Dennis and Marian wrote:
>
> Does anyone know if lye might be used?  If so, how?  This might be a cheeper
> alternative where wax is not being saved.
 
I purchaced some used equipment last year and have been cleaning it up,
I have an outdoor propane burner that I use for beer and mead brewing so
i took a galvanized wash tub filled it with about 6 gal of water and a
can of red devil lye and brought it to a boil being careful to work
upwind and using chemical handling rubber gloves I imersed the dirty
frames in the boiling lye water and it realy did a fine job of cleaning
off the dead wax and proplis there were numerious waxmoth larva in the
wood that I had to scrape out of burrow, but this method works well.
However, it MUST BE DONE OUTSIDE, AND EXTREAM CARE MUST, MUST BE TAKEN
TO AVOID THE CORROSIVE FUMES. And the equipment must be completely
rinsed in clean water. In short it was one hell of a job, and I'm not
sure that the monitary savings was worth the effort.
 
Stephen Mills
Mulvane Ks