not all solvents need to be turps or paraffin or whatever. Finally, I trust you have got to know carnauba quite well. When you say it's a high carnauba wax, you will have discovered the true percentages... it really is an eye-opener. I only realised when I made my own waxes.
Thanks for your input Dom. Yes, so far it's food safe and edible. That 1st. sample has been adjusted twice so far. I'm about to reach a point where it's too hard to rub a cloth into it. But I've been waiting for different materials to arrive. I've got some micronized Carnauba, (HARD to find for a consumer) that would have given it a pure white look I believe. Once I get pricing on that, I may not look further into it. I don't know..... Critus oils as a solvent? For something you could get from a hardware store, would break my idea of natural. I wouldn't want to put a drop of that on my tongue. So I've stayed away from the turpentine's, and Castor oils also. It's been a learning experience so far, but it also doesn't seem to be rocket science. If I can get something nice that some friends will use that it won't have been a waste. I'm testing it outdoors on a Weber grill lid right now. I poured it in a 100% atmospheric condition also. If I leave the first batch outdoors for a year and it's still their, then it will also past that 1 year durability test.
You won't get a year of durability out of it... carnauba gets degraded by UV light too much. Citrus oils, e.g. limonene are very good but pure orange oil (very natural) is very expensive. Turpenes are better than you'd think and very natural if you can source pure turpentine (most is synthetic or refined). Coconut oil is the classic though. Micronised carnauba won't make much difference to colour; it is whiter in powder form but when molten it becomes a little darker. Even an obsession with T1 carnauba is seen to be a little odd by those in the know. This is what the largest carnauba importer to the UK told me by email: "T1 Carnauba is a cosmetic grade. T3 is the usual polish grade and although darker slightly is a damn sight cheaper. I have been to Brazil several times and know personally all the suppliers.There are so many ridiculous myths about this wax it makes me laugh." So when 95% of wax manufacturers are happy with T3, you can see them have a laugh at the boutique boys paying extra for T1. And then having a hernia when they hear all that stuff about white carnauba sap.
I know what you mean about the sap. I saw that. uhhh.. you have to take a lot of thing's with a grain of salt and read how people word stuff carefully. When I said "If I leave the first batch outdoors for a year and it's still their, then it will also past that 1 year durability test." Someone could take that to mean he left the whole block of wax outside. Yes Sir, it's Boutique wax. I loved Brew On Premises Beer, so I did that for 4-5 years and got damnnnnnnn good at it too, too good for my own good and had to give it up. I had a wicked Imperial India Pale Ale. 8% APV. You had no taste buds left in your mouth after 1/2 of your first glass.
I'm impressed. If you need someone to help with the sampling.:worship2: I would really like to try it!!!
I have (8) 2 oz. sample pots. When I get to a point I think it's ready, I'll package that up and send to tester's. I'm just going to keep all the info in this thread and on this site. This is a great site to me. It's large enough to have constant input, but small enough to have a homey feel to it. Good people here. Seriously. I don't know where it will end. But I can't see it going too commercial. Right now, I'm embarrassed about it, It's just not good enough to let someone use. Their is a ton of money in advertising / promotion, I know that. I also can't see me making money (but I'm already shopping for small countries to buy.) I never liked running a business, I liked working behind the scene's, on the technical aspects. I'm a dreamer, I will go full force on it til it's at it's maximun then get burned out and do something else. I just need to focus on basics and end results. When using other wax's I put my trust in how it was made, so it wouldn't damage my finish. I need to remember that, on this, and keep it clean and natural. It's not just Carnauba and beeswax in it, but some others and oils. Don't trust this yet. I want to make sure it will do no damage, sounds impossible, but who knows.
Great thread! I've browsed on and off to learn how to make my own but never ended up doing it. I was just looking at raw wax on ebay the other day. Looking forward to see how it turns out for you Cyclo! I like the natural approach too.
Hehe, I was tempted to do this too but ran out of time due to school. I'm willing to test too if you want
No smells please. Waxes with smells are more expensive. RG55 smells like strawberries and everytime I use it I'm licking the jar. I'm going through it like crazy. Its costing me a fortune to apply the stuff!
