Making 1 pound wax blocks.

[Wombat2]

I use a solar melter to render cappings etc. I have discovered a woven paper cloth (Chux brand here) over the mesh 'gate' does a great job of getting most of the crap out. I saw one of our club members using a metal queen excluder on the bottom of his melter that was trapping a lot of the big lumps of muck.

I now do a final clean in boiling water - I have a old cooking boiler about 18" in diameter and 12" high. I installed a 3/4" ball valve 6" up from the bottom. with wax in the pot I fill with water to just under the outlet then bring to the boil. The wax melts and floats on the water - the soluble dirt dissolves in the water or sinks - very little is left at the wax interface which is below the outlet. Clean wax is then drained off through the tap

[Acebird]

That's the nice thing about the tall thin cartons.

How does the beeswax not bond with the wax coated paper of the carton and make it difficult to strip off?

[Eric Bosworth]

I use silicone cake backing molds for wax - comes off clean and no clean up needed.

That is my solution. The silicone just peels right off and leaves nice blocks. Then you just need to cut it to size... or just fill it to a pound on a scale when you are in the melting process.

[Michael Bush]

>How does the beeswax not bond with the wax coated paper of the carton and make it difficult to strip off?

I don't think it's actually wax on the carton.  It does not stick.  You do tear the carton off getting the wax out, but it doesn't stick.

[Acebird]

Maybe it melts at a much higher temp so the bees wax doesn't bond to it.

[BeeMaster2]

I think they the melting points are pretty close. I think the reason is the difference in the make up of bees wax and petroleum based wax.
Jim

[Acebird]

http://earth911.com/news/recycling-mystery-milk-and-juice-cartons/
Apparently they are not wax anymore.

[Wombat2]

Well when they make artificial chocolate using the right combination of Macrogols (artificial waxes of various molecular sizes) and artificial chocolate flavor - what hope have we got?

[mtnb]

Thanks for that link Acebird. Kinda eye opening. I had no idea those shelf cartons contain aluminum.

[Oldbeavo]

In Oz we have a disposable cleaning cloth called a "Chux", It makes a very good filter for wax, just line a sieve and slowly poor wax through.
Another tip is to boil your wax with about 1/3 water, then keep your wax molten but still (not boiling) to allow dirt too settle to the bottom and then ladle the clear wax through the chux.
When you get down to the floating stuff you can let it set and scrape the bottom or if very thin add it to the next batch.