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Author Topic: Cutting the handles in your hives  (Read 17509 times)

Offline Jay

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Cutting the handles in your hives
« on: December 08, 2004, 04:35:25 pm »
Here is a simple way to cut the handles in the sides of your hives and supers.  It uses a simple jig on your table saw.

     First, cut two pieces of 2X4 the length of your table saws table. In the pictures you will see my pieces don't quite reach from front to back, but that's just because I used what I had on hand. If your pieces reach from front to back, you will have a much easier time with the clamping operation.

     Put one piece on one side of the blade and the other piece on the other side. Next, tack or clamp a stop piece 1" back from the edge of the piece on the left side of the blade. Now clamp these two pieces together 1" away from the blade ( make sure the piece is parallel to the blade. Measure 1" from the back side of the blade and 1" from the front side of the blade ).  Now your stop piece on top of the 2X4 should be exactly 2" away from the blade and look like my picture.


     Next, put a mark on the stop piece exactly in the middle of the saw blade. To find the middle of the blade, look down through the table at the arbor that the blade is attached to. This is the very middle of the blade. Put your mark here.


     Now take the piece you want to cut the handle in and turn it over so the handle side is down. Put a mark on the back of the piece exactly in the middle.  Now put the piece up against the stop ( with the blade lowered ) and support the other side with your other piece of 2X4 on the other side of the blade. Line up the mark on the stop with the mark on the back of your piece and clamp the whole thing down with another piece accross the top of everything. It should look like my picture when you are done.



     Now that you have everything clamped down so that NOTHING moves , you are ready to make your first cut!

     Make sure the blade is not touching the underside of your piece and start the saw. With the saw running, raise the blade one revolution up into the piece. With the saw still running turn the handle that tips the blade on an angle and continue cranking that handle untill the blade works its way down and out of the piece. Now turn the handle back the other way untill the blade is straight up and down again. Raise the blade one more revolution and do the whole thing all over again.  It took me two and one half revolutions of raising the blade untill I finally got the depth of cut I wanted which was 1/2" . This leaves 1/4" on the backside so the inside of the handle isn't paper thin. You should experiment with your saw on a piece of scrap so you don't cut all the way through, before you find out how much cut one revolution makes.

     When you are all done, your handle will look like this.


     As always, if you have any questions about this procedure, feel free to PM  me about it.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2008, 10:14:34 am by Robo »
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Offline Rob-bee

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Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2006, 11:23:10 pm »
Thanks for the pics. I needed a visual on that.   :D
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Offline LET-CA

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2007, 12:06:36 am »
How long does it take to cut each handle once the jig is set up?  Do you need to do a stack of them to make it worth your time, or is this something that's easy to do quickly.  Beautiful work!

Offline the kid

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2007, 12:27:13 am »
does this  take the set out of the blade ?????
I would think it does ....
the kid

Offline TwT

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2007, 12:46:37 pm »
once the jig is set up, I adjust my saw blade by hand, I know some that uses a drill mounted on the adjuster shaft.....

not sure what you mean "the set out of the blade", but if you mean does if effect the blade or warp it in any way, I have cut many and it has never affected my blade any way, the others I know that do this it doesn't hurt their blades either...   
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

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Offline SteveSC

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2007, 09:04:44 am »
TwT..  The "set" is the amount of off-set each tooth on the blade has to the one that follows it.  It's used to clean the cut of sawdust as you pass through the wood.  It's like the set of a crosscut saw or a bow saw.

Unless you put alot of pressure on the sides of the blade as you're plunging in to make the handles I doubt it'll affect the set on a 10" circular saw blade - - just take it easy with it.

Offline Jon McFadden

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2008, 03:57:08 pm »
I made a jig using a piece of plywood. The plywood overhangs the table saw front and back

A cleat is added to each end of the plywood to keep the plywood from moving under load.
The fence is positioned 3” from the dado blade. The dado blade is raised through the plywood so that it clears the plywood at least 3/8".
The midpoint of the dado blade is then marked to provide a measuring point for the hive body.
Two cleats are added so the near edge of the long side of the box can be placed against the closest cleat, then lowered onto the plywood and dado blade, then slid back against the second stop to form the handhold on the long side. The box is held against the fence, too.
Two additional cleats are added to the plywood against the two cleats being used for the long side to center the short side.
After adding the two new spacers, the short sides are completed the same way.
I cut the handles after the boxes are made for safety.
Using this method makes a handhold that is longer than the dado blade can make with its radius so there is more room for your fingers.
Jon

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Offline jimmyo

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2008, 07:36:12 pm »
I love those handles Jay!!!!  That sure beats the wood blocks that I have been screwing to the sides of my boxes.   I'm going to try it your way next time I build boxes. 
Jim   

Offline the kid

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2008, 01:55:32 am »
I dont know if it is my computer or not but the pics dont show just a square with a red x ,,,   and I got a pm from a member that there not getting the pic eather
the kid

Offline Beesilly

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2008, 02:48:16 am »
I dont see the pictures too :( :'( :-\ :?

Offline buzzbee

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2008, 08:26:29 am »
Sorry about the images.Apparently Jay had them hosted at Imagestation,which is a site no longer available.
http://www.imagestation.com/
Wonder how many peoples photos are gone!!

Offline bee crazy

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2008, 01:33:54 pm »
I hope Jay had back up images as they have destroyed the storage devices.
I want to see his pics too.
Jay I hope you can get them back up!
Steve

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Offline robbo

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2008, 09:17:08 am »
Any chance of re-upping piccies for article??

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2008, 07:03:14 am »
I'm not sure what his jig was exactly, but in reading the explanation, it sounds simply like anything that would hold the wood in place without allowing it to move at all.

The real genius here is the method of cutting them.  Absolutely brilliant!  I love it and will definately set up and do that myself this next weekend when I have some more time to work on it.  I will have to make the jig and take some pics.  I also believe there's an easier way to "clamp" the jig... using no more than 2 clamps... I will experiment and get back to you with pics next next week. 

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Cutting the handles in your hives
« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2008, 12:15:01 am »
Well, I opted to just use a dado blade straight into the wood for my handles instead of this method, and I found a way to find the center exactly every time without a jig, so that what I've been up to.