Hive body assembly??

[Billy Joe Adair]

I have about a 1000(+) hive bodies to put together. I have never put that many together at one time before. I am looking for a timely and efficient way to assembly these boxes.
Do you commercial guys assembly with a jig or just free hand it?
If any of you use a jig, can you describe it?
How long should it take one man from start to finish to assembly one hive body?
All the boxes have 'finger joints', if that matters.

Thanks for any help.

[Steven Ogborn]

Micheal Bush has info. about a box jig on his website. Look here. http://www.bushfarms.com/beesboxjig.htm

[Charlie B]

I built a three box jig from Michael Bush's website and it saves allot of time. Much easier to nail all three boxes at once.

[odfrank]

If Charlie wasn't such a cheapskate he would buy one like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxqYb...eature=related

But of course, since HabitatforHoneybees.org is a non profit organization, probably the funds for that kind of investment are spent on saving the bees, not expensive jigs.

[Charlie B]

Wow,

Now that's a nice box jig. If you're good at welding you could build one instead paying $1000!

[acbz]

Job specialization = efficiency

Put all the sides and ends in stacks and first dry-assemble a few dozen hive bodies, using a slightly modified deep hive body as a fit-up jig to hold the end pieces in place at the right width while you bump the long sides into place. Then staple them after dry assembled. Better yet, pay somebody a low wage to dry assemble while you staple, can easily do hundreds per day this way. The only limitation is your staple gun-holding arm. I can upload a pic but it's really pretty simple.
This is much faster than assembling and stapling each box individually.

[The Honey Householder]

I had the boys put all mine together last year. My 12 year old put 80-100 together after school each day. He did over 2000. I had him nail them all by hand (skill building). Now if I can get them to do frames like I did when I was a kids.:roll eyes:

[odfrank]

I had the boys put all mine together last year. My 12 year old put 80-100 together after school each day. He did over 2000. I had him nail them all by hand (skill building). Now if I can get them to do frames like I did when I was a kids.:roll eyes:

What are the child labor laws in Ohio?

[The Honey Householder]

Odfrank,
You pay for labor right. No pay here, but they do live high on the hog.

[HarryVanderpool]

I built this box press about 12 years ago. It was supposed to be a prototype and every time I use it I remind myself that I am supposed to make a final edition of it. Never happens.
I have nailed about 1800 boxes through this press and I love it.
Boxes come out PERFECTLY square and squeezes the glue out of the super tight joints.
Yes I glue my boxes.
I have never paid attention to how fast it will go; I worry more about doing a good job.

[Rader Sidetrack]

Interesting jig, Harry. Could you explain a little bit about the metal (brackets? springs?) and the round (dowels?) on the right side of the jig?

[HarryVanderpool]

The dowells are cams that have a flat spot. You can see that there is a black line on the end that aligns with the flat spot. In the first picture the flat spot is against the ram(the board with springs holding it back and in place ) which means the press is open. .
In the second picture, the cams are rotated thereby compressing the ram forward and tightly clamping the box joints together for nailing.
Notice also, if you look carefully, there is a relief in the lower corners so that glue does not build up that is sqeezed from the joints.
If I actually ever get around to making the really nice one it will have 2, 2 x 12s. the uprights will be 4 x 6s and the braces will be 4 x 4s
I suppose I will end up making that down the line when I don't need one anymore.

[honeyman46408]

I dont do thousands but this what I built.

[allniter]

HARRY --how do you nail --or screw the bottom while in the jig --do you take box out of jig and rotate --nail top first and than bottom --thank you

[minz]

Harry, that is the most cleaver jig I have ever seen! I was trying to figure out how to do the ends so that the fingers that stick out would not hit the end and rack the box. Is there handles on the ends of the dowls or do they just stick out so that you can get a good hold on them? Maybe post a side shot so I can steal your idea. Biggest problem with building of jigs is the storing of jigs.

[Mbeck]

I like Harry's Jig, it's something I could actually build!
I'm guessing you could just staPle the corners while it's in the jig and finish stapling once it's out?

[HarryVanderpool]

I will tell you how I nail and why, but that doesn't mean you have to do it the same:
First, I glue up the finger joints with TiteBond-III, tap the box together with a hammer, slip it in the press, SQUISH!!!!!!!
Now nail the two fingers in the middle on both sides of the top.
Unclamp, flip the box over, reclamp, nail the two middle fingers on both sides of that surface.
At this point, remove box from clamp, lay it on the long side on the bench and nail the two middle fingers, flip over and repeat.
You now have two nails on each corner / side in the middle.
Instead of nailing all of the fingers on one side, I continue to nail outward from the center, two nails at a time and rotating the box on the bench until you are done.
By radially nailing, this pulls the joints even tighter like a zipper!
It may take a few more seconds; but where's the fire?
As I was growing many folks would say somthing like, "You won't be able to do it this way when you get big".
They were wrong.
Being commercial does not mean doing things any sloppy old way just to get done.
If it does, you have too many bees.

Minz you will want some kind of handle on the end of the cam dowel. Remember; mine is a prototype. I still just clamp Vice-Grips on one end.

[Mbeck]

Vice grips are "some sort of handle"!
Thanks for sharing.

[Keith Jarrett]

Being commercial does not mean doing things any sloppy old way just to get done.
If it does, you have too many bees.

Just wanted too make sure everybody saw this small senseless quote.

[MES613]

Harry: Other than an improved handle, what other modifications will you make to your "prototype" when/if you get around to building version 1.2? Thanks for the post. Very helpful. -Mark