Years ago I spent a summer working for Dr. Roger Morse at Dyce Lab at
Cornell.  Dr. Morse had me wire frames for a while and he showed me a little
trick for nailing the wedge in place:  Take a pair of common pliers and open
them to the wide-open setting.  You can then use them to squeeze nails into
the wedge and very simply secure the foundation in place with 3 half inch
nails.  No hammers to slip and damage the foundation, no nail guns to fumble
with and listen to.  It works like a charm.  Someone gave me several
thousand deep wedge-top wooden frames and crimp wired foundation several
years ago so I build frames every winter using a staple gun and Kelly frame
building jigs.  I then cross wire the frames by wiring 2-3 boxes every free
night in the winter while listening to my MP3.  I have plastic frames in-use
too but find the bees will draw out wax faster on less intense flows so I
don't mind working with the wax. 

 

I just tried the monofilament fishing line wiring and I have trouble
threading it through the holes in the side of the frames and I have trouble
tying it off and getting good tension on the fishing line across the frame.
Any suggestions?  I also have trouble embedding wire - I don't like heating
it - so I have taken to running wire on both sides of the foundation sheet
in the second hole from the bottom and finishing off with a third wire in
the bottom hole.  These wires hold the foundation very well.  I use a simple
frame wiring board from Kelly to hold the frame but would like to see a
frame wiring board that employed a lever to compress the end bars inward
during wiring so that when released the wire would tension automatically.
Has anyone ever made anything like that?

Bill

Louisburg, NC


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