How to clean my wax filter

[King Scavenger]

Hi, again. I have just filtered my wax, through a 5 micro filter sock and got very clean. The problem is.......how do I clean the filter!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I filter mine through lint and then throw it away. You could always try boiling it

 

[King Scavenger]

I filter mine through lint and then throw it away. You could always try boiling it

Many thanks. I will give it a go and if it doesn't work, I will get some lint as that sounds like a better way.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

cut both ends out of a food tin, stretch a piece of lint over one end (lint side inside the can) hold in place with an elastic band and pour the hot wax into the other end of the can.
Boots don't sell lint any more - you will have to find a proper chemist, mine just orders it in for me.

 

[pargyle]

I use J Cloths to filter wax .... works a treat. As for getting your filter clean .. boiling it is the only option but don't do it in your best pans ... do it in an old pan and once the seive is cleanish - take it out of the pan, let the pan cool and the wax will be in a slab at the top over the water - you may have to boil the seive a couple of times to get rid of all the wax in it.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Hi, again. I have just filtered my wax, through a 5 micro filter sock and got very clean. The problem is.......how do I clean the filter!!

Put it in an old saucepan and weigh it down with a large stone, fill saucepan with water and heat. Wax will rise to the top of the pan along with a lot of the debris, so the wax won't be very clean wax. Repeat but with some washing soda in the water.

You can buy lint from Superdrug, use it fluffy side facing the wax.

 

[psafloyd]

cut both ends out of a food tin, stretch a piece of lint over one end (lint side inside the can) hold in place with an elastic band and pour the hot wax into the other end of the can.
Boots don't sell lint any more - you will have to find a proper chemist, mine just orders it in for me.

Couldn't you sell or give away the lint as firestarters, JBM?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Couldn't you sell or give away the lint as firestarters, JBM?

I don't filter enough to make it worthwhile - I only filter wax for showing through lint - the bog standard stuff just gets filtered through a double layer of ladies stocking.

 

[REDWOOD]

I use J Cloths to filter wax .... works a treat. As for getting your filter clean .. boiling it is the only option but don't do it in your best pans ... do it in an old pan and once the seive is cleanish - take it out of the pan, let the pan cool and the wax will be in a slab at the top over the water - you may have to boil the seive a couple of times to get rid of all the wax in it.

+1 although I use two J cloths to keep up with JBM's standards

 

[King Scavenger]

Put it in an old saucepan and weigh it down with a large stone, fill saucepan with water and heat. Wax will rise to the top of the pan along with a lot of the debris, so the wax won't be very clean wax. Repeat but with some washing soda in the water.

You can buy lint from Superdrug, use it fluffy side facing the wax.

Many thanks, BeeJBee. I have rescued it from the bin and got it in an old pan with water and a rock on top. Just coming to the boil!! Ill simmer for a while and let it cool down before removing. Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

 

[Arfermo]

I don't filter enough to make it worthwhile - I only filter wax for showing through lint - the bog standard stuff just gets filtered through a double layer of ladies stocking.

Lady inside or out?

 

[Brigsy]

I use J Cloths to filter wax .... works a treat. As for getting your filter clean .. boiling it is the only option but don't do it in your best pans ... do it in an old pan and once the seive is cleanish - take it out of the pan, let the pan cool and the wax will be in a slab at the top over the water - you may have to boil the seive a couple of times to get rid of all the wax in it.

I had my first go at straining some of my harvested wild comb etc. Melted over a double boiler and strained through a J cloth. I found that it stopped filtering pretty quickly as the wax dried.

Any tips please?

 

[BeeJayBee]

I've never had much luck pouring a lot of hot wax through a filter because it has to be kept warm enough to stay liquid, but if you pour it through with hot water it will usually work - but it has to be poured into a big container, otherwise it overflows and you end up with a mess

Wax in a bain marie jug will stay warm enough to be poured, I've found the best way to do that is to stretch a pair of tights across the top of the jug - but the wax can't be too dirty otherwise the filter gets clogged up with gunk.

One way is to put the wax in a very low oven, at the bottom of the oven to be sure it doesn't overheat. Let the wax drip downwards through a filter and into a container - JBM's method of using a tin and an old pair of tights works very well, but it's a bit hit and miss if you cook with gas.

Another way is to use a pan of water (in hard water areas it's best to use rainwater, especially if you want the wax for show) and encase the wax in a filter (lint, muslin, J-cloth, old tights, bits of net curtain or similar) and weight it down. Heat the water until it simmers, then turn off the heat. Keep heating until all the wax has melted through the filters and is floating on the top of the water. Leave it to cool. There will be a layer of gunk under the wax which can be scraped off. If you want it really clean (for show) you'll need to do this two or three times.

You could use steam or a solar extractor and filter the wax at the same time. I know some people who use an old Burco-type boiler with the thermostat set very low, they put a brick on top of the wax.

 

[Brigsy]

Interesting. Thanks. I'm going to re-read and digest.

 

[pargyle]

I had my first go at straining some of my harvested wild comb etc. Melted over a double boiler and strained through a J cloth. I found that it stopped filtering pretty quickly as the wax dried.

Any tips please?

I use a solar wax melter so the wax recovery dish is inside the box with the melting comb so it's all above wax melting temperature .. seives beautifully through a J cloth without clogging.

Cost of a solar wax melter ... less than a tenner ... bit of greenhouse glass 2' x 2' ... bit of scrap aluminium ... some celotex or kingspan from a skip ... worth it's weght in gold for wax recovery and cleaning ...

 

[Brigsy]

Ah. I see. Thanks. Looks like a fun project.