potting without pro setup?

[Chuck H]

That's clever. Obviously the regulation must be superior to a crock pot, lamp flame or double boiler. And I wouldn't expect hot spots on the vessel that could burn a hand. The consequences of getting that wrong would a real bummer!!! So it seems likely you could just plop the bobbins right in with no need to suspend them. At about $100 for the unit, and requiring 5 or 6 pounds of wax, I probably won't tool up with one. It's been ten years since the last time I potted pickups and I only have two P90's to do. Since I'm not a pickup maker it just doesn't come up that often. But it seems like great advice to include in the thread for anyone reading it.

As to warming the pickup, I will be doing that. But my reason would be to minimize wax temp changes during the process since I won't be using such a well regulated system. But in the hand bath you could certainly just leave the coil in there until it reaches a state of equilibrium. Which seems ideal.

[Chuck H]

Update...

I have a good stovetop and double walled cookware (read - spoiled ameture chef). Using my smallest pot I set the stove for it's lowest setting. The wax took awhile to melt, but once it did it measured a steady 140*F. The bottom of the pan did measure hotter at 153*. So I dropped in some wooden dowels to keep the pickups off the bottom. Continuing to monitor temp I placed the pickups in the wax bath. The bubbles stopped after about seven minutes but I left them in for another seven to be sure since I didn't warm them first. Most of the excess wax drained off when they were removed. I didn't even have to clean them off at all.


Excellent results. They are virtually non microphonic. Thanks for the tips. Now I need to go clean up my pot before my wife hits me over the head with it A double boiler should loosten the wax in one big, convenienly shapped plug if I ever need to do this again.

[David Schwab]

That's clever. Obviously the regulation must be superior to a crock pot, lamp flame or double boiler. And I wouldn't expect hot spots on the vessel that could burn a hand. The consequences of getting that wrong would a real bummer!!! So it seems likely you could just plop the bobbins right in with no need to suspend them. At about $100 for the unit, and requiring 5 or 6 pounds of wax, I probably won't tool up with one. It's been ten years since the last time I potted pickups and I only have two P90's to do. Since I'm not a pickup maker it just doesn't come up that often. But it seems like great advice to include in the thread for anyone reading it.

As to warming the pickup, I will be doing that. But my reason would be to minimize wax temp changes during the process since I won't be using such a well regulated system. But in the hand bath you could certainly just leave the coil in there until it reaches a state of equilibrium. Which seems ideal.

The wax gets pretty hot, but not hot enough to burn you. It stays right at the melting temperature for paraffin.

I just drop the bobbins in and let them sit for 10 minutes, and then remove them with a large pair of hemostats with shrink tubing on the ends.

There's no need to pre-warm the pickup. It will got plenty hot in no time! Only takes a minute or so to get to the full temperature of the wax. Some of my bobbins have the steel blade built in, and it's uncomfortable to touch when I remove the bobbin.

The paraffin warmer I have was about $25 at the time, and comes with 3lbs of wax. The wax is pretty cheap too. My unit leaks however, which seems to have been an issue with this model, based on reviews on Amazon. But no one reported that at the time! I keep some aluminum foil under it, and every now and then scrap up the leaked wax and dump it back in the tank. I sometimes leave it on for a week at a time. When I replace it I'm going to get one with a stainless steel tub. This one is all plastic, but it has a metal bottom and then a plastic tray that sits in the tank.

This is the one I have:

Amazon.com: HoMedics Paraffin Bath PAR-300-THP, Blue: Health & Personal Care

I've been using it since 2009.

[big_teee]

Has anyone ever tried a modern type Coffee Pot.
Forget the top part, with the water and the brewing.
Using the bottom warmer, that keeps coffee about 140-150 degrees.
You can buy a cheap coffee pot for $15 or less, and it comes with a glass coffee pot to put the wax in.
And, if you forget to turn it off, most turn themselves off in a couple of hours.
That all sounds way to easy, it's bound not to work.
Just thinking again!
T

[Chuck H]

Ha! I have an old coffee pot in my garage that's going to the dump!!! I'll salvage it, remelt my wax puck in it and test the temperature... Don't hold your breath though. Maybe a day or two and I'll report.

[Joe Gwinn]

Ha! I have an old coffee pot in my garage that's going to the dump!!! I'll salvage it, remelt my wax puck in it and test the temperature... Don't hold your breath though. Maybe a day or two and I'll report.

