Looking for small melting pot

[Brian Tymchak]

Hey all, hope everyone is staying healthy.

I'm looking for a small melting pot, electric, to melt parafin. Everything I find are larger double boilers. I usually have better luck with my google-foo but not this time. I want something smaller, maybe 3" across, 2" deep. Something I can easily dip screws when I have lots of screws to install. I've seen that I could microwave it, but I would have to continually renuke it. I want to find something that would keep parafin liquid for an hour or so.

Can anyone provide a recommendation?

Thanks, Brian

[Andrew Seemann]

It is total overkill, but a Hold-Heet glue pot would probably work.

[Tom M King]

Go to ebay, and search for "wax warmer". They're around $15.

[Richard Coers]

Or look for an electric potpourri warmer.

[Steve Eure]

how about a small crock pot. I bought one for around $10 that is about a quart in size. I use it to melt my beeswax and such. I don't know if it wuld get too hot, but you could always turn it off if that was the case.

[Brice Rogers]

I made a paraffin mix that is mushy at room temps. It works good for screws. I took some paraffin (candles, etc.) and heated it until liquid, then I added paint thinner and mixed. Let it cool a bit and add more paint thinner until it is the right consistency at room temp. I made some a couple of years ago and whenever I need to wax a screw, I just jab it into the jar. I originally made the mix for paddling on to end grain of logs for wood turning.

[Jim Becker]

My solution for that was a cheap hot-plate, a cheap throw away pan from a thrift store and whatever container I wanted the wax or whatever to be inside of the pot that was filled part way with water. You can also sometimes find a small "slow cooker"/CrockPot at thrift stores for pennies on the dollar to melt things like wax. That's what Professor Dr. SWMBO uses for rendering beeswax, as a matter of fact. $5 crock pot.

[Bohdan Drozdowskyj]

Something I can easily dip screws when I have lots of screws to install.

Thanks, Brian

You don't need much wax on the screws so just draging them flat across a block of wax will leave enough in the threads to lubricate the screw. This is also much more useful as you can keep it in your pocket.

[Bruce Wrenn]

How about one of those electric coffee cup warmers, and an old coffee cup?

[Bill Dufour]

Old coffee pot, electric skillet, do not be afraid to cut a coffee pot down to a shorter height with a angle grinder. All the electrical is in the base.
Bil lD

[Thomas McCurnin]

I have a small stub of a candle which is generally always on my bench or table saw. It doesn't take much wax. About half the time I use spit (salavia) which works about as well. Woodcraft sells tins of wax for screws which is very pliable and is not hard at all.

[Dan Hahr]

Ask your a girl in your life about a wax warmer. Get a cheap one and don’t let her use it.

Dan

[al heitz]

Or just sub a scrap of hand soap you were going to throw away. Scrape the screw across it and use it.

[Lee Schierer]

Something I can easily dip screws when I have lots of screws to install.
Can anyone provide a recommendation?

Thanks, Brian

I use a lump of beeswax when I'm driving screws. Simply drag the treads across the lump and enough beeswax sticks to the threads to make driving easy. Beeswax sticks to the threads much better than paraffin. Any local bee keeper would either give you a lump or sell it for a nominal amount.

[Charles Lent]

I just drag the screws across a piece of paraffin or scrap of soap, but you can use an electric baby bottle warmer with a small metal or glass cup placed in the water to hold the paraffin. I also use mine to melt small amounts of hyde glue, again placed in a small metal cup with water surrounding it in the warmer. I bought my baby bottle warmer from a thrift store for about $1 about 15 years ago. It even has a temperature adjustment knob on the side.

Charley

[Brian Tymchak]

Wow! Lots of responses. Thanks to everyone who replied.

I won't quote all the messages here but reply more topically.

A few mentioned just scraping the threads across the block of parafin. That's how I started but didn't get enough wax on the threads. The first 2 screws broke. So, I scraped a lot more wax from the block and packed the threads. That worked much better. My current project needs 150 1 1/4" stainless screws (#10) driven into Ash. I did the first 25 screws that way and quickly got tired of scraping wax and packing threads. Hence the idea to dip the screws.

The first responses about wax/glue/potpourri warmers gave me one of those "doh" moments. Don't know why I didn't think in that vein to begin with. When I regoogled, up popped an ad from Lee Valley for a glue pot (https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/sets/102874-glue-pot-and-warmer-set) and when I looked at that, the notion of just using a desktop mug warmer and a basic dish of some sort popped into my head like what Jim and Bruce mentioned using. And I think I might even have one of those warmers packed away somewhere. So, that is a cheap and easy experiment.

Brice mentioned having a blend that is soft at room temperature and using it for coating end grain. That got me to wondering if something like Anchorseal would work, being a wax emulsion. I have Rockler's version of that. That would be a quick test.

Using Beeswax was mentioned a couple times. I've never tried that but Lee mentioned that it will stick to threads better than parafin. So, that will also be something I may try in the future.

Thanks again to all!

[Jim Becker]

You may be able to pick up some beeswax locally from a local beekeeper, Brian. Find your local beekeepers association and inquire that way. Most have both web sites and Facebook pages for their groups. A few bucks to a local resource for some was and maybe some local honey (very healthy especially if you have allergies) is a nice thing. :)

[Dave Lehnert]

Here is a recipe for soft wax by Lost Art Press.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2015/12/10/a-recipe-you-should-try-soft-wax/

Christopher Schwarz daughter often makes some and sells it one her Etsy store if you can catch it in stock.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/287791781/soft-wax-8-oz-glass-jar?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=anchored_listing

[Mel Fulks]

Agree with Lee. I was skeptical about bees wax since it seems sticky. Way better than anything else.

[Charles Lent]

If you are having that much trouble driving the screws, are you drilling the correct size pilot holes for them? This becomes much more important as the hardness of the wood increases.

Charley