Price new from used from pamphlet, 1979 please retry. Our deluxe solar wax melter is constructed of galvanized steel with the interior dimensions 24. Here are some pictures and dimensions of my solar wax melter. These plans will build a 31x19x9 solar wax melter, which works great to melt cappings and such. Jul 17, 2011 the one good thing about the hot and dry weather here in austin is the ease of melting wax in my homemade solar wax melter. Melting beeswax with a solar wax melter is one safe way to get it ready for crafting and other projects. The one good thing about the hot and dry weather here in austin is the ease of melting wax in my homemade solar wax melter. A relatively cheap way to render wax is to use a solar melter. A couple of weeks ago we took the last of our honey for the season from our hives.
Posted on february 20, 2015 july 29, 2017 by byoung. In the morning of a bright, sunny day, place a few chunks of comb on the screen. Aug 18, 2011 this article shows how i made a diy solar beeswax melter using a garbage bag, a cooler, and a pane of glass. Solar wax melter comes ready assembled, and works best if painted black. Our uncapping tanks and melters quickly and efficiently separate the beeswax from the honey in the beeswax capping.
The melter is also an uncapper and the bucket separates the wax from the honey. If you have looked at my page on rendering wax, you will know that i have had much better results with the solar melter than any other method i have tried. By carefully extracting and using your hives beeswax, you are literally utilizing part of your bees to heal wounds, light dark places and honor the harvest that was. The box rests at an incline so it faces the sun properly. Once a cake of wax has hardened, detritus can be scraped off the. Make your own solar wax melter april 1, 2015 for reprocessing the next time you send wax through the solar melter. Bees secrete this wax from their bodies to build comb, making this wax an important part of the super organism that is a bee colony. The deluxe solar wax melter is constructed of 711 layer hardwood plywood which is painted black in the melting areas and polycrylic finish sealed on the exterior.
The heat is free and a side benefit is the bleaching of the wax by the sun. How we built an easy diy solar wax melter for free with a. Wooden solar wax melter the frame is made in 15mm pine laminated board, the inclination angle is 20 degrees, an improvement to keep in mind would be to do it with adjustable inclination. Melters come in all shapes and sizes and can be made out of just about any used material. I dont like melting wax in the kitchen because its messy and the wife, but i dont want to buy a solar beeswax melter, that leaves me the option of.
This article shows how i made a diy solar beeswax melter using a garbage bag, a cooler, and a pane of glass. It consists of an outer box, insulation, inner heat chamber, wax screen, wax container, and a clear top. The wax should melt fastest between 10 am and 2 pm. This solar wax melter has a strong construction and comes complete with strainer grid and stainless steel collection tray. These are used to remove excess wax from the frames that fill honey bee hives.
Once the tin pan is in the bottom of the cooler, place the piece of wire mesh over the tin plan so that the mesh is larger in the width than the pan. Brown wax occurs when wax has been heated over 85 c 185 f. Raw beeswax is a wonderful by product of honey harvesting. After the bees have their time, the cappings get thrown into my solar wax melter. It is assembled with water proof, high strength urethane adhesive and power driven nails resulting in a construction that is warranted for 3 years against defects in material and. Its much bigger than what i needed for occasional old. The design was based on what i could find on the internet at the time, for example the encyclopaedia cushmanica and good advice from beekeeping friends, both in dublin and on the irish beekeeping discussion group here, eight years on, is what i have learned about building and using one. The other option is to let the sun do all the work for you. In this video you will see how you can build your own. When the block in the melter has set, i put the container and wax in the fridge for a few hours.
You need to furnish 2 supers, paper towels, a large aluminum. Self filtering solar wax melter for beeswax from 4. This step is entirely optional but worthwhile as rinsing results in less honey trapped in wax after the first round of rendering. After this, the block pops out of the container easily. The removable top fits on and over the top of the wax melter like a hat fits on a head. Plan to build a solar wax melter january, 2008 by beelore an interesting website. The project takes a few hours to complete, depending on how many of the materials you have laying around your garage. Make a solar wax melter southern oregon beekeepers. I put through some wax i had already rendered as it. Product upgrade the screen frame has been replaced with a queen excluder so it can be used for both purposes.
