[Jewelry making - Article 01145] - Re: [Orchid] Steam de-waxer

[Kathy Johnson]

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    I haven't tried either the electric roaster or the pressure cooker
    methods, but I've had good success with plain old enameled pots.
    First I used a spaghetti pot with a strainer pot that sat inside it.
    I put that over a single burner hot plate with a couple inches of
    water in the bottom of the pot. It worked great, but it could only
    hold four 2 1/2 inch flasks. But my kiln could only hold 4 flasks, so
    that was fine until I got a much larger kiln that can hold sixteen 2
    1/2 inch flasks in one layer. Then dewaxing four flasks at a time
    just took way too long. So I went shopping. 

    I bought a very large canning pot with an inner rack meant to hold
    canning jars. I got it at a thrift store for $6. I found a large
    round wire cake cooling rack at a dollar store, and wired that firmly
    to the canning jar rack to create a stable platform upon which to set
    flasks. It holds them about 3 inches above the bottom of the pot. The
    large canning pot holds sixteen of the 2 1/2 inch flasks. I put in 2
    inches of water, add the flasks, and put the whole thing on the side
    burner of our outdoor propane grill to dewax. (The little hot plate
    just can't heat that much at once). 

    It takes about 2 to 3 hours to dewax that many flasks at one time,
    and it's a bit of a PITA to haul the heavy filled pot up and down the
    steps to and from the shop. But it's worth it in terms of how much
    less wax smoke ends up in my house/shop during burnouts despite the
    large ventilation fan right above the kiln. 

Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry
http://www.fgemz.com
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