Cutting Deep to Medium

[Pond Creek Farm]

I am planning to cut down a few deep boxes and several frames down to medium.  The boxes do not seem to be as big of an issue as the frames.  I plan on simply running the boxes through the table saw with a fence at the right width.  But, what about the frames?  The bottom of the sides has a groove cut out to accept the bottom bar.  Do any of you have any experience in changing a deep frame to a medium?  I have some plastic foundation as well, but a band saw ought to work easily enough on that.  It is the cutting and reassembly of the wood frames that causes me concern.

[bassman1977]

But, what about the frames?  The bottom of the sides has a groove cut out to accept the bottom bar.

Hopefully I can explain this clearly...

1.  Pry the bottom bar off of the side bars.

2.  The bottom bar, if I remember right is approximately 1/4 inch thick.  So what you want to do is cut the side bars, keeping them at a length so that when the bottom bar is nailed back on, it will be the height of a regular medium frame.  You don't have to cut the groves out if you don't want to.  I didn't.  I just added gorilla glue and nailed them together.

I hope that makes sense.  The frames that I cut down are in a hive and I do all of my measurements on the fly so I have no reference in that regard.

[Pond Creek Farm]

That makes sense.  Simply butt the bottom up to the cut down side bar, glue it together and hit it with a nail (I'll likely use a brad nailer).  I have grown to hate Gorilla glue due to the mess, but I agree that this is a good application.  I've found nothing stronger.  Thanks Bassman.

[bassman1977]

No problem.   :)

[Brian D. Bray]

I would cut the end bars down so it is as long as a medium end bar without the bottom bar notch.  I would then recut and nail the bottom bar so that it just spans the distance between the end bars.  That should make your cut down go easier.

[Pond Creek Farm]

Brian:  I think I will ahve to do jsut that after looking at the assembled frames.  I cannot pry them apart without breaking them. I will simply cut the bottom bar ends off, cut down the sides a bit and then glue/brad the bottom bar betwee the two sides.  Luckily for me, I only have about thirty to do.  The rest are either already mediums or unassembled deeps that should be even easier to cut down.

The more interesting question is how to get the packages I just started on deeps in medium.  I checked today and see that the queens are out and they seem to be building comb, but only on one frame.  Next weekend I plan to pull all the deeps not being used and put mediums into the deep box.  I need a way to prevent burr comb constructiion in the empty space, however, so I am thinking I will build a small box that will sit right on the SBB to take up the room.  When the hive has all the mediums filled and a second medium filled, I plan to replace the deep box with a medium and cull out the two deep frames.  Sound reasonable?

[annette]

I don't know, but I had a friend cut down about 5 deep frames for me into mediums. I watched him do this on his table saw. These frames were fully drawn wax combs filled with pollen and I did not want to lose the food they would provide for the bees. Per Michael Bush suggestion, I had them cut.

Nothing went wrong. He just ran them through the saw after measuring them. Did not remove anything. Just straight cut on the bottom. They are now in my hives and doing fine.

Annette

[Pond Creek Farm]

Annette: Did he put a bottom bar back on the cut down frame?  It may not even be necessary, but I was curious.

[annette]

no nothing. Just cut it straight across and everything was fine. They are very strong frames.

[Michael Bush]

I ran them through the table saw at 6 1/4".  Then set the fence to 3/8" (outside) and cut the remaining end bar off of the bottom bar.  Then did a butt joint on with the bottom bar between the end bars:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeseightframemedium.htm#cutdownframes

Where the split bottoms broke I cut a new bottom bar from a triangle corner of a one by.  But then I was doing foundationless.