BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS

Today I Made

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Lesgold:
Hi Folks,

Just thought I?d open a new thread called Today I Made. As the title says, it is a chance to show and tell something that was made recently relating to beekeeping. It could be anything that aids us in a small way and may be of some interest to others. Explanations and photos would be appreciated. The ideas don?t have to be original or well built. They just have to perform a task. Some of the roughest, poorly made jigs that I have constructed in the past display very poor craftsmanship as they were built quickly from second hand materials. They do however, work extremely well and save me a considerable amount of time. Ideas generate discussion and comment and this then promotes new ideas and thinking. So come on, show is what you are up to in the shed??

Lesgold:
Thought I?d kick off the thread with something that I made about an hour ago. Over the past few days, I?ve been cleaning up some of my beeswax that has been sitting in the corner of the shed. I started scraping some of the propolis and dirt off wax blocks before placing them into the melter for a final cleanup. Normally I use a hive tool, paint scraper, knife or a spoon for this task but I didn?t have one of those items handy so I grabbed a piece of hive strapping that was sitting on the bench and folded in half. I was actually surprised as to the effectiveness of this new found method.

Apart from being uncomfortable to hold, it worked very well. This morning, I decided to build a tool for the job using a bit of broom handle and an off-cut of stainless steel sheeting.

It only took about half an hour to make and it worked extremely well. It will also now be used to shave beeswax for wraps or lip balm. It?s funny how an idea can develop from nothing.

Ben Framed:
It's good you found a better way to scrap you wax Les.

Excessive propolis is a deal in my area. I stumbled upon a way to clean propolis off the 'frame rest' edges of boxes 'pronto' a few years ago.
By using the stainless 'scraper' blade on a multi function, electric oscillating tool, the frame rest can be cleaned promptly.  The best time I found to do so is when its cold and the propolis is brittle.

Phillip

Lesgold:
Good idea Phillip. Propolis is a pain when it is warm. The vibrations would help it to release quickly when it is cold.

Lesgold:
Hi Folks,

Just started extracting some honey this morning so it won?t be long until I?ll need to start cleaning up cappings and melting a bit of wax. I cast my wax into large ice cream containers that a local coffee shop gives me. They are ideal for the purpose and get thrown away after a few uses.

As you can see, this one has already been used once. I like to use new, clean ones for the final pour which gives me a good block of wax. I have always made my own custom strainers for this purpose. To build it, a frame is constructed from offcuts of timber to sit on the container.

A single screw on each corner is used to assemble the frame. For the strainer, stainless or aluminium fly screen wire is normally used. This particular strainer is made from an extremely fine stainless mesh that I?ve had sitting in the shed for years. It?s very good for filtering out most particles present within the wax. A square of mesh is cut with bend lines marked.

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