>
> Wouldn't it be less work for them to only plane one side of a board?
>
I presume not. I presume it would be alot more work, actually.
Most suppliers acquire their dimensional lumber planed. Their machines are
set up to run dimensional, planed lumber.
Acquiring lumber that is planed on one side, or not planed at all, is more
expensive (larger, heavier, so less can fit on a truck, and if the lumber
isn't planed at all it would require additional machinery to plane the wood
on one side, added time and cost, and expense of dealing with the
additional shavings/sawdust), to both the equipment manufacturer and the
sawmill that's providing the lumber. It would also require a retooling of
the equipment manufacturer's machines, as lumber planed on one side will be
larger and won't feed through the equipment the same. The dimensions of the
equipment would also be different. But I never ran a bee equipment supply
company, so my assumptions could be faulty.
Years ago I figured I would save a ton of money. Instead of buying
dimensional lumber, I'd buy rough cut lumber direct from a guy that owns
his own sawmill. He required I buy a certain volume, which I did. At the
time, dimensional 1"x12" lumber was selling for ~$1.50 /bdft in those
quantities (lumber supply prices, not box store prices). A deep box would
cost me ~$9.50 in wood and about 30 min in time. I bought lumber off a
sawmill, 1" rough cut, for $0.56 /bdft. A deep box would cost me ~$3.50 in
wood. But I also had to get a planer (~$800), and the time increased from
30 min to over an hour per box. If I worked for free, I would need to make
over 140 deep hive boxes in order to recoup the "savings" on the planer. If
I valued my time at $25/hr, it actually cost me more to use the rough cut
lumber (~$9.50 for the dimensional lumber plus $12.50 in time, or $22 - vs
- $3.50 in rough cut lumber plus $25 in time, or $28.50).
Most equipment providers are having razor thin profit margins, hence the
consolidation in the industry (the shut down of Brushy Mountain, the
acquisition of Kelley). Running a "fully planed" line and a "half planed
line" increases work and expense, to service a seemingly small subset
(beekeepers who want roughed up interiors) of a small subset (beekeepers)
of a customer base.
> > Or if the cost of a propolis
> > trap doesn't suit your budget, you could always take a sander, dremel,
> > router, or angle grinder and rough up the interior walls. I imagine a
> rough
> > enough material (such as steel wool) and a power drill, along with some
> > creativity, would give you suitable results.
>
> These days I am looking for less creativity and more cost/time effective
> methods. I've got a day job, and I need to retain enough time to manage
> the bees properly without adding too many bee-related projects of unknown
> efficacy. I do appreciate the ideas, I'm not trying to pooh pooh what you
> said at all.
>
We all need to prioritize our time. But to be frank, the cost ($15
<https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/grinders-sanders/angle-grinders/43-amp-4-12-in-angle-grinder-with-slide-switch-58089.html>)
is minimal, and the time involved to run an angle grinder on the interior
of the hive body to rough it up would be less than the time it took you to
write your response, let alone the research on the calculations on propolis
extract to use.
Like you, I'm not trying to be rude or dismissive. I just think you're WAY
over thinking this.
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|