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Melting beeswax -equipment question

15K views 39 replies 16 participants last post by  The Honey Householder 
#1 ·
I would like help on equipment that I need to purchase.

1. I would like to purchase a tank for creaming honey.
2. I would like to process (liquefy and melt) cappings and beeswax.

To save costs, I would like to know if I could get by with just purchasing the Maxant honey creamer, which is basically their bottling tank with a agitator on top. The agitator would be removed when processing beeswax. would this bottling tank work to melt cappings? The difference from their liquefier is that is doesn't have two valves but I think I could just strain using the one valve. Slumgum comes out first.. When wax comes along, I could put that into my fiberglass tubs. Also I wouldn't use the no drip valve, just the regular ball valve. We already have a wax spinner to extract honey so that isn't a priority.

Can someone with experience tell me if a bottling tank 15gallon would work to process the beeswax for approximately 50 hives?
 
#30 ·
An electric appliance using 1500 watts converts to 5,100 BTU/hr. Typical propane cookers similar to what is in Ollie's photos seem to be in the 54,000 BTU/hr range. Ollie's photos show two burners, each with its own pressure cooker, feeding steam to a single melter box.

I would say that since the electric element is enclosed by the appliance there is close to 100% conversion to steam. The propane burners likely lose more efficiency in conversion to steam as the burners are not enclosed by the cooker, but clearly the dual propane setup produces many times the steam possible with the electric cooker.
 
#31 ·
Ok Goldenman,

Here is your answer. Yes you can use a bottling tank.:shhhh: I've been using a 500 lb maxant bottler for 20+ years. I melt wax with it in the winter then wipe it out when I'm done and bottle honey. The trick with the wax is you have to make a screen to place in front of the drain hole in the tank to hold the slum back. I had taken SS perforated metal and made 3x5x3 u-shape basket that goes from top to bottom of the tank. This way the wax can drain without the slum being a problem. Your honey can be drained off as you melt the cappings.
 
#32 ·
Dang, I had a bunch of these commercial stainless steam kettles last year. I advertised them for months with not one reply. They sold at auction for $500.ea 40 to 80 gallon sized. They would have made a dandy wax melter...or for brewing beer...They run about $15,000. new
Glad I kept a few:)



This was a 60 gallon with 1 1/2" drain. I kept a 10 with 1 1/2" drain and a 30 gallon with a 3" drain
 
#34 ·
Dang, just set up a hot water tank and circ pump..or fill double wall with oil and pressure valve and use propane burner on low. I think something like that would work for warming honey or melting wax?
 
#35 ·
Yea I'm sure that something like that would work.... I just had a truck full of gear... I bought a small cnc mill, a rockwell 10"unisaw, an incubator and a hobart welder.... Spent 400 bucks... LOL, was all I could do to fit it in the back of the truck....

I looked at the steam kettle and like.. you know I could brew beer in that... Then I was like.. How will I get it home.. LOL
 
#39 ·
My solution for handling wax is low tech, low cost, and very effective. I purchased a used 100 gallon stainless steel honey tank and fitted it with a stainless strainer from Kelley. The strainer can be adjusted higher or lower into the tank as needed. I put a nylon strainer cloth on top of the stainless strainer for the finest filtering. then I put another stainless strainer on top so that the two strainers are separated about 2 inches. Then I uncap directly into the top of the honey tank. The cappings drop onto the top strainer and over a period of about 3 days will be almost completely dry. The honey runs into the bottom of the tank where I let it settle for several days, then run it out via a honey gate directly into jars. I do not heat my honey, but with the floral type I have here, granulation is not an issue.

Once the cappings have dripped dry, I drop them into a stainless double boiler type melting pan I made that holds about 10 gallons. With the heat set properly, the cappings melt just about as fast as I can dump them into the pan. I put about an inch of water into the bottom of the pan to trap debris and any remaining honey and to make the wax cake release easily when cool.
 
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