Wax Dipping Boxes & Hive Parts

[beeman2009]

Greetings All,

I have been rolling around the idea of building a hot wax dipping tank for my woodenware. I have read some on the subject & watched a few youtube videos of it being done. I did not notice anything said concerning demenionions, app amounts of wax to use initially, or anything about volume displacement. I want to be able to dip several items at once with plenty headroom at the top for foaming. I know Michael Bush uses this method. Any input will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Rader Sidetrack]

This older thread may be useful to you:
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...t-Dipping-Tank

[Mr.Beeman]

This should help a lot.

[AstroBee]

I saw that video recently and really like that you can do 3 deeps at a time.

Does anyone know about the microcrystalline wax that is talked about in this video? How does it compare with conventional rosin, cost, and source?

[mmmooretx]

I found a 33 page pdf document but do not know how to attach. It is a study done in Australia a couple of years ago. If someone tells me how, or how to submit to an administrator to check to see if there are copyright issues I will be glad to forward. Sorry I cannot remember where I found it. It is very enlightening.

[Rader Sidetrack]

Mike, if you can post the original title of the PDF document, someone may be able to find it again on the net. That way we could then link to it and avoid any possible copyright issues that could arise by posting the document here in its entirety.

If you aren't sure of the original title, choose a sequence of words from the document, and quote them here exactly as they appear in the PDF. A dozen words, on topic, in sequence is probably good enough for a search.

[mmmooretx]

Found it, thanks for the hint. The link to the document is about halfway down the page.

http://www.queenrightcolonies.com/Paraffin_Hot_Dip.html

[AstroBee]

Very nice! Thank you.

[Michael Bush]

I've thought about it a lot. Obviously it's nice to be able to do more at once. It would also be nice if it took less wax, and also nice if putting a box in didn't too greatly affect the level of wax (these two are counter to one another). You can fit a box inside a box if you turn the inside box on it's end while the other boxes are in normal position. The length of a box is pretty much equal to two deeps or three mediums. You can fit one eight frame medium in the middle of three eight frame mediums. You can fit two ten frame mediums in the middle of three ten frame mediums. you can fit one ten frame deep in the middle of two ten frame deeps. This gets you a few more at one time. Also keep in mind you will probably want to do bottoms which may be bigger than a box in length. You also have to have about an inch or two around the outside to keep it from boiling over.

[beeman2009]

Mike,

What would you say would be a good size tank & burner size as well as an app amount of wax needed to be purchased?

Thanks

[Michael Bush]

>What would you say would be a good size tank & burner size as well as an app amount of wax needed to be purchased?

Obviously there would be a lot of sizes that would be inefficient. But there are a lot of reasonable possibilities. Also there is the issue of how many you're going to do and how much wax and rosin you will buy. If I were a hobbyist doing enough for four hives or so I'd be satisfied with one that would do one box. If I were setting up a production line to do thousands of boxes, I'd make it wide enough for three boxes and tall enough for three boxes and with the ones down the middle that would make twelve boxes at a time. I would prefer a steam system to heat it so you can't burn the wax, but I've only used a gas burner so far. I have an old gas stove set up outside and a fire extinguisher handy and a fairly tight lid for the box, but I would scorch the wax less, and risk fire less if I had a steam heat setup. It only takes about 15 pounds or so of pressure to get plenty of heat for the process. The amount of wax needed, of course is related to the size of the box. My current setup does one whole box and two halves of boxes (half of the one down the middle on the end, and half of the top box and all of the bottom box). So in two batches I get four boxes done. It was tedious, but I dipped more than 500 boxes, more than 200 lids, and more than 200 bottom boards with it. I have contemplated a steam setup to do 12 at a time.

[Hamp54]

Does anyone have thoughts on dipping supers before they are assembled? ...Or am I missing some obvious problem as usual.
Thanks!
Hamp

[mmmooretx]

Glue will not bond to waxed wood. Also you would have to have something like a dishwasher rack to keep the individual pieces apart so they will absorb better (could also be fun to separate if they cool together).

[Haraga]

Mike,

What would you say would be a good size tank & burner size as well as an app amount of wax needed to be purchased?

Thanks

I don't know the answer but I just received 100 lb of wax and 55 lb of rosin. I will know next month. I am thinking of building a water jacketed tank. Does anyone know if this will work?

[AstroBee]

I am thinking of building a water jacketed tank.

Don't you need to get the wax temps to around 300 F? Seems you'd need a stream boiler system..... $$$

[Michael Bush]

I do mine at about 250 F. If you don't get it hot enough to boil the water in the wood, it doesn't really do what it needs to do. 212 F won't do that. It only takes about 12 to 20 pounds of pressure to get it up there, so a double jacket and a pop off valve could do it.

[Hamp54]

Does anyone know if a 55 gallon oil drum would hold up for this? Will the seams leak? Years ago I boiled a bunch of deeps and shallows in lye with one...opens your sinuses right up! Obviously it was water at 212 degrees not wax at 300 degrees.

I really like the idea of wax dipping equipment but it makes me really nervous too. It seems to have 911 written all over it. I should mention that I'm VERY small time and might be doing 50 or so mediums. Even if I could afford a big stainless tank to do this with I don't have anywhere to store it while the oil drum is disposable. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Hamp

[Michael Bush]

I have heard of people using a cut off 55 gallon drum for this purpose. I have not tried it. I think it will take too much wax to fill it (wasted space) since it's round and not square.

[Keith Jarrett]

Don't you need to get the wax temps to around 300 F? Seems you'd need a stream boiler system..... $$$

Yes, temps 300-325 is good we just build a fire out of scrap wood underneath our tank, we will be dipping a couple thousand boxes next week I will take a few pics. This whole prosess is very simple & is much over dunn on these threads.

[779Hybrid410]

I agree with KJ. I use birch and on a warmer winter day get a good fire going in my fire pit and boil away. To reduce the amount of wax, I place concrete blocks in the middle of my wax box when boiling frames, uses way less wax. I like to darken my boxes with a weed burner to help absorb winter radiance.