Mike said: > I once saw an article in an old gleanings about > a solar melter that rotated during the day... Wow, that's getting fancy. Next thing you know, someone will rig up a focused parabolic melter, and not only vaporize wax in seconds, but cause the frames to burst into flame! :) Seriously, if anyone is not getting adequate performance out of their solar wax melter, there are a few tricks of the trade that can help. I've designed and built several "solar enhanced" houses, so I've done the math more than once: 1) DOUBLE GLAZING Double glazing with a thin "dead air" layer between can really help, as most of the heat loss will be radiated through the glass. Sometimes one can find existing double-gazed window panes in metal frames, and they are worth the kludging required to adapt them to your melter. 2) ADD THERMAL MASS Get some bricks, paint 'em black, put them in the chamber. They will get hot, and radiate heat, keeping the temperature higher for longer. 3) CLEAN THE GLASS I'm not kidding here. Squeaky clean glass is important to getting a nice hot chamber. 4) ADD MORE INSULATION Can't hurt. Just wrap the chamber in some insulation batts. Extra credit for cutting a larger box from the Styrofoam sheet material, and gluing it to the surfaces of the box. 5) "SILVER" PAINT ON THE INSIDE OF THE BOX Assuming that the sides of the box have little thermal mass themselves, you want to reflect the light around inside the box and get more of it to hit (and warm) the combs. This may be the most marginal of the improvements one can make. 6) PARABOLICS Never tried this with a solar wax melter, but I did cover a 3-meter satellite dish with reflective Mylar and melted aluminum cans at the focus to make some castings once. Parabolics are scary, and can generate temperatures that, even when off-focus, require one to wear welder's gloves and goggles. A "trough" type parabolic might be safer for melting wax. You could fabricate one from roof flashing, but it would take some math and woodworking skills. The good news is that even a lousy parabolic will generate very impressive heat with very little sun. But don't blame me if you blind yourself and/or get nasty burns. You have been warned - parabolics are "weapons grade" solar collectors. 7) TRACK RACKS Get an old satellite dish actuator (from the old days when one pointed a C-band dish at different birds), and hook up a 555 timer and a relay to "kick" the dish every few minutes to track the sun (they run on 12 Volts DC, so a car battery or a lawn light transformer can be used). Manually adjust the height for the season with an "elevation" bolt. Adjust the "return" microswitch in the actuator to reverse the direction of movement during the night, so that the dish ends up pointing back towards dawn at dawn. This is clearly silly overkill, but who am I to limit your aspirations? jim (Hive yourself a happy Thanksgiving!) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::