Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: randydrivesabus on July 07, 2007, 08:38:03 PM

Title: food grade plastic
Post by: randydrivesabus on July 07, 2007, 08:38:03 PM
i'm getting ready to do some crush and strain....is food grade plastic necessary for the buckets?
the setup they sell at brushy mountain seems kind of overpriced.
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: Greg Peck on July 07, 2007, 08:56:50 PM
I do not know the answer to you question. I would think for sure that you would want food grade if you were storing honey in the bucket and I would use it for everything. But I can not say for sure if you have to or not.

Regarding the buckets I found that US Plastics has FDA approved 5 gal buckets for 3.47 and 1.17 for the lid. The website for the buckets is -

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=USPlastic&category%5Fname=20327&product%5Fid=26588

I bought some 2 gal pails from them and the service was great.

Hope this helps
Greg
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: Robo on July 07, 2007, 09:06:52 PM
Visit your local bakery,  they get a bunch of stuff in plastic pails.  You can usually get them for free.
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: randydrivesabus on July 08, 2007, 10:09:12 AM
thanks guys! that helps a lot.
is installing a honey gate pretty straight forward?
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: Robo on July 08, 2007, 11:58:57 AM
Quote from: randydrivesabus on July 08, 2007, 10:09:12 AM
is installing a honey gate pretty straight forward?

Drill the hole, insert the gate,  screw on the nut from the inside.  Just takes a couple of minutes..
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: bluegrass on July 08, 2007, 12:37:06 PM
Food grade just means that it had food in it....5 gal. Plastic pales bought new are the same as the ones marked food grade......its just on them so they can be reused for food items.
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: doak on July 08, 2007, 05:39:00 PM
Dito what Robo said,  I get my buckets from Bakery/Deli. Some are free and 1 or 2 $.
doak
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: randydrivesabus on July 08, 2007, 09:07:05 PM
my wife called the bakery at walmart and they said they have many of them that are hers for the taking.
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: doak on July 08, 2007, 10:46:00 PM
See how easy that was. Just wash up good, after eating some of the iceing they leave in them. :)
doak
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: randydrivesabus on July 09, 2007, 07:54:05 AM
so....a pint's a pound the world around....does this mean that 8 oz of honey weighs a pound?
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: imabkpr on July 09, 2007, 09:03:27 AM
Quote from: randydrivesabus on July 09, 2007, 07:54:05 AM
so....a pint's a pound the world around....does this mean that 8 oz of honey weighs a pound?

8 oz of honey weighs 8 oz.  A pint of honey weighs [ depending on the make of the pint jar and the moisture content of the honey ] 21 t0 24 0zs

A quart of honey weighs [ depending on the make of the jar and the moisture content of the honey ] 43 to 48 ozs   

Do you mean an 8 oz measuring cup of honey ?   If so 8 ozs of honey would weigh one half the weight of a pint jar of honey.  10-1/2 to 12 ozs     
                                                                                 Charlie
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: super dave on July 09, 2007, 09:30:55 AM
isn't 16oz a pound or am i wrong
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: doak on July 09, 2007, 08:21:19 PM
Yes, 16 oz is a pound when measured in weight.
An average pint jar, like some one said holds in the neighborhood 20-22 oz of honey. Which is 4 to 6 oz's over a pound.
An 8 oz measuring cup would therfore hold 10 -11 oz of honey.
Not to be confused with "fluid oz's".
doak
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: randydrivesabus on July 10, 2007, 07:30:22 AM
i've read somewhere that a pint is 1 1/2 pounds. so much for ' a pint's a pound the world around'.
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: doak on July 10, 2007, 07:55:13 PM
The regular mason jar was made for fluid oz's.
A standard one pound honey jar doesn't hold 16 fluid oz's
A 10 pound syrup jug doesn't hold a fluid gallon.
So a pint is not a pound the whole world round.
As a bakers doz. is not 12.
Just as in Bee Keeping, Get a book on weights and measures.
Don't know what else to say.
doak
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: doak on July 10, 2007, 07:59:08 PM
Sorry I wasn't paying attention. What does ( how much is in a pint) have to do with food grade plastic?
doak
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: tillie on July 10, 2007, 08:30:54 PM
FWIW, since free is certainly better than $, the same kit Brushy Mtn sells for 35.95, Dadant sells for 29.95

Linda T in Atlanta
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: Cindi on July 30, 2007, 01:02:17 PM
One gallon of honey weighs approximately 11.8 pounds.  The specific gravity of honey is 1.5, meaning that it weighs one and one half times the amount that water weighs.  Just a little trivia.

We use the metric system in Canada.  500 grams (just a little over a pound) (weight) of honey is approximately 350 ml (fluid measurement) :-D.  Seems all this talk is a little confusing to me  :)

Have a wonderful day, greatest of life.  Cindi
Title: Re: food grade plastic
Post by: danno1800 on July 30, 2007, 04:25:10 PM
Don't overlook your local WalMart as a source for food grade 5 gal plastic buckets. My local one sells the empties for $1 apiece completely cleaned & ready to use for honey. Hope that helps! -Danno