# Built some hive bodies for 1st time.



## Tenpin (Apr 27, 2016)

My buddy Ryan has an awesome wood shop so we got a small jump on next spring.





Maybe we'll try using the dado blade for box joints sometime.


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## Aroc (May 18, 2016)

Very cool. I made a simple jig for cutting 3/4 inch box joints. Works pretty slick.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Nice! don't know that I would use 1X12 to make mediums though.


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## Tenpin (Apr 27, 2016)

Tenbears said:


> Nice! don't know that I would use 1X12 to make mediums though.


The price was right on that knotty pine shelving board and the scrap will be certainly be used


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Tenpin said:


> The price was right on that knotty pine shelving board and the scrap will be certainly be used


I hold them precious for making deeps. So it kinda makes me cringe to see them ripped. I would gladly trade ya two 1X6 for a 1x12 :lpf:


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## Gumpy (Mar 30, 2016)

Next time, don't rip them to width before gluing up. Glue up the whole width, and then rip them to width. Leaves you with a shim that's about 1 1/2" (deep body) which can be used for feeding, quilt box, top entrance, raising the tele cover above the top entrance, etc.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I don't know if it is of interest but I use the wide boards and make deeps and use as traps untill I need a hive body for a hive. I then rip it down to a medium and use it on my hive. I can just put a solid bottom on the deep and just dril a hole for the trap interance and then there is still enough room to cut the hole off if I need a medium. In my mind it seems like I am not wasting my wood on just traps but can still use them if I get tired of trapping.

Good luck
gww

Ps I also have some feeder shims from cutting deeps down to mediums.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

If you make transparent templates for tracing onto the wood, you can idealize the patterns over the wood grain.

I made these to be sure that knots and wavy grain are not used in the finger box joint areas, but they also help keep knots out of the smile handle areas and the frame hanger rebates.

These colored, transparent plastic templates also help me maximize my use of the wood. I made templates for telescoping top parts, inner cover parts, screened bottom pallets, frame parts, escape boards, etc, and a host of queen rearing equipment parts.

If a knot is in the way, I avoid it with the critical areas of the larger parts and fit the other templates together to get as many parts out of the piece as possible.

This forced me into a great decision - I mounted a tin can to the wall, filled it with pencils, mounted a pencil sharpener over it, and a slot tray for drafting tools, a caliper, and several measuring and marking tools.

I'm changing over to modified Jumbo Dadant hives, so I'll have to go make some more templates.

Another neat thing to pass along - cut a framing square down to beehive dimensions! Can't get them wrong that way. 

I even welded on the cut off piece to the long side so the whole thing slaps on to the corner of the hive to check for square, to use for marking the long side, or the short side for cutoff. Along the outside, I drilled small holes for marking the depths - Shallows, Mediums, Deeps, and now Jumbos. I use these for marking the rips. It is not necessary, you still have to set the ripping fence square and to size, but the last thing is to rip to size, and I have extra confidence if there is a line marked and I know it is correct. So its just one more visual check.

Please note - all my markings are oversized. I leave the fingers 1/32" long on each end (that's 1/16th total) so I have some left to sand off after assembly. My boxes are finished about 1/2 inch over depth, then trimmed as a box square against the ripping fence. You don't have to do this, I do just to make nicer hives.

I thank Michael Bush for the framing square idea. 

I first made an aluminum template for finger box joints so I could spray paint the pattern and remove any doubt about dado cutting the wrong tooth. I later expanded the template idea because I use a lot of scrap wood.


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## Tenpin (Apr 27, 2016)

Gumpy said:


> Next time, don't rip them to width before gluing up. Glue up the whole width, and then rip them to width. Leaves you with a shim that's about 1 1/2" (deep body) which can be used for feeding, quilt box, top entrance, raising the tele cover above the top entrance, etc.


I like this idea.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

> My boxes are finished about 1/2 inch over depth, then trimmed as a box square against the ripping fence.


 This is what I do too. It gives much more accurate finish than other methods. I've been trimming the boxes Zook made to get all of them exactly 11 5/8 inches deep. A few of them were up to 11 7/8 which is enough extra to cause a problem. I also use my tablesaw as a square to set the box on as I assemble it. That way I can be certain the box is exactly square before the glue sets. It is faster to align a box on the table than using a square. The only negative is that I have to clean some glue off the table from time to time.


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