Candles are great for when your power goes out (or you just want some low light), but they’re messy and costly, since you have to keep buying them. Here’s how to make your own candle out of recycled fat from cooking.
The lamp is actually a pretty interesting design, using wax and Plaster of Paris to create a pewter “flower”. It also uses recycled fat — which you can get from cooking some bacon, sausage or other greasy food — to keep the flame burning. Not only is that efficient in itself (since you usually have excess fat that you just throw away), but the pewter flower design is what actually keeps the fat burning:
The recurved petals capture some of the heat from the flame, which is then conducted down through the metal and out into the four splayed feet at the bottom. This melts the fat and enables it to continue being drawn up the wick to feed the flame.
It’s a pretty good way to use up a lot of the fat you get from cooking, while saving some money on candles (and creating far less of a mess). Hit the link to read more about how to set it up.
Lard Lamp [Atomic Shrimp]
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