Dadant bee hive super cut handles

[gato markham]

Does anyone know how Dadant beehive supers (boxes) handles cut into the boxes are made? They look like 35 degree router half circles on the sides and straight top edge and odd angle center. It is the classic cut beehive handle it must be used on furniture. a cove cut will not work.Any help would be appreciated.
Gato :confused:

[Joe Scharle]

Don't have a clue, but it sounds interesting. Do you have any pics?
Joe

[Bruce Wrenn]

They are cut with a "custom made molding head." I always added a 1 X 2 strip across the ends for handles. I did this at top of super to reinforce the area where hive bars mounted. I did have to make my tops longer.

[John W. Willis]

I never did build any but I was always looking for tips and tricks for when I did. Good luck on finding how to cut the hand holds.

I found one guy who cranked his table saw blade down to cut the deep end, lowered the piece onto the blade and I believe he then ploughed out from there to the shallow end by changing the blade angle?? DANGEROUS

I wish I remembered for you and I lost everything in a major crash a few months ago.

I even emailed New Yankee Workshop and ask and encouraged them to make beehives one of Norm's projects but I never got an answer.

My guess would be to build a jig for your router and then there are some compound angles that wouldn't look "factory" but would be functional.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

You mean this:
http://www.dadant.com/documents/DadantBeeCatalog08-allpagesforweb.pdf
on page six?

You can do that with a table saw using the saw's ability to side cut. You'll need a positive stop and a gimbal or trunnion type jig to hold the work while you rotate the stock.

[Gary McKown]

If I understand the design correctly, couldn't you mill the piece in two parts - routed cove on the front of the bottom part - then glue together? One could even rout a depression in the edge of the upper piece, to improve the grip.

[Lee Schierer]

I've made my own hive bodies since I started beekeeping over 25 years ago. I use a full width router blade on my TS. I set up stop blocks for the start and stop positions on the table. Then I raise the blade until I have about 3/8" height and count the number of turns to the the blade all the way below the table surface. Then I place the wood on the saw against the start block, start the saw and count the turns to raise the blade to the original height. I push the wood to the stop block, and turn off the saw. Once it stops, I lower the blade the same number of turns and I'm ready for the next piece.

I've yet to have a hive body fail due to water retention at the handle slots. I will admit that the finger slots are not as easy to use as wood slats attached to teh outside of the box.

[don wiggins]

I know this is an old thread but I ran across it while researching the same topic.
Here is a pretty good explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yWQCARkUw
Don