C & B Honey Wax Seperator DeMystified

[@Beeman306]

Thanks for the video Phil. Would you believe you have what Shane at Cook and Beals calls a high speed screen and not a spin float. I imagine you run your seperator around 3/4"-1 1/4" to get nice dry wax with water running. Have you wondered why you run it around the 1 inch on the knife scale but have such a large amount of wax in the drum when you go to clean it? The issue is the honey gates. According to the manufacturer the proper torque for the nut on the four gate valves is "it should hurt your fingers when you close them" What is happening with your seperator is honey is leaking out of gates all day long. You should have a great deal more honey and a much thinner layer of wax in the drum at cleaning time. I understand it works and maybe even does a real good job for you. What you will find if you tighten or maybe even replace and tighten your gates is far less wax at clean up time, a much cleaner base unit where their is no "melted" wax from build up rubbing on moving parts, far less wax in sump everyday when you dump your machine, remarkable amount less wax and debris in your storage tanks, and longer easier running on the drive motor. I ran it like that for many years and happened to have a conversation with Shane. Tighten four small nuts and you will love the machine even more.

[@philbeeman]

i agree with you. I think in this case the end of the day on friday they were doing very light boxes and didn't get much honey through which allowed the wax to build up. I agree that there shouldn't normally be that much wax in there. Also I should put the knives in to shave off the surplus wax at the end of the day, but I'm often not around at that time.

[@deanmalkewich2366]

2 years later I came across your comment. I had been suffering from the large wax buildup at clean out. Tightened the dump valves and voila, problem solved.

[@paulbuiks1308]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Awesome piece of technology working along side gravity. Paul

[@philbeeman]

It sure is

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Crickets I’m my honey house aswell, sticky traps used more for crickets than anything else lol

[@philbeeman]

D**n things.

[@gerardjohnson2106]

Awesome piece of equipment if you have a LOT of honey.

[@philbeeman]

exactly

[@gerardjohnson2106]

@@philbeeman : I'm not trivializing the machine. It is truly a "engineering marvel". The precession of the thing and mechanical process to manufacture it to the tolerances necessary to achieve the results is amazing. That thing is capable of near total extraction. It is much more sophisticated than other honey/wax separators I have seen. My experience with centrifugal separation goes back to my grandfather's hand cranked cream separator many many years ago so I understand the method. I'm not a beekeeper but I'm subscribed to 20-30 beekeeping channels and have deep respect for you folks who keep bugs alive in boxes and collect the honey. Blessings to you good sir.

[@philbeeman]

I agree and appreciate your kind words.

[@andywhite9932]

Love your reverse grappler you built to lift it. What parts ever ware out on the wax separator?

[@philbeeman]

Belts are replaced every 2 years, Bearings might need to be changed one day.... the rest is pretty bullet proof,.

[@Kelsdoggy]

Amazing video - still more mystified than ever tho 😂

[@philbeeman]

I guess you have to see it to believe it.

[@sheldonreimer8432]

Thanks Phil, great video. How warm is the honey coming off the heat exchanger in order for the spin float to do it’s job?

[@philbeeman]

I've been meaning to check that for you. Somehow the days always get away from me.

[@timothyhollmann8571]

100 f -110f works best