Melting over hot water doesn't produce wax that is as nice as that from a solar wax melter, in my experience.   I will sometimes melt cappings this way, strain them, and then put the wax thru a solar melter to get out more of the trash, and to get out suspended moisture and bits of propolis.  Even if I add vinegar to the water, I always end up with some "pulpy" wax on the bottom of my cake if I heat it over water.  If you have a disaster with melting wax over water, and end up with pulpy wet wax, remelting it in a solar melter will save the situation.
My Solar melted wax is always cleaner, lighter, and more satisfactory than that cleaned up with any other method I have tried.
I made a small solar wax melter by putting a lid on an old hive body, and placing a large aluminum painters tray inside.  It worked great!
 I'd go out mid- afternoon, scrape out the slumgum, and pour my melted wax into a large styrofoam cup with an inch of hot water in the bottom.  The hot water and the styrofoam ensured that the wax cooled slowly, allowing time for the impurities to settle to the bottom of the tall thin wax block.  After shaving off the bit of trash on the bottom, I had a very nice cake of clean wax.
Now that I have a commercially made melter, I put a teflon loaf pan with a 1/2 inch of water in it in to catch the wax.  The cake releases easily, and honey is dissolved in the water.  Since it has a wide bottom, it is harder to get the trash scraped off, but wrapping the cake in a bit of muslin or cheesecloth, and remelting a second time usually gives satisfactory results.  The wax stiffened cloth makes great fire-starters.
Ellen in Michigan

  Carm <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Why don't you melt it in boiling water and then let it
harden in a plastic container after straning it
through a screen.

Cheers,

Carm


--- Rodney Farrar wrote:
> Does anyone have any plans they can share? I only
> have about 10 pounds of wax.
>
> Rodney in VA


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