Hey everyone,
I'm really a detail nut, I get it from my Dad who used to do carpentry work. He helped me put together my hive bodies today and I noticed that the deeps were square, but the mediums are like a centimeter off square. Will this cause me any problems?
I used wood glue, a dead strike mallet, and then screwed everything together with drywall screws.
when mine are a little off, i put them on the ground and sit on them to force them back. :evil:
if it's only a little, it won't matter. as long as the frames sit straight and the boxes match ok, it's fine.
The nice thing about bees is they will not grade you on your project skills. They will adapt. Like Kathy mentioned it will be OK. Or don't worry bee happy. I have made it a s.o.p. to allways check the measurements from corner to corner and adjust them before the glue sets up. Different manufactures of boxes will vary some. That is assuming that you do not cut them out yourself. The bees do not care if they are perfect as long as it keeps the elements out they will do their thing.
I do mine in a jig:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesboxjig.htm
To make sure the project I am building is square, on top of the work bench on one corner perfectly square, I glued and screwed two pieces of wood 5/8"X2"x 2'. When I make a hive body, I glue, set it inside the corner of the strips , clamp and screw. It comes out square and no twists every time. To keep from getting glue on the table top or into the corner, put a piece of plastic like schrink wrap or Saran wrap over the strips and onto the table top.
When you want to use your belt sander to sand, you can use these strips as stops to hold the piece of wood you are sanding.
In our shop we have a "glue-up" table all by itself. There's two 1/2"x3/4"x2' strips of wood glued on one corner in an "L" shape at a good 90degree angle. When assembling anything square you simply push the piece into that corner while gluing or nailing to keep it all square. The table periodically gets a coat of Johnson's paste wax (making sure to wipe off as much as possible after drying to prevent transfer to your piece which inhibits any finish you may apply later) and over the years it's gotten many coats of wax. Any glue drips just sweep off when dry.
I've tried my own beeswax polishes before but couldn't stand the smell of turpentine during drying.
Scott