waxing dirt

[scott kimball]

i have use hulls before but im thinking of using waxed dirt this year but would like to hear how some of you guys go about merging the two together(wax and dirt that is). i have heard some use mother nature to perform this merging and others heat it and pour it in together.just looking for some hints on the easiest and least expensive way of doing this. please dont hold back on your explanations of how. THANKS IN ADVANCE

scott

[ryanvo]

The easiest way is a concrete mixer. Mix wax and dirt in mixer use a weed burner on the side of the mixer to heat while the mixer is turning. Takes about 15 minutes to do 15 gallons. If that isnt available mix in a black garbage bag set on the concrete in the sun stir by hands when it looks wet on top Nice thing about bags is If it rains you can bring inside 1 to 2 gallons in bag

[Traveler]

One thing that I would suggest you do is mix your wax about 15 ozs. per gallon of dirt and NOT make the wax dirt until about mid-late october.Wax can and will evaporate out of the dirt if it has to long of a time period before you use it.Learned that one the hard way.Even sealed in an air tight container,you can have 50% of the wax evaporate out in a few months.

[17HMR]

Cover a sheet of plywood with sifted dry dirt and mix 3/4 pound of wax to each gal of dirt cover with a sheet of plastic mix off on on till the soil all looks the same. I make it in July and Aug,, and store it in totes in he shed till I need it.

[RonMarsh]

traveler said:

One thing that I would suggest you do is mix your wax about 15 ozs. per gallon of dirt and NOT make the wax dirt until about mid-late october.Wax can and will evaporate out of the dirt if it has to long of a time period before you use it.Learned that one the hard way.Even sealed in an air tight container,you can have 50% of the wax evaporate out in a few months.

What kind of wax are you using? I refined parffin wax for 32 years. It has a vaporation temp of 425 + deg F.

[thebeav2]

No matter what system you use to make waxed dirt you will never get ALL the dirt waxed. The wax Isn't evaporating It's the moisture that Is left In the UN WAXED dirt that Is evaporating.
If I store my dirt for any length of time ( from one year to the next) I find It gets so dusty that I can hardly get a breath of air when I'm transferring It to smaller containers. Yes It gets that dusty.
It still works but it Is a lot drier then fresh made stuff.

[Traveler]

Ron,
The wax I'm using is coming from O'Gorman and Beav......yes it is evaporating.The way I can tell is when we've had temps in the 40 degree range,then a little system comes tru and we get a few showers.Then it falls to 30 degrees and the next morning I've got rock hard trap covering.If there was any wax at all left in that dirt.....it wouldn't freeze that easy.

[Stef]

Then it falls to 30 degrees and the next morning I've got rock hard trap covering.If there was any wax at all left in that dirt.....it wouldn't freeze that easy.

Sounds to me that maybe your dirt was not dry enough before you waxed it.
It needs to be powder dry.
If not.... You will have problem like you had or you can get mold problem.

Stef

[Traveler]

It was dry Stef.........the dirt came from an 'ole barn where no rain had hit that dirt in years.Plus I gave it three weeks after I got it before waxing.

[Stef]

Hmmm

When did you make it when that happened?

Anyway... I wait until October before making it.

Stef

[Traveler]

I made it in july and august Stef.................

[briankroberts]

I have waxed dirt I've had for well over a year and in sealed totes, evaporate the wax out??
Sorry But I have never seen that here.
I have once in a while got mixed up about which bucket was waxed dirt and which one was just dry dirt.....B.....

[Traveler]

I wished I wasn't seeing it either Brian.I much prefer to make wax in the summer with the sun but now I'm forced to use some kind of heat source and do it not much before season.One thing I've noticed is that I can make up some wax dirt and naturally it will have that "wet" look.Now I can place it in plastic sealed containers. Every few weeks I can take the lid off and take a look.The dirt will be loosing that wet look and taking on a drier look instead.Given enough time,it looks like nothing more than dry dirt.That's the stuff that only a little shower and temps no lower than 30 degrees was knocking out.I tried leaving the lid cracked a little so more air could get to it and that only speeded the process up.This was wax dirt that was being stored in my basement at about 74 degrees.

[gunner]

Can somebody tell me how the wax is evaporating out? I have a bag of wax I bought over 10 years ago( just found it behind some supplies in my store as we were doing an inventory to close out. I bought it back then and weighed it on a scale as I wanted to be sure my source was giving me what I was paying for, It TODAY STILL WEIGHS 51#'s just as I marked the bag all those years ago. I agree its the moisture in the dirt that is going out not the wax. JUST MY 2cents.

[thebeav2]

Please explain each step In your wax dirt making and where do you get your wax?
I have kept left over waxed dirt In a old tobacco barn down south and I wouldn't doubt It's gets way over a 100 and some degrees In there and my dirt works just as well as the day I made It.
There has to be something wrong someplace.

[robertw]

I'm feeling generous this evening so....

The easiest way I have found to make wax dirt is in using (Debbies) wheel barrow. It is one of those two wheeled rubber made brand wheel barrows. I sift it half full of dry dirt and mix in my wax then cover it with a piece of plexiglass. You can tilt the wheel barrow at different angle through the day to catch the full sun light as needed. Using the plexiglass make it simple to lift and stir the dirt as needed.

Hope this helps somebody out.

[RonMarsh]

T. I think it is in the barn duff.
I tryed using brown peat moss mixed with the dirt. I found that it sucked up the wax and left the soil esentialy unwaxed.
With a 1/3 peat mixture it took almost 3 cups of beaded wax to 1 gallon of dirt mix to get the dirt mix so that it would not take on water if left standing overnight.

[Traveler]

Ron.........I thought it might be the barn duff as well.Some of this had a very high content of rotted manure in it.This stuff had been cookin' in there for over 30 years.Other places in the barn it was just plain dirt.It made no difference between the two.They both lost the wax given enough time.

Finally in a desperate move,I got some dirt from a bean field.We had temps in the upper 90's to 104 degrees everyday for two weeks.We hadn't had any rain for over three weeks.I dug down in this dirt and it was bone dry for the first 5-6 inches.Beyond that,I noticed just a hint of color that suggested a little moisture in it.So......just to be on the safe side,I only got the top layer of about 3-4 inches down.I gave it another three weeks just in case there was any moisture left,then waxed it.Same 'ole thing.As the weeks passed it took on a drier look until after about three months,it looked excatly like nothing more than dry dirt,plus any moisture out on the line and it would freeze.

Beav..........I couldn't agree more,there's something wrong somewhere,but I can't figure out what.I asked Slim Pedersen this same question and he was just as stumped as I was.I'm getting my wax from O'Gorman,but honestly I don't believe this has anything to do with it.But.............for some reason.......somehow,the wax is evaporting out of the dirt.

[Hornhunter]

Then it falls to 30 degrees and the next morning I've got rock hard trap covering.

This happened to me one year. I skimped on the amount of wax per the amount of dirt.
I've gone to using peat and still have a can of waxed dirt from a two years ago. Checked it awhile ago and it is still wax coated and ready to use.

[RonMarsh]

I now would have to question the wax. Some people call a lot of diffrent things wax. A few years ago I worked in a lab where we tested and made diffrent waxes by mixing diffrent things with acids to make a product that acted like wax. One of the problems was that some of them broke back down when introduced to an Ph above 7.1.

These are sold under such names as soy wax, starburst wax, Gel wax, and ect.