Be careful. Coffee is brewed at 180 to 190 F, and some coffeepots hold the coffee at that temperature.

[Tom Phillips]

Be careful. Coffee is brewed at 180 to 190 F, and some coffeepots hold the coffee at that temperature.

A suggestion...Put a half full pot of water on the warmer as a first test and measure the temp after it stabilizes. That will be an easy way to determine how it performs with no wax mess if it doesn't work out.
Cheers,
Tom

[Chuck H]

Will be careful. I don't know what temperature wax needs to get to before it becomes combustible. I'll bet it's higher than 180* though. I'll start monitoring the temp as soon as the wax is melted. If it goes over 150* I'll just consider the experiment a bust and shut it down. Thanks for the concern.

[Chuck H]

The coffee maker I had to work with allowed me to remove the base from the rest of the unit. A little rewiring and I have what amounts to a non adjustable hot plate. It's hard wired straight to the plate now but if all goes well I'll add a fuse for safety. The carafe is a wide top, not bottle necked so I'm using it instead of an alternative pot. Wax is melting now. I'll repost after the wax melts and stabilizes.

[David Schwab]

Will be careful. I don't know what temperature wax needs to get to before it becomes combustible. I'll bet it's higher than 180* though. I'll start monitoring the temp as soon as the wax is melted. If it goes over 150* I'll just consider the experiment a bust and shut it down. Thanks for the concern.

The flash point for paraffin is 390°F (199°C). Beeswax is 399.9 °F (204.4 °C). Don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Chuck H]

Thanks. I could have looked it up easy enough but I knew it would be high enough not to matter for this experiment. So...

The coffee maker burner plate melted 2lbs of wax in about 20 min. In this carafe that's enough to dunk two pickups. The temp rose for another ten min. and stabilized at 168*. So I looked around for an insulator and found a tile of roughly the right size. I had to chip the corners off with a hammer to make it fit. Another 20 min. and the temp stabilized at 160*. Another tile. After another 20 min. the temp stabilized to 141*. Success. Though I don't like having the whole thing stacked up on two tiles. It wouldn't take much of a bump to knock the carafe off. But the insulator is the key. I'll look at my local garden center for something like a terracotta flower pot base that will be more stable. Another nice byproduct of using the insulator is that the temperature of the pot is only one degree hotter than the temperature of the wax. So no need to keep the pickups off the bottom. Just drop them in. Though I want to experiment with different insulators, this dog hunts. Which is good because the guy I did the P90's for was so happy that he wants two other guitars done!

[Joe Gwinn]

Will be careful. I don't know what temperature wax needs to get to before it becomes combustible. I'll bet it's higher than 180* though. I'll start monitoring the temp as soon as the wax is melted. If it goes over 150* I'll just consider the experiment a bust and shut it down. Thanks for the concern.

And a double boiler peaks out at 212 F. As others have pointed out, the flash point is far higher.

The reason to worry about 190 F is that the pickup may not like being that hot, especially any plastic components. And you can burn your fingers.

[big_teee]

And a double boiler peaks out at 212 F. As others have pointed out, the flash point is far higher.

The reason to worry about 190 F is that the pickup may not like being that hot, especially any plastic components. And you can burn your fingers.

I need to find that Coffee pot.
Since the McDonalds Coffee Lawsuit, it's hard to get a good hot cup of coffee!
My Norelco Pot Warmer is so Lame, I usually put the fresh poured cup of coffee, in the Microwave!
T

[Chuck H]

I think this is a "thrift store" idea. The coffee maker I happened to have on hand had a base I could remove and a wide mouthed carafe. Outside of these benefits I don't think I would trouble with coffee makers. The burner plate has to be convenient and the carafe has to be a useful shape. The burner plates ARE regulated, so for any given burner plate there is an insulator system that should work. I actually LIKE that there is an insulator included in the system. It regulates the temperature better than the simple bi-metal element and evens the differential between the carafe and the actual melted wax. This seems like a big plus for this sort of thing. So... Head for your local Good Will store and find a coffee maker with a removable base and a wide mouthed carafe!!! Get a couple of ceramic tiles for temperature control and don't worry about it!!!

[bea]

The setup i used for my first pickup. The wax of 10 tea candles.



That has been the cheapest chinese tele neck pickup i could buy. See this thread