Hi Sindirt,
I do things similarly to you. I scratch and strain. I had a two frame hand crank, but recently got a two/four frame motorized. I like the motorized. I'm foundationless, must be careful. But that's just me. I use Ben's #1 response fork. It's easy and I find it meditative. It does make a lot of fine particles of wax.
I dribble the honey slowly, from the extractor, through the strainer as I extract. I use a double nylon strainer, coarse and then fine. Yeah! They clog a bit. I scrape off the coarse strainer now and then when it builds up too much. I do think the coarse cappings actually strain out the fine particles before they hit the fine strainer, so keeping a bed of coarse cappings to strain through is a good thing. I keep the cappings. My dog and I love the cappings. Yeah! sometimes there's a leg or wing in it. Who cares? If I extract larvae because the queen's been up there, or an SHB, I pick 'em out. No sense actually knowing you're eating the little wrigglers. Maybe one day. I do eat a lot of gaggy stuff. *Old Friends* and offal, and sea stuff.
I strain into a gated bucket. I let it sit for a few WARM days for the fine particles of wax to float to the top. The longer and warmer I let it sit, the clearer the honey is when I bottle it. Excellent product. I've taken *Second Place* at a few County fairs. We have very strict criteria. I'm not ocd. I swear, the girl who took first last year disracted me at my tailgate on purpose so that I tilted my entry to leave a film of honey inside the cap. It's all in fun. I like her. She gravitates to the older beeks for knowledge. She's in her thirties, frail little thing, two kids, husband in the service. I got a kick out of her winning. She's a nice lady, very personable.
If my honey sits, bottled, more fine particles rise to the top, little ring around the top of the honey after a few months. Sell it soon after bottling. It's got the good stuff in it.
Sal