Melting cappings?

[brooksbeefarm]

Whatis the best way to melt cappings and clean it at the same time? I think i remember someone say to melt it in a crockpot of boiling water 1/4 full and add cappings till they melt, then turn it off and let cool, that the junk will go to the bottom and the wax will float. I have been melting mine in a fry daddy,( no water) and when it becomes a liquid i strain it through screen wire with cheese cloth under it into plastic containers. When it sets up there will be some junk stuck to the bottom, some beeswax is light colored and some dark, that would be determined by the color of the cappings, i'm guessing? I haven't tried it, but when we use to render lard we would add a snall amount of soda to it to make it snow white, wonder if that would work on beeswax?? or blow up, i know if you put to much soda in the lard, it would foam up run over and put the fire out anyway that's what i've heard. Jack

[LazyBkpr]

Interesting idea to lighten the wax..   Using the solar melter helps lighten the wax a bit as well.. but I just use the electric burner with the water in it.. bring it to boiling and start adding cappings..   I also use screen wire and cheese cloth. I pour it through the straining wire and cloth into a 5 gallon bucket and let it cool there.. when the cooled wax comes off the water/honey mix I scrape the bottom gunk off the cake of wax, and I may even run it through a t shirt after that if the wife wants wax for candles.. for rubbing my frames or to send in to the buyers the single straining is sufficient..

   While the 5 gallon bucket cools, I heat more water in the pot. When boiling I run my cheese cloth and t shirt through that boiling water to clean the cooled wax from it, making it re usable..
   The wax I pack up to sell I leave in the 5 gallon diameter size cakes. The wax I keep for my own, or my wifes use I re melt, re filter into an empty pot, and keep it warmed so I can pour it into muffin/cupcake pans.. this gives me a perfectly sized piece of wax to USE to rub frames etc..  OR, for my wife to melt down and make candles from...

[riverbee]

"What is the best way to melt cappings and clean it at the same time?"

i use a solar wax melter jack, and that's all i use, and it lightens wax, and cleans it up well. i will also separate the darker wax.  i don't like fooling around with other methods in the kitchen when the sun's heat isn't enough to melt and strain wax.......it's what i choose to do and what works for me.....

i have tried other methods, crockpot, double boiler, etc....i just like the solar wax melter. not convenient for those that need to be melting and refining wax in cooler temps or during fall and winter months. the gunk does sit on the bottom, scrape it off like scott said. not sure if soda would whiten your wax?  try it and see!

[brooksbeefarm]

I've had 3 solar wax melters and something always happens to them, car, truck , tractor, cattle, ect. destroy them , and i'm banned from my wives kitchen after my attempt at making fondant there. . My dog and i can do anything we want in my shop though , i have 4 five gal. buckets of cappings to melt down and maybe i'll use those molds i bought two years ago. I have around 80 lbs. of bees wax stored in a big plastic tub (from the dollar store) and with what i'm going to melt down should make alot of candles. I thought maybe there was a better way of doing it than what i'm doing? Jack
PS. this will be something to do when that white crap starts falling

[pistolpete]

My method is similar to others, except I don't add cappings to boiling water.   I soak the cappings in about an equal amount of water to dissolve the honey.  The resulting water is about like 1 to 1 syrup and the bees go nuts for it.  Then I rinse them one more time and discard that water.  Then I put the cappings in to a large pot with water and bring the wax to a gentle boil.   Wax melts at about 3/4 the boiling point of water, so adding wax to boiling water heats it up too much.  The result is a lot of flammable fumes.

[Perry]

Solar melter for the wax till the days are too short and the temp too low. Then indoors into a lobster pot with water like the rest do. After that I use one of those Presto Pot melters to remelt it for candles as I need it (it's great)!

[brooksbeefarm]

A club member who makes and sells bee supplies, showed the club a indoor solar melter he made for winter. It's made like a hot box with a heat lamp on top built into the lid, he said it works great? Jack

[Bakersdozen]

I see bits and pieces of what I do in everyone's posts.
I wash the cappings by adding them, with water, to a pot I no longer plan to use for anything else.  I heat until the wax is melted.  Let cool completely.  The wax will float to the top and be easily removed in a big chunk or chunks.  As someone said, give that water to the bees.  It's full of honey.  Repeat the process again with out the water.  Gently heat the wax until it melts.  Then I strain through an old sweatshirt.  Some strain that right into molds to harden.  You will be amazed out beautiful the wax turns out. (Unless it was some REALLY old comb)

[Beeboy]

I buy a cheap pair of panty house and put the capping in one leg, drop it in a crock pot with a little water in it. It takes about two hours and you can pick the panty hose up and throw them away or save them to use the other leg next time. All the goop gets filtered out if the wax and stays in the panty hose.