It is basically a box with a seethrough lid that allows sunlight to get inside the box and heat the wax that has been placed inside the box. Full text of solar wax melter manual see other formats at microfiche reference library a project of volunteers in asia making and using a solar wax melter leaflet no. The top is slanted so that the hinged top lid has a more favorable presentation toward the sun. Congratulations on your purchase of our lyson solar wax melter. University of california division of agricultural sciences 1422 harbour way south richmond, ca 94804 usa one copy will be sent free upon request. To begin using this product, remove it from the box, and remove wrapping from all parts. I put 8 to 10 pounds of wax, honey, propolis and miscellaneous bee stuff into this rig. 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. Aug 27, 2016 learn how to make a solar wax melter to melt beeswax that was comes from the beehive. Make your own solar wax melter april 1, 2015 for reprocessing the next time you send wax through the solar melter. Vital stats and materials list for the solar wax melter.
Old pollen frames and brood frames leave too much debris in the wax and will clog the filter. There are many plans regularly published in beekeeping magazines. Most beekeepers already have on hand everything they need to assemble a simple solar wax melter that will process their beeswax. The wax will be used to make encaustic paint for my art projects and i. A c h b j d o p q e i r mini wax solar melter 1 of 3 adapted from plan 790301, the pennsylvania state university agricultural extension service drawn by gary s. You start with the floor of the solar wax melter and work your way to the top. Set the piece of glass on top of the box, completely covering it. Considered the finest method of processing beeswax cappings, the solar wax melter has no direct heat source, which means less discoloration as well as natural bleaching by the sun to provide you with the lightest rendered beeswax cappings possible. Raw beeswax is a wonderful by product of honey harvesting. Wax from other comb tends to be older and is often darker due to the accumulation of debris. My background and training is in engineering so im not likely to go out and buy a solar wax melter id rather reuse something i have and make it work with very little work from me.
A solar beeswax melter will melt and clean beeswax without using electricty. Its very hands off, you dont have to do much with it, just leave it in the sun and the solar power takes care of it. Your new wax melter will provide high quality wax, and it eliminates. Place your cappings and old comb on a stainlesssteel tray within the melter and put the unit out in the hot summer sun to let the sun do its work. 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 melted wax will then drip down into two pans creating cakes of wax.
A manual for trainers of small scale beekeeping development workers. I poked around a little online, and found a number of readymade solar wax melters, but theyre not cheap. 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 2 from cracking and shrinking. For small volumes though, this solar wax melter was efficient, and we wont have to trip over a melter in the workshop, as all the component pieces have been returned to their original taskexcept the paper towel of. The more times it is filtered and the longer it stays in the sun, the whiter it will get. Beekeeping for beginners, make a solar wax melter for.
The liquid wax collection receptacle is a large, beatup old pot that i got free at a yard sale. In the beekeepers workshop michigan beekeepers association. Not a practical thing but still achievable at the right price. I also want to collect information for other pourposes like a solar tobacco kiln that would require far more control and energy storage etc. If you keep bees with a top bar hive, youre likely to wind up with plenty of nice comb that can be melted down for beeswax. Wax solar melter 1 of 3 adapted from plan 790301, the pennsylvania state university agricultural extension service scale. These plans will build a 31x19x9 solar wax melter, which works great to melt cappings and such. This wax melter uses a cooler and a piece of glass, its important that the glass not be double glazed, according to rick. Cut the free end at an angle so that it makes firm. Solar wax melter pdf a relatively cheap way to render wax is to use a solar melter. The melted wax will then drip down into two pans creating cakes of wax for your use. The sloping top surface of the solar wax nmlter provides maximum exposure to the sun and al laws honey and melted wax to drain quickly into the storage pan. Phase 1 beeswax processing construct a simple solar wax melter from items on hand.
The solar wax melter is basically a box made out of 34 ply wood figure 1 and photo. Keep an eye out at yard sales for igloo type coolers that may work. This type of melter works best for wax cappings and clean wax, such as that harvested from honey frames. May 28, 2012 i say this having hijacked pots from the kitchen and made them quite a big mess to clean up. Wax solar melter 1 of 3 university of minnesota dept. I had a look online and found a few different types, in fact i did not see two the same.
Solar wax melter with this gadget, you can load it up with your rinsed, raw wax, put it in the sun and then go attend to your other business. If it still has flecks of whoknowswhat in it or if it just looks a little dingy, process the wax again. Aug, 2012 a solar beeswax melter will melt and clean beeswax without using electricty. Cut the free end at an angle so that it makes firm contact with the lid frame when the lid is a. 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. Melters come in all shapes and sizes and can be made out of just about any used material. 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. Oct 31, 2014 build your own solar wax melter link type. 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. Solar beeswax rendering and hints for exhibiting wax blocks 1.
After youve cut all the pieces of your solar wax melter, its time to clear a good work space and put all this stuff together. This music is in the public domain and is free to use. Nothing works like a solar wax extractor, or melter, when it comes to rendering beeswax. You dont have to worry about anything catching fire and the job will be done at the end of the day. It consists of an outer box, insulation, inner heat chamber, wax screen, wax container, and a clear top. It is basically a box with a seethrough lid that allows sunlight to get inside the box and heat the wax. Solar beeswax rendering and hints for exhibiting wax blocks. A solar wax melter is a useful, lowcost and effective tool appropriate for all. 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. How we built an easy diy solar wax melter for free with a. As the temperatures had recently been soaring into the low 90s in the garden though, it seemed like perfect weather to try using a solar wax melter. We found a lot of great designs for solar wax melters online, and decided to combine a lot of the ideas into this wax melter. Our uncapping tanks and melters quickly and efficiently separate the beeswax from the honey in the beeswax capping.
