1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



better still, a thousand of our poplar four-piece sec- 

 tions, and test them impartially. They are fully as 

 accurate, more substantial, and whiter, and better 

 every way, accorditnj to my notion, than the V- 

 groove. I can put together two thousand per day 

 of them, and glue every joint, with a boy to supply 

 me with the pieces and pack away the sections. 

 When dry they are very solid; in fact, they will 

 sometimes break before the joints will give. To 

 put them together I have a machine like the illus- 

 tration below. I made mine in a day, from this 

 same picture, as I had never seen one of the ma- 

 chines. 



DOVETAIL-SECTION GLUER. 



Our Vermont poplar is, I think, the variety which 

 Mr. Root describes as the "quaking aspen." The 

 wood is very white, and Is less liable to swell and 

 shrink than basswood. Then it is not so liable to 

 brown when exposed to the light, or when it be- 

 comes damp. Friend K., have j'ou ever tried the 

 Vermont sections enough to know their good points? 

 This matter of sections is certainly of practical val- 

 ue; and if the one-piece are really superior to the 

 four-piece dovetailed, I do not want to keep on 

 using the four-piece. Let us hear from Mr. Green 

 in regard to this matter. He prefers the V-groove. 



Qit€?iy.— Shall I make the change from the four- 

 piece dovetail section to the one piece V-groove? 

 Who will help me to solve it? 



Larrabee's Pt., Vt. John H. Lakk.^bee. 



Priend L., if you can put together 2000 a 

 day, and glue every joint, and tliat without 

 help, you have certainly got hold of a very 

 good thing. I agree with all you say in re- 

 gard to the sections made of white poplar : 

 but they can not well be made of one piece, 

 on accoimt of the peculiar nature of the 

 lumber. I presume tlie majority of bee- 

 keepers would put together live one-piece 

 sections where they could put together and 

 glue even one of your kind. l>ut I do not 

 mean by the above that one individual can 

 put together 10,000 in a day. We once had 

 such a machine as you describe ; but tnelted 

 glue, with us, alvvays made ihiuby work. 

 You have become accustomed to the four- 

 piece glued section, and I certainly would 

 not make a change to tlie one-piece until 

 testing the matter on a small scale. If I am 

 correct, the machine you illustrate was for- 

 merly made by our good friend A. E. Ma- 



num. We have reproduced the engraving 

 from a print sent us by friend L. 



A HOME-MADE MACHINE FOR MAKING 

 PEHFOKATED ZINC. 



FRIEND REESE'S CONTRIBUTION. 



fo^ HE accompanying cut you have had made 

 ^ from a rough drawing of my home-made 

 i perforating machine is so very good that a 

 further description seems hardly necessary; 

 but I will mention a few of the details that 

 will greatly assist any one who may desire to copy 

 or improve on the plan. The size of the hard-wood 

 block will be governed somewhat bj' the width of 

 sheets one would wish to perforate. If for full- 

 size honey-boards, the block should be from 4 to 6 

 inches thick and 16 inches wide. Saw out the jaw 

 J, about 2'/4 inches, and 10 inches in. You can then 

 perforate a sheet 16 inches wide by reversing the 

 sides. 



REESE'S ZINC PEHFOR.\TING MACHINE. 



The punch A or N is a Hat bar of steel about ^^ to 

 I4 inch thick, I'^s inches wide, and 10 inches long. 

 The sheath, or bo.\, B or M, is molded of babbitt 

 metal around the steel bar, or punch, N, in the usu- 

 al way. By painting the bar N, and running the 

 hot metal around it while the paint is fresh, and 

 the paint wiped off after molding, it will make a 

 nice fit. This bo.\, M, need not be so heavy as the 

 drawing indicates, as there is very little strain up- 

 on it. 



The lever, F, is made of hickory, ^ in. thick, and 

 the underside of the half-circle is shod with a strip 

 of hoop iron, to make a solid bearing against the 

 top of punch A; and the face of the block where 

 the lag screw E fastens the lever F on to it is part- 

 ly covered with a thin sheet or plate of iron to pre- 

 vent the lag screw E from getting loose, as this is 

 where the heavy strain comes. 



To make and adjust the steel die L requires some 

 nice work and patience, as the punch A must fit 



