Apidea Spares

[einsteinagogo]

You create one, and I'll print it, on an Ultimaker II, in PLA!

I'm sure we can come to some batter arrangement!

Andy

 

[madasafish]

Bought spare plastic bits at Beetradex..

 

[itma]

Reminded of this thread as I was re-reading Ron Brown's "Managing Mininucs".

He suggested using tinsnips to cut a piece from a metal sheet excluder.
Worthwhile for doing a lot. (Especially if you have access to a proper metal guillotine.)
And it would get rid of one of those nasty metal sheet excluders ...

 

[Hivemaker.]

This is what i do...and have already suggested.

Reminded of this thread as I was re-reading Ron Brown's "Managing Mininucs".

He suggested using tinsnips to cut a piece from a metal sheet excluder.
Worthwhile for doing a lot. (Especially if you have access to a proper metal guillotine.)
And it would get rid of one of those nasty metal sheet excluders ...

You could buy a cheap full size plastic or zinc queen excluder and cut as many as you need from that.

 

[itma]

This is what i do...and have already suggested.

Yes, I should have linked to your post.

My point was that Ron Brown was doing that about 20 years ago.

Though I heartily dislike the sheet metal QXs, I do fing the plastic ones useful - as 460mm square templates for my unskilled DIY bit-building!

 

[Hivemaker.]

My point was that Ron Brown was doing that about 20 years ago.

So was i, and went to some talks by Ron Brown, an interesting beekeeper.

 

[mbc]

ready made template for all square hive thingies

 

[einsteinagogo]

Okay, I've created (well, I better expand on that, my CAD team did -thanks Guys), a replacement Apidea Queen Excluder for the entrance. (e.g. the small red one, which falls out and you lose it, if you don't use a pin!)

Message me, if you would like to try one...

We have since, found inaccuracies in the 3D printer's resolution, at printing small objects, the bee space is 4.25mm in the original and our drawings, but the printed part due to the nature of PLA and print nozzle is smaller at 3.74mm...

so can anyone tell me what a bee space is in an excluder ?

we may have to change the drawings to allow for this tolerance in the 3D printer..

Edited: Thornes, state their Excluders are 4.3mm, so were are going to change the drawings to 4.3mm + 0.4mm tolerance, and re-print... to get the correct bee space, so the bees can exit...

 

[einsteinagogo]

Okay, after some alterations, it would seem we have suffered from squeezage..

This is the behavior of molten plastic which causes it to extrude slightly sideways when deposited from above, resulting in holes being slightly smaller in diameter than expected or the item dimensions are slightly larger than expected, 0.4mm.

So corrected and adjusted the CAD drawings for squeezage, and this is what we have...

Contact me if you want to try one.

 

[Jonathan F]

I think I realise why this thread is confusing me. The discussion seems to be about two different items.

An Apidea is supplied with two different queen excluders. One sits permanently between the fondant and the brood area. I’ve not lost one of those so far. If I did, then I would use a bit of plastic or zinc excluder to replace it. The second queen excluder may be pinned over the oddly-placed entrance to stop bees absconding with a mated queen.

The one on the front is the bother. There is a very limited choice of where to stick the drawing pin, the hole becomes loose and the excluder is lost in the grass. This is the excluder which I was enquiring about, and this is the one which Andy has so ingeniously manufactured with his 3D printer and excellent CAD team. With squeezage allowed for!

I have seen wooden mating hives at Hivemakers apiary. They were a very good size, larger that the Apidea, each with a small, central front entrance. Perhaps a section of plastic or zinc queen excluder would be effective across those front entrances, but I don’t know. However, about this time last year I tried to use a bit of zinc excluder at the front of an Apidea and I could not get it to work. The Apidea entrance is small and the Apidea excluder has very narrow bands of plastic between the openings. In contrast the zinc queen excluder has too much metal and severely restricts the entrance. There is a photograph comparing the two in my album on my profile page.
I’ve dug out my copy of Ron Brown’s Managing Mininucs. I don’t believe that he ever talked about an excluder on the front of the hive. Perhaps it was included in the kit as an afterthought, after he wrote his monograph. What he definitely did write about was the queen excluder to keep the queen out of the fondant and describes cutting sections off a zinc excluder to replace that one (Queen excluders, bottom of page 15 in my edition). I suspect that may be the excluder that Hivemaker is referring to.

