# How can you make Warre top bars without a table saw?



## Darb (Apr 22, 2012)

I'm wondering is anyone has a simple way to make top bars to Warre's dimensions using nominal US lumber and no access to a table saw. I'm not as concerned about thickness, but width is where I'm having a problem. I'm just hoping someone has come up with a simple solution to making these....


----------



## ubernerd (Jul 17, 2012)

You might check out the selection of moulding at your local box store. They may have the right sized stuff (or close). Folks on another forum were using 1/2 round moulding as top-bars, just flattening the ends so it'd sit right. I think Michael Bush mentions somewhere on his page using chamfer moulding.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing the bees aren't too picky, so perhaps some work with a jigsaw? Sure, the bars won't be perfectly parallel on the edges, but I bet the bees will build just fine on it.


----------



## KMP (Feb 21, 2013)

Darb said:


> I'm just hoping someone has come up with a simple solution to making these....


The simple solution if you live in a small(er) apartment in a large(r) city like Berlin is you ask your local carpenter/cabinet maker/lumber mill to cut what you need to size. Back when I lived in Pasadena, CA, I would have walked over to my neighbor's place and asked a favour.

-Kevin


----------



## Darb (Apr 22, 2012)

ubernerd said:


> You might check out the selection of moulding at your local box store. They may have the right sized stuff (or close). Folks on another forum were using 1/2 round moulding as top-bars, just flattening the ends so it'd sit right. I think Michael Bush mentions somewhere on his page using chamfer moulding.
> 
> I could be wrong, but I'm guessing the bees aren't too picky, so perhaps some work with a jigsaw? Sure, the bars won't be perfectly parallel on the edges, but I bet the bees will build just fine on it.


Sounds like a possibility... thanks.


----------



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

> I'm wondering is anyone has a simple way to make top bars to Warre's dimensions using nominal US lumber and no access to a table saw.

Here is a link to a thread (see post #8) that explains how to cut bars of your desired width with just a portable circular saw. 
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?264968-Round-bars-Anyone-try-that&p=764313#post764313

I later got a PM saying the procedure worked out well.


----------



## b2bnz (Apr 5, 2009)

The simplest way to make Warre Hive frames is to take a standard Lang frame and cut a piece out of the middle of the top bar reducing it to the desired length, and then doweling the two pieces back together. Leave the side bars on, but shorten them to about 120mm. This will stop the bees from attaching the comb to the sides of the hive box. This will then give you the correct spacing and allow you, or an inspector, to remove individual frames for inspection.
Works a treat.


----------



## Zonker (Mar 10, 2010)

I don't use frames but it seems to me you could cut 1/4 plywood into 1/2 strips pretty easily with any hand saw then just glue them in to a frame shape. The frame would be really strong. Lowes sells 4' x 4' sheets of plywood and one sheet would make roughly 100 frames (rough math done before my coffee). Lowes might even cut the plywood into strips for you. Frames for roughly a dime a piece. Something like this - https://www.box.com/s/5xrh1onjfxnz2mc7eckc


----------

