Kelley vibrating knife

[Swobee]

$385 and people think my suits are expensive. I am going to have to start making heated vibrating uncapping knifes!

Or heated vibrating suits. Soothe the back aches after lifting supers.

[peggjam]

I got one because I couldn't afford a auto uncapper, and there was tooooo much honey to do with a hand knife. It works well for those who have more honey to do than is feasible with a hand knife. Someday though I will have to upgrade to an auto uncapper....

[Swobee]

James, thanks for your input. My thoughts were confirmed that the Vibrating Knife may be a good intermediate tool for our uncapping needs. I have no desire to operate 1,000's of hives, but no desire to work harder than necessary.

[magnet-man]

While I was joking about the price, I do see where it is money well spent.

[Walt McBride]

Here is a 60 sec. video of me using my Kelley vibrating knife and scratching low points on the comb. Notice that you can hardly see the knife vibrating.
Knife blade has one speed. Tempature is controlable.
Also video has audio track.
Walt


http://s440.photobucket.com/albums/q...thhotblade.flv

[magnet-man]

Thanks Walt.

[BeeTeach]

I am also considering the purchase of one of these knives. I noticed this year that in using my electric knife on the one piece plastic frames that I would pull off a small curl of plastic on some passes. Is this just me (operator error) or is this common? Will this happen with the vibrating knife as or more frequently?

[rkwool01]

I found a link showing pictures of a Kelley Vibrating Knife in use.

http://www.pacificcrestapiaries.com/id33.html

Another beekeeper said to slide the frame at an angle as the frame is pulled across the blade and to watch out for the fingers.

Kent

[danno1800]

I got one of the old used ones that runs on steam for $75 at a bee conference last year. It has really made me more productive in uncapping the frames. Color me satisfied! -Danno

[magnet-man]

I found a link showing pictures of a Kelley Vibrating Knife in use.
http://www.pacificcrestapiaries.com/id33.html

This one is different from Walt's. Notice how the blade is mounted on top and you can uncap either from the left or right. Looks like it takes a bit more room but I think it would give the operator more choices on technique.

[Walt McBride]

Interesting on this thread about the Kelley Vibrating Knife.
Yes the are now producing and have for some time now a horizontal blade uncapper where the comb is held in a horizontal position and you aproach the blade ether from the left or right to uncap.
The top and bottom bar are your guides for the depth of cut.
My uncapper shown in the above video is the previous model with a vertical blade. The comb being held vertical and being moved down ward by mostly its own weight, I think is a better feature.
In any case a motor driven knife works wounders on the wrists.
As a point of interest, Kelley years ago I believe, produced a verticaly positioned vibrating blade arangement where the comb was held in its natural position and drawn across the blade.
Walt

[Swobee]

Did you just take the Kelley model and mount it at 90° on your uncapping tank?

[BeeTeach]

It's been a while since I've seen the movie Ulee's Gold but if I remember correctly the unit that was used in that movie to uncap was a self-feeding vertical vibrating knife. If I am correct, was this a Kelly unit also?

[Gene O]

i got my kelleys knife last year and love it tryed planner and heated knife this one is better

[Adrian Quiney WI]

I was wondering how those who use a Kelley Vibrating knife process their cappings? It seems to me that using one of these would speed up my processing, but then I would have more cappings to deal with. Currently I use an uncappings fork which produces very little in the way of cappings.
I am at the sideliner level and I ran 18 production hives this summer; I enjoyed the bees, but I need a way to speed up my processing.

[Grant]

I own one of these and I'm only moderately pleased. The knife blade needs sharpening, despite being heated or it just ends up pulling comb away form the frame. This year, the heating element went out just as we started uncapping so I went with a serrated bread knife with a 10" blade. Yeah , my elbow complained but I think it was just as fast.

Now that we're down extracting, I'll clean it up and check the connections. Not sure how to sharpen the blade and not mess it up further.

I bought mine used, and it sets over a capping tank (rectangular box).

Grant
Jackson, MO

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Thanks Grant. I was hoping it would speed things up.

[Walt McBride]

Adrian, When I frabricated my 5' uncap tray I fabracated a perforated tray to set in side, elevated slightly above the bottom to drain the acumulated cappings. The tray is aprox. 24" long 18" wide. I should had made it 48" long as it fills too quickly as I like to brake up the cappings with a hive tool into a slurry and let them sit for a few hours or over night to drain into the tray and out in to the straned bucket below.
Caps are removed eventually and stored in buckets untill I can get around to wash and melt in sollar melter.
Bought a Kelley Capping Melter, the smaller one, did not like the finished product, wax or honey as opposed to the way I have been processing the caps for years but I can see a capping melter is a must for a larger operation than mine.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Walt, thanks for the reply. From your reply I understand you to be still using the Kelley knife? Are you still happy with it?

[sqkcrk]

I have an old Kelley steam powered vibrating knife...it works the same as the newer electric knives. I think you will find it helps you be more productive. Good luck! -Dan

What do you use for a steam source?