1878. 



GLEAis^rxGS i:n" bee culture. 



153 



Anil see the svirface, at A, shows as if it had 

 been planed ; this is done by the face of the 

 saw, which rubs or burnishes the wood, as 

 it squeezes past. The remedy is plain ; 

 move the end, D, away from the saw a little, 

 or, the other end nearer to it, as may be nec- 

 essary to preserve the proper distance. In 

 tig. 2 we see the opposite extreme, and, 

 when tills is the trouble, you will find it al- 

 most impossible to keep your board up 

 against the gauge, for the saw is all the 

 time crowding it off. The piece, B, will 

 constantly be getting too narrow, and the 

 strip that comes off, too wide. Before you 

 attempt to do any work, and thus spoil your 

 lumber, you should test your saw and gaug- 

 es, on some refuse pieces. When it is all 

 right, the saw should run clear and smooth- 

 ly in the center of the saw cut, and the stuff 

 should easily be kept close up to the gauge. 



While you have been doing this work, the 

 movable side to the table should be taken 

 off, as it is not needed, and would only be in 

 the way. After one edge is trimmed, set 

 your gauge so as to cut exactly 111, and 

 bring the boards all to this width. 



Now, before going further, you are to sort 

 tlie boards, so as to have the heart side of 

 the lumber come on the outside of the hive. 

 If you look at the end of each board, you 

 can see, by the circles of gi'owth, which is 

 the heart side, as is shown in the cuts below. 



^<fl 



WHY BOARDS W^ARP. 



At A, you see a board cut off just at one 

 side of the heart of the tree ; at B, the heart 

 is in the centre of the board ; at C, near the 

 bark. You all know, almost without being 

 told, that boards always warp like C ; that 

 is. the heart side becomes convex. The 

 reason is connected with the shrinkage of 

 l)oards in seasoning. When a log lies until 

 it is perfectly seasoned, it often checks, as 

 in fig. 2. You will observe that the wood 

 shortens in the direction of the circles, and 

 but very little, if any, along the lines that 

 run from the bark to the centre. To allow 

 this shrinkage in one direction, the log 

 splits or checks in the direction shown. 

 Now, to go back to our boards, you will see, 

 that B shrinks more than A, because A has 

 the heart of the tree in its center : tli.it C 



will shrink, in sea»iS!ijjji.^,.much more on the 

 bark side than on the heart side : that this 

 can not fail to briiig the board out of a lev- 

 el ; and that the heart side will always be 

 convex. You have all seen bee hives, prob- 

 ably, with the corners separated and gaping 

 open, while the middle of the boards was 

 tight up in place. The reason was that the 

 mechanic had put the boards on wrong side 

 out. If the heart side had been outward, 

 the corners of the hive would have curled 

 inwardly, and, if the middle had been nailed 

 securely, the whole hive would have been 

 likely to have close, tight joints, even if ex- 

 posed to the sun, wind and rain. This mat- 

 ter is especially important in making covers 

 to hives. If your boards are all sorted with 

 the heart side do'svnward, we are ready to 

 proceed. I say heart side downward, for 

 you want them placed just as they are to be 

 used on the saw. I have seen boys that 

 would turn every board ovej, just as they 

 picked it up to put on the saw table, instead 

 of turning the whole just as they were to be 

 used. I have seen others that would cany 

 each one of several hundred boards 6 or 8 ft. 

 to the saw, when the whole pile might have 

 been put almost within one foot of the place 

 where it was to be used. It is veiy awkward, 

 and extravagant, to do work in this way. 



Before we cut these boards into sides and 

 ends, a gi'oove is to be sawed for the should- 

 er under the cover, and the lower edge is to 

 be beveled, to allow the hives to be piled 

 over each other. The following cut shows a 

 side and end view 

 of the board. The 

 groove A is to be 

 just 2 inches from 

 the top B, and is to 

 be i deep. This you 

 can e^isily do by 

 setting your paral- 

 lel bar just 2 inches from the saw, and screw- 

 ing the table top up until the saw cuts \ 

 deep, cutting the groove in the heart side, 

 of course. Now, to take off the tliree cor- 

 nered strip at the lower edge, a little differ- 

 ent rigging is required. In fact, we must 

 have a table to slide the boards on, and it 

 must set an angle. This angle we Avill \vax^ 

 45 degrees, because our table will then be 

 just right for making the corners of the 

 hives. The beveling platform is easily 

 made of a piece of 2 inch plank, 6 inches 

 wide, and 1\ feet long. Take a three cor- 

 nered piece from the lower edge, and then 

 nail this i)iece against the other, in the po- 

 sition shown bv the following cut. 