Then youll put a liner in your solar wax melter so wax wont get stuck to the bottom of the cooler. Let the sun process your wax cappings into usable beeswax. The smaller loaf pan sits on the lower floor, snug against the riser and aligned to collect the melting wax from the larger pan above. Making a solar wax melter isnt something every stingless bee keeper is going to want to do, however, i have found it to be super useful for collecting and recycling wax. Wax melters are devices used in the packaging and candlemaking industries to melt wax. Wax rollers, presses and melters solar wax melter w3249. Vital stats and materials list for the solar wax melter dummies. The solar powered wax extractor is a device for melting beeswax from old comb or part rendered blocks, that is powered by the sun, has no moving parts and can be left unattended. Although most of the frames will be reused for another year, a couple of frames were damaged during the.
A wax melter designed around an old steel container from a braai section in black. The solar wax melter is basically a simple solar oven. Phase 1 beeswax processing construct a simple solar wax melter from items on hand. The melting pan inside the solar melter is large enough to hold. Depending on your location, you might want to reorient the melter periodically to maximize exposure to the sun. The supports are 6 below the top of the side panels and spaced 234, 14 and 25 from the inside of the back panel.
The stainless steel inner is required in order to have a heated bottom discharge valve. Wax from a melter can be purified by keeping the liquid wax warm so foreign materials settle to the bottom. This can be accomplished in the wax extractor or in a warm, turnedoff oven. If the edges of your paper towel were too long and wax wicked onto the floor of the cooler, just pop any spilled wax off of the foil once it has set and remelt. Once the wax is extracted, i am more than happy to run it again thru the solar melter and it does a great job lightening it. Jan 22, 20 if you have additional wax, carefully remove the first batch of wax balls, replace the paper towel with a fresh sheet, and set up the next batch to melt over the same container. The devices uses the sun to melt burr combs and small pieces of wax, producing high quality wax. You can modify the dimensions and design to fit your own needs.
My personal one is rather small as i was working around an existing metal reflector, but if i. Previous heated wax melter cover for uncapping table solar wax melter w3249. We are able to melt a full comb in 10 minutes during the hottest hours of the day. Here is a beautifully simple solar wax melter which paul magnuson of pretoria, south africa devised. I had a look online and found a few different types, in fact i did not see two the same. You need to furnish 2 supers, strong paper towels, a large aluminum tray, a plastic pitcher, funnel and bowl. Clean wax, dry cappings and recovered wax from the dirty melter go to the clean one. Self filtering solar wax melter for beeswax from 4 commonly available second hand items september 5, 2015 daniel beeswax, diy, melter, process, render, solar, wzx leave a comment i love discovering methods to process farm products without using any energy.
This melting pot is designed for melting waxes and their compounds for coating, casting and protecting applications. Oct 31, 2014 build your own solar wax melter link type. Mar 17, 20 these are used to remove excess wax from the frames that fill honey bee hives. Etsy is the home to thousands of handmade, vintage, and oneofakind products and gifts related to your search. The solar powered wax extractor is a device for melting beeswax from old comb or part rendered blocks, that is powered by the sun, has no moving parts and can be left unattended there are many plans regularly published in beekeeping magazines. Jan 27, 20 the solar wax melter preformed well over 3 years. Its basically a black wooden box with a baking pan and a bread pan inside, covered by a sheet of plexiglas.
Once your wax is melted, carefully remove the very hot pot, using those oven pads, and slowly pour the melted combination of wax, honey, propolis, bee parts, etc. The sheet metal pan should be 4 to6 d epanbi gu h c excluders or at least 2 fulldepth frames. Fresh honey cappings produce the best grades of commercial beeswax. Install the drip pan supports inside the wax melter, the drip pan and wire basket are support by three 2414 1x4s spanning the width of the melter figure 6. Stingless bee intermediate solar wax melter australian. You may be wondering what does a solar wax melter do. Read this users manual before use and follow the given instructions. It has double glazing to keep in heat and is angled at 22. Steam melter will extract more wax from the old propolized almost black comb than solar melter ever can. Solar beeswax rendering and hints for exhibiting wax blocks. The raw comb is placed on a screen, and as the sun heats the oven, the wax slowly drips through the screen into the container below.
Making and using a solar wax melter pamphlet january 1, 1979 by e. I dont like melting wax in the kitchen because its messy and the wife, but i dont want to buy a solar beeswax melter, that leaves me the option of building one which was my devious plan all along. The baking pan has 34 small holes drilled in one edge at the bottom of the incline, and the. Posted by clare on sep 7, 2012 in farm blog, honeybees 28 comments. The type of tank used to melt candle wax is quite different from. Aug 25, 2011 after the bees have their time, the cappings get thrown into my solar wax melter.
