That's just plain cool. Is that tubular stock?
I've been wondering so I'll just throw this out here...
It deals with your issue of finding a good paraffin wax or something like it - that has a relatively high melting point - which usually equates to low levels of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) so the melting or drop point goes higher the less VOC's you have. So it's more of a refinement issue.
Found a cute site here, lots of good stuff for anyone to use for their own tuning issues and circuit fabrication....
http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Theory/tunedcct.htm (look around that site, including the upper menu bar to find other parts of the site I have yet to explore but contain a lot of fun stuff for curious mounds of mind - like myself.
But that isn't why I'm posting this, I'm trying to find the stuff that Cobra, Uniden, Midland and even Realistic used back in the days that had a higher melting point than that of typical wax...
Thanks for the site. I've been checking it out and it's really cool. Lots of information. Thanks very much.