Here are some pics of my homemade buck boiler for making European mounts. I originally got this idea from a DIY section of another hunting website (now forgotten) but have made some changes to the orginal that make a big difference. My first version used a plastic trash can and wired the electric water heater element directly. This worked okay but didn't give you a way to control the heat and after 2 or 3 skulls the plastic trash can became so soft from heating and cooling you couldn't pick it up anymore when full of water.
This is version 2. Its basically a 1500 watt hot water heating element ($10) threaded through the side of a galvanized bucket ($12) and sealed with rtv. I wired the element to a thermostat my father had taken from an old hot water heater and basically just taped it to the side of the bucket with Gorilla tape. I had to add a couple layers of tape between the sensor on the thermostat and the side of the bucket to act as insulation. The thermostat only adjusts from 120-150 degrees but, with the tape added it allows the water to reach total range of about 170-220. I set the thermostat to keep the water about 190 when doing a skull. It's not pretty but works well:
Here are pics of two deer I just did. The buck on the right was shot by my 9 yr old nephew and the buck on the left was killed by my son on youth day.
The buck on the right is a 1.5 year old 10 point with two small stickers. I haven't seen this heavy of beading on a 1.5 yr old deer before.
This is version 2. Its basically a 1500 watt hot water heating element ($10) threaded through the side of a galvanized bucket ($12) and sealed with rtv. I wired the element to a thermostat my father had taken from an old hot water heater and basically just taped it to the side of the bucket with Gorilla tape. I had to add a couple layers of tape between the sensor on the thermostat and the side of the bucket to act as insulation. The thermostat only adjusts from 120-150 degrees but, with the tape added it allows the water to reach total range of about 170-220. I set the thermostat to keep the water about 190 when doing a skull. It's not pretty but works well:
Here are pics of two deer I just did. The buck on the right was shot by my 9 yr old nephew and the buck on the left was killed by my son on youth day.
The buck on the right is a 1.5 year old 10 point with two small stickers. I haven't seen this heavy of beading on a 1.5 yr old deer before.
