Hi all
After much phoning sawmills and debating with my wife I have picked up 100 lineal metres of 250x25 cypress boards. I have started cutting it into 8 and 5 frame boxes. There is a little bit of weight difference but nothing I cannot handle.
I have also purchased a jet thicknesser to bring it down from the 25mm to 22mm, quite an easy process when you take your time and the finished product is unreal, the cypress is A grade and almost too good to make hives out of.
From here, with the supplier stating that obtaining the 250mm boards is hard in his area (just west of Cecil Plains in QLD) we have decided that the next order will be a 150mm and a 125mm board tongue and groove joined with a single dressed side for accurate joining. I will then be using a table saw the trim the joined boards to size and using the offcut as a handle on the boxes.
All the timber is relatively green so the joining will be done ASAP to allow the join to shrink together and become weather proof, with an average of 3% shrinkage on cypress this should work well. I am also thinking of using tightbond 3 glue at the joining stage to ensure it wont come apart.
At the current pricing I can make boxes for the following prices, this isn't including my time for cutting, thicknessing and rebating yet as I haven't worked out how much time that takes.
5 frame $10.50aud
8 frame $11.90aud
10 frame $12.60aud
I think by the time I have done all of the above to assembly stage a 8 frame box will cost between $15 and $17 a box, saving about $5aud a box on current hoop pine boxes at my local supplier. Aside from any disease issues I might face I would expect once painted or oiled(not sure which yet) to get at least 10-15 years or more from these boxes. With timber prices on the move upwards and the cost of commercial RTA gear also going up I see this as a real opportunity to save a few $$$.
The supplier has made it clear that even with all the extra work for them to plane and tongue and groove join that the wholesale price will be close to the $7/m mark and marginally cheaper if I order 3-400 l/m at a time, which will be the plan in the future as we are looking at commercial expansion over the next 2-3 years.
Dave