Wax melter in Kitchen

[EastSideBuzz]

So what is the best way to separate wax in the kitchen? Double boiler or oven.?

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Up your insurance by a million, update your will and apply for the Darwin Award in case you do not survive melting flammable liquids inside the house. The double boiler is the safer of the two options. Keep the temp down around 145 so you have a little time to panic.

[kbenz]

my wife has used a double boiler several times

[EastSideBuzz]

I was thinking something in the oven at 100 degree's or something.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

OH my goodness! Wax in the oven! Double the insurance policy! What do you think CANDLES are made of!

mike

[sqkcrk]

Wax, an oil, is very flammable. No a good idea to put it in your oven. A crock poit maybe, but not the oven. You are playing w/ fire.

[ArkansasBK]

: Solar melter outside in July and August.

[EastSideBuzz]

OK. fine off to goodwill for a double boiler. I have some wax I want to get rid of before July and August.

How do you do it in a double boiler.? I am thinking a can inside of a pot. Have an old one. Put wax in can and heat water in pot with can in it. Wax melts.

What is the best way to filter it to get the junk out and make it more pure.?

[concrete-bees]

Get an old crock pot - put wax in it and turn it on - simple no flame no problem - been doing it for years -

so simple a caveman can do it !!!!

[KQ6AR]

That's basically what I do. Once the water gets hot enough to start a simmer, I turn the heat all the way down on low.

You can put water in the coffee can with the wax also. The wax will float on top of the water, & most of the junk will be on the bottom.
When it cools just remove the wax from the top, & save it for future filtering when you have more.

OK. fine off to goodwill for a double boiler. I have some wax I want to get rid of before July and August.

How do you do it in a double boiler.? I am thinking a can inside of a pot. Have an old one. Put wax in can and heat water in pot with can in it. Wax melts.

What is the best way to filter it to get the junk out and make it more pure.?

[SPRUCE BEE]

'so simple a caveman can do it !!!!"
Sounds like another Geico commercial in the making.
Good luck ESB with the wax melting experiments, IFD has been notified & is on standby when you torch the wife's oven.
s

SPRUCE BEE

[EastSideBuzz]

I am using an old screen spoon to scoop out the crap off the top the dead bee bodies and stuff. Then there is a liquid that floats on top then the wax floats about an inch under. It clogs with wax but dunk it under and the clogged wax melts and it will scoop just fine. Pull the can and put it in the sink with cold water and it hardens up. The wax is about an inch or so thick. It is mostly yellow with some junk in it but most is gone. Have to figure out a way to make it purer

IFD has been notified & is on standby when you torch the wife's oven. SPRUCE BEE

EastSide Fire and Rescue to be exact. Chief is a friend and will call first before they make the long drive out to the house. So no worries. Stove and double boiler is the way to go.

[AramF]

I have personnally not tried this, but I was thinking that tying dirty wax in a cheese cloth and then weighting it down on the bottom of the crockpot ought to keep most of the gunk inside the cloth and the wax on the water surface. I do not know how permiable the wax impurities can be, but I bet the legs and bodies will stay inside the cheese cloth sack.

[EastSideBuzz]

That is a good idea.

I have some really moldy wax I just tried to melt. I scooped the gunk off the top and then let it harden and I did not have anything left. Apparently the mold and wax became one. Not sure how to save the wax.

[RayMarler]

I just use an old stock pot, one that is not already in your kitchen as a pot to cook with. I fill an inch or two of water on the bottom and then put in the wax. If the wax is pretty dirty, I'll put it inside a paint strainer bag. Turnthe heat to med or med/low and wait. The wax will melt down and when it's all melted well, remove the bag if it was used and let it drip or squeeze it into the pan, then discard. Remove pan from heat and let cool slowly. When it's all cool you can get the wax out and scrape off the bottom where the debri has stuck to it between the wax and the water. Repeating will get the wax even cleaner. It's the water that is the secret. Melt the wax in water, not by itself in a double boiler.

[beedeetee]

Eastsidebuzz,

The problem that we have here on the west side of the Cascades is a lack of sun for 9 months of the year. But, I still find a solar melter to be by far the best solution for really clean wax.

I don't pull honey supers until mid-July and extract about August 1, so I have quite a few sunny days before that to get all of my wax from the year before melted. I can melt wax on a sunny day until the middle of September. You might be a week earlier since you are farther north. Usually I can easily get all of my wax for the year melted and clean (I might run it through the melter twice), before the sun is too low. Last year was a challenge and I still have about 3-4lbs of cappings that I never got done due to complete lack of sun for most of the year.

My little melter can do up to 5lb/day. I tried the double boiler route, but when I made my melter out of scrap wood and used it the first day I just shook my head at all of the headaches that I had gone through (not even counting the danger) of melting wax over a stove. If I had more wax, I would just build more or bigger melters. No power cost either.

[t0k]

something like this?!
its a steam juicer and food steamer
i've never used it to make juice or to steam food, bought it for wax

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r.../DSC000351.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r.../DSC000361.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r.../DSC000381.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r.../DSC000371.jpg

i have a bigger now (not a juicer, same principle) that holds up to 10 frames so i use this one for cappings

[AramF]

Would it not make sence to maybe get a higher volt lamp and place it over the solar melter. All you really need is a heat source, so instead of the sun, get an artificial flood light and point it over the melter. The green house effect will take no time to kick in. Certainly it uses energy, but probably not nearly as much as what it takes to heat up water. I do not know what wattage would be safe to use, but 200 W seems in the ballpark.

[odfrank]

Would it not make sence to maybe get a higher volt lamp and place it over the solar melter. All you really need is a heat source, so instead of the sun, get an artificial flood light and point it over the melter. The green house effect will take no time to kick in. Certainly it uses energy, but probably not nearly as much as what it takes to heat up water. I do not know what wattage would be safe to use, but 200 W seems in the ballpark.

Uh, I don't think so. Maybe for a tiny melter, but not the one shown on BeeSource plans.

[HONEYDEW]

but 200 W seems in the ballpark.

Lets see the sun 200watt bulb, sun 200watt bulb sorry I had too