Uncap your beehive frames with honey and load them onto the extractor. Use a hot or serrated knife to uncap honeycomb.
Load all baskets of the extractor. If beehive frames are not enough to fill all baskets of the extractor, you may balance out the frames. A 6-frame honey extractor can be loaded with 3 frames and be balanced. Optionally, use frames from which you have extracted honey to balance the extractor.
Cover the top of the extractor. Clear covers that you can see through are used on most honey extractors. They allow the beekeeper to see what is happen inside the extractor without risking injury from any flying objects that may leave the extractor.
Check that the honey outlet at the bottom of the extractor is closed.
Rotate the crank of the honey extractor if it is a manually cranked tangential honey extractor. If it is electric, power on the extractor.
The best method of extracting honey using a tangential honey extractor is the 50-100-50 method. In it, the beekeeper extracts 50% of the honey in one side of the honey comb. They then switch the frame to extract all the honey from the second side of the honeycomb. The frame is then switched to extract the 50% honey that remained in the first side of the honeycomb. This prevents damage to honeycomb due to the weight of honey on one side.
Remove the frames from which you have extracted honey from the extractor.
Drain honey from the extractor frequently so that it does not accumulate and cause slowed rotation of the extractor.
After every use, clean the extractor well before storing it.