Cedar planks

[onriver]

I've some cedar planks sitting happily in the yard - the local farmer had a delivery of western cedar logs and, a bit of negotiation, some joint work with a horizontal bandsaw (now there's a toy!); £20 and now I have 5 planks - 3 are 2" and 2 1", all from 20cm minimum to 60cm in width and around 9' long.

My thinking was to use the 2" planks as the end pieces of the brood and supers, with either saw or router cut rebates rather than making it up from separate planks, sides from the 1" planks.

I got the idea from the Rose OSBs, though he uses pine joists and a spindle moulder
any thoughts - what are the pitfalls I'm just about to walk into?

 

[oliver90owner]

what are the pitfalls I'm just about to walk into?

Do you have a planer/thicknesser? You will need bigger roofs than your present ones or the bees will fix everything very firmly for you. You may also have trouble with dimensions - remember Nationals are one foot fifteen centimetres one eighth of an inch and two millimetres square!

RAB

 

[onriver]

I wish I had the kit and the workshop to go with it! I'm working on the assumption that, provided I end up with boxes that will stack accurately and, as you've reminded me, roofs made with enough clearance, the exact thickness of the planks doesn't matter.
I'm working with nationals, using Dave Cushman's and the plans downloaded from the Scottish Beekeepers site but, as these use 1" planks, basically doubled to form the box ends, thought I'd be clever by starting out with 2" planks!

 

[johna]

If your wood has just been planked out of logs it won't be seasoned/dry. The first thing you need to do is to stack it with air gaps (1 inch) between planks in a dry place for a few weeks.Cedar dries out rapidly.Then you need to find a friendly joiner or similar to get the stuff pleaned down to thickness-use the thicknesses shown on the hive drawings.Dont try to make nationals differently from the drawings.The dimensions have been carefully worked out to give all the necessary internal and external fits and clearances to produce workable hives.If you want to use the "Rose" type of construction=then make Rose hives.

 

[kermit]

By making the ends 2" thick then you are going back towards the original National. The modified national is what everybody uses and has the side rails. The big advantage being that they are easy to carry. By using 2" board and routing some sort of carry handle, you are making extra work and more handling problems. Any chance of getting these planks split again and making twice as much 1" board?

 

[onriver]

thanks for the replies. In retrospect it would have been better to have 1" planks but I didn't and can't now get them re-cut so I'm going for the routed out rebates and handles.
The planks have been stacked under cover and are now light - no cupping or splits so far. The roughness of the sawing means I have a few mms of variance in the thickness to plane down and will probably end up with 42mm boards, but I'm going to work backwards from whatever size square end boards I end up with, counting on side boards to make up any difference. So long as externally they are 460mm square boxes with internal dimensions to fit a frame without compromising the bee space I hope I'll be ok
I still like the idea of taking a tree and ending up with a brood box

 

[Black Comb]

Perhaps I'm missing something here but the internal dimensions are the critical factor. Just make them to the "correct" internals and you will be OK.
With 42 mm boards you will likely end up with externals more than 460mm square as nats. at this dimension tend to be made with 22/23 mm timber.

 

[rae]

I wish I had the kit and the workshop to go with it!

Routing out the rebates needs some pretty serious kit. Clearly a router and wide/flat bit, most importantly, you'll need a form of support - otherwise as you get to the middle of the brood box, you'll have no support. Have a look at any woodwork forums for the tricks people use to level worktables with routers - basically build a frame round the item, screw some 4x2 to the router and used the frame + 4x2 as a sort of carriage.

You may be able to get the local chippy to resaw them for a few quid, much be easier!

 

[oliver90owner]

otherwise as you get to the middle of the brood box, you'll have no support.

Surely a machining operation before the box is assembled?

RAB

 

[jakethedog]

this video [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaWRjpJ5f0w[/ame]
has recently been highlighted on bsource forum, may or may not appeal but worth a look unless your going to use batons for handholds.

 

[drstitson]

excellent video - obviously really and something most of us would have figured out eventually.

 

[rae]

That vid looks like a really good way of getting a saw in your face if you are sloppy with the "up and down" part of it. If you are sloppy and miss a bit.... then the sideways cut may suddenly have an awful lot of work to do. I would be willing to do that with a plunge saw, because the blade will have retracted by the time the kick back reaches you, but not with a fixed blade saw.

 

[jakethedog]

that's the problem with sloppy work, especially when a tool is being used.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Easy to rectify that potential problem,fit two guide runners to the side of the jig,one just slightly deeper than the cut,saw cannot flip out at all then,athough not really that likely on such a shallow cut.

 

[onriver]

thanks for the comments - I was planning to cut rebates before assembly on the end panels only and not cut internal housing cuts for the thinner side planks, avoiding the need for frames to support the router. At its simplest I would only have 2 cuts - 1 to produce a bee space at the base of the plank, the other 11mm deep and wide enough to allow for frame lugs and plastic runners to be attached???