View Full Version : Cappings Tank Questions
longarm
10-03-2006, 01:04 AM
OK... borrowed one from a friend. Came with a wooden bar with 'L'shaped threaded wingnuts on its ends. The bar fit across the short dimension of the tank... but did not seem particularly useful? I ended up just holding the frames above the tank with a frame gripper and cutting off the caps with a heated knife. What's the bar for?
Also, most tanks I have seen have only a metal queen excluder to catch the wax. A lot of it invariably makes it through the excluder and into the honey below. Are you supposed to cover the excluder with cheesecloth or something?
honeyman46408
10-03-2006, 08:57 AM
The wooden bar should have a nail or screw in the center, this is to "rest" the end bar on while you hold the other end and rotate from side to side or what ever is easy for you.
I supose you could put cheescloth on the excluder part but cheescloth can leave lent in the honey. I just drain the honey out of the bottom part of the tank and then strain through a bucket strainer.
BerkeyDavid
10-03-2006, 10:23 AM
Like Honeyman said, you just rest one end of the frame on the screw that sticks up in the middle (just a 2 inch drywall screw will do) and decap right in the tank you are doing it the hard way!
We put a piece of filter cloth over the grate in the bottom of the cappings tank. It works good.
Then put the cappings tank in your attic or someplace very warm for a week and let it all drain down. It will be darker so I bottle it separately and give it away... smile.gif
longarm
10-03-2006, 12:39 PM
THank you both.
carbide
10-04-2006, 11:28 AM
I built a catch basket out of #8 wire mesh that fits from side to side of my cappings tank (I built that also). My cross bar has a screw up through the center so that as I uncap, the cappings fall into the catch basket. This way the honey draining out of the tank is almost completely free of any wax at all.
I purchased a couple differnt mesh sizes of SS wire from McMaster Carr than cover the bottom of my decapping tank. The drained honey only needs the final nylon mesh sieve before bottling. Saves lots of time.