Solar wax melters

[John Thompson]

So I built a solar wax melter, wood box, wood frame, acrylic face, painted all the wood black inside and out. . Built the aluminium frame tray out of flashing. 

It seems to work great on light color wax, but dark wax, especially stuff that is plain black, is hard to melt. It gets soft enough to fall out of a wired frame, but very little of it actually melts and goes into the catch pan. 

Any tips? Color the pan black? add insulation? use real glass? 

[d k]

If it's the really dark stuff that could be an old comb that is full of....crap.   The dark stuff is junk that is thrown away (from what I've done with my solar melter).  Others may have other experience to add.

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[Joseph Bessetti]

As long as it gets hot enough, wax will melt out of those old combs leaving behind some wax that you won't get out, along with all the cocoons and propolis.  It often will retain its shape and look like it hasn't melted at all.   Excellent fire-starting material.

Joe

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[Greg V]

I got:

- double-glass (two singles used together)

- have my box very well insulated

- not much extra air to heat by design (the box is flat)

- the tray is from a very dark and thick steel sheet I picked up by the roadside.

- multi-purpose in function.

No complaints (outside of being burning hot; one glass pane already cracked from it).

Works very well for everything.

Be aware that very dark combs will not melt completely because they are, essentially, a mesh made up from bee cocoons.

However, they should fall apart into separate cells.

Beyond that not much else you can do.

On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 2:10 PM John Thompson <johntho...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Greg V]

More pics

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[John Thompson]

It is indeed the black comb stuff that's left, that breaks into individual cells if you move it. 

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[Greg V]

Using solar it is hard to make it beyond the " black comb stuff ... that breaks into individual cells if you move it".

If you care you can steam/boil the slum gum and press it immediately while hot - there is still a lot of wax in it.

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[John Thompson]

I'll save it for a crock pot melt 

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