What did you do in the 'workshop' today

[Dekzion]

I have an old computer fan that is going to sit on the top of the stack and draw the warm air up through a hole in a crownboard, although it may be sufficient just to let natural convection do the job - I've not yet tried it with a stack of full supers. The heater has a built in thermostat and with it set at about 3/4 the aluminium tray gets to just over 35 degrees. With an empty super as the first one in the stack I reckon that should be warm enough to warm the combs ... time will tell.

My dad reckoned I should have been named Heath ... I've had form for making things out of nothing almost since I could walk.

You can get a gizmo with a ceramic heater and fan fixed together and a digital thermostat both running on 12 volts. (that Chinese place beginning with t)
I built a surround about 50mm wide of 50mm kingspan two layers deep on a langstroth size board and fixed these to the base with the heater inside and control outside, then stacked two supers on top, ( would have been as many as needed) set at 40c with a slice of foam on top for a couple of hours. perrfik. cost about a tenner and a couple of hours build. didn't need a drip tray as the frames were nicely capped.

 

[drex]

Interested. Can't find it. Any chance of a link, please?

 

[Dekzion]

they're discontinued on T but Ali has them, link below, the thermostat with probe is on the same page.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...MIosLG1suBiQMV8ZpQBh2PXAoFEAQYAiABEgIBFPD_BwE

 

[JamezF]

I've been assembling some UFEs for my nucs. Sensibly this time I went through my scrap wood pile and pulled out as many pieces as I needed to complete the six floors I wanted and cut all the pieces at the same time, rather than making them one after the other and then finding that I didn't have enough to make everything exactly the same size, as I did with my full size floors. It's meant the assembly has gone much more smoothly and quickly.

James

 

[JamezF]

Finished assembling the nuc UFEs earlier this week, adding a rim to vape through.

Now I've moved on to roofs. One is a repair of a roof that looked ok from the outside, but turned out to have rotted inside -- easy enough, though I ended up having to grind the heads off the nails retaining the metal cover using my dremel as I couldn't get them out at all. Then there are three brand new ones, full national size, to go over the six nucs.

In all cases the roof sides are made from some 15mm birch ply offcuts. I realise using ply may not be the best choice, but it was taking up space in the workshop and it is laminated with a rather pleasing hexagon pattern, so the only route for water to get in is through the bottom edges and in a small area of the end of two of the sides. I'm hoping I can seal those sufficiently well that it isn't a problem.

I'm actually reaching the point where having repaired a load of kit that I'd never used (it came as a job lot from someone who had given up) and made a load more, I'm running out of storage space. Clearing out (at least part of) a barn may figure in my near future.

James

 

[Penninetrader]

Finished assembling the nuc UFEs earlier this week, adding a rim to vape through.

Now I've moved on to roofs. One is a repair of a roof that looked ok from the outside, but turned out to have rotted inside -- easy enough, though I ended up having to grind the heads off the nails retaining the metal cover using my dremel as I couldn't get them out at all. Then there are three brand new ones, full national size, to go over the six nucs.

In all cases the roof sides are made from some 15mm birch ply offcuts. I realise using ply may not be the best choice, but it was taking up space in the workshop and it is laminated with a rather pleasing hexagon pattern, so the only route for water to get in is through the bottom edges and in a small area of the end of two of the sides. I'm hoping I can seal those sufficiently well that it isn't a problem.

I'm actually reaching the point where having repaired a load of kit that I'd never used (it came as a job lot from someone who had given up) and made a load more, I'm running out of storage space. Clearing out (at least part of) a barn may figure in my near future.

James

Birch ply is generally WBP and a cracking material for the job, a coat of something over it would make it doubly so. The hexagon bit has me completely puzzled ?? any pics ? I buy 25ltr drums of water based clear liquid silicone sealant, you can either brush or spray it onto just about anything and can be overcoated if needed. Does a cracking job. My main use for it is on natural stone walls etc. I acid clean them first then spray a decent coat on, the stone still breathes but it keeps the stone from going dark and grubby due to moisture repelling. It is much the same material as used for damp proof injection. The cost is £78 but goes a heck of a long way

 

[JamezF]

The hexagon bit has me completely puzzled ?? any pics ?

This is a crop from the "throne" of my compost toilet, made using the same stuff. No idea what the laminated surface is actually made of, but it seems very hard-wearing.



James

 

[JamezF]

Birch ply is generally WBP

Just checked the supplier's spec sheet and it says it conforms to EN314-2 class 3 which is apparently the modern equivalent of WBP, so it is indeed suitable for exterior use and prolonged exposure to the
weather.

Shame we don't have that much waste any more since I insisted that we should cut pretty much anything we thought might sell out of the previously unused parts of each sheet. I broke the waste up from a sheet that I cut last week and from a 2500x1220mm sheet I'd have struggled to get a piece bigger than about 300x100mm from the remains

James

 

[Penninetrader]

This is a crop from the "throne" of my compost toilet, made using the same stuff. No idea what the laminated surface is actually made of, but it seems very hard-wearing.

View attachment 41514

James

Ahh, I was thinking along those lines, they use similar for truck body floors in the past, it is I believe a resin inpregnated kraft paper or glass fibre mat. That is proper rubust gear. I bought some similar 18mm ply, one side with a coating similar to your ply and the other with a smooth kraft paper that is an ideal substrate for painting. I have used it for inset panels on some steel framed gates. As for the barn to clear, many would give their first born to say that.

 

[Penninetrader]

Just checked the supplier's spec sheet and it says it conforms to EN314-2 class 3 which is apparently the modern equivalent of WBP, so it is indeed suitable for exterior use and prolonged exposure to the
weather.

Shame we don't have that much waste any more since I insisted that we should cut pretty much anything we thought might sell out of the previously unused parts of each sheet. I broke the waste up from a sheet that I cut last week and from a 2500x1220mm sheet I'd have struggled to get a piece bigger than about 300x100mm from the remains

James

Aye tis the man who does the cutting who makes it a profit or loss. I no longer do for a living but I wasted little and still do. As for cutting all at same time, I went along the custom design route for my floors, in other words totally disorganised last minute builds. Plan to do better next year.......and I can hear Robby Burns as I typed that

 

[JamezF]

Ahh, I was thinking along those lines, they use similar for truck body floors in the past, it is I believe a resin inpregnated kraft paper or glass fibre mat. That is proper rubust gear. I bought some similar 18mm ply, one side with a coating similar to your ply and the other with a smooth kraft paper that is an ideal substrate for painting. I have used it for inset panels on some steel framed gates. As for the barn to clear, many would give their first born to say that.

We've used it for a camper van floor that we did this Summer, but apparently it's quite trendy to get van furniture made from it too, so we do stuff like this storage unit and pull-out bed.



Not 100% sure I'd want it in my own camper van (if I had one), but I can see that it makes a lot of sense for some people.

James

 

[Penninetrader]

We've used it for a camper van floor that we did this Summer, but apparently it's quite trendy to get van furniture made from it too, so we do stuff like this storage unit and pull-out bed.

View attachment 41516

Not 100% sure I'd want it in my own camper van (if I had one), but I can see that it makes a lot of sense for some people.

James

Camper vans, done a couple of those... only for myself. First proper one a transit was robbed after 12 months, the next some years later was an ex police transit that I adapted.It is currently off the road requiring some welding but time constraints due to other projects will keep it that way for a while. Do you do this sort of work for a living ? Incidentally, looks a very neat job