Building your own woodenware...

[dfs]

I just bought a 4' X 4' X 4' cube of two-by
lumber.
I have stuff all the way up to 2X12s

I bought it for shelves in a bunch of pallet-rack
I got for the shop.

I bought 3 box kits and one screened bottom board
and one set of 10 frame kits, the same day.
They cost me more than this pallet of wood.

I'm going to have a lot of extra wood, I'm
thinking I should fire up the wood shop.

The Boxes are easy, although they will end up extra heavy.

What about the frames.
I have a plan to make them from 2X12s such that
the cuts and dados can be done in one set of
operations with the final set of cuts, done with
the grain, will slice off the actual side pieces
themselves.

The only problem, is the relief cut into the
'modern' style frames.
ie. the fact the bottom of the frame side-pieces
are narrower at the bottom than the top, which
has a shoulder.

1 3/8 at the top and 1 1/8 about 1/3 of the way
down.
I'm going to have to use a router and jig to cut
each one, I'd rather not do that.....

The frames I remember as a kid 30 years ago did
not have the shoulder, if I recall.

What are the downsides of parallel, non-tapered
or releived sides?

Marc

[drobbins]

Marc

go to this link and scroll to the bottom and find John McFadden's post

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004520#000023

he talks quite a bit about building frames

Dave

[dfs]

Thank you.
That was what I was looking for...

One thing I forgot was the need to reduce
the thickness of the two-by lumber for the side
bars.

I don't have a planer...

I do have a 'shaper', a large inverted router
with a cast iron table.

If i make a jig that fits inside the notches on
the top and bottom of the side bars, I can shave
~1/8" off the side of each shoulder and 1/4" off
the bottom 80% of the frame in a single operation
and true everything up in one shot.

I had not considered pre-drilling the wire holes
in the side bar blanks.

My Drill press does not have that long of a stroke
but I could also build a jig that fits in the same
notches in the ends and drill 5 or 6 finished
pieces at once.

Thanks.

[Gene Weitzel]

Marc

I cut the relief in the face of the 2 x 12 block before resawing the frame ends using a dado in my tablesaw. I set my dado at 3/4" wide and set the depth to cut the desired relief. I set the rip fence as a stop. Then I make several passes, moving the block in 3/4" each pass until I reach the rip fence. Then flip it over and repeat.

[dfs]

Thanks, I'll post the results.

[Ross]

Instead of reducing the thickness, resaw the 2x stock to get (2) 5/8" pieces.

[dickm]

I make my own bottom boards fron 2X stuff. Picture a frame of 2Xs the size of a hive. Then rabbet out 3/4 of an inch of the inside perimeter. This providfes a place to staple the wire. Then picture a 1/4" dado cut into the side pieces below the wire for a piece of white tileboard to slide into. It's the kind of thing you could make a lot of by setting the saw/dado once. Covers are expensive. Make them. I use someting the siders call "coil." It's heavy aluminum that's already painted. Comes in 50' rolls I think. How deep do you want to get into this? I've seen no way to make the boxes cheaper than the usual suspects do. I could make frames and have, but the wood has to be seasoned and perfect. With your stock, I'd consider making just the top bars and bottom bars and buying the side bars.

Dickm

[dickm]

>>>The Boxes are easy, although they will end up extra heavy.<<<<

Do you mind if I quote this in my newsletter?

I don't think godzilla would want to keep bees with deeps made from 2X12s. Buy the boxes.

dickm

[DANIEL QUINCE]

I make covers, inner covers and the screened bottom board with a bottom entrance. I buy boxes new (Dadant) and lately used complete with frames ($5-8/box). For new frames, I buy the 100 pc. and assemble them using the jig posted on this web side. To make frames and boxes, I could not justify my time (unless I make 200+ boxes at a time and over 1000 frames) never mind the wood.