So I want to make some moisture quilts for my hives for this winter and have the ability to feed solid sugar if need be, and I can't seem to find any 8 frame ekes, also called spacer rims, feeder rims, mountain camp feeders/rims, baggie feeders, and any number of similar names. You know, just a little super approximately 2-3 inches deep, just to provide space for feeding or whatever. Nowhere locally has them, and I have to pay a crazy amount of shipping from Kelley or Dadant. I wish I had access to a table saw (or someone with woodworking talent), because then I could just cut up a medium or shallow, but I don't. My only recourse therefore is to jury-rig something (I'm not sure if that word is an Americanism, it means "assembling something with whatever you can find"). My two potentially crazy ideas are as follows.
Idea #1:
I have a Brushy Mt. dealer near me, and I could probably get Ross Round supers there. If I'm correct, those are normally around 4.5 in. deep. A little more than I need, but I could use the super in the summer for actually making Ross Round cut comb, which I've been thinking about doing anyway. The only thing is, for the one's I'd like to make moisture quilts out of, I'd have to drill ventilation holes in them. Would having holes drilled in them be a problem if I was actually using them for their intended purpose? The holes would be covered with hardware cloth, of course.
Idea #2:
This seems weirder, but I guess it could work. What if I took 3 Imrie shims and glued them together to essentially make a 3 in. shim? They'd have ventilation holes already, though I may have to drill more, and I'm not sure how drilling through something glued together like that would go.
I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO woodworking experience, so I could be totally crazy here, but what do you guys think?