Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

Hi guys

Just wondering if anyone has or know where i can find langstroth hive plans in metric measurements? I have found a pic here or there on the net, but nothing detailed.

Would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

Here is a site with the different sizes of langstroth, http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/lang.html
There's no real standard.
Lance

I recommend if you are going to buy your frames, the. You purchase them first and then adjust your boxes to match.
I say this because even frames are not all built the same. Some have thicker top boards than others. You want a 1/4" above the top of the frame and an 1/8" below the frame.
Jim

Thanks guys for the responses, yeah i bought unassembled frames, the problem im having and also referring to the site Lancej linked, the conversion of the imperial measurements aren't quite accurate to the millimeter, and that was exactly my worry was related to the frames, to be quite honest, im very confused with all these inches! Hehe. How important will it be if say the spacing between frames and/or broodbox and super differs by a few millimeters? Sorry for all the questions im very new to this, busy getting all my things ready for next year.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

Best to try it out. The bees will adjust to it. Hey the build hive in some crazy places. If you really want to get metric measurements go to one of the UK bee sites they have plans in metric. Don't we have a few beeks from the Netherlands on here. Finiski or hauns.

John

do a google search on converting inches to metric. fill in the blanks and it will convert it for you. had to do it on some of the RC plane plans I'm building

What Jim said, 1/4 in ≈ 6mm, 1/8 ≈ 3mm.

These plans have worked well for me.  You may need to adjust the dimensions per your frames and Jim's numbers.

http://www.beesource.com/files/10frlang.pdf

Quote from: dott on December 11, 2015, 09:38:42 PM
do a google search on converting inches to metric. fill in the blanks and it will convert it for you. had to do it on some of the RC plane plans I'm building

There's a GREAT little downloadable freebie program called 'Convert' which will convert just about anything to anything. It's one of my 'must-have's' - highly recommended. It also runs ok in Linux using Wine.
https://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/

LJ

1" = 25.4mm

1mm = 1/0.039370"

Like Richard says I have always divided inches by .39 or multiply mm by .39
Gets you pretty close.

I'm always wary of doing those sort of 1/4" = 6mm type approximations; having operated in both imperial and metric, there's can be a lot of difficulty trying to mix the 2.

FWIW, I heard stories that the USA had a lot of aggravation trying to reverse engineer the German MG42 GPMG, which was designed and manufactured in mm and fractions thereof, when they tried doing it in 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64, 1/128th etc of an inch.

(Even when they finally got it to work, it ended up as the M60, so still not what you'd call a win really).

If the dimensions given are in inches, I'd be inclined to just go out and buy an engineers rule, marked in inches.

The difference between 1/4 inch and 6 millimeters is fourteen thousandths (.014) of an inch or .35 millimeters.  I doubt most folks can cut wood that accurately and fortunately, most bees don?t carry a scale in either unit of measure.

Quote from: Sundog on December 18, 2015, 01:11:23 AM
The difference between 1/4 inch and 6 millimeters is fourteen thousandths (.014) of an inch or .35 millimeters.  I doubt most folks can cut wood that accurately and fortunately, most bees don?t carry a scale in either unit of measure.

Yeah well - that's probably what NASA said too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter)

This inches to metric mess has been thorn in my side all my life. Working with industrial machinery I've had to keep two sets of tools depending on where the equipment was built. Canadian machinery can be even nuttier, if parts of the machine are built in the west and other parts are built in the east you can be presented with metric and imperial sizes in the same machines. Wish our benevolent leaders would just pick!

Quote from: Richard M on December 14, 2015, 07:38:13 AM
1" = 25.4mm

1mm = 1/0.039370"

Come in NASA...

Quote from: Sundog on December 20, 2015, 01:11:39 AM

Quote from: Richard M on December 14, 2015, 07:38:13 AM
1" = 25.4mm

1mm = 1/0.039370"

Come in NASA...

Well it's sort of the same, only worse.

