The (WT Kelley narrow end bar) Thrill is Gone...

[BeeCurious]

I understood from the beginning that Kelley's "narrow frames" had their standard width top bars. That was already a bit of a disappointment as I was expecting them to be thinned down as well.

I was also expecting the end bars to have the standard shape, one flat edge and the other tapered / cut to a vee. That's not the case. That's not the case, both edges are cut flat...

[BeeCurious]

If you bought narrow end bars from W. T. Kelley's I would suggest that you measure them.

What I received is just shy of 1 3/8"...

[Adam Foster Collins]

...I was also expecting the end bars to have the standard shape, one flat edge and the other tapered / cut to a vee. ...

Is that standard? I thought flat was standard. I have frames from a variety of sources, and only a few of them have the tapered edge on one side. So I would've thought flat on both sides was standard.

Adam

[BeeCurious]

All of my frames are the Hoffman style.

[BeeCurious]

All of my frames are the Hoffman style.

I learned today that Kelley's has just recently stopped making any frames with the V'd end bars. As for the narrow frames, I've seen that there's not enough wood to have a v'd end bar (except for below the top bar area). I would have preferred to have the lower portion of the end bars reduced in width as well. Standard frames from Kelley's have about 1/4" clearance between two tapered end bar surfaces. On narrow frames the gap could be only 1/8".

In another thread it was mentioned that the cuts for the top bars are not centered. The offset is minimal, about 1/32", but is clearly visible..

[valleyman]

Glad to hear that Kelleys is quitting making the v'd end bars. I have had some trouble with them splitting when prying apart the frames, and had advised them of this problem as I'm sure others have. Remember no one can correct a problem if no one tells them about it. In the meantime I've developed the habit of prying between the top of the end bars with the sharp end of my hive tool, seperating the end bars without chance of splitting them.

[BeeCurious]

I have decided to make my own narrow end bars instead of using Kelley's...