# My wax dipping tank setup



## Ian G

Here are some pics of my wax dipping setup.


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## wirenut501

Very professional looking tank,nice to see craftsmanship still around.You should get many years of use from this piece of equipment! If you dont mind saying just a ballpark figure,what did this piece of equipment cost? Ian what size operation do you run?


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## Ian G

Had a local custom metal shop make it for me, was around $2,700 for just the tank, its made of stainless steel. My operation is still small, will be at 50 hives by the end of summer. My goal is to do bees commercially full time in 6-7 years with 1,000 hives.


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## Adrian Quiney WI

'tis a thing of beauty. Have you considered becoming a professional dipper in the winter? If you could work out a profitable rate it might help you fund your journey to 1000 hives.


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## Davacoles

How do you regulate the temperature? Do you have a simple valve installed? Also, curious to see your setup for doing actual dip if you don't mind sharing that too. >>Don


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## Mbeck

Nice!


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## Ian G

Adrian Quiney WI said:


> 'tis a thing of beauty. Have you considered becoming a professional dipper in the winter? If you could work out a profitable rate it might help you fund your journey to 1000 hives.


For the spring dip that I did last weekend, (3/21) I put an ad on Craigslist and with our local beekeeping club, made a few hundred. I've also put an ad in craigslist for complete wax dipped hives. I didn't really expect to sell much there, maybe 1 or 2, but so far I've sold 10. If I keep this up the tank will probably pay for itself in a few years.


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## Ian G

Davacoles said:


> How do you regulate the temperature? Do you have a simple valve installed? Also, curious to see your setup for doing actual dip if you don't mind sharing that too. >>Don


For regulating the temperature I don't have anything fancy. I've just got a digital meat thermometer, I keep the probe in the wax and then I just manually adjust the regulator up or down depending on the temp. I don't have any other photos of the dipping process, but basically I keep the wax temp between 260-270. On my tank I then stack 3 mediums on half of the tank, and then place either 2 mediums vertically in between the stack of 3, or will place lids/bottoms boards. Then I lock in the anti-float bars to keep it all submerged. After 12 minutes I pull them out, set them on a pallet to cool, and then start over again. After they've cooled for about 10 minutes then I just stack them on top of each other. I wear a welding apron to protect myself and clothes from the hot wax and I use thick leather welding gloves to pull the boxes out. Below is a picture of the adjustable regulator that I use.


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## Cristian

What size is the tank and how much parafin is needed to fill it ? You use just parafin or you add something else ? .


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## Ian G

Cristian said:


> What size is the tank and how much parafin is needed to fill it ? You use just parafin or you add something else ? .


Took about 580lbs of wax to fill it to the level I wanted. Wax mixture is 50% paraffin 140, 50% microcrystalline 180. The microcrystalline has a higher melt point and acts as a hardener to keep the wax from melting out on a hot sunny day. Gum rosin could also be used instead of the microcrystalline, which I believe is what Michael Bush and others use, however I couldn't find a source for it at the time so I went with the microcrystalline instead. I would have loved to use beeswax instead of the paraffin 140 but it was too expensive and I don't have much of my own yet. I plan to add beeswax as I get more cappings over the next few years.

Inside tank dimension are 36" x 24" by 34" depth, and it sits 8" above the ground on a steel base, so total overall height it 42". It has a 3 inch spillway to catch any foam that may escape and we just hang a metal bucket off the peg in the picture above. I'm definitely glad we included this as it got used. It has a heat shield that sits out about 2 inches from the inner tank. We stand on a pallet while dipping so that we can get reach in and out of it easier. With this tank I can do 10 mediums at a time or 6 deeps. The interior of the tank is made entirely of stainless steel. The bottom plate is 1/4inch and the sides are 11 gauge. We then have a 16 gauge galvanized heat shield around the whole thing so that we don't burn ourselves and a 16 gauge lid that we place on it when we're done to keep dust and debris out of it. 10 mediums displace about 4-6 inches of wax in this tank. I keep the wax depth around 20-22 inches to allow for displacement and foaming. At 260-270 I was getting 6-8 inches of foam.

