Hercules 3rd Generation TBH Hybrid Hive Design
(Under Construction, more to come soon!)
Top Bars:
Pics:
Top-View of 2 finished bars. Note the bee-space between bars, spacer "ears" at the ends, and markings to remind me which is a 1.25" brood bar, and which is a 1.375" Honey bar.
Bottom-View of the same 2 bars, showing the integrated comb-guides. I'll often dab a tiny bit of Lemongrass Oil along the bottom edge of the comb guide in a new hive. This really encourages the bees to festoon there & gets them started building the first few combs right on target :)
End-View of the same 2 bars, note the tight, vertical grain on both bars. If the grain is loose, horizontal, very uneven, or too slanted, I always cut the bar down to 1.25" wide for use as a brood bar (I DO NOT want to have a comb of honey crushed all over the bottom of a hive because a weak bar broke)
This is my "Bar Blank" that I use for setting up most of the rips on my bandsaw. It's 19" long by 1.375" (1 3/8") wide, by 0.75" thick, so it works great as a "golden standard" for setting up the cuts for those measurements on all of my bars.
Directions:
I make all of my top-bars directly from 2x4 lumber:
First, I cut a 2x4 into 19" sections;
Then I set up my bandsaw (a table saw would work too, just cuts a wider kerf/turns more lumber into sawdust) to rip .75" thick slices & cut each 19" section of 2x4 into 4ea, .75"x1.75" (i.e., 3/4" by the "2" dimension of the 2x4) slats;
Next, I set my rip fence to 1.375" (1 and 3/8") and cut all of the slats down to that width;
For the final bandsaw cut (yes, table saw still would work), I take all of the slats that have a rounded corner (from being the first slat cut off the 2x4), or that have either horizontal grain (viewed from the end, in the position they'll be sitting in the hive..vertical grain will hold more weight better), small knots, or other weaknesses, set the rip fence to 1.25" (one and one-quarter inch), and rip the other side of these slats down to that measurement, for use as brood-bars.
Now, you should have nice, straight, precise, 19"x0.75"x1.25" or 1.375" bars for your hive. We're done with the saw, time to move to the router table to add bee space between the bars, and the integrated comb guides :)
On the Router Table, I use a 3/4" square-profile bit (standard bit, 3/4" wide)
Set the cut depth to 9/16" and the rip-fence to 3/16" (so on a piece of scrap wood that you run over it, you end up with a trough cut 3/16ths towards you, and 9/16ths tall)
Measure 17" left from the center of your router bit (on your rip fence), drill a small pilot hole, then screw in a screw so it protrudes about 1/8" as a "stop," right above the surface of the table (even if your table's not that wide...it's to measure for the "ears" of the bars)
Place a second screw 17" right from the center of your router bit
Now, for all of your bars, set the top of the bar (as it will be installed in your hive) on the router table, with one end against the left-side screw/stop & the other end out, away from the router bit
Slowly rotate the bar, with the left end held tightly against the stop, into the router bit, so that it cuts a crescent into the top of the bar, about 1.5" from the right end (don't worry that the notch isn't as deep as the bar, we'll fix that later)
Turn the bar around (still with the top against the table) and notch the other side the same way
Now, use the stop on the Right side, and repeat the above 2 steps, so you'll end up with 4 notches, 2 at each end.
Ok, here's where we have to separate the 1.25" bars from the 1.375" bars (if you're using 1.25" bars at all):
For 1.375" bars:
Place the entire top bar to the right of your bit, with the top (now notched) facing yourself, and the bottom against the rip fence
Slide the top bar to the left, being very careful to keep all figners WELL away from the bit, cutting 3/16ths off of the bottom of the bar, all the way across
Flip the bar over (uncut half of the bottom side down & against the rip fence) and slide across again, thinning all but your comb guide down to 1/2" thick (you'll notice that your notches from earlier, now go all the way through)
For 1.25" bars:
Lower the router bit, so your cutting depth is now only 1/2" (so the comb guide will still be thick enough to be stable...I ruined a few comb guides on my first attempt)
Cut the comb guides according to the above instructions (same as for 1.375" bars)
Set the cutting depth back to 9/16"
Now, we just have to finish cutting our bee-space slots:
Place the bar, top against the table, with the router bit inside the notch near the left end of the bar
Press the bar back, firmly against the rip fence & slide from Right to Left, until it touches the stop screw
Now one of your bee-space slots is fully cut; turn the bar around & repeat for other bee-space slot
Congratulations, you've now finished 1 bar (or, hopefully, 1 BATCH of bars...the work seems WAY easier if you get 30-100 bars done, than if you go to all that effort setting everything up for just one or two bars!)
Hive Box:
Cut-away end view diagram showing most of the critical measurements for the sloped-sided box. Note the 30 degree camphers on the pieces that make up the sloped, inner walls (in order to have the top & bottom edges of a 30 degree sloped wall be horizontal)
Parts diagram (not all parts are to scale) showing all of the wood pieces (besides the top bars, of course) you'll need to cut for the sloped-sided box. (sorry, still working on adding all the dimensions to this image)
This photo is of a (mostly) finished hive that was converted for use as a bee-vac for removals. If you ignore the 2 wood blocks on the front, it's the same thing as a finished nonbee-vac box, except that I need to cut a dado for the top entrance still
Inside view of the same bee-vac box, showing the sloped inner walls, and the screws holding them to the front most pair of angle-braces in good detail. The pattern of small holes in the one inner side wall, as well as the 2" hole in the front of the box are both bee-vac modifications; for a non bee-vac hive, the entrance would be a 0.375"(3/8") deep dado cut covering the area shaded with pencil at the top of the front end board
