I have three, five gallon pails filled with junk comb. Yesterday, I was successful in melting down one of the pails of wax using a make shift double boiler. Basically I used a clean paint can, filled it with water, and melted the wax in it. I put the paint can in a large pot filled with boiling water. I used aluminum window screen over a plastic container which allowed me to filter out the larger sized pieces of crap. I figured after the wax and remaining water cooled, I would still have some particles to filter out. I was fairly surprised at how much I was actually able to filter out, but I do need to re-filter. I don't know if I'll be able to find screen smaller than what I have now in order to re-melt and re-filter. I was hoping for some suggestions leaning more towards the method I described. I've already considered the panty hose option but I am not sure how well that would actually hold up under the pressure of a large amount of water hitting it. The particles are more like sand than anything else so the filter will need to be fairly fine.
Hope that's a clear enough of a description. Let me know if there are any questions.
Thanks.
pour it through BURLAP-make shure it is hot so it doent harden and clog-RDY-B
you can pour it though cheese cloth. stuff is pretty cheep and you'll find it in most grocery stores of any size. rubber band it to the container and make sure it is dished. poor the hot wax though into your container and you are done. old milk cartons work well. if you use something like another can, try to use something with a smooth side. later, you can warm it briefly and the wax will slide out (you may need to poke a hole in the bottom of the can). if you use a ribbed can, the wax doesn't want to come out.
One more question regarding this...
Do you think it's best to melt the gritty wax using water like I did the first time around or just melt it down without it?
Thanks.
water is best -you will recapture more wax-RDY-B
I put my scrapings and wax pieces in a paint strainer bag and set that in a pot of water to melt it in a solar wax melter. When all melted, I wring the bag and out and let the wax cool. I get a clean cake of wax on top of the water that just needs light scrape off the bottom with a hive tool, a light layer of fine debri which floats on top of the water and under the wax.
Sounds like water is the way to go. I wish a solar melter was that easy. It's a little cold for that right now and I want to get this taken care of now. Not to mention I have yet to build one. :oops: Trying to get as much bee stuff done now so I don't have to worry about it when my son is born in April. :)