If the paper towel hangs over the side of the container, wax will sometimes wick off and drop to the bottom of the chest. Most of the links to solar wax melters point to the same design, from some universtiy or ag extension. A melter of this size will handle wax rendering from 60 hives. He told me that he uses a solar wax melter to do the job. The more times it is filtered and the longer it stays in the sun, the whiter it will get. Our wooden solar wax melter is perfect for the budget conscious beekeeper. Place your aluminum tray on the bottom board in the set. Solar wax melter w3249 lyson beekeeping supplies australia. The upper compartment where the frames or the wax to melt are placed this insulated with a 10 mm porex sandwich and 3 mm tablex board, thus maintaining that. How to make a steam melter for beeswax honey bee suite. There are many plans regularly published in beekeeping magazines.
Solar wax melter made even easier bee informed partnership. Vital stats and materials list for the solar wax melter. Once the wax is extracted, i am more than happy to run it again thru. Jan, 2008 plan to build a solar wax melter january, 2008 by beelore an interesting website. You can also create a really simple wax melter using an old cooler lined with aluminum foil. Once a cake of wax has hardened, detritus can be scraped off the bottom and if necessary, the cleaning process repeated. In todays world of aromatic gel candles, it is very easy to forget the role of beeswax. This set includes a plexiglass cover to let the sun in and retain the solar heat, a queen excluder to hold the cappings for melting, and a bottom board to set your aluminum tray on. Dadant even offers a solar powered beeswax melter for the hobby beekeeper and electric beeswax melters for the commercial beekeeper who has too many beeswax cappings to melt with solar power. Click here for instructions on using your wooden solar wax melter.
It uses a standard 9x metal baking pan a glass one fit ours, but it was kind of tight. The butt joinery is the simplest method for assembling wood, and this design has one straightforward dado cut. Ships assembled, just attach legs with screwdriver. Wait a few hours, and the wax will cool, shrink and rise above all the other remaining honey and slumgum. Using a basic, inexpensive setup, i built my own solar wax melter, and it works like a charm. Your solar wax melter from mann lake is a glass covered box that uses the heat of the sun to melt and clarify beeswax from your colonies. Depending on the size of the pan you use in the melter, this design should provide ample capacity to render up to 6 to 8 pounds of wax at a time. This is a solar oven to melt beeswax out of empty honeycomb.
It doesnt hold a lot of wax, but with every day being hot and sunny, i can process a lot of small batches. It drains out of the melter as fast as it will flow. Recently i had a talk to john klumpp and asked him his thoughts on cleaning native bee wax. Fill the large pan with your wax cappings and other harvested comb. I am addressing the comb so rigid and old that you can make an airplane wing support from it. Fill the top tray with cappings, leave it out in the sun, collect and rinse your cooled block of wax in the pan below.
I cleaned up my solar wax melter today, it had a ton of slum gum in it you can see it on the grass in the video. One of the byproducts of harvesting honey is beeswax. The water prevents the wax from adhering to the base of the container and makes it easy to remove. Back view front view side view 34 x 1114 double glazing thermopane lid 24 24 16 2812 7 2034 14 20 1 insulating board 1 insulating board 12 thick wood brace for lid 12 x 2 x 17 brace for lid metal pan metal pan 20 x 20 x 5 a melter of this size will handle wax rendering from 60 hives. Its much bigger than what i needed for occasional old frame cleanup and chunks of burr comb. We do not supply the glass as it gets broken too easily in transit and is readily available almost anywhere. It is amazing how the gunk stays up in the tray and only the wax drips through the 3 little holes. A solar wax melter michigan beekeepers association. Its large enough to hold a handfull of deep frames. Adjust the orientation of the box throughout the day so that it tracks the sun.
Raw bees wax, either from the decapping tank or the bee yard, needs to be cleaned and rendered since it will be soaked with honey, bug parts and other hive. Jaycox author see all formats and editions hide other formats and editions. If it still has flecks of whoknowswhat in it or if it just looks a little dingy, process the wax again. Wax solar melter 1 of 3 university of minnesota dept. It actually will heat the wax too hot and cause it to brown a little. Nothing works like a solar wax extractor, or melter, when it comes to rendering beeswax. Jul 29, 20 once your wax is melted, carefully remove the very hot pot, using those oven pads, and slowly pour the melted combination of wax, honey, propolis, bee parts, etc. Put the glazed top assembly on the solar wax melter.
1400 1517 95 553 577 61 364 1081 687 271 1173 296 40 72 39 693 49 1426 954 741 257 163 1488 1380 1280 1328 692 669 1093 1142 955 853 334 402 605 953 23 1100