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Homemade oxalic acid vaporizer

298K views 120 replies 45 participants last post by  Beeboy01 
#1 ·
Have any of you folks made your own? What did you do? Will you share pictures or ideas?
 
#2 ·
Hi,
I made one, that was very inexpensive. I purchased a 12 volt car/travel coffee cup heater that plugs into a cigarette lighter in a car. I also used a 3/4 inch copper pipe end cap.
I formed the heaters coil around the copper cap. it works good. I also made a measuring scoop out of a 1/2 inch copper end cap and soldered a handle to the end of the cap.

Still need to make up a simple handle for the Vaporizer.

You can buy the heater on Ebay.









Glen
 
#32 ·
Hi,
I made one, that was very inexpensive. I purchased a 12 volt car/travel coffee cup heater that plugs into a cigarette lighter in a car. I also used a 3/4 inch copper pipe end cap.
I formed the heaters coil around the copper cap. it works good. I also made a measuring scoop out of a 1/2 inch copper end cap and soldered a handle to the end of the cap.
FYI Glen H be careful with hand bent coils. I use work at GE appliances as an engineer, Mg0 is a the heat conducting dieletric filler between the sheath and Nickle-Chrome wire. If the sheath is bent to sharply the MgO is displaced and the heating wire can short to the sheath in a catastrpophic failure. In the industry we call it zippering, the sheath basically zippers open, sparks, mini-eplosion, etc.

IMO glow plug is much safer route.The heater way very well function just fine for you, just a bit of caution.
 
#5 ·
Here is mine. I machined the tray out of aluminum, stuck a diesel glo-plug in the side and added the metal rod with a chisel handle. Takes about 1 minute to evaporate. I actually made a few more in which I machined the tray to where the glo-plug sticks in the middle and it has a small tray on each side to hold the oxalic, but I don't have a picture of it.....yet

 
#7 ·
The electric heater one is connected to a car battery that I take to the hives and set on the ground
I have an adaptor cable with alligator clips on one end that goes to the battery and the other end of the cable has an outlet on it that the heater plugs into. The other picture with the wooden handle is the OA measuring scoop that is the correct size measure for the vaporizer.

You can buy Vaporizers online I believe they are over $100.00.

The OA in the States can be purchased on line or in a hardware store it goes by the name of wood bleach. Just make sure if you buy wood bleach, that OA is the only ingredient.

I got mine on Ebay.

Glen
 
#9 ·
What is the correct size measure....how much oxalic acid does one use per hive when vaporizing? Have you tested that system to see if the oxalis acid vaporizes?
 
#10 ·
The measure is one cap full of crystal roughly. (1/2 inch copper plumbing end cap) . I have used it four times it takes about a minute or two to heat up and vaporize the OA. 1 gram per every deep on the hive EG: two deeps 2 grams two deeps one medium 2.5.....
I do a test run outside the hive and use a stop watch to monitor how long it takes for the crystals to turn to a liquid, then unplug the heater and see how long it takes for it to totally vaporize.


Glen
 
#14 ·
Optimal sublimation is 315F and above 375F or so it melts and instead of getting oxalic acid vapor you will get formic acid and carbon monoxide. So I used the heating element from an old iron and a bimetal thermostat to set the temperature. It slides in under the screened bottom board.
http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelJShantz/BeeHive4302010#5681736830921254930
I like GlenH's idea for use with car battery power. Might be better with temperature control.
Here is a simple one made from a soldering iron with no thermostat but at 23W it takes way too long to sublimate.
http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelJShantz/BeeHive4302010#5685396769979254738
 
#15 ·
JStinson,
The 1/2" copper cap will give you approximately 1 gram of Oxalic and as stated above use 1 gram per deep, this measure does not need to be extremely precise. It is best to give the vaporizer a trial run outside the hive to see how long it will take to sublimate into vapor, then make sure the vaporizer is cooled down before refilling. Place the vaporizer into the the entrance of the hive about half way if possible and connect to the battery per your pre-assessed time, I have found that it is helpful to seal off the entrance with some cloth while vaporizing but some do forgo sealing the hive and have reported good results. Do one treatment per week for 3 weeks. Here is a thread which gives good locations to find vaporizers. http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?288080-Where-to-buy-oxalic-acid-vaporizer
 
#18 ·
The plug used by Heilyser is a Bosch 80010, these plugs have M12x1.75 threads on them which need to be machined off to fit the Heilyser but perhaps you can design your vaporizer to use this thread. This Bosch plug generates the correct amount of heat that is needed for sublimating Oxalic.

