Re: [ATM] BEESWAX....Creation of an old lap substance....

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007, Russell Jocoy wrote:
> be eliminated" but I have not gone there.. Dominic help me here....
>          Russ Jocoy.......Throwing something on the wall.......

Yeah, I need to update this. I cannot say I personally swear
by use of bee's wax. It was more a matter that I searched for a
solution to the problem of Gugolz' outright refusal to sell their
product in Northern Europe. I have not had great success collecting
conifer pitch from the trees I have tried up here in Sweden, but
knew that some earlier ATMers had used bee's wax. As it turned out,
bee's wax can be found in vast quantities all over the World and
dirt cheap. I bought an infinite supply for what most would pay for
a single canister of Gugolz, so experimenting with bee's wax was
easy and cheap, smells quite OK too. It is also a lot better for
your health than another alternative, tar. That is actually how I
got into bee's wax.

You are absolute right that wax is not as easy as pitch to work, and
takes some getting used to. First, it pours like water when melted
so you have to begin by having a very tight seal before pouring or
it will all just pour out any gaps. You also have to pour in one
go or you will get separate layers that can later break apart. I
have been tinkering with organic additives to alter the elasticity
and hardness, etc. One useful tidbit (certainly in my experience)
is to make the lap very thin to force it to conform to the shape of
the tool. Thicker ones are very problematic because they'll peel as
you work the surface. I think the heat generated from working the
glass might make things more difficult. The streaks you get can be
removed with your choice of organic solvent. If I lost the shape,
I pressed the surfaces together with weights or clamps under very
hot water.

One thing I should update on is that I made some very small tests
of a mixture of bee's wax and lesser amounts of locally obtainable
organic resins. It looked promising and I have wanted to do a lot
more work with this. Sadly, I have a very bad back right now, which
is why I have not been real active the past couple years (in addition
to catching up on some much needed writing). Caring for one's back
itself should get discussed on this list at some point.... about 70%
of people will end up losing significant time from work at some
point in their lives due to back problems. At this moment, it is my
turn, and I can now contribute lots of tips on how to care for your
back. With a better back, I would have pursued this bee's wax more
aggressively. I have everything at home. I will try to do some tests
this weekend.

Dominic-Luc Webb

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