Solar wax melter (Done)

[Frantz]

I am now the proud parent of the Wax Melter 2000. I have been trying to figure a few things in my head for a while and with the pics that Greg shared of his melter I got it (finally). Whew buddy she is a butte!!!Anyway here are a few pics of this pretty little girl. I have 9 frames in there right now, starting to melt away, and I made it big enought that I can set my deeps in there for cleaning. I have a ton of deeps that I inherited that are just caked with wax and sludge. So this will hopefully allow me to clean them up, sand the outside just a little and with a fresh new coat of robins egg blue (the wife decieded that is our official apiary color) we will be unstopable.
Anyway, This is 3 sheets of 1" rigid foam. Some glue, some silicon caulk. Some nails to hold together until dry. Couple cans of flat black, 1" pvc and connectors for the stand, and 2 sheets of 18"x24" plexi. A few pieces of scrap wood to wrap the plexi with and  one piece of HVAC tin on the bottom to run off all that wax. We are done. Nothing to it. Hope you enjoyed the tour.
Thanks for all the help you guys. I would never have figured this out with out you guys. For Sure!!! 




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[Pond Creek Farm]

I need one of those.  I have been looking for a melter to build that can render a lot of wax at one time.

[SgtMaj]

Wow, to me that seems gigantic, but I then again, you have a lot more hives than I'm planning on having, so you probably need one that big.  Looks good though.

One thing I might think about doing though, would be to add aluminum foil reflectors around the plexiglass like those on a solar oven... just for faster rendering, if you want it.  It might get too hot that way though.

[Frantz]

This thing definately works. I pulled the wax off of all nine frames yesterday with no problem. I am pushing 200+ degrees with no difficulty. That is even a little too hot isn't ? Wax will melt at about 120 or so right? Anyway it is amazing what you learn when doing something new. For example; I did not know that the old comb that I have (very dark) was going to be mostly casings from the bee cocoons that have been is the comb over the years. Like I said you learn something new everyday. I was waiting for my frames to melt out, yesterday and it turns out that they melted pretty quick and I was just waiting for the casings to melt away. Which will never happen. (obviously) Anyway. I got a very surprising amount of wax at the bottom all clean and ready to make new foundation out of and as I was pulling the frames and wax out of the melter, my neighbor up the street who has become my new best friend came down cause he could smell the wax from up the street. He kept bees for about 30 years he said. He is about 72 now and as much of a bee fanatic as I am. Only he is now living through me. Fun huh!! Anyway today he brings me down about 20#'s of wax that he had just laying around. I do all that work to get a couple of pounds of wax and then he shows up with all that. Also brought down about 100 sheets of wax foundation that he has had since about 1960 he said.... How cool is that. I will post more pics and such later.
F

[Robo]

I did not know that the old comb that I have (very dark) was going to be mostly casings from the bee cocoons that have been is the comb over the years. Like I said you learn something new everyday. I was waiting for my frames to melt out, yesterday and it turns out that they melted pretty quick and I was just waiting for the casings to melt away. Which will never happen. (obviously)

Ya, you get very little wax out of old comb

Also brought down about 100 sheets of wax foundation that he has had since about 1960 he said.... How cool is that. I will post more pics and such later.
F

Wow, uncontaminated foundation.   With some creative advertising, you can probably make a killing on eBay with it