1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



55 



^ You hare sent me, my friendx, teward a tJiowt- 

 (ind nuhncribers, diiriny the past month; Imir/ld 

 K(iy '■iJinnk you,'''' and I do f<ay, and feelit, but I 

 think Homethiriq more is due you, and as actions 

 spiok louder than words, I have ^iven you the fol- 

 lowing pages. 1 do not know Iww I can please the 

 greater ivirt of you more, than hg telling you how 

 to make section boxes, and if 1 furnish the paper 

 and printing myself, I presume you will allow me 

 just as much ^'■elbow room'"' as I please. I wish to 

 hire a '■'big talk and visit.'''' 



SECTION HONGY BOXES. 



ALL, ABOUT MAKING THEM, AND SOME 

 OTHER MATTERS. 



O OME of our friends complained last sea- 

 ^^ son because our sections were grooved a 

 ■ little deeper than the thickness of the 

 stuff; this was done, because in sawing, we 

 cannot get the stuff all exactly of a thick- 

 ness, and we were therefore obliged to make 

 the dovetailing deej) enough, to take in the 

 thickest pieces, otherwise, we should have 

 the thick pieces increasing the outside di- 

 mensions of the box, and tliis might prevent 

 a nice fit inside of the hirge frames. The 

 only remedy was to liave the stuff planed to 

 an exact thickness, and although we often 

 thought of this, we as often decided that 

 they could not be made, nicely planed all 

 over, for one cent each, or less. A few 

 weeks ago, our sawyer startled me, by ask- 

 ing why we could not have a little planer, to 

 take long strips right from the buzz saw, 

 and plane them automatically. Sure enough! 

 Why not V 



I soon found that there was a little planer 

 made, called a Cigar Box planer, and ere 

 long, M'e had one planted just back of the 

 saw. I give you an engraving of it below. 



CIGAR BOX PLANER. 



This little machine does its work most 

 beautifully, and retiuires so little power for 

 tlie planing of these pine strips, that in the 

 absence of other power, one man with a 

 crank, would probably run it without troub- 

 le. After we got it well started, our saw- 

 yer, who is an intelligent mechanic, ex- 

 clamed, 



"•AVhy Mr. Root, I would almost work for 

 nothing, if I could have machinery that 

 would all run as nicely as that little mach- 

 ine does." 



The strips, as they come out, are most 

 be;iutifully smooth, for these small j)laners, 

 as they come from the factory, are all sharp 

 and in working order, without so much as 

 even furnishing a belt. The best part of it 

 is, the strips are exactly of a thickness. For 

 the usual section boxes, they are sawed 



about 2 inches in width, or a little more, 

 and in length, to suit your pleasure. 



To get a fair view of all these points, I 

 sliall have to explain a little ; the cheapest 

 shape in which we can get our white pine 

 lumber, is inch stuff. Two inch might do, 

 were it not that we cannot get it unless 

 sawed to order, in shape to dress full 2 inch- 

 es. It is true, we can saw it in strips a lit- 

 tle more than 2 inches, and then turn them 

 up edgewise as we do the inch stuff, but 2 

 inch stuff costs quite a little more than one 

 inch, for the same quality of lumber, and as 

 we use inch lumber for general hive work,- 1 

 think we had better have our lumber pile 

 mostly inch pine. Very well ; now what 

 length of boards would we better purchase V 

 As there is always waste near the ends, I 

 think 16 feet will be safest in general. 

 These 16 feet boards, Ave will cut up in 

 lengths convenient to handle; if you can 

 handle them cut in two in the middle, it 

 will be quite a saving in lumber and hand- 

 ling, but it may be best to cut them in 3, 4, 

 or even 5 equal pieces, under some circum- 

 stances. After the boards are cut up, and 

 put in nice piles conveniently near the saw, 

 we are ready to saAV them into strips. For 

 tlie sides of the section boxes, we wish the 

 strips 2 inches, or a fraction less, but for the 

 to]i and bottom, they are to be i inch nar- 

 rower. Therefore, we need an equal num- 

 ber of each width. We are noAv ready to 

 rip off the thin strips. I tnink these would 

 better be, when dressed, nearly 3-16 thick, 

 after they are planed ; but there comes in a 

 consideration that decides this point, a little 

 further along. 



We will suppose you have ripped off and 

 planed about 100 of tliese thin strips; 101, is 

 just the number, to be exact. Shake out the 

 shavings, place the planed surface all one 

 way (we do not want the sections planed on 

 their inner sides, because the bees could not 

 so readily attach their combs) and then sci-ew 

 them up in screw clamps like the cut below. 



CLAMP FOR MAKIMG SECTION BOXES. 



These clamps are made to compass just 16 

 inches. You will remember that tlie frame 

 we use to nail, and gauge the size of the sim- 

 plicity hives, is just 16 inches wide ; just 

 bear it in mind. Below. Ave give y.,u a 

 drawing of the bundle of strips. Avith a clamp 

 screwed on them, at about every 18 inches. 



BUNDLE OF STRIPS FOR SECTIONS. 



Well, this plank as it AA'ere, composed of 

 the 101 strips, is to be placed on the saAv ta- 

 ble, and sawed into bolts or bundles, a little 

 more than 17 inches Ion??, one of the chunps 

 coming near the center of each. Noav you 

 are to slip one of the iron gauge frames oAer 