When set, remove the paper towel and free the wax by gently stretching the sides of container, just enough to pop the wax slab. 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 melter produces wax of high quality and eliminates the need for the sometimes hazardous job of rendering wax in the hame. Bleaching in the sun can also lighten the color of. Has anyone built their own, or have an alternative and efficient way to melt their wax. The wood came from scrap wood from miscellaneous project. A solar wax melter michigan beekeepers association.
A relatively cheap way to render wax is to use a solar melter. History of beekeeping theres approximately species of bees throughout the world making them the interest of beekeepers who rely on them to cross pollinate because when b solar wax melter plans here. It is capable of reaching and maintaining temperatures as much as 50 degrees f above melting temperature without harmful uv ray exposure. Filtering beeswax with the diy solar wax melter youtube. 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. Cut the free end at an angle so that it makes firm contact with the lid frame when the lid is. You can help these species by maintaining pesticide free, beefriendly gardens and landscaping, focusing upon planting a variety of.
Ants do like the smell of beeswax and honey, so bee careful where you set the cooler or your solar wax melter may become an ant farm. Making and using a sclar wax melter a solar wax melter is a glasscovered box that uses the heat of tie. If you are new to beekeeping or maybe you dont keep bees at all, then you may have never heard of a solar wax melter. Jul 19, 2016 this solar wax melter is made mostly from materials i already had laying around. It can be made from almost any materials found around the beekeepers establishment and adapted to any size. Been shopping for a solar melter, they can be spendy. Diy beekeeper build it yourself greenviewaquaponics. You cannot be in a hurry, a solar wax melter just doesnt work on cloudy or rainy days.
As it melts, keep adding more hands full of wax into the melter and allow it to accumulate into one piece. Recently i had a talk to john klumpp and asked him his thoughts on cleaning native bee wax. How to make a steam melter for beeswax honey bee suite. Beekeeping for beginners, make a solar wax melter for beeswax. The wax will be used to make encaustic paint for my art projects and i might also use the melted beeswax to. 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. The top is slanted so that the hinged top lid has a more favorable. Think of a wax melter that would stay hot all night long and keep melting wax around the clock. He told me that he uses a solar wax melter to do the job. Vital stats and materials list for the solar wax melter dummies. The butt joinery is the simplest method for assembling wood, and this design has one straightforward dado cut. I created a highly makeshift solar wax melter last summer, but will need something a little larger and more sturdy this year. Phase 1 beeswax processing construct a simple solar wax melter from items.
Jul 12, 2011 another project out of the woodshop this month. The melter can be used to render old combs, cappings, burr comb, and other hive scrapings containing wax. This wax melter is a great and affordable way to process beeswax on a hobbyist level. You may be wondering what does a solar wax melter do. Ships assembled, just attach legs with screwdriver. So i fabricated this solar wax melter and it works better than i ever thought it would. The cleanest beeswax is usually rendered from honey cappings, which tend to be the newest comb in the hive. A melter of this size will handle wax rendering from 60 hives. See the photo gallery at the end of this article for examples. 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. Mini wax solar melter 1 of 3 university of minnesota. Filter material for wax lint free fabric such as old sweatshirt best, shop.
The heat is free and a side benefit is the bleaching of the wax by the sun. As long as youre not in a hurry, this method is maintenance free. 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. Rendering beeswax can be very time consuming unless you have a good melter and i find solar to be a. Solar wax melter made even easier bee informed partnership. Honeycomb uncapping tank usda pdf honey heater pdf this converted chest freezer is an ideal size for heating up five gallon buckets of honey. Maybe down the road if we have a lot more wax to process ill build a melter thats better suited to large volumes of wax. The solar wax melter is basically a simple solar oven. You can modify the dimensions and design to fit your own needs. Cover k f g l f k g l k 1 or l1 top k 2 or l2 k 3 or l3 glass wax solar melter 2 of 3 drawn by gary s. 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. This solar wax melter is made mostly from materials i already had laying around. I say this having hijacked pots from the kitchen and made them quite a big mess to clean up.
Melting beeswax with a solar wax melter is one safe way to get it ready for crafting and other projects. Our wooden solar wax melter is perfect for the budget conscious beekeeper. How to clarify beeswax with a solar wax melter hobby farms. It is on these hot sunny days that solar wax melting season begins at our home. May 06, 2014 as long as youre not in a hurry, this method is maintenance free. This solar wax melter is about as simple as it gets. A solar wax melter is a glasscovered box that uses the heat of the sun to melt. Solar wax melters plans in books observation hiveswait for experience. Beginning beekeepers workshop scientific beekeeping.
The deluxe solar wax melter is an affordable, high performance melter that uses the power of the sun to melt valuable wax with no cost to operate. Step 4 on a sunny day when temperatures are above 79 degrees f, place the solar wax melter outside in a sunny location. Jul 29, 20 it is on these hot sunny days that solar wax melting season begins at our home. Learn how to make a solar wax melter to melt beeswax that was comes from the beehive. Pdf wax solar melter 1 of 3 adapted from plan 790301. The project takes a few hours to complete, depending on how many of the materials you have laying around your garage. Rick built this diy solar beeswax melter out of a cooler and stuff you probably have in your garage. Full text of solar wax melter manual internet archive. Painting the solar wax melter black will make it more efficient. I am addressing the comb so rigid and old that you can make an airplane wing support from it. Basic construction the solar wax melter is basically a box made out of 34 plywood figure 1 and photo.