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

Making foundation

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Ralphee:

--- Quote from: little john on November 30, 2020, 06:13:23 am ---
I don't use foundation, never have, and doubt I ever will - but - I do love a challenge, especially an engineering challenge ...

LJ

--- End quote ---

That is a better version of what i had planned actually.... The mold and frame i was going to try and cast in one go, but the more i think about it the less i like the idea - air bubbles being the main reason.
Looking at the 'professional' molds you can buy for $800US (they are aluminum) as inspiration, just trying to recreate one of them without that sort of price tag really.
If i cast one side of my plastic frame, flip the whole thing then cast the other side, i will have the spacing right as well (yes its a 'plastic mold' space, not a 'wax space', but close enough for this)
I happen to have a can of spray designed to release casts from molds, its designed for latex and such, but worth a try with an epoxy
Unless i suddenly get a bunch of time free its all hypothetical, life has a habit of getting busy lately!
And don't stress Ben Framed - i know the odds of this being a great success are very slim. The odds of it working are reasonable and its just an experiment really, not planning on going into production or making hundred of foundations (go google the machines that do this! they are great fun to watch!!)
Good tips, thank you

.30WCF:
I just stumbled across this thread, and haven?t put much thought into this before. I use Bondo in some of my taxidermy work. There is a sweet spot where bondo is flexible and impressionable. I mean you have to get it right, but....
If you took a plastic foundation and sprayed it with cooking spray or something, (possibly covered it in plastic wrap?) and smeared bondo all over it kinda thick, 3/8-1/2?, and then kept testing the leftovers in the mixing bowl or putty knife to see when it?s ready to peel. You could peel it off the plastic foundation just like silicone, then lay it down flat and may be even just lay a small piece of plywood on top to press it flat. ( there is a 3 minute window where you can flop a sheet of bondo around like a fruit roll up.) You would need two of these to make paddles trimmed to the right size to press wax.

As for the roller. A 4 inch paint roller.
Strip the nap off down to the plastic, on second thought, who cares, leave the nap on. I would go for epoxy-sculpt (2 part epoxy molding putty) so it would be durable, but modeling clay over the roller and roll the impression from a plastic frame. Once hard you should be able to roll it onto the wax. Things to consider would be the diameter of the roller after the medium is applied. If you roll across the plastic foundation too far and the diameter isn?t sized 100% correctly the pattern won?t line up after one full roll. Just stop at one roll across the plastic to imprint the roller. If it doesn?t meet up just right, leave it to the bees to sort out. If you roll too far in the clay imprint stage you could double imprint the mold with a 50% overlap. Just roll to 90%, roll back and look at the transition, roll forward a little more, roll back and check, roll forward.....until 100% coverage on the paint roller. Hang it up and let it cure.
Once cured, roll it across flat wax foundation.
Probably won?t work. Let me know how it does.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lesgold:
Hi Folks,

I noticed that no one has responded to this post for a while but as I?m new to the site, I would like to make a comment. I have always made my own foundation. Originally I designed and used a silicone mold. It worked exceptionally well and produced all the foundation that I needed for about a dozen hives. I generally made the foundation as it was needed and put it straight onto frames as wax that it cast tends to be brittle. The bees loved it and seemed to work it just as quick or quicker than commercial foundation. These days I tend to dip flat sheets and roll them though an embossing roller while the wax is warm. If you only have a few hives, the expense of the roller would never be repaid. I was lucky enough to purchase one cheaply quite a few years ago. The advantage of making your own foundation is that you can produce sheets when you want them and utilise your own wax. I have to drive for a couple of hours if I need beekeeping supplies so anything that I can do myself is a bonus. All of my old comb is removed from frames by steaming. Each old comb gives me enough clean, yellow wax to produce at least one sheet of foundation.

Cheers

Les

Ben Framed:
Les I had already tried the sheet type set up that Skeggley posted. It did work but not as well as I had hoped. I tried it because Tim showed it working for him with just the flat sheets. Looking back, my sheets seemed too weak now that I think about it. Tim shows his bees working if fine and didn't seem to have problems. I just got tied of fooling with it. I was thinking 'lately' if a person had a roller embosser, it might be a different matter and well worth it? Especially if you can emboss wire into the foundation all at the same time? You have reported on your roller embosser recently. For the price, I have came to the conclusion, for my needs, either go foundation less with skewers as I have been doing, or simply go plastic. I am transitioning to plastic for my honey suppers and hope to eventually have plastic all the way round. Especially at the price Acorn sells it. (At least the last time I checked).

Phillip

paus:
I am not sure that we, as the bee's keeper should use any foundation that determines what size cell the bees need.  I am happy with foundationless frames.  Let the games begin.

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