1S76 



GLEANINGS IN BEE OULTURE, 



itlie poles of our dodecahedron. When it is 

 ailcely turned up and sinoolhod with a very 

 Bine liie, it is to be hiid out iuto six equal parts 

 hy lines drawn leiiiijthwisc of the punch, and 

 1i> spaoe tliesc lines equally will iw one of your 

 Siardest tasks. With your dividers space the 

 Jarjrest part of the wht^el on your kvtlie huid, 

 'or tlie chuck, as is most convenient ; ;is tiiis !.s 

 Sarge, you can do it with comparative accuracy, 

 and thcH it will be an easy matter by means of 

 llicse points, to revolve your lathe iicad 1-6 of 

 a revokitiou, marking the lines on the punch 

 at each position. Wow, with a very fine flat 

 Sile cut away the steel close up to tiie lines, but 

 fie careful that you do not file the lines away ; 

 in fact }-ou had better let them be just visible 

 ivitli a maj;nifi<r after the punch is ready to 

 I olish. Finish the point in the same way, 

 Iiavinj>- the exact centre in the end just visible 

 Mhei! finished. This tiling is a very diflicult 

 siiatter, and you want some of tiie very finest 

 Jeweler's tlks and a fine oil stone to remove the 

 (tile marks, in finishing. File tirst in one direc- 

 tion and then across, and by watching the lines 

 left, you see where your lile is cutting. You 

 can at any stage of tlie work test it by driving 

 your punch iuto a block of lead and pouring 

 in type metal — in fact the types thus made 

 would be all that is wanted, could we only cut 

 thtm ofi" squarely and of an e<iual length. 



As we are going to need several thousand of 

 these type, to make dies for a whole comb, we 

 can n'ot alford to waste much time on eacii in- 

 <lividual one; in fact, tiiey must not only be 

 made |3erfict at once, init they must "oe made 

 r;ipidl5\ Tiie lead gives very nice im- 

 jiiessions but is dulled in time by use; we will 

 therefore use copper for our matri.x, as it is 

 "(•ailed. The copper rivets to be had at the 

 hardwares are just the thing, and those we 

 have, answer (inely without any annealing; 

 hui if they make you trouble ijy breaking, you 

 ^.•an first lieat them red hot and cfuench in wat- 

 vr. Drive your punch into your block of lead, 

 and then set tlie stem of t!ie rivet in this hole ; 

 now place your finished jiunch exactly in the 

 <'entre, and bj^ a series of blows from a light 

 hammer, cause it to sink into the copper 

 :-o tiiat the sides of the rivet rise like a cup 

 around the puiich. To tinish it you will need 

 a smooth tapering hole tlirough a piece of 

 i-sttel, and tiie matrix, punch and all is to be 

 <lrivfcn through this. Two or three holes of 

 diiTerent sizes may l)e ue(<kd. Should you linel 

 the cop{)er a fixture on tlie enel of tlie punch, 

 3-ou uetel not lie alarmed, lor if the punch has 

 the taper we have drawn in theeliagram, itcan 

 be got oif, but it is first to be put in the lathe 

 again (by the way, the puncli should have been 

 Jiiarked so as to be put back in precisely 

 tiie same position in whicii it was turned) and 

 -.1. groove turueel where the copper is to !^e 

 ^ut ofi"; we make the types just }-^ inch in 

 length. When our little cup is cut olfit is to 

 be ground if5at on its face with an oilstone anel 

 a very tliin piece of steel — a bit of clock spring 

 — is to be ground accurately to tit it. In this 

 a hole about 1-8 of an incii is to be drilled to 

 admit of thrt point of a small steel fuunel ; this 

 tunnel can lit made Ijy driving one of your 

 iutlie centei-s into a piece of clock spring wiiile 

 it is red hot. The diagram will explain the 

 whole. 



; E, is the matrix, F, the steel jjlate, and G, 



) the funnel whicli is jtovided with a handle, 



j and stifle ntd l>y a frame arfiund the top, so 



{ that tyfis may be broken olf by pusliing them 



' through a iiole in a st<'el plate aid Innding 



I sideways. That they may hnak ofl'ea.'-ily. (lie 



the hole to aduiit the melted metal should be 



as small as will give a clear iy];c. Tiie jilate 



F, is quite important, for by pressing G, hard 



into it, we insure a true flat base tor the tyjjc 



to stand on, anel they must ad stand upright 



on "their own feet" like all good ciiizens. This 



plate is loosely tastened to G, but must i)e free 



to adjust itsell fiat t)n tiie malrix. 



We neeel hardly say that tiuse little bits of 

 shining metal are to t)e s!e>od v.jiright on a lev- 

 el table — marble is tlie best tldng — and' that 

 tlieir faces are ail to be turned in one direction. 

 Someof ihem will very likely lefuse to stand 

 up plumb, unless you are a l>etler workman 

 than we are; buttlitse aie just as geiod only 

 they are to be sorted out ane! kept ior the up- 

 per tier. The bottom die is to be made of only 

 the best and when you have made enough for 

 your frame, carefully cover them wiih plaster 

 of Paris, having first put supporting strips 

 across the frame that he»his them together, anel 

 when it is set firmly it is a simple matter to 

 turn it all over anel solder it in one solid piece 

 with a common soldering cop|ier. \\ hen this 

 plate is washed off clean Me are ready to set 

 the upper tier directly on these, that we may 

 have a perfect fit; soider as before. 



Now for the "wax works!" As our dies arc 

 all tapering we need have no fears of the wax 

 stickiuiT, providing we keep ihe plates well 

 covereel with soap suds made thick, such as 

 burnishers use. To get the sheets of wax 

 ready for making the impressions, simply dip 

 a board in cold water, and then in melted wax 

 floating on a vessel of water. If you want 

 very thin sheets, make the wax hot, if thick, 

 have it colder, or elip it in one or more times. 

 With dies made as we have described we have 

 made cells eleep enough for the queen to depos- 

 it eggs. We iiave as yet only made a small 

 pair of plates, but we are now at; work making 

 a l^air lor sheets for a full Langstroth frame. 



We can not tell as yet, the expense of these 

 plates; they are advertiseel in the Britiiih Be« 

 Journul for 2iod. per square inch, I)ut from 

 what we can gather they are no larger than 

 those usee! by JVIr. Long. We hope to be able 

 to furnish tliem for about .$25,00 for almost any 

 sized frame. We have made a multitude of ex- 

 periments, anel l\;now of no cliea{x?r method of 

 making good dies, than that given ; nor do we 

 know whether the same ground has ever been 

 passed over before. ^Xa learned from Mr. 

 VVaguer that he used types for making his 

 sheets, but nothing further, nor did we learn 

 why he failed in <;ettiug the types to work 

 salis-^actorily. Use a common copying press. 



