Tips for diagnostic wax-up

During my free time I spent a little while playing around with waxing up anatomy on a set of models which taught me a lot about anatomy and the handling of wax. Below are some tips I thought of at the time:

-Use good quality wax. Better quality wax will have the ideal melting properties and strength to allow ease of use and longevity. You don't want the melting point it too high as it will solidify before you place the wax. Too low and it will be too runny and will take too long to solidify making your waxup take much longer.
-The model need to be very dry before you wax up onto it or the wax won't stick and will come off with manipulation or the creation of a putty stent
-Use fine instruments to place the wax as they are more precise. For a long time I was using a lecron carver because that was all that was available for I trialled using an old, blunt sickle probe with good results.
-Set up your work station for maximum efficiency. Keeping your instruments arranged neatly will save time in searching for the instrument when you need it. I am right handed so this is how I set up the bench. Instruments to my right arranged in a row. Flame to the right and further back and wax in front of the flame. the model, wax and flame were arranged in a straight line diagonally so my arm had to move along one plane to grab and place wax allowing muscle memory to be learned more efficiently.
-Know where you want to put the wax before you put instrument to flame. This involves you having a plan and a routine on how you place wax also knowing your anatomy very well. If you try and work it out after you have wax on the instrument then it will cool before the wax is placed and the whole process will be less efficient.
-Practice makes perfect. it took a week of waxing for me to get used to the consistency and the finer points of handling the wax.
-to pick up wax: Heat the instrument for 2 seconds, place the side of the tip of the instrument in the wax. Depending on how much wax you want to pick up, change the angle of the shank so more or less metal is contacting the wax. If you want a little bit of wax just place the side of the very tip, if you want a lot then lay the whole instrument shank on its side.
-Before you transfer the wax to the model, briefly run the instrument tip back through the flame for 1 second. This will keep it melted long enough to place and manipulate. If you don't do this it will gel before you can position it well.
-The wax will move away from the heated part so if you want it to go to the tip, on the second pass through the flame, heat away from the tip. If you heat the tip, the wax will tend to rise away from the tip but if it is hot enough then it will fall towards the tip.
-If the wax is heated for too long, it will evaporate and light on fire.
-Clean your instrument often, heat the instrument up and clean it on a piece of tissue paper. Contaminants or excess wax will change the handling characteristics
When adding new wax to wax already on the model you can't just place it on top of the old wax and expect it to stick. You need to place the wax then go deeper with your hot instrument into the body of the old wax to melt a portion and allow it to stick to the new wax.
-When building a posterior tooth I found it useful to form the cusps which make up the majority of the anatomy. I would place dots of wax at the location of the cusp tips and stack them up until the right height was reached. I then added more wax like a bridge down the direction of the primary lobe. Then I would add a dot of wax either side of the ridge to complete the triangular ridge. Almost every cusp on a molar has a primary lobe and 2 smaller accessory lobe between which exists the secondary grooves. these accessory lobes were made with a single blob of wax. When you put in the cusps are the right shape at the location they're meant to be in all the natural fissures are formed. Then all you need to do is place wax using the side of your instrument to fill in the buccal and lingual contours.