plate for making wax foundation

[tigman]

does anyone have a link that they know of for making or buy ing a wax foundation.

[Bee-Bop]

I've forgot which book has plans for makeing a home made press, it's either

" Keeping Bees " by John Vivian
or
" The How To Do It Book of Beekeeping" by Richard Taylor

It involves makeing a impression of a wax foundation, really kinda complicated, eaiser I think to buy them.

Bee-Bop

[johnnybigfish]

Ok,....
I have a great idea on how to make a foundation mold and its will be very easy and re usable. You'll just have to provide wax after making the mold!
 Go to Hobby Lobby or some sort of hobby place that has lots of stuff.
 Get this latex stuff that you make molds with.(It looks like a little tub of elmers glue sort of).
 Get a piece of plastic foundation.
Paint a few(Ok, several layers, letting it dry between coats) of this latex stuff onto the foundation. Actually, you will need 2 pcs of plastic foundation so you can make a mold of both sides.
After it dries, peel the latex off. You now have a floppy pc of latex rubber, right?
Dont forget, you need to do this for front and back.
Now lay the latex rubber down on a flat surface with the cells facing up( a small pc of plywood will do) and pour hot wax onto it, tilting it around to keep your wax from becoming too un even..Now do the other mold the same way. I think, if you get the wax just the right thickness, it will come out of the molds in one pc. Also, maybe chilling the mold and wax will keep the wax foundation part hard to make the extraction easier Now put the wax pcs back to back and trim them to the right size.....Voila!!! You now have a pc of foundation you made yourself!..Stick it in the frame and see if it fits!

Hmmm,....After all this instruction, I think you ought to just buy the stuff. It seems it would take a long time to make enough to just fill one hive box. :-\

your friend,
john

[Moonshae]

Hmmm,....After all this instruction, I think you ought to just buy the stuff. It seems it would take a long time to make enough to just fill one hive box. :-\

Ypu'd want to put the other mold on top of the fresh wax, so you get an imprint on both sides. But if you did 20 molds, you could do a super's worth in no time.

Worth it? Maybe, maybe not. Foundation is expensive, but so is time. Depends on how you allot value to both.

[rdy-b]

http://www.swienty.com/?pid=5&id=79822&ref=1012&root=1012  go small cell  ;) RDY-B                                                   http://www.swienty.com/?pid=5&ref=1047&root=1012

[Ted n Ms]

walter t. kelly co. sells one

[rdy-b]

walter t. kelly co. sells one

  i think they just have the rollers -mould takes care of every thing -spendy though -but i saw some inexpensive silicon ones -might be fun but thats about it -good if you want foundation that you know is from organic wax-RDY-B

[johnnybigfish]

There ya go Moonshae,
Face to face!
good idea!
your friend,
john

[Bee-Bop]

The thing is, according to the Book's arthur, the thickness of the wax even with the press feature that his plan used, it took a lot of wax and he could not get the foundation as thin as the commercial made ones.

He said it was more for the fun of doing it, useing his on wax, and being self-suffient.

I need to go to the library and check them out again.

Bee-Bop

[rdy-b]

Bee-Bop i think i read that book and if i am not mistaking he made a two part mould from plaster of paris-RDY-B

[Bee-Bop]

rdy-b
actually he used , hard cold cureing matrix [ artist casting mix, dental stone, or water putty ]
and 20 # of Mortar mix [ port land cement & sand ] for strenth and needed weight.

The book is " Keeping Bees " by John Vance, really a neat book, lots of ideas

Bee-Bop

[Robo]

The book is " Keeping Bees " by John Vance, really a neat book, lots of ideas

I agree,  but the foundation press isn't one of them.   I think I tried it like 4 times and could never get one to come out right.  Still have the heavy suckers piled in a corner somewhere.