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Author Topic: Plywood  (Read 4367 times)

Offline splinter99

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Plywood
« on: May 26, 2008, 05:53:59 pm »
Im sure this has been addressed on here before but I may have to come up with a few new hives in a hurry..I built a hive from poplar and ordered a colony of bees to be delivered this week, Two days ago our origanal hive swarmed and we captured them and have them in the new hive..I am going to try to cancel the colony but dont know if I can this late in the game..

I live near a company that makes shipping containers and they put out pallets of plywood cut offs on a regular basis..I brought home an entire pick up truck full of 15x29 inch sheets of 1/2 inch plywood..Can I use this to make hives from.?.If I glue them together to make them 1 inch thick would that work?
I plan on reading many of the posts on here and learning as much as I can but for now I may need to just get busy building

Offline JP

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2008, 06:02:47 pm »
Splinter: "..I am going to try to cancel the colony but dont know if I can this late in the game.."

> Me: What does this mean??

Splinter: "I live near a company that makes shipping containers and they put out pallets of plywood cut offs on a regular basis..I brought home an entire pick up truck full of 15x29 inch sheets of 1/2 inch plywood..Can I use this to make hives from.?.If I glue them together to make them 1 inch thick would that work?"

> Me: The lighter the better, 1/2" would be fine, unless I am not following you correctly.


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Offline Bee-Bop

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2008, 06:06:36 pm »
Anything will do in an emergency, just be sure your inside dimensions are correct.

Of course it's better to have every dimension the same so you can swap.

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Offline splinter99

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2008, 06:29:17 pm »
Thank you for the reply..The only reason that I was going to cancel my order for a new colony is the money factor..now that the original hive devided and we captured the new colony we now have 2 hives working (I hope)

I just wasnt sure if I could use plywood, any of the hives that I have seen  (im new to this) have all been made from hardwood.. If the reason for not using plywood is a logevety issue, im not opposed to making them over every few years.. Is there any other reason I shouldn't make them from plywood?

Offline JP

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2008, 06:45:06 pm »
Plywood may be ok, as long as you paint the outside really well. The issue would be warpage.


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Offline Moonshae

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2008, 07:26:12 pm »
If you can't cancel the package order, you could pull 3-4 frames of brood from one of your booming hives, make a 5-frame nuc with those frames and the queen from the package, and use the package bees to augment the population in the hive from which you stole the frames of brood. In a little bit, you can install them into a full deep and have three hives!

Or, to keep it easier, just install the package into the nuc.
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Offline jimmyo

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2008, 09:14:28 pm »
  Exterior grade plywood would be best. But there might still be a "warpage" problem. The glue that holds the plywood together will let go if it isn't exterior grade plywood no matter how much paint is on it.
Jim

Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2008, 07:25:21 am »
how do you join the edges of 1/2" ply? i can see using 3/4" ply or even a combo of 1/2 and 3/4 but i think 1/2" will be difficult to build with. and i think you'll find that 1/2" is really more like 7/16's.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #8 on: May 27, 2008, 07:50:49 am »
It's tricky to do a 3/8" frame rabbet with 1/2" plywood.  It works better for sides than ends.
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Offline my-smokepole

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #9 on: May 27, 2008, 09:20:46 am »
If it was me I would stay with the inside measurements of a box. Lamantait them together so that you are usein the plywood to form rabbit joints. glue and screw together. Paint and glue is going to be your freind.
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Offline doak

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Re: Plywood
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2008, 06:38:05 pm »
Most of the boxes I got when I first started "were" plywood.
The only thing I use plywood for now is bottom and top boards.
With 2 1x2 or 2x3 runners from front to rear. Checks warp.
5/8 or thicker.
doak

 

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