Carmenie said:

> we have overflowed the honey buckets about 4
> times now, wasting about 40 pounds of honey all
> together.

>Anyone else have extracting gone wrong, lessons
> learned experiances?

Spilling honey when going from extractor to bucket,
or from settling tank to bucket is not hard to eliminate.

I assume that you have a gravity-driven honey flow
process, rather than one driven by a pump.

Find a Shop-Vac, and remove the top.  Look at
the ball.  Note that if the Shop-Vac falls on its side,
or fills up with water, the ball will come out of it's seat,
and allow the fan to blow out the bypass vent.
This is the concept for what you want to build to
avoid spilling honey.

There are many ways to make one, but the common
thread is a float in a container that rises up and plugs
the tube, or closes a valve, stopping the flow.

Don't have any tubing?  You can buy some at most of the
large "homeowner's warehouse" stores in the plumbing
section.  It is sold by the foot.  Dadant (and many others,
I am sure) includes a plastic barbed fitting with every honey
gate for the attachment of tubing.

Don't have a float?  Buy a (brand new) plastic ball, and
build a cage for it, or buy a (brand new) small stainless
steel vegetable colander to use as a cage.  When the
bucket fills up, the ball rises, and plugs the tube.  Lack
of airflow back up the tube stops the flow, and the honey
does not push the ball away.

Don't want tubes?  Look at the gate valve on your extractor.
Most have a cheap plastic gate valve, some are better.
Buy a gate valve or ball valve with a lever handle (metal,
expensive) or buy a PVC gate valve with a bright red handle
(cheaper, but still very sturdy) and connect the float to the
handle.  Put the valve on upside down, so that "lever up"
closes the valve.  Keep the pivot point well lubricated
(honey is a decent lubricant) and test your contraption
with a hose and water before trying it with honey.
Note that you may have to counter weight or spring-load
the handle to overcome friction.  A large rat-trap may also
provide enough force to throw the lever, and also makes a
nice loud sound.  (Ball rises up, attached fishing line allows
weight to drop, which pulls on bait area of trap...)

Just need an alarm?  Float closes switch, just like
on a sump-pump, and switch turns on a very loud
buzzer.

Better yet, and far simpler, never let honey flow without
keeping an eye on it, regardless of how many fail-safe
systems you have in place.  If you leave the room, close
the valves, and shut off the equipment.  If you are "all done"
extracting, get a cool drink, a good book, and baby-sit
the flowing honey.  A comfy chair and a decent
stereo are important parts of a well-designed honey
house.  I use a "directors chair" of the type often
seen when movie sets are portrayed on TV.  It folds
up and stows flat when I don't want to sit.

When in the process of extracting, recall how many
average frames fill a 5-gallon bucket, and keep count.
I know that two "loads" of 9 frames will nicely fill a
5-gallon bucket, so guess how often I change buckets,
given that I have a 9-frame extractor?

        jim  (perhaps a very remote descendent of Rube Goldberg)