Extractor question...

[L Daxon]

I've always just crushed and strained and thus used either the very thin foundation in my honey supers or gone foundationless and let the girls build their own stuff.

I just found out I will have the use of a brand new powered 6 frame extractor, if I want it, for this year's harvest.  Will the thin foundation frames on a nailed in top bar and split bottom bar hold together in an extractor?  Some of these frames have the metal clips at the sides.  How about the foundationless frames that may not be connected well at the sides or bottom of the frame?  Can you use rubber bands to hold the foundation in place if it is not connected on all 4 sides?  All my frames are medium wood frames (but I may through in a couple of plastic frames that should extract w/no problem)

Any other extraction tips I need to know?

[JP]

Seems like the rubber band idea might work, give it a try and report back.


...JP

[AllenF]

Spin it slow.

[boca]

It depends on the type of extractor. 6 frames most likely radial, so even foundationless should resist if it is accelerated very slowly and the speed increased only when most of the honey extracted. Extract the frames immediately after taking from the supers, do not let it cool.

In case of tangential extractor I read about a method which I consider logical, though never tried.
1. uncap both sides flat at the level of the side bars (or a bit higher)
2. slip a piece of plywood in one of the side in a way that no air remain between the hone and the wood. The plywood willl adhere to the comb strongly and the side bars support it.
3. place the comb in the extractor with the plywoood on the internal side and carefully extract the outer half. the vacuum holds the comb in place.
4. remove the plywood and extract that half too.

[danno]

Last year I made a bunch of med supers with thin surplus starter strips for cut comb sales.  I ended up with quite a few frames that were either to thick, odd shaped, uncapped, to dark or partcially drawn out.   I ran these in my 30 frame extractor along with the rest.  I used a hot knife to uncap.  I started as slow as i could go at first, building the speed very slowly.  Some did blow out but many didn't.  The ones that did were just fished out and crushed. 

[Intheswamp]

It depends on the type of extractor. 6 frames most likely radial, so even foundationless should resist if it is accelerated very slowly and the speed increased only when most of the honey extracted. Extract the frames immediately after taking from the supers, do not let it cool.

In case of tangential extractor I read about a method which I consider logical, though never tried.
1. uncap both sides flat at the level of the side bars (or a bit higher)
2. slip a piece of plywood in one of the side in a way that no air remain between the hone and the wood. The plywood willl adhere to the comb strongly and the side bars support it.
3. place the comb in the extractor with the plywoood on the internal side and carefully extract the outer half. the vacuum holds the comb in place.
4. remove the plywood and extract that half too.

That is interesting.  I can see how it could work well for the first side where the "suction side" has more or less full cells but I wonder how the side that has been extracted will adhere to the plywood.  Hopefully one day I can tinker with this idea.  Thanks for posting it!!

Ed

[L Daxon]

Boca,

I can see that having the honey a bit warmer, i.e. fresh from the warmth of the hive, would help with the extracting but wouldn't that warmth also weaken the wax and make blowouts more likely?

I get the point that the most important thing is to start out slow.  I haven't seen the equipment yet but I am guessing there must be some kind of mechanism to adjust the speed up and/or down.

After all these years of crushin and strainin I am so excited to get to play with an extractor.  Hope it is worth the trouble for just 3 medium supers.  But hope to have triple that next year.