Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: ugcheleuce on January 18, 2014, 04:45:14 PM

Title: An integrated hand-hold/frame-rest made from plywood only?
Post by: ugcheleuce on January 18, 2014, 04:45:14 PM
Hello everyone

I'm warming up to the concept used in e.g. the British National hive whereby the frame-rest is combined with the hand-hold, for use with long-lug frames (such as the British National or the Dutch simplex frame).  However, the official British National hive design requires a fair bit of carpentry, and I would prefer a method that lets the wood store cut the wood to simple sizes which I simply have to assemble.

So the idea comes to mind to use exterior-grade plywood and "double-up" some of it.  Has anyone has ever seen a similar hive or build, i.e. that does the integrated hand-hold and frame-rest using not massive wood but plywood?

Compare the British National design with my quick done-in-Microsoft Paint proposal below.  I know the British National design looks simpler, but it requires more complex or more difficult cutting using a machine that I would have to rent.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/s4bfx4.png) || (http://i40.tinypic.com/e0svp5.png)

Your thoughts?

Thanks
Samuel

PS... the design on the right says "200 mm", so you can see that this particular image was taken from a 5-frame nuc's design.  For a standard width hive box it would not be 200 mm wide but 410 mm wide.  Anyway, the "200 mm" is not relevant to the question.
Title: Re: An integrated hand-hold/frame-rest made from plywood only?
Post by: ugcheleuce on January 19, 2014, 02:53:09 PM
This video shows some of it (the top, not the bottom):

Beekeeping Forum making bee nuc boxs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo2QyyBteJY#)
Title: Re: An integrated hand-hold/frame-rest made from plywood only?
Post by: Vance G on January 23, 2014, 12:33:31 PM
Now I live in an area with 12" annual precipitation and have found that plywood trends to exfoliate and fall apart.  My congratulations on your waterproofing of your chosen material.  I think you get a little more rainfall than we do. 
Title: Re: An integrated hand-hold/frame-rest made from plywood only?
Post by: Robo on January 24, 2014, 08:47:00 AM
The Dcoates 5-frame nuc uses a similar concept, though only one layer thick.   If you can control the plywood de-lamination issues, I don't see why it wouldn't work.