Author Topic: Nov 1st is wax melting day! (Read 6018 times)

Perry · « **on:** October 31, 2015, 05:49:32 pm »

All done with the harvest, equipment cleaned, torn apart and set aside. Now comes the fun part............
Wax melting!
I've got the melter all cleaned up, flushed out, removed and checked the immersion heater, bonnet heater works. I got some sage advice from Apis and extended the outlet pipes for the wax and honey. Rather than use valves for the wax and honey, which tend to plug up, especially when they get cool, the extended pipes can be swung in either direction to gradually pour out whichever (wax or honey) you chose.

I've got the rest of my clean cappings from my spinner sitting in 9 three gallon ice cream pails ready to dump in.

I already did 4 of them on the stove top and Jane even helped me. She couldn't believe how messy it got what with wax on the stove, and then running it through a screen and then filter cloth, and suggested actually using the wax melter!

I will start this Sunday morning as I really have no idea how long this whole process will take. We get our electricity for half price at night and on weekends so it makes sense to start tomorrow as I don't want to leave it on overnight. I'll try and take some pictures as I go through this process, wish me luck.

tedh · « **Reply #1 on:** October 31, 2015, 08:01:28 pm »

WOW man. Just....Wow!

apisbees · « **Reply #2 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:53:49 am »

The top hood is not as long as the tank so place a piece of tin over the open part of the tank to keep the heat in. Use a thermostat to check the heat. 150 Deg F. for water in water jacket and 200 deg. F. air temp from electric element. Good luck Perry hope it all goes well.
I think you will be amazed how much easier it goes using equipment designed for the job. You will be wishing you had more wax to process. Take some weights to see what the percent Wax, Honey, and Slum-gum the cappings turn out to be.

Perry · « **Reply #3 on:** November 01, 2015, 05:54:51 am »

Hey Apis. Thanks for those temps. The immersion heater only has Cool - Warmer - Hot on the dial, and the bonnet heater just has a similar generic dial, so I will be doing it by thermometer the first time and those temps you mentioned will give me a benchmark.
I'm guessing at some point there must have been a lid for the open part next to the bonnet?

apisbees · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2015, 07:44:43 am »

Designed so the uncapper would sit over the opening so the cappings would fall directly in to the wax melter.

Perry · « **Reply #5 on:** November 01, 2015, 08:00:08 am »

Ahhhh.

I'm about to fill the water jacket with hot water right from the hot water tank, which should save a bit of time. Next 1/2 hour should see things underway.
Stay tuned!

apisbees · « **Reply #6 on:** November 01, 2015, 08:14:31 am »

Is the control on the hood a thermostatic control or a rheostat that controls the power going to the element and how hot the element gets.
IS IT DONE YET?

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #7 on:** November 01, 2015, 08:48:17 am »

Shakes pom poms GO PERRY GO!

HEY! Stop looking at my pom poms!

Perry · « **Reply #8 on:** November 01, 2015, 09:41:41 am »

OK, water hooked up and jacket filled!

Wax ready and dumped 5 of 9 pails in. Thinking I will have to let this melt down before I add more so it doesn't get too close to the bonnet heater!

Read to go and fired it up!

1 hour later, the bonnet heater glowing nicely. No way of knowing how hot it is, just a dial with no actual temperatre gauge. There is a sensor to turn it off once it reaches temp (just like an oven).
Checked the water jacket temp and it was only at 115F so I turned that up some more.

Keep staying tuned!

This is going faster than I had anticipated.

efmesch · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2015, 11:01:20 am »

I can definitely see an advantage in having an electrically heated wax cappings melter. My solar cappings melter is getting the sunlight at a low (winter) angle and the shadows from nearby buildings and trees are reducing the sunlight hours that usually produce the heat. My wax is melting but backs up when it reaches the filter--simply not liquid enough to go through.

Keep going Perry!!!

Perry · « **Reply #10 on:** November 01, 2015, 11:22:40 am »

Just finished adding another 3 pails, 1 more to go and then I'll let the whole thing melt down. Level of the wax is already past the second outlet opening. I've got the water jacket up to 135 f and I think I'll leave it there as it seems to be doing a good job and I hope to not scorch any honey that might be left in those cappings. I am amazed at how quickly this is going, I initially thought it would be an all day affair.

apisbees · « **Reply #11 on:** November 01, 2015, 11:30:01 am »

Perry lower on the lowest outlet drain off the honey, some of the wax will come out but it will quickly cool and can be lift off and thrown back in the melter. I would do this every hour till all that was in the tank was liquid wax.

Perry · « **Reply #12 on:** November 01, 2015, 11:43:26 am »

Got ya! Will do that right after lunch. I'm curious to see how much honey was still in the cappings.

Perry · « **Reply #13 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:20:31 pm »

OK, tried to tap some honey off the lowest outlet but nothing happened. I used a stick to feel down through the melted liquid and found that wax was set up along the bottom closing off the outlet hole. I am guessing that 135 F isn't enough and have bumped it up a bit more (water jacket). I see that the melting point of beeswax is 144 °F to 147 °F, so I guess what is happening is the bonnet is melting the wax quickly but the water jacket is a bit too cool to keep it liquid.
Will keep on trying.

apisbees · « **Reply #14 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:35:35 pm »

I would have started off on high and when the water jacket hit temp of 150 would have turned it down but either way it doesn't matter it may have been more liquid but it would have cooled with the adding of more wax. Whats the air temp in the canopy?

Perry · « **Reply #15 on:** November 01, 2015, 01:15:58 pm »

I have no way of knowing really. I have turned it down while I turned up the jacket temp. I'm going to take another pic shortly as I have all the wax in there now.

apisbees · « **Reply #16 on:** November 01, 2015, 01:34:57 pm »

do you have a prob end thermometer that you can slid the end in under the cover? over flowing with cappings and in the end less than 1/3rd of a tank. It always amazes me how much it melts down. Or when doing custom extracting ones that look at the pill of cappings and they envision so much wax from the pile of cappings.

Perry · « **Reply #17 on:** November 01, 2015, 01:48:47 pm »

I only have a candy thermometer so I'm out of luck on bonnet temp (for now, I'll figure that one out for cheap I'm thinking).
Yup, a full lobster pot took 2 of those pails and only gave up about 3 kilos.

I've taken to using used milk cartons, and when you fill them up to the spout hole it is almost always bang on 1 kilo.

Boy I'm getting close Keith, a lot of liquid now. I used a stick to move some of the soft stuff from the upper end down to the bonnet end. Won't be long now I figure.

efmesch · « **Reply #18 on:** November 01, 2015, 02:29:42 pm »

That block of wax in the last picture is a real beauty.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #19 on:** November 01, 2015, 03:19:07 pm »

Dang thats awesome! Once you get it all figured out its gonna work like a charm. REALLY nice looking wax!