I think Jon on the Scottish Beekeepers Association forum has a good alternative
He says “I make my own excluder by cutting up a plastic excluder sheet like this as it allows far easier entrance for the bees. About 20 slots rather than 3. ” It produces a much les restricted entrance.
He posted two pictures. You can find them if you google - Thread: Absconding bees from Apidea sbai page 5
It could be worth trying this sometime.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Jonathan F

I did PM you.

Let me know, if you want to try one for size.

Other's on the forum have requested them.

Andy

PS I keep losing them in the grass, because I forget to pin them!

 

[einsteinagogo]

Front QX for Apidea

Production has started...

PM me if you want one, those that have PM me, they will be on there way.

Photograph of the 3D printer at working printing Front QX for Apidea

 

[einsteinagogo]

if anyone is interested, this is how we do it....

http://andysworld.org.uk/2015/05/20/cluster-of-3d-printers-ultimaker-2-now-networked/

 

[Jonathan F]

Thank you for the link. That's very interesting. And good luck with the robot project. Hope that goes well.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Thank you for the link. That's very interesting. And good luck with the robot project. Hope that goes well.

We already have the "Robot Arm", and we already have the "Robot Chair", we just need to interface the two, and get the robot to read numbers and letters, to recognise which office door, it needs to knock on!

 

[Jonathan F]

Andy.

Thank you. The sample QXs arrived today and they look absolutely excellent. They're a perfect match for the original ones that I have apart for being a little thicker and that won't bother the bees in any way. I'm looking forward to trying them.

The only fly in the ointment is that I already knew that I wanted a 3D printer. Now I want one even more!

 

[einsteinagogo]

Andy.

Thank you. The sample QXs arrived today and they look absolutely excellent. They're a perfect match for the original ones that I have apart for being a little thicker and that won't bother the bees in any way. I'm looking forward to trying them.

The only fly in the ointment is that I already knew that I wanted a 3D printer. Now I want one even more!

Jonathan

Thanks for the response.

Please feedback, we were careful with the measurements, and bees should pass, weather has been too poor, for me, and colonies at present are delayed/slower to build up from last year, so not put the Apidea out yet.

Anyway should be the same width, anyway if they are usable "as is" and you need more, just let me know.

Next thing, when we have time, is to look at apidea frames...we have some other parts as well.

Thinking about, we should have placed a hole for the drawing pins!

3D printers, we are lucky, but we are kind of bored with them.... next year we may get a new resin based laser etch one!

I've been printing numbers for my hives!

 

[Jonathan F]

Andy
I take back my previous comment about measurements. I don't know what I was thinking. The printed version is spot on. Perfect. Both of the printed excluders are currently in use on Apideas and they are identical in every way to the originals.
So, congratulations! What a genius!

 

[einsteinagogo]

Andy
I take back my previous comment about measurements. I don't know what I was thinking. The printed version is spot on. Perfect. Both of the printed excluders are currently in use on Apideas and they are identical in every way to the originals.
So, congratulations! What a genius!

Thanks for that...

You want some more? Did you want 5, I can send you another 3. Let me know how many you want.

Good to hear, still waiting for my queens to lay....14 days now, and still waiting, I'm sure we've had a good mating day in the last 14 days.

I now wondering if there is no space, because they've filled up the frames with stores, and not drawn out the last third frame. (which is by the vent, so cooler). I actually saw the queen today, as she flew out and away, when I removed the inner cover board (and I thought oh s**t!), but after closing up, she returned, and she is very large and plump. (much larger than my skinny small queens in my colonies!)

I could remove the feeder (with fondant), insert another two frames, move the stores to the outside, and insert the foundation strip frames in the middle, or add another top deck of three frames in "super/brood box" and insert feeder upstairs.

or wait...another week.

Appreciate any comments?

 

[itma]

Simplest to just swap frames 1 & 3, and to make sure the front 'door' stays fully up, effectively closing the vent.