Remember to treat the hives in the fall after the supers are pulled just to be on the safe side, it has been said that Oxalic can be applied with the supers on but I just do not want to take that chance.
 
#19 ·
> I am thinking about dribbling OA this fall.

You may be interested in Jim Lyon's approach to applying OA without vaporizing it. Read the posts by Jim Lyon starting at post #133 on this page: http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...644#post989644

Jim expands on his comments in following posts. You will have to ignore the heckling from the peanut gallery about OA (oxalic acid). Jim has thousands of hives, and years of experience, and seems to be a straightforward guy.
 
#20 ·
Here is what I made. Uses two VW glo plugs. Threads ground off and held in with set screws. About 2 1/2 inches wide and 3/4 inch high. Solid aluminum so fair bit of mass and takes a little over a minute to start vapor. The bees return to normal activity in a very short while and I noticed no dead bees aside from a few who fell into the cup. Treated once in november last fall and again early in April and mite count is near zero at present but I am very isolated.

My impression is that it does not kill open brood but just is not as effective when 75% of mites are on capped brood since it does not penetrate cappings. Will work if you do 4 rounds 6 days apart.
 

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#22 ·
Interesting as on one of the videos showing vaporization they first checked it was melted...then put it back in to treat. Perhaps many are using a substance quite different from they thought. I think it may have been a Fat Bee Man video.
 
#24 ·
I dont remember off hand but it is somewhere here in a post; It is for VW but not sure whether before or after the TDI. engine. Radar? Some glowplugs must be used with a controller or they go like flash bulbs so you must get one that is for full 12v. Actually the ones I used were stamped rated 11.5V . I would not go to the trouble of threading for the plug. That and a tapered seat is to withstand 1500 or so PSI in an operating diesel. Set screw is simpler. Use a 20 ft or so cord and you have no need to be anywhere near the fuming hive unless you are trying to do rapid fire and jerk the vaporizer out to put in the next hive. I leave in and hive blocked for 15 min and there is no fumes. OA unless heated, gives off no more fumes than sugar would. If you over heat or apply heat too quickly it will flash to CO and formic acid. As you heat it it should first liquify then boil off over a minute or so and the Oxalic vapor looks like thick white smoke. It is deposited over the interior in minute crystals. Stay out of that cloud just as you would stay out of the smoke of burning plastic.

I had fun making it but the price of a proven design is around a hundred bucks. Having one thin enough to slip through a standard entrance is a big plus as you can do it without disturbing the hive and in any weather.
 
#25 ·
#26 · (Edited)
Yes the Autolite 1104 has the same rating as a Bosch 80010, the autolite plug is a little bit longer and slightly cheaper than the Bosch. I agree that it is better to remove the threads as this helps to keep the unit shorter in height, the Heilyser is only 1/2" in thickness.
 
#27 ·
Thanks on finding those numbers. If you are making something up don't go too small with the bowl. When it starts to melt the OA bubbles and froths quite a bit. The first unit I made tended to boil over. Plan to do a few runs in open air to get timing right. I give about a minute and pause 30 seconds then a couple of 15 second shots. There is a bit of delay, then overshoot effect.

I had notions of trying a CPU cooling fan and a housing around the unit with a nozzle to blow vapors into any shape of entrance. The nozzle would have to be something like paper though or the vapors condense on it like hoar frost and never make it inside. That can be a problem with the crack pipe designs (besides being too close to the action)
 
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