Steam Wax-Melter

[Rob]

This is a 200 litre drum with a part of another welded on to it at the bottom, the small pipe with the rock sat on the elbow joint is the water-fill, the pipe with two right angles is for the steam to flow to thw wax chamber, the pipe near the top with the slight bend is the pressure release, and the longer pipe close to thebottom is the wax outlet.
Works a treat, no more cleaning old frames, just pop them in and wait 20mins and they come out nice and clean, holds 30 frames. It builds up a fair bit of pressure so you can't leave it alone, I've christened it The Rocket.

[Legion©]

Looks like fun Thought about putting a pressure guage on it? Or an automatic pressure valve of some sort?

Do you have any problems with the wax cooling near the end of the outlet pipe and blocking things up or does it just stay so hot that's not an issue? I take it the wax still needs filtering before use?

I'm guessing your just drop the frames in whatever way they land rather than a basket or some such?

Lots of questions I know - I like to know how things work, and then come up with ways to improve them

<edit> I like the protective wall behind it </edit>

[BjornBee]

Nice! You have me thinking about some winter projects.

One question. Ok, a few.... Your intake for the steam into the upper chamber (I assume there are two chambers, one lower with water and steam production, and a separate chamber above the weld, where the frames sit)...why is the intake point so high? Would a basket to hold the frames about 20% up the inner top chamber, with the stream intake below the basket, be more efficient?

As it is now, does steam get to the lower frames? Could the process speed up with a lower steam point of entry(steam rising, etc.)?

My questions are based on my take and understanding of how it works. I could be wrong in how I'm looking at it. Is steam traveling up the pipe, or being forced down the pipe to below. As you can see, I'm lost without having hands on training.

BTW,
A couple of those hottie Brazilian girls to stand next to it for the next picture would really be nice. Now were talkin steam

[Rob]

I'll try and answer the questions as best I can.

>Thought about putting a pressure guage on it? Or an automatic pressure valve of some sort?<

In the pic where the rock is sitting on the elbow joint, I know use a piece of wood carved to sit snugly in the joint, the idea being if the pressure gets to high the wood pops out before the drum goes boom.

>Do you have any problems with the wax cooling near the end of the outlet pipe and blocking things up or does it just stay so hot that's not an issue? I take it the wax still needs filtering before use?<

The wax does cool in the outlet pipe, but it doesn't get too hard, I just shove a metal rod in the pipe which clears it up. The wax comes out reasonably clean, but ideally needs to be filtered better. I'm working on something at the moment to solve the prob.

>I'm guessing your just drop the frames in whatever way they land rather than a basket or some such?<

There is a basket with a mesh that sits at the bottom of the wax chamber, it catches the crap that comes of the old comb, that's why the wax comes out reasonably clean.

>(I assume there are two chambers, one lower with water and steam production, and a separate chamber above the weld, where the frames sit)<

That's correct.

>why is the intake point so high? Would a basket to hold the frames about 20% up the inner top chamber, with the stream intake below the basket, be more efficient?<

At first I thought about putting the steam intake at the bottom, but because the wax outlet is at the bottom I figured the steam intake would be better at the top, therefore giving the flow of steam for the whole wax chamber. The small pipe at the very top of the drum is only the pressure release valve and is closed most of the time.

>As it is now, does steam get to the lower frames? Could the process speed up with a lower steam point of entry(steam rising, etc.)?<

The steam does get to the lower frames, but now you've got me thinking maybe two pipes for the steam flow, one entering at the top and another entering at the bottom.

>My questions are based on my take and understanding of how it works. I could be wrong in how I'm looking at it. Is steam traveling up the pipe, or being forced down the pipe to below.<

You've got the right idea, the pictures I took were taken on it's test run before it had started to boil, that's why you can't see the steam coming out. I'll take a few more when it's at full steam ahead with the wax flowing to give a better description.

>A couple of those hottie Brazilian girls to stand next to it for the next picture would really be nice.<

I'll see what I can do

[WVbeekeeper]

>In the pic where the rock is sitting on the elbow joint, I know use a piece of wood carved to sit snugly in the joint, the idea being if the pressure gets to high the wood pops out before the drum goes boom.

how about a pressure relief valve like on a water heater? you might even be able to use a low pressure steam trap like the use for tracer lines in chemical/petro plants. if you made something like; Fig. 11.9.8 Evaporator on this page http://www.spiraxsarco.com/resources...-equipment.asp
would work good. an external boiler and trace lines running into the barrell like a worm in a still would be a good set-up. a small thermodynamic trap on the end of the tracer coming out of the barrell would keep a fairly consistent temp inside you barrell/melter. i've done a lot of work on steam systems in the past, from bayonne, nj to birmingham, al and everywhere in between, so it wouldn't be too hard to set up something nice for myself, if i could justify the cost. rob, you do have a great imagination to make what you have. i don't want to sound like your dad or anything, but try not to hurt yourself cause you can really easily do it with steam.
would it be safer to just boil the frames?