# Making equitment



## Learning2Bee (Jan 20, 2016)

Getting ready for spring! I'm getting ready to order some wood to pick up at Menards! (They have a 11% off sale) I'm gonna be making 2 bottom boards, 1 deep, 2 inner covers, 2 top covers, and 2 nucs with tops and bottoms. This is going to cost me no more then $50. I'm using 3/4" pine. If you do research, make your plans, and wait for sales, you will be able to make your box's super cheap, and good quality. And also have more money for queens, frames (you may even want to make those) and everything else.

As a side note, don't let retailers talk you into pre assembled items. They cost way to much and are not worth it at all. :no:


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

Lol, I've been cranking out boxes like crazy the last couple weeks now that I have the heat in the shop fixed. Way to much effort to work out there when it's below freezing!

I've cut out and assembled 16 shallows, two mediums, and five deeps, and have cut out a nuc box, another three deeps, ten shallows, three 8 frame deeps, three 8 frame mediums, and an 8 frame shallow. Most of those are for someone else, five of the shallows, the deep and nuc and ten frame mediums are for me.

Will be doing at least ten more shallows and four deeps, five shallows for me and the rest for a friend.

We got a treasure trove of used 1x12 lumber 12 and 16 ft long last fall, most of it in decent shape. All of it full of staples, but we dug the vast majority out and I used my old crappy saw bladed just in case. Also scrounged lumber from a retired wine rack from my neighbor and $40 worth of 1x6 and 1x8 good lumber. May make another run for 1x6s, which make shallows if you glue some cut-off on and trim them to width. 

Will be making some bases and covers soon, plus frames for all those boxes -- we have 10 hives and they all seem to be in good shape, so I need 40 super of some sort -- I've had a hive fill five before.

Going to be a busy month, as it will be gardening season come late Feb,

Peter


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

psfred
You must build a bit faster then me. I have heated my garage all winter. Have done used about 3 cord of wood. I am not sure what I have built for sure but something along the lines of 7 five frame medium nuc with three tops and bottoms. About three deeps with top and bottoms each. 12 medium boxes with maby 3 tops and bottoms. Several inner covers. Maby around 100 meduim frames. This has taken me all winter. I am using oak or hickory or what ever else I cut on my homemade saw mill that I thought was dry enough to use. I can't tell my trees apart expesialy after it is a board. My table saw motor burned out and I bought one that lasted 30 days and the motor burned out and I am on my third one and so far so good. It might be good to build your own but if you didn't have a lot of time and built like me it might not be worth it. I aint got no money do have fire wood and time and am enjoying it so it is worth it to me. My veiw is what works the best to fill the persons needs. I am still proud of myself even if no one else is.
Cheers
gww
Cheers


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

I don't make one at a time, I collect wood (or saw into the pile of 1x12 pine a friend found for cheap) and cut a dozen or so boxes. Cut all the boards to length using a jig (tried measuring each piece and ended up with trapezoids), then switch to the other length and cut a pile, trim to width, use the trimmings to glue up 1x6 pieces to width, then trim again.

When I get a decent number of sides cut, I set up the dado and cut all the box joints in an evening or two, then cut the frame rest rabbets and then assemble. Same thing for frame parts, I don't make a couple, I make a couple hundred at a time. One setup each step, but dozens or hundreds of pieces. Unless you have several table saws and band saws, it's crazy to keep changing setups.

I have about 20 more boxes to do this week, then it's time to make frame parts, I'll need about 600 frames this year of various sizes.

I heat with propane, it's cheaper. And I have heat on demand rather than firing up a wood burner and waiting three hours for the far end of the shop to get warm enough to work.

Peter


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## Learning2Bee (Jan 20, 2016)

psfred said:


> Lol, I've been cranking out boxes like crazy the last couple weeks now that I have the heat in the shop fixed. Way to much effort to work out there when it's below freezing!
> 
> I've cut out and assembled 16 shallows, two mediums, and five deeps, and have cut out a nuc box, another three deeps, ten shallows, three 8 frame deeps, three 8 frame mediums, and an 8 frame shallow. Most of those are for someone else, five of the shallows, the deep and nuc and ten frame mediums are for me.
> 
> ...


That's awesome! Having spare lumber around is truly a treasure.


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## Terry C (Sep 6, 2013)

psfred said:


> I heat with propane, it's cheaper. And I have heat on demand rather than firing up a wood burner and waiting three hours for the far end of the shop to get warm enough to work.
> 
> Peter


 A fan to circulate that hot air will cut your wait to under an hour . I heat our house with wood , and without the fans we get hot and cold spots . Keep that air movin' !


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

I have a propane furnace retired from home use. Big blower, heats the place up in half an hour, perfectly warm by the saws, including the floor. Next year I will put in a set of ductwork, should reduce heatup time by half.

And no open fire in a shop full of sawdust, scrap, and 2000 bd ft of dried lumber....