Sorry,

correction its .039.
.39 is for centimeters :embarassed:

Quote from: sawdstmakr on December 11, 2015, 05:26:51 PM
I recommend if you are going to buy your frames, the. You purchase them first and then adjust your boxes to match.
I say this because even frames are not all built the same. Some have thicker top boards than others. You want a 1/4" above the top of the frame and an 1/8" below the frame.
Jim

Correct me if I'm wrong Jim...  the "1/8 inch below the frame" presumes a bottom board rail of 3/8 inches, making the bottom "bee space" (frame to floor) 1/2 inch.  I would consider that minimal, and err my fourteen thousandths upward.  But what do I know, my bees left (boo-hoo!).

> if parts of the machine are built in the west and other parts are built in the east you can be presented with metric and imperial sizes in the same machines.

That is the situation with all the American cars now.  Some of the bolts are metric and some are standard.  It depends on where the subsystem was built...

Our government and school system blew it back when they made all of us convert back and forth all the time in school.  They should have just handed us metric measuring tools and left it at that.  Instead we learned to hate metric because we were led to believe it meant all these conversions from Imperial to metric and metric to Imperial.  Actually we were mandated to convert to metric in the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.  The people of the US just ignored it.

Quote from: Sundog on December 22, 2015, 11:11:16 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on December 11, 2015, 05:26:51 PM
I recommend if you are going to buy your frames, the. You purchase them first and then adjust your boxes to match.
I say this because even frames are not all built the same. Some have thicker top boards than others. You want a 1/4" above the top of the frame and an 1/8" below the frame.
Jim

Correct me if I'm wrong Jim...  the "1/8 inch below the frame" presumes a bottom board rail of 3/8 inches, making the bottom "bee space" (frame to floor) 1/2 inch.  I would consider that minimal, and err my fourteen thousandths upward.  But what do I know, my bees left (boo-hoo!).

Quote from: Sundog on December 22, 2015, 11:11:16 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on December 11, 2015, 05:26:51 PM
I recommend if you are going to buy your frames, the. You purchase them first and then adjust your boxes to match.
I say this because even frames are not all built the same. Some have thicker top boards than others. You want a 1/4" above the top of the frame and an 1/8" below the frame.
Jim

Correct me if I'm wrong Jim...  the "1/8 inch below the frame" presumes a bottom board rail of 3/8 inches, making the bottom "bee space" (frame to floor) 1/2 inch.  I would consider that minimal, and err my fourteen thousandths upward.  But what do I know, my bees left (boo-hoo!).

Sundog,
Most bottom boards are 3/4".
Bees do not worry about bee space below the hive. Between frames it is important. Open air hives show this pretty well.
In natural hives they build down and leave a larger space at the bottom than bee space.
Jim

Hey Jim

My comment was based on the plan link I provided that shows 3/8 inch rails.  I have never purchased a bottom board. I too made mine with a 3/4 inch bottom rail.  Made my first one with a dado like the plans and the water got in and it failed along those edges first.  After that I stacked layers.



(http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab218/Sunchaser01/Bee%20Stuff/DSC_0233_zpsc9al8k2k.jpg) (http://s865.photobucket.com/user/Sunchaser01/media/Bee%20Stuff/DSC_0233_zpsc9al8k2k.jpg.html)

Good photo Sundog.
When I started making the bottom boards, the inside looked like yours. I then found that the SHB and mites were landing on that edge instead of falling through. I try to make the ledge (which is for attaching the #8 wire) as small as possible. 
Jim

Quote from: sawdstmakr on December 24, 2015, 07:05:27 AM
...I try to make the ledge (which is for attaching the #8 wire) as small as possible. 

Good point, Jim.

https://www.southerntasbeekeepers.org.au/_files/ugd/313a30_2966bc78bcd94d62823b969ebdc2bfca.pdf

:-)

Tasssie,
Welcome to Beemaster.
That is a very nice set of bee equipment design drawings in metric.
Thanks for sharing it.
Jim Altmiller

Welcome to Beemaster, TassieBee!  :happy:

Welcome TassieBee    :smile: