# My steam wax melter + frame cleaner design



## SeaCucumber (Jun 5, 2014)

It could probably fit 4 deeps, but I don't have any. Improvement ideas? How many hives justify an upgrade? I experimented with solar, but space and time are limited here. Solar would have to be in an outyard. My place is valuable city land.

I just needed to buy stuff, cut 2 screens, and bend one. Coarser hardware cloth would help a lot. 1/2" catches cocoons.


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## NicoleV (Jan 20, 2017)

There is a retired beekeeper that posts videos of his little homestead and all his woodworking projects, including a steam box for steaming out the wax, and it's made from the hive boxes themselves. The channel is called "wild west blow in blog." He has lots of videos about how he processes the wax and even makes his own foundation and hives. 

Basically, the bottom box had a hole in it where he put a hose running steam from an old gas tank that was filled with water and put over a fire. Then he stacked a bunch of hive boxes over the bottom box with frames in them that he wanted to melt and put the hive lid on top to keep the steam in. The melted wax flowed out the bottom, which was sitting on a sheet of metal kind of bent a little in the middle so you could control where the wax and water poured out. 

If you search his channel for the beekeeping videos, you'll see it. It was so simple!


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## SeaCucumber (Jun 5, 2014)

You referred to this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzkxq7qGqxQ

I might build that if I get more hives. I first thought that I would make that, and bought a pressure cooker. Some heat is lost in the pipe. Someone said that steam would damage the boxes. I doubt it. What's the popular cleaning method?


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## JConnolly (Feb 21, 2015)

I'm in the city and I use cheap solar. My solar is an old ice chest with a piece of plexiglass over the top and a brick to hold it in place. A brick or two under one end tilts it towards the sun.


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## Hillbillybees (Mar 3, 2016)

We found an old completely glass jewelers case and built rails inside to hold the frames. Holds close to 80 frames. We put a piece of metal flashing under it all and catch the wax outside it in a five gallon bucket. Its came on wheels and one guy can move it around on dirt. I bet a meat case or anything like that would work too. 
Had a well house that would get really cold. We took a piece of plywood and nailed 2x6's all the way around it and a piece of glass on top of those. The inside we tarred black and sealed all the cracks with it. Cut a small hole in one end and put a real small fan. In the other end we hooked up a small duct to the well house. In summer you would not want to hold your hand in front of the discharge. In winter it kept the well house in the 50's instead of freezing. I bet a half sheet would melt wax set up that way into a container of some sort.


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## mike17l (Jun 22, 2012)

Why would you melt wax out of newly drawn frames?


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