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Pierco Frames and Uncapper?

8K views 17 replies 14 participants last post by  tdsewell 
#1 ·
Hi All,
Posting this here because of all of your years of wisdom and I know you will have some excellent advice! :D

I am seriously thinking about going to all Pierco black plastic frames in my honey supers and staying with my wood frames with black Pierco foundation in the brood boxes.
Curious to hear some feedback/experiences from others on how Pierco Frames work with uncappers of various makes.
I currently am using a Maxant chain uncapper but eventually want to upgrade to a larger uncapper like a Cowen or something similiar and am wondering how plastic frames feed thru these uncappers? :s :scratch:
Thanks!
Mtn. Bee
 
#4 ·
Pierco works better than anything. There's no end bars to knock off or top bars to pull off. They can survive bear attacks and tumbles down the road. Plus they cost almost half as much as wood frames with foundation, and a cowan is not an upgrade, they just cost more.
 
#9 ·
Plus they cost almost half as much as wood frames with foundation, and a cowan is not an upgrade, they just cost more.
Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel about cowans. LMAO! That is great.

I know those Piercos are much more deafening going thru my old Gunness chain uncapper. I haven't had any other real complaints about the plastic frames except for 1 thing. When they are not drawn out sometimes they wedge themselves in a box sort of oddly and you have to spend more time prying them back apart before supering. I have yet to see a wood frame do the same.
 
#5 ·
Just goes to show, lots of different opinions! I hate plastic frames (I have a few thousand) the flimsey, the warp, the uncapper is not fond of them, and they have a gazzilion places for beetles to hide.... Stick with wood and plastic fondation
 
#7 ·
Agreed TOOOOOOOOOOOOOTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALY

My current preference is Wood frames with plastic foundation. They provide the rigidity to keep things in place and the stability to prevent blowouts etc...... Spent 2k on elastomeric to hold the plastic sheets in place on the last ones we built. Adds about 12oz to a super which you can feel but makes those frames tough as bricks.
 
#15 ·
No, a Cowen adjusts only for frame depth. There may well be other uncappers that cut more neatly than a Cowen but none will cut faster so at least from that standpoint it is an upgrade. A Cowen will do mediums in about 4 seconds and at those speeds we have found plastic frames can be a problem. They tend to "skate" on the chains and if they get angled a bit the end bars will overlap and lock together, also lighter frames tend not to load as reliably. Probably less than 5% of our frames are plastic (though very few are Pierco) but they result in a far higher percentage of jamming incidents.
 
#16 ·
I would never buy plastic frames again. The plastic ears snap of if you drop the box to hard. If they get caught inbetween the knives of a cowen, it will just jam it and its very difficult to get out. The wood frames will break and you can get them out. And I agree with Jim on the plastic on chains, they slide all over the place. I dont know if the newer plastics help these new plastic frames but the ones we have just aggravate us. We only buy wood frames with plastic foundation now.
 
#18 ·
I know this is a little late in your post, but I used all plastic Pierco frames.

I use a maxant chain uncapper just like you do and I have no problems with the plastic frames. The plastic actually drops into the groves on the uncapper better than the few wood frames I have left.

I hope this helps unless you already made the jump to plastic and already know what I just told you.
 
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