Another Wax Melter- Easy to Make

I know that this design for a solar wax melter must be already out there on the internet- it seems so obvious a solution- but for some reason, I couldn't find one like it. Not that I looked that long- but there are lots of fancy designs, and some that use plastic coolers- and all sorts in between. This just uses a deep hive body.

 Deep hive body wax melter- its on an old chair- so ignore that part. I
had two small glass panes, so there is a joint.

I've built melters before, other versions, but they lacked some important elements and did not work that well (like insulation). Then for awhile I switched to what the Fat Bee guy on Youtube does,- melts it all down in a big metal bucket of water, then filter it through screens into other buckets. That worked pretty well- but wow, what a mess. Buckets, screens a propane burner-all messy stuff to keep in between times. It just didn't seem like a good thing and took too long.

So I came up with yet another idea for a melter (again, this must have been done thousands of times already), and that was basically to take an old deep hive, but a plywood bottom on it, screw in some legs to get it to angle up, put cheap 1" insulation tightly in it on the sides and bottom, a few aluminum baking trays (a big one and a small one, with holes drilled in the big one at one end) from Safeway (a few bucks total), some cheap weatherstripping, two metal clips to keep the glass from sliding off, and some glass. Done. I don't even think I need to make a drawing.

With the glass off- the white is 1" insulation, the kind with foil on
the inside- and there is a gray self sticking strip of weathr stripping. At
the bottom are two metal clips that hold the glass from slipping off

 I use double pane glass as I had two pieces of it- heavier, and makes a tighter seal- but i doubt it matters. One site on the net said not to use double pane- like it would keep heat out- which is ridiculous. It heats up quickly!

And here is the upper pan lifted up, which I bent to fit, and drilled
two or three big holes in at the lowest point, Below is a smaller
tray and some pieces of flat wood with some wood stops glued in, which
prevent the large pan from slipping forward..

Pluses : it works great, its small enough to move around to more sunny spots (even has handles!), and small for storage too. Not unsightly, good size for the amount of foundation I recycle.

Last week's swarm- in part.