My propane burner I made myself using a 0-20PSI adjustable regulator, 3/4 black pipe, and a gas/air mixer, HPGX-1, from http://www.tejassmokers.com I just drilled 5/32 inch holes every half inch down the length of the 3 pipes. I used 20# propane grill tanks. I had to keep swapping tanks every 30-60 minutes because they would start to freeze up, then gas pressure would drop, and BTU output would go down. I completely emptied 2 tanks and 3 others have a little less than half left. I rotated through 4 tanks at a time so as 1 froze up, I would swap it out. With 4 tanks, by the time I got to the first one again it had warmed back up to where the pressure was good.

Took 6 hours to heat up all the wax from a solid block to 270F. I turned the burner on at 8am and we started dipping at 2pm. Stopped at 6:30pm, turned the burner off. By the next morning there was only a 1inch skin on top and it took just under 2hrs to heat it back up to 270. Next time I plan to heat it up Friday night after work so that we can get started earlier in the day on Saturday.


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## AstroBee

Man, you're not fooling around. That's a serious tank. Looks great.


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## Brad Bee

Yep, that stainless is some cheap stuff. LOL I have a metal fab shop in our truck and trailer repair shop, so I am somewhat qualified to say that whoever built that tank did a fine job from what I can tell from the pictures. :applause:

Watch for smoke coming off the galvanized. You may be okay with the 2" gap but fumes from galvanized metal are nothing to take for granted.


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## Keith Jarrett

Brad Bee said:


> Watch for smoke coming off the galvanized. You may be okay with the 2" gap but fumes from galvanized metal are nothing to take for granted.


Welders fever.


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## challenger

Wow! Wow! Wow!
And I have people tell me that I get into things full bore or not at all
I'm not being critical mind you-the tank is #1 IMO as is the rest of the setup.
Can I ask what that amount of wax cost and maybe the supplier?
Why Stainless? I can weld mild steel etc but I don't have the machine to do stainless. I was going to make a tank out of steel sheet material but just a vat, not a professional job like yours.
Also wondering about your boxes? Did you build them? I started out doing my own but found that buying was money well spent???
How much wax do the boxes "consume"?
Thanks


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## BeeBop

Wow, that's beautiful! Heh, but I'm always a sucker for anything stainless, especially if it's got burners under it. 

Congrats on your new equipment! That'll be very handy.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds

That is pretty darn slick.


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## Ian G

challenger said:


> Wow! Wow! Wow!
> And I have people tell me that I get into things full bore or not at all
> I'm not being critical mind you-the tank is #1 IMO as is the rest of the setup.
> Can I ask what that amount of wax cost and maybe the supplier?


I got 350lbs of paraffin 140 and 330lbs of microcrystalline from candlewic.com for just under $1,350 which included freight shipping of $240. I put about 575lbs in the tank the first time and kept out about 100lbs for refilling when i was done. I plan to add my cleaned wax cappings over time.



> Why Stainless? I can weld mild steel etc but I don't have the machine to do stainless. I was going to make a tank out of steel sheet material but just a vat, not a professional job like yours.


I was concerned that regular steel might start to rust over the long term, discoloring the wax and adding iron flakes to it over time. I knew i wouldnt be disappointed with SS so i just bit the bullet.



> Also wondering about your boxes? Did you build them? I started out doing my own but found that buying was money well spent???


Yep built them myself from 1x8x10ft boards. Cutting the boards down didnt take too long. I cut them to length on a radial arm saw and my friend ripped them to width on the table saw, then as i dado cut the frame rest and rabbet joint he started assembly. 300 boards took us about 10hrs to cut down. The longest part for us is assembling the boxes and i don't know if buying precut ones would save us that much time or not. For now, making them ourselves is still more cost effective even when considering the time involved. To cut and asemble 475 medium boxes the 2 of us spent about 5 Sunday afternoons about 6 hours each time. If i were by myself then I would definitely be buying them precut but with 2 of us it goes pretty quick. I enjoy the woodworking aspect and find working in the barn in the fall with a heater running and a radio on is pretty relaxing.



