# Pierco Frames and Uncapper?



## danno (Dec 17, 2007)

I dont have any Pierco frames but I do have about 500 honey super cell plastic (not the full drawn brood but the drone cell super frames) that I run through my cook and beals decapper


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Pierce frames go through a Cowen ok but nothing works as well as wood.


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## dbest (Aug 9, 2005)

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.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

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


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## pahvantpiper (Apr 25, 2006)

I HATE plastic frames!!! They bend, They stick way more to the lid and the adjoining supers and they hurt your hands to hold if they're heavy. I have worked them in the past but will NEVER again. I love wood!!!


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

pahvantpiper said:


> I HATE plastic frames!!! They bend, They stick way more to the lid and the adjoining supers and they hurt your hands to hold if they're heavy. I have worked them in the past but will NEVER again. I love wood!!!


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.


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## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

I may have goofed a bit in my reply. the question was really about uncappers. My cowen silver queen will occasionally eat a plastic frame, specificly it rips the ears off. A wood frame will stop the clutch, but the plastic does not.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

dbest said:


> 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.


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## Tony Rogers (Oct 18, 2012)

I love pierco frames. Opening a box of pierco frames and dropping them into a honey super takes all of 20 seconds.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

pahvantpiper said:


> I HATE plastic frames!!! They bend, They stick way more to the lid and the adjoining supers and they hurt your hands to hold if they're heavy. I have worked them in the past but will NEVER again. I love wood!!!


Couldn't have said it better. Nothing beats wood and plastic foundations. The drone frames are nice.


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

Honey-4-All said:


> Spent 2k on elastomeric to hold the plastic sheets in place on the last ones we built.


Curious to know how you did this and which product you used.

Currently we use 5/8 inch narrow crown staples that are stapled through the foundation and wood - 2 staples along the top and one centered on the bottom. Very happy with the results but always looking for a better mouse trap.


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Is part of the problem having uncapper set up for wood frames and running plastic though it?


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

You can adjust uncappers specific for wood or plastic frames?


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

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.


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## Sadler91 (Nov 6, 2011)

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.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

The all plastic frames make a heck of a racket when run thru our Dakota Gunness & the older frames would not take the flails beating on them.
Wood frames with plastic inserts is all we ever use with zero problems!


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## tdsewell (Feb 27, 2012)

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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