# Anyone made a uncapping tank?



## Walt McBride (Apr 4, 2004)

*Uncapping Tray*

Over 35 years years ago my first tray was a new 18" galv. motor oil catch pan 5" deep with a cross board with a frame pivot nail in the board. It was cheap and worked for several hives.
That lasted for two seasons.
Then I built a galv. tray that would hold 20 frames after uncapping wating to be uncapped. Had four frame extracter at that time. That set up lasted about four seasons.
Then I moved up to a twelve frame radial. Then a twenty frame radial.
I wanted a S.S. uncapping tray but the price with shipping I thought was too much so I built my own and it's stand. I did the layout after buying the S.S. sheet, cut it and had a sheet metal shop do the break work and a welder weld the S.S. I did the steel stand.
If you are small it does not seem reasonable for the expense of a S.S. tray and stand to support it, but if you stay with the bees and expand you will be glad that you bought it now.
The wood with the FG epoxy sounds like a good stepping stone until you expand.
Walt


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## Panhandle Bee man (Oct 22, 2003)

I have seen a wooden one, it has gotten many years of use. I don't recall the exact dimensions. It was made out of furniture grade plywood, length was about 3 supers long, width was 1 super, and it was probably about 3 feet deep. Legs were made out of 2x4s, one end being about 1 1/2 inches higher than the other end. The short end had a gate on it to allow the honey to drain out into a bucket. The beek had a Kelly vibrating knife uncapper mounted above the tank also, so the cappings dropped into the tank to drain. The whole thing was painted white, the 20 frame mark was a ss screw, that prevented the frames from sliding any farther down the tank. Like I said it get a lot of use, held up well, needed repainting every other year or so.


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## dmharvey (Oct 2, 2007)

*on the cheap*

i have seen and made a uncapping tank out of stainless steel sink that i bought at a farm auction. it was used on a dairy farm in the milkhouse, already was on a stand and has a drain built in. it was slightly too wide so i put strip of wood length wise to close the gap, not bad for $5.00.


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## shepherd (Feb 1, 2006)

*uncapping tank*

find a source of Rubbermaid Commercial food service stuff. I made my tank out of an item they had in the catalog. It is a clear, food grade haevy plastic bottom container, strainer at mid level and a top. All I had to do is drill a hole and insert a honey gate. Some of the bee catalogs have the same thing with the gate installed at a much higher price


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## Southern BeeLady (Dec 29, 2005)

*uncapping tank*

I went to local restaurant supply and bought two plastic lugs that restaurants workers use to carry dirty dishes from tables to sink. They are only about $5 each. 
Bottom Lug: I put a honey gate in it. I made supports for the top lug to sit on from c-shaped pipe brackets (the kind that hold conduit in place) that I found at the hardware store and stripes of wood screwed to them. These clamp on to the edge of the lug. The top lug sits on the wood strips. Top Lug: I cut one of the plastic queen excluders to fit the bottom. I drilled holes (1/4 to 3/8) in the bottom for the honey to drain thru. I made a rest for the honey frames that is just a piece of wood that has grooves that lays across the lug and fits over the outside edge of the lug.
It is similiar to the one in Brushy Mountain catalog.


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## adamf (Jan 28, 2006)

Hi there,
Made a home-made tank from a Stainless Kitchen Sink.
Pics are here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bees/adamf/uncap.html

I've used it often and it works very well. 
Its not as nice as the commercial ones but it was inexpensive! ~ $60.00

Adam Finkelstein
[email protected]


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## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

like adamf I use a stainless steel kitchen sink for uncapping. I have set mine into a commerical kitchen stainless steel 'prep' table. the prep table is big enough to accept the double sink on one end and for me to stack a super on the other end (I have attached a bit of ss angle which pops up the frames on one end when I set the box down). one half of the sink will hold about 10 'uncapped' frames while I uncap into a large stainless steel mesh tray (walmart) in the other sink. the only somewhat??? difficult item to acquire was a food grade gasket for the stainless steel strainer. I use those little mesh stainless steel baskets in the strainers to keep the wax from falling into the honey that drips from the frames and cappings.

since nothing in this 'uncapping' table is screwed or welded together is comes apart quite easily and this allows it to be taken apart and washed with little problem.


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

BGhoney,

I'm scheduled to make a wooden one this month with a woodworking beek friend of mine. I think we will use wood planks, not plywood. It should be big enough for 30 frames. We will paint the inside with food grade paint. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Uncapping over something that dosen't allow you to hang the frames somewhere is kind of a pain. Stainless tanks are too expensive. The beehives are wood, so why not an uncapping tank???


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

I just use an Akro Mills stackable lug--like you see in the catalogs-gray color. Installed a inch and half gate and a board across the top with nail sticking up through to set the frame that is being uncapped on.
Fortunately my brother in law worked for Akro Mills and supplied it free. I really like that stainless steel sink rig that adamf has built. Nice job!


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Adam -

Nice job with the sink! I see one in my possession in the future.

- Barry


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## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

I might go check out the metal salvage yard around here and look for a big stainless tank. Good Idea, I want to stay stainless on everything for ease of cleaning. I guess anything would work if you cleaned it well after each use.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

I made and uncapping tank using two PVC laundry sinks bolted together, cost 15$ each. I drilled holes and inserted 3/4 conduit for frame rest and bolted shelves to the top of the sink to rest the frames while uncapping and hold my knife. I made wooden frames that will fit inside the sinks bolted two queen excluders to them and fitted them with window screen so the honey from the capping’s will drain. Total cost less than 50$. I can un-cap around 24 frames. The PVC never rusts and cleans up very easily, and the bottoms are pitched toward the drains so the honey drains into bucckets very nicely.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

My concern is PVC in general is not food grade. One would assume the sinks are? The only PVC pipe would be water supply pipe which is limited in diameter.