> How much wax do the boxes "consume"?
> Thanks


I'm not completely sure, I'll have to measure better next time, but i think around 3-4oz per medium


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## challenger

Very fine looking setup for sure.
I can't agree on the economics of spending that kind of coin for dipping wooden ware but if you are happy that's all that matters. Spending $4k+ on dipping equipment yet "saving money" by building hives from shelf board leaves me baffled but hey, that's just me. 
Maybe I'm envious?


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## rg58612455

Ian G said:


> Took about 580lbs of wax to fill it to the level I wanted. Wax mixture is 50% paraffin 140, 50% microcrystalline 180. The microcrystalline has a higher melt point and acts as a hardener to keep the wax from melting out on a hot sunny day. Gum rosin could also be used instead of the microcrystalline, which I believe is what Michael Bush and others use, however I couldn't find a source for it at the time so I went with the microcrystalline instead. I would have loved to use beeswax instead of the paraffin 140 but it was too expensive and I don't have much of my own yet. I plan to add beeswax as I get more cappings over the next few years.
> 
> Inside tank dimension are 36" x 24" by 34" depth, and it sits 8" above the ground on a steel base, so total overall height it 42". It has a 3 inch spillway to catch any foam that may escape and we just hang a metal bucket off the peg in the picture above. I'm definitely glad we included this as it got used. It has a heat shield that sits out about 2 inches from the inner tank. We stand on a pallet while dipping so that we can get reach in and out of it easier. With this tank I can do 10 mediums at a time or 6 deeps. The interior of the tank is made entirely of stainless steel. The bottom plate is 1/4inch and the sides are 11 gauge. We then have a 16 gauge galvanized heat shield around the whole thing so that we don't burn ourselves and a 16 gauge lid that we place on it when we're done to keep dust and debris out of it. 10 mediums displace about 4-6 inches of wax in this tank. I keep the wax depth around 20-22 inches to allow for displacement and foaming. At 260-270 I was getting 6-8 inches of foam.
> 
> My propane burner I made myself using a 0-20PSI adjustable regulator, 3/4 black pipe, and a gas/air mixer, HPGX-1, from http://www.tejassmokers.com I just drilled 5/32 inch holes every half inch down the length of the 3 pipes. I used 20# propane grill tanks. I had to keep swapping tanks every 30-60 minutes because they would start to freeze up, then gas pressure would drop, and BTU output would go down. I completely emptied 2 tanks and 3 others have a little less than half left. I rotated through 4 tanks at a time so as 1 froze up, I would swap it out. With 4 tanks, by the time I got to the first one again it had warmed back up to where the pressure was good.
> Took 6 hours to heat up all the wax from a solid block to 270F. I turned the burner on at 8am and we started dipping at 2pm. Stopped at 6:30pm, turned the burner off. By the next morning there was only a 1inch skin on top and it took just under 2hrs to heat it back up to 270. Next time I plan to heat it up Friday night after work so that we can get started earlier in the day on Saturday.


Very nice. You could try to tie all 4 tanks together with pigtails and T blocks. This will increase your vapor space and keep the tanks from refrigerating .With a set up that nice I would try to incorporate a millivolt gas valve , a pilot assembly with a thermopile, and a thermostat from a deep fat fryer. (that would control your temp. automatically, not to mention add a safety system to your burner set up. )


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## gravelroad

Heat is required to turn liquid propane in to gas inside of the tank. The colder the tank the slower the conversion happens. I have tried years ago to find the math on this but was unable to.

It's better to run a high pressure regulator on the tank. The more you use the system with out one the more the propane will pull the oils out of the hose and they will end up in the burner. It can also be looked at as a safety issue, but that's another day.

A larger tank or dropping the tank into a large drum of water should solve the freeze up issue.


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## yotebuster1200

That is a great setup. I have been planning on building a setup but this setup is way more than I had even imagined. Good job.


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## rg58612455

gravelroad said:


> Heat is required to turn liquid propane in to gas inside of the tank. The colder the tank the slower the conversion happens. I have tried years ago to find the math on this but was unable to.
> 
> It's better to run a high pressure regulator on the tank. The more you use the system with out one the more the propane will pull the oils out of the hose and they will end up in the burner. It can also be looked at as a safety issue, but that's another day.
> 
> A larger tank or dropping the tank into a large drum of water should solve the freeze up issue.


