>>> [log in to unmask] 08/13/02 06:54PM >>>
>I have recently acquired a wax melter and wax separator.......
>
>And, last but not least, the dark wax question.......
>..... Any ideas or comments?
>
>Karen  Oland

I'm sorry that I have no information or answers about your
Walter Kelley wax melter, but I do have a few comments
about wax melting, filtering and wax colors:

I found a reference to how to make a simple solar wax melter
in Jim Satterfield's Top Bar Hive Beekeeping web pages
(http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm) and adapted it and
(I think I) improved upon it a little bit.  I will describe what I do
a little bit in hopes that someone else on the list may benefit
from my experiences.  I have several styrofoam "ice chests"
that I have cut down to be a little shallower than normal.  They
are difficult to cut down and keep a smooth edge, so if you
can get one of the kind that is used to ship items in the mail to
keep them cool that already has a perfectly flat lip, that is
better.  I got several nice thick pieces of glass at a garage
sale that fit over and completely cover the ice chests.  Heavy
glass works better for me because it does not get blown off
as easily by the wind.  This combination  makes sort of a
"mini-greenhouse".  I situate the aspect of the melter (tilt it) so
the sun will strike the glass as fully as possible during the
hottest part of the day.  I usually put a little rock under one
edge of the bowl to keep it level even though the melter
itself is tilted.

Inside the ice chest, I place a plastic bowl (like tupperware or
similar) with water in the bottom of the bowl.  I fashion a wire
basket to fit over the top of the bowl out of wide mesh hard-
ware cloth or chicken wire (I have found chicken wire easier
to work with).  Inside the wire basket, I place one or two paper
coffee filters, and inside the filter goes my wax or comb to be
melted/filtered.  This holds the wax/comb up out of the water.
The slum gum stays inside the coffee filter while the wax melts
with the heat of the sun and drips through the filter into the
water below. If it is hot enough, the wax will form a liquid layer
on top of the water while any honey will dissolve into the
water.

I use reverse osmosis pure water because otherwise the tap
water we have here will cause some saponification of the
wax.  The leftover slum gum, pollen and impurities/debris I
throw into my compost bucket where the soldier fly larvae
make quick work of it.

Depending upon the initial color of the wax and what sort of
impurities it has in it (such as pollen, etc.) and whether it is
from a dark brood comb or not, I sort these combs and run
each batch separately.  I therefore get a number of different
colors of wax filtered that range from almost white to light
yellow to darker yellow to orange to bronze and sometimes
almost brown.  I sort each batch and store it with other wax
of the same color.  Then when I make my candles, I choose
the color of wax for each candle that seems to me to best
fit the candle type.  I find my little bear-skep candles are
cutest when I have brown wax.  My corn cob candles are
prettiest when a light yellow color so they actually are the
color of an ear of corn.  My pumpkin candles look nicest to
me when they are orange.  My skeps I vary from bronze to
yellow or white/tan.  They are all "natural" colors with no
extra coloring added.  I find a dark brown chocolate colored
wax to be the hardest one to come up with.  I consider the
dark brown one of my most valuable colors because it is so
difficult to come by and makes uniquely colored natural
candles.

Wax will lighten somewhat as it is bleached in the sun
(probably due to the ultraviolet radiation), so my guess is
that the more times you filter it and remelt it, the lighter it
will get.

This is not high volume commercial wax processing and
you are sometimes at the mercy of the weather, but it is
great for hobbyists and it is very inexpensive.  It meets all
my current needs.

Layne Westover, College Station, Texas