Wax melter

just made my own frame cleaner with an old hive on an old OMF and a wallpaper stripper steam unit stuffed through an old roof. Hey, it worked so well I couldn't believe it! Cleaned ten frames in 20 mins, better than a solar jobby. Got the idea from a thorns catalogue.
Why didn't I do this years ago? Washed the wax and it's beautiful wax. Makes cleaning old grotty frames up so easy! And cost me nothing bar some old rotting equipment and a wallpaper steamer that gets used once every five years.

E

been on youtube for yonks where have you been

Did you use rainwater in the water stripper and out of interest approx how much wax did you recover. I have a cheap wall paper stripper and considered giving it a go.

I did use spring water as we have our own spring! Recovered amazingly small amount of wax for amount of frames but It always amazes me how little wax they use to make a frame up!
On u tube? Don't waste my time on it!
E

Got some piccys E??

I made mine a few years ago, best thing for cleaning down old frames. Word of warning don't do it when the bees are active

I had enough trouble with wasps!

Tom Bick said:

Did you use rainwater in the water stripper and out of interest approx how much wax did you recover. I have a cheap wall paper stripper and considered giving it a go.

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Why would you need to use rainwater. when water turns to steam all the crud (chalk etc) stays in the steamer, the only reason to would be to stop the element furring up over time.

dpearce4 said:

Why would you need to use rainwater. when water turns to steam all the crud (chalk etc) stays in the steamer, the only reason to would be to stop the element furring up over time.

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Yes makes sense it's just that I have always been told to use rainwater when using water on wax. Not an expert on wax recovery getting better at it and playing with wax something for the future.

dpearce4 said:

Why would you need to use rainwater. when water turns to steam all the crud (chalk etc) stays in the steamer, the only reason to would be to stop the element furring up over time.

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That was my first thought, you're distilling the water so any steam that condenses on the wax will be as mineral free as you're likely to get.

I don't find a home made solar melter any problem, just change the couple of frames every morning. The only downside is the wait until there are a few sunny days together, but since spring/summer is when you're likely to be replacing frames in the hives it's just a case of recovering wax as you go and not leaving it as a winter job.

-only reason to would be to stop the element furring up over time.

+1, .... and then only if the water contains temporary hardness.

REDWOOD said:

I made mine a few years ago, best thing for cleaning down old frames. Word of warning don't do it when the bees are active

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I did the other day. 20 minutes later a garage full of bees!

We are lucky in Swansea, our water is very soft with no lime scale, bees still won't drink it though

enrico said:

Cleaned ten frames in 20 mins, better than a solar jobby.

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It`s also good for disinfection of BB`s, supers, and everything we can put in the hive.

Sorry to bring this thread back form the dead. I've made one of these chaps and it's very good. However, I've got some brood frames with rock hard ivy honey in it. All my hives have supers on and normally they never run out of food so I'm planning on melting them down in the steamer.

I'm just not sure if it won't just make a huge mess.

Is there a better way to handle these frames, I don't have a honey warmer (on the list for this year) so am curious what to do.

Just melt it down as usual, the honey will run into the same container as the wax but when cooled will settle at the bottom. What you do with it then is up to you! I would probably discard it in the dustbin!
E

Yes, any honey 'steamed' out will almost certainly be waste product.

If you can find a local commercial beekeeper with an Apimelter (a precision melter designed for exactly this job), you could recover the honey as well as the wax.
An ordinary warming cabinet (or steam wax extractor) would be expected to spoil the honey.

Or you could uncap them and soak them in water in a warmish place ... which would leave you with the priceless asset of drawn comb.

My preference would be to store them for future feeding. Even if it is granulated, once uncapped and wetted, the bees will be delighted to consume it. And you get the comb rather than 'just' wax. You could even spray them with Certan to keep the moth at bay.