I am not wanting to get off topic but for safety sake :
I was definitely not implying to stop using a regulator. In fact with the set up I suggested you would have to use a twin regulator (a regulator that converts tank pressure to 12" water column.) 
Liquid propane boils at -40 degrees F . The closer you get to this temperature inside the propane tank the less pressure you have(as Ian stated). The suggestion of connecting the 4 tanks together would increase the amount of vapor space by 4. Thus giving you what is equivalent to a tank 4 times the size of a BBQ tank. A larger tank ,as you said, will also solve the issue.


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## gravelroad

rg58612455 said:


> I am not wanting to get off topic but for safety sake :
> I was definitely not implying to stop using a regulator. In fact with the set up I suggested you would have to use a twin regulator (a regulator that converts tank pressure to 12" water column.)
> Liquid propane boils at -40 degrees F . The closer you get to this temperature inside the propane tank the less pressure you have(as Ian stated). The suggestion of connecting the 4 tanks together would increase the amount of vapor space by 4. Thus giving you what is equivalent to a tank 4 times the size of a BBQ tank. A larger tank ,as you said, will also solve the issue.


I under stood what you were saying. My post was not directed at you in any way. My post was mostly a resonance from post #8 and #10.


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## dermotjones

Very nice! 
Did you have the machine shop design this or did you design? 
thanks


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## Spur9

Definitely would like to see a video of this in action! I'd be dipping everything that I could get my hands on :shhhh:


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## Ian G

dermotjones said:


> Very nice!
> Did you have the machine shop design this or did you design?
> thanks


Designed it myself


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## dermotjones

Would you be willing to share or sell plans of the design?, I need to have one made a little but bigger, would love to have a starting point. also sent you a PM


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## beemandan

I can't tell...but do you have some water in the bottom? I'd be a bit nervous putting wax directly onto a heated, metal surface. Not only the prospect of a fire but also overheating the wax and discoloring it.
I have a small Dadant stainless uncapping tank that allows for a electric heating element and an insert to keep objects in the tank off of the element. You can put water in the tank..the idea is to be able to uncrystallize pails of honey. But...I have thought about using it as a wax dipping tank. Thread in the element, add the spacing gizmo, six or eight inches of water...then wax on top.


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## Ian G

beemandan said:


> I can't tell...but do you have some water in the bottom? I'd be a bit nervous putting wax directly onto a heated, metal surface. Not only the prospect of a fire but also overheating the wax and discoloring it.
> I have a small Dadant stainless uncapping tank that allows for a electric heating element and an insert to keep objects in the tank off of the element. You can put water in the tank..the idea is to be able to uncrystallize pails of honey. But...I have thought about using it as a wax dipping tank. Thread in the element, add the spacing gizmo, six or eight inches of water...then wax on top.


No water is in it. One thing to keep in mind is that when you're heating it up, the wax is absorbing the heat as its getting warm, so its not like placing wax directly on a 500 degree hot metal plate all at once. Also I start the flame out on "low" for an hour or so before I really start to crank it up which should allow for a good pool of liquid wax to form on the bottom helping to transfer the heat. With that being said do I think its the safest thing in the world... no absolutely not. That's why when I run it I've got it surrounded by sandbags and about 5-6 large fire extinguishers handy. I do want to find a way to use an electric heating element(s) as open flame and wax do make me a bit nervous.


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## Spur9

That is a real man's FryDaddy!!!!!

You throw whole fish and potatoes in that bad boy for dinner.


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## Bdfarmer555

IMO, you should NEVER put water into a dipping tank. The water will begin to boil off at 212 degrees, stealing heat by evaporation and you will have to boil it all off before you can get to 270 degrees, adding hours to your day, and costing you money. 

But primarily, it is dangerous. The boiling water causes the wax to foam, potentially causing the tank to overflow. Definite fire hazard. Don't want to see anyone make the evening news this way.