- Barry


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

and the interior is not exposed to light, which is a contributer to it breaking down and releasing the chemicals in it. Sinks might be food grade though. It could be something to look into.


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## Kieck (Dec 2, 2005)

Most of the utility or laundry sinks that I've seen are polypropylene, not PVC. Whether or not the polypropylene in those sinks is food grade, I don't know.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

My buddy Jon has a basket that he uncaps into. It's stainless steel mesh and holds about a barrel of cappings. It sits on a tray that is rubber coated. I'm not sure where it came from. It really fits the situation well. The basket is something he got from a Military Surplus shop. It's a jet engine intake cover. Originally used to cover the intake of a jet engine when the jet is being worked on. You don't want things or people going through a jet engine.

My last cappings tank was galvanized steel. It was about 30 inches tall, 5 feet long and about 18 inches wide. There was a rod near the top connecting one side to the other. In the bottom of the tank was a wooden frame that ran around the inside of the tank w/ a crossbar. It had two handles so you could take it out when you cleaned the tank. In the bottom, at one end, was a spout for the honey to drain out of the bottom of the tank. I used a silage fork to remove the cappings from the tank when it was the right time. When I get back to extracing my own honey I'll have one of these made.

Have any of you thought about going to your local Vocational School and seeing if there is someone who would take on a project like this? You'd probably only have to pay for the materials. Who knows?


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

Now galvanized is something that definitely isn't food grade. The honey is said to react with the metal. But you can always paint it with food grade paint.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Barry:

I think you are mistaken about PVC not being food grade. If that were true why is it used for potable water pipe? Also the white buckets commonly used to store honey in are white PVC along with most any food product that is sold in five gallon quanities. Any way I don’t store honey in the sinks I use for un capping it’s only there long enough to drain it form the capping’s I clean the equipment as soon as I am done extracting.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Brent Bean said:


> Barry:
> 
> I think you are mistaken about PVC not being food grade. If that were true why is it used for potable water pipe?


Hi Brent -

Not sure about any other PVC item you may be using, but I do know that PVC pipe that is labeled DWV (drain, waste, vent) is not suitable for food or drinking water, if that is what you're using. If not, and it's labeled for potable water, then nothing to be concerned about.



> Also the white buckets commonly used to store honey in are white PVC along with most any food product that is sold in five gallon quanities.


Like the pipe, there are both food grade and non food grade buckets. The buckets that drywall compound come in are not food grade. The buckets that pie filling and frosting come in are food grade.

Regards,
Barry


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## PAOuchHoney (Nov 25, 2007)

*SS Sink*

Adam,

Like the sink. I struggled this fall with uncapping into a strainer. Had just over two supers to uncap so I figured I could manage. Been thinking of new ways to uncap for this year. Was going to buy a couple plastic bins until I saw the sink. A couple years ago I removed a sink for my in-laws and have been storing it for some future use.  Now I have a use, an uncapping tank at no expense. Thanks

David


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## adamf (Jan 28, 2006)

Cool! Tecumseh gave me the idea--there's been tons of Kitchen remodeling done in this area as a result of the re-fi folks did before the housing market stalled. I found this sink in five minutes of looking.

The photos don't show it, I put a standard plastic gate (any bee supply cat has them) on the
terminal end of the drain beneath the sink. I use the sink without the sink-drain stopper, and regulate the honey level by utilizing the gate. This flows through a double screen into a standard food-grade bucket.

Adam Finkelstein
[email protected]


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Barry:

DWV ( drain waste and vent) piping isn’t PVC it’s ABS that’s why it’s black. 
And the only reason that you wouldn’t use a food product in a white bucket that was used for dry wall mud or any other chemical is because of the possible contamination. You can order a white bucket for honey storage from any of the beekeeping supply companies or white buckets form Lowes turn them over and see the same code on them. So what would be the difference? About 10 bucks.
You could inquire about food grade rating’s from a company like Sailor Plastics www.sailorplastics.com for a more detailed explanation. It’s where I buy most of my honey jars but they also manufacture food containers for other products.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Brent Bean said:


> Barry:
> 
> DWV ( drain waste and vent) piping isn’t PVC it’s ABS that’s why it’s black.


"In 1957 the US Department of Commerce published a Commercial Standard (CS 207 - 57) for PVC pipe. ASTM Standard (D 1785 - 60) followed in 1960. Other PVC pressure pipe standards followed (CS 256 - 63 in1963 and ASTM D 2241 - 64 in 1964) along with PVC - DWV Pipe and Fittings Standards (CS 272 - 65 and D 2665 - 68) in 1965 and 1968 respectively."

http://www.ppfahome.org/pvc/casepvc.html

DWV pipe comes both PVC and ABS. Around here, ABS is rarely seen used.

- Barry


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

Brent Bean said:


> Barry:
> 
> DWV ( drain waste and vent) piping isn’t PVC it’s ABS that’s why it’s black.
> And the only reason that you wouldn’t use a food product in a white bucket that was used for dry wall mud or any other chemical is because of the possible contamination. You can order a white bucket for honey storage from any of the beekeeping supply companies or white buckets form Lowes turn them over and see the same code on them. So what would be the difference? About 10 bucks.
> You could inquire about food grade rating’s from a company like Sailor Plastics www.sailorplastics.com for a more detailed explanation. It’s where I buy most of my honey jars but they also manufacture food containers for other products.


PVC = DWV is white

ABS = DWV is black and no longer "codes" in a lot of areas

CPVC is white and is for potable water "good grade"


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