Well, here it is... my first box.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/Gatbunton/medium.jpg)
Despite my reservations about it, somehow the 3/4 inch dados worked out evenly without any thin strips left over.
Now that I've learned from the mistakes I made on the first one, I can now crank them out a lot faster, too.
By the way, those handles are just the dado blades being raised up into the wood. I got it down to a science on how deep to go and how to find the center (without using a jig... yet).
I think I'll make 2 more mediums tonight.
good job!
That's a nice box!! Am so envious of those who can build from scratch! Jody
Thanks, I'm especially pleased with how well those box joints came out. It is just a really cool deal that I can make those box joints with the few tools I have.
Got the wood for two more cut down to size, just waiting for the saw to cool off a bit before I put that dado blade back on to finish them off.
those box joints are excellent.
Full salutes in order to the sarge for making such a nice, strong box, where do we place our orders again? ;)
...JP
You will want bigger handles when those are full. Otherwise, way too nice to put a bunch of bees in:)
Quote from: Ross on July 08, 2008, 10:52:17 AM
You will want bigger handles when those are full. Otherwise, way too nice to put a bunch of bees in:)
How would I make them bigger?
Nice looking box.
Quote from: SgtMaj on July 08, 2008, 01:10:06 PM
How would I make them bigger?
1.) Larger diameter dado set 2.)raise the blade closer to one end then plow a dado grove to the same offset from the other end. for a taller notch, cut all the dados then reset the fence and do it again, or get a wider dado stack, or put a spacer between the fence and workpiece to step it over. 3.) to make it look like the commercial handholds, clamp down the piece the same as you did, but use a regular 10" or larger ATB blade. make a shallow plunge then bevel the blade. reset to 90 and plunge a little deeper and bevel again. Repeat until you've scalloped out 5/8" deep. time consuming, not worth the trouble In my opinion.
Of course you can try my favorite two ways of addressing the issue of making box grabs:
1.) Make a template and router out a handhold with a pattern bit. two templates, one for ends and one for sides. drop it on the end or side of box and cut.
2.) Make cleats and screw &glue them on, much better grab point than any notch.
A full deep is 80 # + being picked up and carried by your finger tips ! Hey I'm sure you Know this ? :roll: Recesses are for the shippers now a days. :evil:
Unless your a big hoss put on some lugs or cleats !!
Bee-Bop
These are mediums though, so they should only weigh at most, 60 lbs. I am a pretty big guy anyway... being an ex marine and all. I shouldn't have a bit of trouble with that. If I do, I'll tack a small cleat flush with the top of it.
I would use applied handles or at least cut the dado twice as wide. 3/4" is pretty tight for me and I have small hands.
Alright picky people... :-D
here you go... My first completed cleat... and it only took a few hours of sanding. :-\
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/Gatbunton/Cleat2.jpg)
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/Gatbunton/Cleat1.jpg)
Alright, so I have to admit... it does make it easier to lift. But with that much work per cleat... there's no way I'm doing all 4 hand holds... only 2 per.
That's a fine looking cleat, I just hope you were planning on migratory style tops. Otherwise a tele top is going to have to be a non-standard extra wide to fit over cleats that go to the top of the box.
Quote from: BenC on July 09, 2008, 07:05:53 AM
That's a fine looking cleat, I just hope you were planning on migratory style tops. Otherwise a tele top is going to have to be a non-standard extra wide to fit over cleats that go to the top of the box.
Sgt Maj its like they say get 10 beekeepers in a room together talking about how to do something and you end up with 15 different ways to do it
Keith
I vote you make the notches longer and get rid of the cleat. It looks cool but will get in the way.
Are you going to nail or screw your boxes together?
I like gorilla glue and screws myself.
Jim
Quote from: jimmyo on July 09, 2008, 12:57:52 PM
I vote you make the notches longer and get rid of the cleat. It looks cool but will get in the way.
Are you going to nail or screw your boxes together?
I like gorilla glue and screws myself.
Jim
They are already glued and screwed. Well, just glued in those pics, now screwed, too. All the screws are hidden though. On the cleat I went from the inside to the outside without going through all the way, and on the box joints I went down from the top (I know, you wouldn't think it would work, but it absolutely prevents them from moving).
I went all the way to the top with the cleats because there's a lot of glue and not so much screw, so if they're going to hold 100 lbs, they need a large surface area for the glue. There's a few ways I could deal with that when it comes to the top. The first would be to cut notches in the cover, the second would be to have an extra-long top, and the third would be to put in an extra-tall inner-cover. Or, I could try to make the cleats shorter at the risk of having them pop off when I go to lift it when it's full of honey.
As far as the length of the notches go, they are plenty long enough to fit my whole hand.
EDIT: another option I just thought about would be to simply top it off with one with a shorter cleat. That would disallow me from swapping around that super, but I could always swap the individual frames if need be.
It looks cool, but way too much work. Just screw a 1x2 about 6 inches long on the sides. Rout the edges with a round over if you have to make it look better. You'll get over this phase long before you get to 50 hives with associated supers :). Honestly, I've been down this path and now I buy 50 at a time from Dadant and knock them together with lots of Titebond II and an air nailer as quickly as possible. The bees could care less and they all weather. Build some nice furniture instead.
Quote from: Ross on July 09, 2008, 08:32:56 PM
It looks cool, but way too much work. Just screw a 1x2 about 6 inches long on the sides. Rout the edges with a round over if you have to make it look better. You'll get over this phase long before you get to 50 hives with associated supers :). Honestly, I've been down this path and now I buy 50 at a time from Dadant and knock them together with lots of Titebond II and an air nailer as quickly as possible. The bees could care less and they all weather. Build some nice furniture instead.
Problem there is that I don't have a router... but I also don't have space for 50 hives... I just want 1 or 2 at the max.
PS - I think this might solve that problem with the cover not fitting... http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/plans/all_season_inner.pdf (http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/plans/all_season_inner.pdf)
The easiest solution is a migratory top. Mine are just flat plywood squares, flush with the edges or smaller.
I was buying lumber yesterday and i found that the difference between clear pine(no Knots) and pine with knots was about ten bucks for the same board. anyone have a knot fly out when sawing them?
Oh yeah, had it happen a couple times. For the money though, I think it's better to buy poplar boards rather than select grade pine.