Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Easy 5-frame nuc plans

219K views 258 replies 119 participants last post by  jkellum 
#1 · (Edited)
Here are plans and measurements for nucs I make. I think they are simple and you can make 4 five-frame nucs out of one 4' x 8' sheet of 15/32 plywood that sells for +/-$10 at Lowes or Home Depot. I use them for swarm traps, queen breeding nucs, and I overwinter nucs in them. I also leave the bottom off of some to stack on other nucs to make 10 frame nucs. I use thin 1 1/4 inch nails, titebond III glue, and I paint them to ensure I get many years of service out of them.

http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa190/Drew454/Nuc plans/
 
#34 ·
Built this yesterday. I did step up a grade of plywood. The plans were great. I did cut my strips 10.25, 10.25, 9, 8.5 and 7.5 this left a 1.75 strip for the end cleats. Looks good and very strong. I may end up cutting 2" holes with screens for ventilation in the bottom. I will probably cut a jar lid hole in the top for a feeder lid. I plan on using them to start queens or for spare queen nucs. I don't see any problem with stacking them, they will be plenty strong. I went ahead and put bottoms on all mine. I had a friend that used to make cabinets and he was set up with equipment. Table saw, radial arm saw, brad nailer, a square mounted to his work bench helped pop these out in a little over an hour. I slowed him down though.

Mark
 
#36 ·
OK everyone, just because I have some time on my hands and SWMBO is out all day, I tried using Sketchup for the 1st time to figure out these cuts. I'm sure once I'm familiar with it it'll go smoother, still it's pretty slick. Forgive the fonts, that seems to be an element I can't figure out.

I think it makes more sense if the long cuts go first. Something like this.

Ben's sketchy Sketchup diagram.

For some reason I get a lot more waste than others (the rightmost 5 pieces except for the center row that made the lids and migratory cleats). Am I missing something?
 
#38 ·
True and good to point out. I specifically excluded the dimensions of the waste pieces and included only the dimensions of the work pieces for that reason. That means, for those not familiar with allowing for kerfs, that you can't just put a pencil line 10.25" under the first 10.25" and have it work out. You need to mark and cut the first, CUT IT, and then mark and cut and so on or each cut will be short by 1/8".
 
#42 ·
Help me with the math....if i make it out of 3/4" plywood do I have to make the sides top and bottom 1/2" longer?
 
#43 ·
With 3/4 you wouldn't need the end caps. You can cut out 3/8 of the inside ends for the frame rests. Just like you would with 1" (3/4") wood. That would give you a larger cleat imprint on each end of the top. If you put the cleats on the outside edge of the top instead of flush underneath the edges the length of the top could be shorter.
 
#45 ·
I've done it out of the exterior chip board. It's held up well by the top bends when I pry it off and I had difficulty getting the nails just right to avoid splitting. Otherwise it worked well. I couldn't find it at HD in 1/2" or 15/32". It was more along the lines of 5/16 or 3/8. I just checked my HD receipt and I paid $12.46 for my 15/32 4x8 plywood. It was the chip board that I looked at but passed on that was going for over $9. Sorry for any confusion this created.
 
#47 ·
Lowes 15/16 plywood 14.99 I bought glue and used staples I already had. In abought 2.5 hours I had 4 new swarm traps. Is is a nice afternoon project and it is fun wood work. I had lowes rip it in half. I ripped each half 10 1/4, 10 1/4, 9, 8 1/2, 7 1/2. I will do it again next weekend.
 
#49 ·
My thoughts exactly.......... I wonder how much labor
to cut, and assemble each one if you did 100? 200?

It would certainly be an selling point with Nuc sales too
and you could easily "justify" the extra $10 or so over the
"competition".
 
#56 ·
You and me both.

I printed his plans the other day and quickly did the math for mediums. Sides 7-1/4" high and front and back 6-1/2" high. Everything else should stay the same. Though I don't know my measurments are correct.
 
