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A couple of pics of my latest addition to the honey house. We all have a need for a good wax melter and why not use some handy items to make one . A beer keg makes a great melter and can easily be constructed with a few parts and a TIG welder and plasma cutter. Take a look and see for yourself it works wonderfully and the drains are properly spaced to allow for scum drainage and wax removal.Attachment 4464Attachment 4465
Thank you for posting the pics. I'm very interested in this as I'm just stepping up my operation from hobbyist to sideliner, and the price of bottling tanks makes my head spin.
I'm assuming that you have one fitting for inbound water and one for outbound water. What is the Red thing for? (It looks like maybe a pressure relief mechanisim?).
Also, what do you use for your water heat source? And lastly, is the keg "jacketed" with a liner inside somehow to keep the water and wax seperated?
Maybe you know this but Beer Kegs are not the property of the person that bought the beer. They belong to the brewery. You can purchass these sanke kegs for about 125.00
Are you going to put water in first and then your wax on top of the water and melt it down that way? Will the wax come out of the yellow handle? I've found if your wax temperature isn't hot enough your spout will clog. I had to shorten it up so it would be closer to the tank that puts off heat. Also I put a large cardboard bow over the whole unit as a heat saver.
Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!
The red thing is a Chromalox immersion heater, I first add water then add the cappings and heat . The blue handle is a water drain and the yellow is a wax drain.The top is removed and can be closed with a lid. The water gets hot enough to melt the wax and keep it in a low temp liquid condition. This makes for a better quality wax, and can be used for many different purposes. This is not a bottling tank but rather a cappings melter.
Take a look at this video if you haven't already. I like the way your able to take the wax out so your getting good clean wax.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80MSXRu9O0o
What material is that keg? Aluminum? Stainless?
Crazy Roland
Lovely stuff! I use a similar system but as the wax floates I add some hot water to lift the wax level above the spout and let it flow out into a container. I keep adding cappings and it basically a continuing process. I do this on cold winter evenings out doors as it attracts 100's of bees if I'm doing it during the day time. Last time I harvested about 50 kg ( more the 100 lb) of surprisingly clean wax.
All stainless. You do not have to use the immersion heater, you can simply make the unit that will fit over a propane burner, just watch the temp.
Stainless, good. I have seen bad reactions between Aluminum and hot water.
Crazy Roland
I like it!!! Can I get one in 60 gallon size.:thumbsup::thumbsup: Really nice setup.