Orange Candle

This instructable will show how to make a candle from any citrus and kitchen oil in minutes.

Step 1: Materials & Tools

1) Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon
2) Knife
3) Any type of oil, Vegetable, Olive, Canola, etc.

Comments

[twafer]

wow, totally works! I just made one and was skeptical at first but its been burning for about an hour and looks as if it could burn another 8 or so! great on the fly survival candle. good job

[Tracy_Marie]

Hum...Well... Nothing's happening. The center won't light. I hold the lighter there. It just burns the "wick" without lighting it. Perhaps the orange needs to dry for a few days? Also the membraines remain. They just folded over rather than cut. I twisted them 'round the "wick", pinwheel style. Maybe some brand oranges work better than others?

[thingstomake]

I'm having the same problem, lights but won't stay lit.

[thingstomake]

I used an orange....everything went fine..,looks great....used veg. oil..it lights, but I cannot get it to stay lit..goes right out..what am I doing wrong?

[contactscolored]

Those instructions are amazing and extremlly useful! I made this with my science class, but never that much. Wowzer.

[softenersreviews]

Love this! Will try it out myself! Very smart and practical!

[Mihsin]

I thought I,ve heard it all!
Great idea, many thanks.

[JensonBut]

Those instructions are amazing. I made this with my science class, but never that much. Wowzer.

[makingcandles]

Interesting idea. I've never tried to use kitchen oil for making candles before. Thanks!

[kelv38gr]

what a brill idea thank you will be trying this today will a lemon work as well?

[DualPhase]

How did the lemon work?

[theawesomeninja]

I tried this with lemon once and it worked just as well as an orange, and even small mandarin oranges.

[Shaloo]

This is one awesome idea ! Thanks for sharing.
I messed up a bit tho I think coz for the life of me could not get it to light up - so I did the next best thing and used a wick and part of a broken lamp to hold the wick in place. I also used 2 more rinds from failed attempts :) to 'decorate'.

[FancyVip]

I love your "failed attempts"; imo your modifications are an improvement on the already cool idea. Be proud! You ARE THE Orange! That's a compliment. Thanks for "failing" cuz I'll start by using your pattern; I like it best! Vikki

[Shaloo]

Thank you so much :) You made my day !!

[pdelgadillo]

I would love to try this but I am afraid it will attract mosquitos, ants and roaches. I live in an area with lots of vegetation, animals and bugs. This place is known as the city of eternal spring and beauty always comes with a price= I can never get rid of bugs.

I'm going to see if I can find Citronella oil instead of cooking oil.

[shirley j]

I do wonder, though, why the oil doesn't catch fire? Anyone?

[mikegonzalez2k]

Oranges are highly flammable due to their acidic content.

[shirley j]

Shaloo - maybe it's best to wait a day or so, so that the "wick/stem" can dry out first? I'm going to give this a bash, I have a lemon lying around that needs attention!

[laurelangel]

Great Idea! I've heard about a clementine before. I tried it with canola oil and it didn't work. I will have to try an orange, any kink of circular fruit would work, But I think oranges would smell the best.

[wildviolets]

this is totally awesome...can't wait to try it....

[SWV1787]

I have been meaning to post these for a while I made them out of Clementines and filled them with standard vegetable oil and they burned for well over 4 hours. it was pretty fun and my coworkers thought it was odd that I was burning oranges on our lab counter, and lets face it you know it's a good idea when it makes your coworkers think your crazy...

[hopelesslylovingcookin]

I absolutely cannot wait to try this one!:) How pretty it looks! Great instructable!:)

[praise_song]

Well, I just made this one. Took awhile to get it to light, but when it did ... voilá! Very simple & clever project!

[praise_song]

Brilliant! And I just bought some LARGE oranges yesterday! Can't wait to try it.
Does it make a difference whether you use the navel end, or the stem end of the orange?

[ashbegash]

This is such a GREAT idea!
I am going to try it! :D

[jfm]

I put 3 Orange Candles in a big salad bowl (glass) half filled with water. The lamps are floating and its very beautiful and safe.

[woodsdweller82]

Wow great idea!

[woodsdweller82]

I did this with a "cutie" and it worked awesome, however be careful! Mine burned for about an hour and then the top caught fire lol! I had it where i could see it so i caught it fast but my lil orange was soo hot, next time im using a bigger orange:)

[KristenlovesGA]

I just tried making the orange candle and it was a success! What a great idea for any occasion....even when your electricity goes out! I used Olive oil an pitted the orange with a spoon and ate the orange. I did not waste :)

[Lorddrake]

I tried this today.  the kids got a big kick out of an oil lamp made out of food.  I used vegetable oil, and found it a bit difficult to light.

has anyone tried different types of oil to find out which one works best?

I was amazed at how translucent the orange skin became because of the oil.  once it is lit it is really easy to see where the oil has soaked into the orange and where it didn't.

[JKPieGuy]

I've tried this for 3 days and may I say it's an excellent project and absolutely brilliant. I demonstrated this project to my Grandparents yesterday and I don't know what happened, but something went wrong and when most of the oil burnt up the orange started to catch fire, also what was stupid is that my Grandparents had set the candle right under their kitchen cabinets. Luckily I had this feeling to check the candle and then blew it out before it was to damage anything or before my Grandparents noticed. A few recommendations I'd recommend is:
1. Don't place the candle near anything flammable.
2. Make sure to house the candle maybe in a glass container or some type of ceramic.
3. Do not use a dried out citrus fruit, it doesn't burn all that good and it doesn't look as good.
4. Make sure you twist all the fruit fibers in the middle to form the wick so that their aren't any strands left.
5. Make sure the candle isn't tilted cause the oil can spill out and the fruit can catch fire.
6. Use plenty of oil so that it's just slightly bellow the top of the fruit but not above the wick.
7. You may have to use a lighter to light the wick instead of a conventional match and you may have to light it a little longer than a regular candle.
8. Place the Candle in an area where you can see it and check on it time from time (so that you don't forget that you have a candle lit.)

`I hope my suggestions help and that you all enjoy making citrus candles as I do. Now don't go burning down your house ok. Ha in fact I have one lit now, love the smell of Citrus!

[Garlikguy]

I tried it with a clementine, but I found the wick to be harder to get at than oranges. Still, super rad instructable! Thank you for posting.

[goofyahead]

Made at work after eating :)

From Madrid, Spain.

[lexkeepsitsimple]

Very, very cool! Awesome idea. Any other ideas for wicks so I could make candles with other oils and put them in glass jars? I know that's the same thing as a kerosene lamp, almost, but I am writing a horror novel so am interested in the multiple ways to make candles and lamps. THANKS!

[abaneyone]

This is a great idea! For sure I'm gonna follow it! You made me laugh when you said, "*Caution - Do not ingest the orange if you have extreme citrus allergies and/or fear of oranges or spherical objects." Fear of oranges? Never heard of that one LOL

[Sevenof nine]

Love it! Used a cookie cutter for the top half, to get an interesting shape.

[nax]

I tried it with an orange with a compact, thin skin. Hard to scoop out and the stem ended up all soggy and I couldn't light it.

But when I tried with a bigger puffier orange, with a thick skin that had lots of white stuff, it worked great.

[tiddlytrinkets]

I also used a clementine. It was REALLY easy to get the orange sections out of the skin and away from the "wick". With such a small cavity and amount of oil, I was curious how long it would burn...close to three hours.

[htarore]

I definitely will try this!! Thank youuuu :)