Crimp Wire w/o Crimping Tool

[779Hybrid410]

A recent order of foundation wire, eyelets and insertion tool arrived sans crimping tool. Is there a trick / easy way to crimp wire w/o said tool?

Cheers,

[Wisnewbee]

You can wire the frames without crimping them. If you slightly compress the end frames while you wire you'll get nice tight cross wires. You can either use your knees to hold the tension, or a clamp. I'd still make the investment in the crimping tool however. It does a nice job. It sounds like you'll need an embedding tool too. I use the electric embedder variety. Made my own. It does a great job.

Wisnewbee

[Barry]

Is there a trick / easy way to crimp wire w/o said tool?

No. If you want them crimped, get the crimper. However, it's not necessary the first time around.

http://www.beesource.com/resources/e...and-embedding/

[WWW]

I do not use the crimper on new frames, as stated above if endbars is compressed a little the wires will be as tight as a banjo string however if your wires are a little loose the crimper will tighten them right up.

[psfred]

You can also do what I do -- take a pair of needle-nosed pliers and repeatedly grab and twist the wire. Multiple bends are produced that tighten it right up. Not as nice as a crimper, but it does the trick.

You really must embed the wire into the foundation though, otherwise the bees tend to refuse to build comb over it, leaving trenches in your frames. It also won't hold the foundation flat nearly as well sitting loose.

Peter

[Michael Bush]

The crimper creates a shape that distributes the load across the comb without cutting it. It serves far more purpose than just tightening the wire.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#wiringtools