Peter


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## minz (Jan 15, 2011)

A fellow furniture builder and I were just discussing this, I think in a small shop you would need a lot of dust to blow the place up. I did however, turn on the propane and went in the house and when I came out the entire place stunk like propane. The burner is supposed to cut off when the pilot is off. There went all the heat as I had to open the place up and air it out for hours. 
I always figured that open heat source was helpful in removing dust!


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## Sunday Farmer (Nov 13, 2013)

psfred said:


> Lol, I've been cranking out boxes like crazy the last couple weeks now that I have the heat in the shop fixed. Way to much effort to work out there when it's below freezing!


I am going to suck it up and work two extra weeks this spring doing construction than I want to; and that money is earmarked for a wood stove and chimney for my new shop this year. =)


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## psfred (Jul 16, 2011)

You need enough dust suspended to ignite and burn in the air before you will have an explosion, I don't have that much ever, but I do end up with quite a bit of sawdust on the floor. A buddy of mine said he thinks there are some dust removal systems being demolitioned at work he can get for cheap (or free) that will fix that. Still have hand plane shavings, and those are a real fire hazard.

The propane furnace is cheap, easy, has a thermostat, and I can keep the shop from freezing in bitter cold weather at small expense. Well worth it to me, and I could even get a modern thermostat and program it to be warm on days I'm likely to work out there.

I've been fixing the place up this year, plastic panels over the leaky windows, sealed up the doors, insulated some of the walls, and will be doing more. 

Peter


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Learning2Bee said:


> As a side note, don't let retailers talk you into pre assembled items. They cost way to much and are not worth it at all. :no:


This is entirely a matter of personal preference and circumstance. My free time is a precious commodity and I have many things to do far more enjoyable than assembling bee equipment. If something is available fully assembled I buy it. And for most things if it's only available as a pile of bits that need endless hours wasted assembling fiddly little pieces, I find a replacement that comes ready to use. About the only thing I assemble is boxes, mostly because I can't get them fully assembled from local suppliers.


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## ralittlefield (Apr 25, 2011)

Learning2Bee said:


> As a side note, don't let retailers talk you into pre assembled items. They cost way to much and are not worth it at all. :no:



That may be true for some of us, but I sell assembled equipment and many of my customers have very good reasons for buying it already assembled.


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## FranklinBeeInfo (Nov 19, 2015)

grozzie2 said:


> This is entirely a matter of personal preference and circumstance. My free time is a precious commodity and I have many things to do far more enjoyable than assembling bee equipment. If something is available fully assembled I buy it. And for most things if it's only available as a pile of bits that need endless hours wasted assembling fiddly little pieces, I find a replacement that comes ready to use. About the only thing I assemble is boxes, mostly because I can't get them fully assembled from local suppliers.


What I meant by that was, if you have time and everything else, don't let them sell you on conveniences. I can respect people buying pre assembled, makes perfect sense.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Most of the bee club members don't have pipe clamps to assemble the boxes. I doubt any of them make up an assembly jig to make sure the inside dimension is correct and square, except that one guy is a cabinet maker, and I suppose he does.

I timed my assemblies my first year - 37 minutes a box. I timed it again last year with the glue dipped instead of brushed, and a mass assembly clamping setup. 22 minutes a box. It still has to improve a lot. I'd like to get down under 15 minutes.

I'm still looking for a good deal on a trailer - mounted, bandsaw-type lumber mill. I could have had a lot of oak this last week - over 20 trees fell in the wind + rain that came with the Pineapple Express storm that came through. Nice having air-dried lumber for making boats, aircraft, and kiln dried for beehives.


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## stixin2016 (Feb 1, 2016)

I finally got a wood stove. cost-$100 timberline- time 3 hours to remove all the rust and re-paint it. then the stove pipe, $260 on craigslist, roof bracket, thimble another $110. My hands are not frozen and i have been making nucs and full hives. Just wanted to say you can get free wood on free-cycle and craigslist. I have finally gotten some calls from people on free-cycle. this makes it cost effective for me. 
I found dado blades to be a great investment. no more single blade ricki re-tardo cutting. I did also order the push blocks so I don"t lose my fingers. I enjoy building these. My goal is to make an actual tree hive, should be fun.


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## Cuttingedgelandinc (Mar 3, 2015)

stixin2016 said:


> I finally got a wood stove. cost-$100 timberline- time 3 hours to remove all the rust and re-paint it. then the stove pipe, $260 on craigslist, roof bracket, thimble another $110. My hands are not frozen and i have been making nucs and full hives. Just wanted to say you can get free wood on free-cycle and craigslist. I have finally gotten some calls from people on free-cycle. this makes it cost effective for me.
> I found dado blades to be a great investment. no more single blade ricki re-tardo cutting. I did also order the push blocks so I don"t lose my fingers. I enjoy building these. My goal is to make an actual tree hive, should be fun.


I never learned about the Ricki re-tardo cutting method in shop class!


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Lucy's got some 'splainin' to do?


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