#53 ·
SamG347 is working on exactly that. You may want to PM him for those measurements. If I remember correctly you need to remove 2 7/8 from the height for the sides, front and back and you're good to go. Check the height difference between a deep and a super and subtract the difference from the heights I specified.
 
#55 ·
I've done that 2 ways. One I drill out a hole the allows a top to fit tightly in the hole then put screen on the inside. Water does get in until they propolize the jar to the screen. The other I simply drill out a hole and set the jar on top. The jar on top isn't as secure and the bees can get to you if so inclined when you change the jar. Water doesn't seem to get in as easily with the 2nd design, unless the jar blows off. Six or one half dozen of another.
 
#60 · (Edited)
Here is a link to a SketchUp plan, inspired by this thread, in a Medium depth, without covers or bottoms, since I simply use pieces of styrofoam insulation for those parts. I also substituted pieces of 1x2 for the cleats. I like the feel of the more sizable cleats.

I am very impressed by the way the recess for the frame-rests is designed into this Nucleus plan. A very unique conservation of materials and at the same time using the 15/32" plywood results in a nice, light-weight, economical Nucleus box.

Standard medium frames are 5-3/4" between the underside of the top bar to the outer edge of the bottom bar, with 6" between the edge of the frame rabbet and the bottom of the box, this leaves a 1/4" bee space beneath the frames. Just how I like them.

I have now finished two additional SketchUp plans that are layouts for cutting sides and ends from 15/32" plywood. One 4'x8' sheet of plywood will make 32 side pieces, 6-5/8" H x 19-1/8" L, with enough pieces left over that the cleats could easily be made from the scraps (I prefer cleats made from 1x2 stock, myself). Layout plans for end pieces, 6" H x 7-1/2" W, shows that 42 can be cut from a half sheet (4'x4') of plywood, which also leaves left-over pieces that could be used elsewhere in these projects or in others.

The layout plans allow for 1/8" kerfs between components.
 
#102 ·
Here is a link to a SketchUp plan, inspired by this thread, in a Medium depth, without covers or bottoms, since I simply use pieces of styrofoam insulation for those parts.

Standard medium frames are 5-3/4" between the underside of the top bar to the outer edge of the bottom bar, with 6" between the edge of the frame rabbet and the bottom of the box, this leaves a 1/4" bee space beneath the frames. Just how I like them.
First off, MANY THANKS to D Coates for first posting his awesome project, and then more thanks to Joseph Clemens for working out medium size. :applause:

Checking out the medium size, shouldn't the Nuc have bee space on the top too? I "ran the numbers" from a standard medium frame to get slightly different numbers on the plans. Here's my measurements that include 3/8" bee space between the frames and walls on the sides and bottom and 1/4" between frame tops and ceiling.

Sides: 19 3/8 x 6 7/8"
Front/Back: 7 1/2 x 6 1/8"
Top: 22 1/4 x 9"
Bottom: 20 1/4" x 8 1/2"
End Caps: 8 1/2 x 2" (same)

Being proficient at AutoCAD (and admittedly a bit anal about drawing up plans) I just threw together a cross section to measure it out. Here's my first take at making the original plans into a 5-frame medium nuc.
View attachment Easy5FrameNuc-Medium.pdf
 
#61 ·
I bought 2 sheets of 15/32 plywood yesterday morning and used one sheet per D Coates plan to cut out 4 boxes, I had some scrap left over and plenty for the four. Cut all four out and assembled two in about 3 hours, they all came out real nice. Thanks Coates for posting a good, simple and great working plan.
 
#62 ·
Top Bar Too?

It occurred to me after building my first from these plans that it could easily be tweaked for use as a top bar nuc or swarm trap. You could of course, reduce the overall length to fit your bars but that would limit its use to only top bars. I was thinking of simply adding a bar far enough back from the front wall where the fronts of the bars would rest, just like a regular frame would on the designed void. It will hold five 1 3/8 inch bars. If done with small screws, this would be easily removable to return the nuc to "Lang style" duties.

Sound reasonable? Am I overlooking any gotchas?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top