crofter, I agree with the larger bowl idea, the only complaint that I had with the heilyser was that the bowl was a little small which allowed the bubbling OA to spill out a little so I machined a larger pan with thicker walls and it was a big improvement, no more spillage.
One glow plug only? I notice a bit of scorch marks on bottom boards. Plan to give a wrap of glass cloth and an aluminum foil skin to keep the heat where it is needed. It works though and may be one of those things that dont happen.
Thanks for the FYI Burns, much appreciated and good point. I used to work with Metal sheathed heat tracing cables and remember the white compound that kept the element centered and away from the out coating. Trying to remember the name?? Pyro something??
I have actually started making a two glow plug heater. Got it working, just need some finishing touches, then I'll post some pictures of it.
Thanks for the FYI Burns, much appreciated and good point. I used to work with Metal sheathed heat tracing cables and remember the white compound that kept the element centered and away from the out coating. Trying to remember the name?? Pyro something??
Yes, exactly the powder keeps the Heated wire (Nickel Chrome) centered within the sheath. The white insulating powder is Magnesium Oxide (MgO), under many different trade names. In the manufacturing process the rods are packed straight and bent into desired shape with cnc benders. There is a minimum bend radius and amount of bends that is considered safe, I don't remember those specs.
Finished the new vaporizer today and have tested it out a couple of times.
But I have not tested it in a hive yet.
I didn't have any 1/2 plate aluminum so I used two sheets of 1/4 inch and one sheet of 1/8
Drilled the pocket with a hole saw in the one of the 1/4 inch plates and the 1/8 plate.
Sandwiched the plates together and then milled it to shape. The handle rod is aluminum stock.
I added a switch too.
After adding the heat shield on the bottom, I ended up milling the 1/8th off the top to make it slimmer.
I made four like KY Mike's design, thank you! Ran all four in parallel and got a bunch of hives done right quick!
One apiary is in a sheltered location with very still air. The vapor stayed like campfire smoke and chilly scouts. I am very glad I chose to use my APR first thing.
So after treating all my hives for my first round I am curious what kind of residue people are finding in their vaporizers. It seems that there is almost always a little crud left over. Thoughts?
Got around to using my new homemade 2 glow plug vaporizer. It appeared to work well off of a 12 volt ridding lawn tractor battery. I like the on off switch! Took about three minutes to vaporize and finish off making vapour. Put in through the back of the hive under the SBB.
I like putting it in the back of the hive compared to the front entrance.
So today I did my second weekly treatment, all haves had many dead mites on the bottom boards. A couple hives that overwintered last winter had thousands. Literally thousands of dead mites from last weeks treatment.
How long did it take, after the treatment to see the big mite drop? Did it happen the next day or was it bit by bit over several days the mite drop showed up? Was the big drop after the first treatment or after the second one?
How far apart were the treatments. I'm still learning to use my Vaporizer.
It would be so nice if somebody with enough experience on using different kind of vaporizers would write an article on the subject and post it as "info" on the main site. For now the information is pretty dispersed throughout the forum. We cannot buy vaporizers in all countries and if we were to buy them in Europe for example we would pay a lot of money including expensive transport.
The simplest vaporizer I have used is a small metal dish. make it very small and shallow. Over a hooka coal. I now have the $99 think from Canada and with the cost of other treatments it has paid for itself a couple of times over. I am waiting to see how long it lasts. I made my own but it cost as much as the one from Canada before I was finished.
Best news is I never see signs of mites in my hives anymore.
I am new to bees and came across Glen H's Homemade oxalic acid vaporizer and made one myself but had some issues and not as neat as Glen's model. when I put it together and tested it the heater elements melted the plastic housing, guess I had the heater elements too far back in the plastic body. Have to look for some small insulating material to overcome it and also give support to the 3/4 pipe cap end and the immersion heater element.
Wondering if anyone else made one similar to Glens model and if they had similar problems.
Here is one I put together this morning and posted it on another link.Its was blowing glow plugs though so When I get that resolved I think it should work good.
The amps on the battery make all the difference on time. My pickup battery takes 2.30 mins and my motorcycle takes 4.30 mins to finish off 2 grams. I put a 20 foot 12 gauge wire so I don't have to tote a battery around.
Is the tip of your glow plug some how against the plate.With the blown glow plugs I was told they had to be against the metal to keep from over heating and blowing.Mine blew in only a few seconds.
Yes the block is machined to fit the glow plug. I was nervous about blowing the glow plug after putting in water after treatment, but has worked fine so far.
So your heating element is toughing the metal.Well thats what I was needing to know.I will have to wrap mine with copper and put it in and then mast it down to touching the element real good.I can do that with my vice and not get it squeezed down without putting a lot of pressure on it.
I'm fairly new to OV treatment but I had a pretty cool idea and wanted to run it by some folks. I had a friend who scorched her frames and melted some wax leaving it in too long. How can you tell? I also have trouble with this and timing and spilling and all the sundry things associated with using a flat burner on a long stick that I can't see doing its thing inside the hive. For me, the timing gets difficult to monitor when the element is hot. The squirrels in my brain started running around and I thought: why not something that is more portable, easy to use and you can see when the vapor is done?
My idea is to use a battery operated tool as a platform and hook in a small fan, a heating element and a clear plastic or glass "cone" to blow the vapors into the hive. I'll attach a sketch.
Before i go shredding and building, i wonder if any of you have thoughts about amperage, voltage, correct vaporizing temperatures and the concept in general.
I think there are already some vaporizers out there that do that.I think the problem is the vapor goes everywhere inside and out.I saw a guy using one on youtube.But if you can come up with something that would work go go ahead and show us.There is always a better way doing everything.
>> use a battery operated tool as a platform and ...
Keep in mind that a typical commercial vaporizer (and many of the homemade ones using glow plugs) are approximately 150 watts. At 12 volts that is about 13 amps. At 18 volts that is 8.4 amps. Your tool battery will need to be capable of delivering that load for the length your heater "on" time. That may be a challenge for a typical tool battery.
Rader, thanks. This is the kind of data I need. I own a dewalt 20v drill with a 5ah battery so, if the process takes 5 minutes, I might be able to do a half dozen hives per battery/charge.
More data: I'm also looking at something called a PTC heating element that shuts itself off at a specific temperature by resistance. If I could mount a cup to that...
Glen, constructed as per your directions and immediately burn the heater out. Used a AC heater which apparently was required to be submerged. How did you get around the submerge requirement. Your example was a DC heater but I would not expect that to make the diff.?? Please advise. Thanks B.B.
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