Pickle candle mold

A dill pickle candle 117 mm tall and 47 mm across, standing upright with a gentle bend and a bumpy, warty skin. It is exactly as funny as it sounds, and it burns like a pillar candle.

The mold is exactly what our two-part candle mold generator builds for it: two rigid halves with rubber-band grooves, pry pockets and a pour funnel on top. The seam runs up the pickle's sides, and the warts sit on the two faces the halves pull away from, so none of them can hook. The tool's own seam check finds nothing stuck.

Pour it in a deep pickle green, maybe with a dill or cucumber scent, and give it to the friend who puts pickles on everything. The zip carries both halves, the pickle master as its own STL, the tool's own print-settings sheet and a recipe file for the generator.

Shown as a 3D render of the printed mold halves pulled apart around the candle they cast, not a photo.

What you need

• About 134 g of pillar wax: the cavity holds 149 ml
• A tabbed, primed wick for a 45 mm candle, about 140 mm long
• Rubber bands or clamps, and a clip or wick bar across the funnel

How to cast it

1. Print both halves as exported. Clamp-strength settings: 4 walls, 40% gyroid infill, no supports.
2. Drop a tabbed wick into one half so the tab sits on the cavity floor, close the halves and band them along the whole seam.
3. Clip the wick centred across the pour funnel and pour at 65 to 75 C.
4. Once the first pour is firm but still warm, top up the funnel. Wax shrinks, and the second pour fills the dip.
5. Cool fully, open the halves at the pry pockets and trim the wick.