Experimental Solar Wax Melter

The wax is really starting to pile up around here. I have some comb from a cut-out, some damaged comb from old frames and some from my Bee Guy:

I read up on it a little and found a lot of plans. If you want to make a quality melter, this looks quite nice. A blog I enjoy reading, BeekeeperLinda, has instructions for using a styrofoam cooler to make a wax melter. 

I thought about making one out of an old tub I found but when reading up on it I noticed that most instructions involved husky wood or some kind of insulation like styrofoam. I figured the tub would be too thin to retain enough heat for melting. Then I was unloading some things that my Bee Guy had given me and I left a cardboard box with old comb in it out in the sun for a couple hours. Some wax that had a little uncapped honey in it started to glisten and the comb on top of the pile was so soft it turned to goo as soon as I touched it. I checked the temperature and it was a mild 68 degrees. Hmm, maybe it's not rocket science. Time to experiment! Out came the tub. The first thing it needed was some soap and water:

 Then I coated the outside with some flat black spray paint (weird. In this picture it looks like I have no fingers):

 I used double-sided tape (and all the cuss words I know) to attach heavy aluminum foil to the inside:

Like so:

I found a piece of glass laying around (I dunno, maybe from an old framed picture?) that fit the box pretty well. It's dang sharp (not cool for someone who walks around looking for disaster) so I cut some cardboard to cover the sides. The duct tape had gone AWOL so I used black tape and it was not the right man for the job. When I get some more duct tape I'll finish the other two sides but this gives me two safe places to grab for now:

This is just a shoebox from the Dollar Store. It has the tapered sides needed to ease your wax out once it's melted:

Next up, a piece of window screen cut to overlap the edges of my box. I'm not convinced it is fine enough to filter the gunk though. I might end up remelting it using some kind of mesh or fabric. I didn't have a long enough rubber band so I tied one to a piece of string to secure the screen to the box:

A little water in the bottom of the shoebox to help the wax release. Then a mound of comb on top of the screen:

And then out into the sun:

How much did this fancy, genuine aluminum-plated melter set me back? Well, I'm not going to count things like the aluminum foil even though it will eventually catch up with me when I have to buy a new roll sooner than I would have otherwise. This melter was made with things from around the house with the exception of the plastic shoebox and I plan to get another of those so total cost: $2.