56 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



the bolt, and loosen the clamp, until it springs 

 out securely into the frame, as below. 



BOLT OF STRIPS READY FOR PLANING 

 THE EDGES. 



These bolts after bein^ all ''hooped" and 

 piled up in a nice squai-e pile, are ready to 

 be planed, tliat the edges of the sections 

 may be smooth, and brought to an exact 

 thickness ; you see we are going to have nice 

 accurate work, even if we do comiuence with 

 rough lumber. Our cigar box planer is har- 

 dly large enough to plane these bolts, we 

 therefore use what is called the 18 inch Lil- 

 liputian, shown below. 



LILLIPUTIAN PLANER. 



These small planers have astonished us by 

 the beauty and accuracy with which they do 

 their work, and the small amount of power 

 with which they may be run. Our machin- 

 ist, said he did not tliink we could plane a 1(3 

 inch board, with a, ii liorse power engine, 

 but with only 40 lbs of steam, we cut a full i 

 inch from the hardest and knottiest board 

 we could find, and the planer did not even 

 slack its motion. As the machine cost us, 

 all belted and ready for work, only $70.00, 

 we were very agreeably astonished. The 2 

 liorse power engines we advertise will carry 

 them without any difficulty at all. 



After the tops and side pieces are all 

 planed to the exact thickness you wish, you 

 ai-e to \)ut 4 of the clamps on each bolt, so 

 spaced that you can run your saw l:)etween 

 them, cutting off bundles of 4i inch pieces. 

 These are now to be run over the gang of 

 grooving saws and they are finished. 



BUNDLE OF PIECES FOR SECTION BOXES, AS 

 THEY LP:aVE the SAWS. 



These bundles contain, each, 101 pieces, 

 l^would insist on tliis exact number, to save 



mistakes that will creep in, if you have any 

 odd number ; for the tiguring necessitated 

 with fractional parts of a hundred to put up 

 an order, may amount to more thaa the 

 goods are worth, and even tlien, expensive 

 mistakes will happen. Lnst season, a bee- 

 keeper away in Iowa, informed us, just 

 about swarming time, that his box of 1000 

 sections was lacking either sides or tops, and 

 it cost us several dollars to make the matter 

 straight, express and all. Now if we always 

 have 101 in a bundle— the odd one is to be 

 sure to make good count — and then make 

 our packing boxes so that 20 bundles will 

 just till it, our shipping clerk cannot well 

 make a wrong count. They are put up ready 

 to ship in boxes of 500 each. But he may 

 give lis too many tops, and not enough bot- 

 toms y That is true, and it reminds me, that 

 tlie pieces for the tops are to have a thin saw 

 cut exactly in the center, the whole length, 

 before they are screwed up in the bundles. 

 Well now, to tix it so he can not make a mis- 

 take, we will put in each of the bundles of 

 narrow pieces, 51 grooved, and 50 without 

 the grooves. Then, in packing, he is to get 

 10 bundles of the wide side pieces, and 10 

 bundles of the narrow ones, and the pack- 

 ing boxes are to be made so as to hold just 

 these and no more. As to the thickness of 

 the strips, I would set the planer so that 101 

 Itiect-s, just fill the IB inch frame when 

 screwed up close enough to hold. You can 

 tell this best, by trying, and after you get 

 your planer just right, make a mark, so that 

 you can set it in just the same place again. 

 I said the width of the strips should be a lit- 

 tle less than 2 inches ; we want them so that 

 7 of them close up side by side, with the 7 

 tin separators between them, will just make 

 14 inches. The Simplicity hive is 14i inches 

 inside, and we shall therefore have the i inch 

 to wedge up the frames of sections. When 

 they are to be removed, take out the two wed- 

 ges and the tirst frame can be lifted out ea- 

 sily. The tops and bottoms of the sections, 

 are i inch less than the sides. 



The cases for holding the sections, or the 

 broad frames that hold these, are made with 

 the same tools, and nuich in the same way. 

 Instead of 101 in a bolt, we have just 50, so 

 they are twice as thick as the section stuff, 

 Tlie bottom bar is made exactly like the bot- 

 tom bar of the sections, grooving and all. 

 The top and sides, are tlie thickness of a 

 sheet of tin, thicker than the sides of the 

 sections. This makes them come tight 

 against each other, when wedged up in tlie 

 hive. Below, we show you a bundle of fin- 

 ished top l)ars, and also one of the side bars. 



BUNDLE OF TOP BARS. BUNDLE OF END BARS. 



Tlie grooves in tlie sides of the top bars, 

 and the one in the ends of the side bars, ai-e 

 cut with a Cutter Head, to be described fui^ 

 ther on. The broad grooves in the side 

 bars, are for the purpose of bringing tlie tin 

 separators into just the right place, and for 