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## beemandan

I've used submersible, thermostatically controlled heaters for the water jacket in my bottling tank for years and have never brought the water anywhere near boiling. I've saw an old beekeeper with a propane heated melting tank that he used to make his own wax foundation. Again...he had water in the bottom and never had a problem.



Bdfarmer555 said:


> you will have to boil it all off before you can get to 270 degrees, adding hours to your day, and costing you money.


What is 270 degrees all about?


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## Bdfarmer555

I use water for melting wax, but this thread, I believe, is about dipping boxes. For that, I heat the wax to 270 degrees.


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## beemandan

Bdfarmer555 said:


> but this thread, I believe, is about dipping boxes.


I totally missed that. Just about the time I start thinking that I'm pretty smart....something like this pops up just to remind me how dumb I can be.

My best excuse, if I have to conjure one up, is that I've been in the middle of pouring candles....many are tapers....and it had crossed my mind that a candle dipping tank might shorten the process. If that excuse doesn't fly....just chalk it up to general lunacy.


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## homegrown

Ian G,

would you mind posting an update on how your dipping tank is working out for you after a couple years of use? do you have any pictures of boxes that have been out in the field for a couple seasons now? I'm curious how dark they look compare to the paraffin/ rosin boxes I've seen that get pretty dark after a few years of use. Are you happy you went with the 50/50 microcrystalline/parafin blend instead of rosin? Also, have you put anymore thought into converting your tank to be electrically heated? thanks.

-cole


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## sakhoney

I also wax dip my boxes and some I sell. 75% wax 25% pine rosin from firestarter.com - .50 a pound. I went cheap. Got an old 250 gallon propane tank - cut it about 2/3 - added legs and stood it upright. Works great - 4 deeps at a time


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## Brad Bee

Sak, do you use beeswax or paraffin?


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## Lburou

Ian G said:


> ...I do want to find a way to use an electric heating element(s) as open flame and wax do make me a bit nervous.


Have you considered incorporating 'induction' heat sources? You could make one yourself that would be very efficient heating the stainless. Here is a YT video about the concept. The coil does not get hot but does excite electrons to make heat, you can touch the coil and not get burned. See induction cook tops.


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## homegrown

I like the idea of using induction heating. I can't think of a safer way to heat wax. Powerblanket makes one that wraps around a 55 gallon barrel, it will heat the material inside the barrel up to 400F. It is also flame-proof. Powerblanket 400 is the
Model.


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## challenger

sakhoney said:


> I also wax dip my boxes and some I sell. 75% wax 25% pine rosin from firestarter.com - .50 a pound. I went cheap. Got an old 250 gallon propane tank - cut it about 2/3 - added legs and stood it upright. Works great - 4 deeps at a time


I don't think this company is in business any more??? Can you confirm?
Thanks


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## sakhoney

Firestarteronline.com


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## challenger

I just visited the site and there is nothing listed for tree rosin etc. I suspect they got out of that business. Seems like now they sell wax, paraffin and fire starters whatever they are?


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## sakhoney

Only wax at Firestartersonline. Can't remember where I got pine rosin. Google search will find it for you


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## Live Oak

Ian G said:


> Designed it myself


Hi Ian, 

I realize this is a pretty old post. I have tried to PM you but no reply. Figured I would try posting to this thread in hopes you might answer. You wax dipping tank is the best design I have seen. Would you be willing to share your plans for it? If so, please post your plans or PM me. Thanks!


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## Live Oak

Ian G said:


> Had a local custom metal shop make it for me, was around $2,700 for just the tank, its made of stainless steel. My operation is still small, will be at 50 hives by the end of summer. My goal is to do bees commercially full time in 6-7 years with 1,000 hives.


If you could post the name of the custom metal shop, that would be very helpful if they still have the plans on file. Thanks!


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## dermotjones

Ian, Hello my friend! I finally pulled the trigger on having the tank made.(cost me a little more then you paid due to COVID but all in all I'll recoup the cost in no time) I also had the burner custom manufactured with a platform under. Now I am just waiting on the wax mixture to be completed and shipped.








Thank you again! for your help and assistance!


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