Fixing a broken candle jar with Jill of All Trades

(FOX 2) - This week, Jill Washburn, our Jill of All  Trades, comes to the rescue of a co-worker with a candle conundrum.  

Maurielle Lue had a favorite candle in a really cool glass jar that was left burning and had burned nearly all the way down. She was able to find and purchase another one, but the glass jar had a major crack down the side. 

The mission was three-fold: to get the good jar cleaned out properly; to remove the good candle from the cracked jar without damaging it; and to marry the two together to create another "good candle".

First, Jill tackled the burned-down candle. 

She placed the jar in a pot of water and slowly warmed it over the stove. The trick, Jill explained, is to take your time with this process. You can warm glass and you can cool it, she says, but if you do either too quickly, you're going to crack the piece. (That fact will work to our advantage in a moment.) 

You don't need to boil the water, just getting it warm is enough. It will melt the wax enough for you to be able to pour it out. Once you do that, Jill recommends wiping out the remaining wax with paper towels. Step one… complete!

Next, tackling the cracked jar. 

Since we know rapid temperature changes will crack glass, Jill used that fact to her advantage. She plunged the cracked jar into the pot with water that was just starting to boil (it cracked almost immediately) and then plunged it into cold water again. That process put multiple cracks into the glass jar. The candle still was sticking to the jar, so Jill helped the process along by turning the jar over, covering it with a towel, and hitting the jar on the bottom with a couple of good whacks from a hammer. That was enough to get the jar to crack further and let go. 

Jill was able to pull the broken jar apart and retrieve the candle from it.  **NOTE**  A pair of work gloves and a pair of safety glasses would have been helpful for this.

Last, marrying the two together. 

Since the candle was a bit soft from the warm jar, it easily slid into the undamaged jar. Jill says to make sure that you push the candle all the way to the bottom. Boom! One complete candle. Mission accomplished!!

To watch how Jill tackled this project, click on the video player above.

PROJECT RATING:  MEDIUM  (Not difficult, but a little tricky.)