Week 5 - Tools and materials

Tape measure, hand saw, hammer, screwdriver, drill with drill-bit, square, hand-planer, wood chisel, utility knife, spirit level, staple gun, circular saw

(I have all of the tools listed above except for the circular saw, a circular saw is shown in the image to the right.) 

(This saw only costs £40, which is relatively cheap compared to other makes. I could think of buying this saw for my project, but my Uncle also has a circular saw which I will borrow to use for my project. This will be more cost effective and a better use of resources than simply spending money on a new saw, when I can just borrow one.)

Mac Allister MSCS1200 1200W 165mm Electric Circular Saw 220-240V | Circular Saws | Screwfix.com


The timber should be 20mm-25mm thick, and 300mm wide. Planed shelving timber is suitable, and you’ll need 10-20 metres depending on how many levels you want your hive to have.

You’ll also need two pieces of exterior plywood for the roof, one 500mm x 420mm and another piece 390mm x 350mm. Both should be about 12mm thick.

For the legs, you’ll need four blocks of 50mm x 100mm,100mm tall.

For the top bars, you’ll need some lengths of timber 10mm thick and 25mm wide. For each hive box, you need ten pieces 300mm long.

You need nails or screws to hold the hive together of course – screws offer a better fixing, but it’s up to you. They should be about 50mm long and will need to be galvanised or rust-proof.


Basic tools needed to make a hive

·      Carpenter’s hammer 

·      Carpenter’s square 

·      Folding ruler or tape measure 

·      Hand-held circular saw/Wood saw

·      Hand-held power drill

·      7/64-inch drill bit

·      1/8-inch drill bit

·      ½ inch drill bit

·      1-inch drill bit

·      1-½ inch drill bit

·      3-inch drill bit

        Nails and screws you typically use when building beehives  

    Beehives | Making a Beehive | How to Build Your Own Beehive | DIY Doctor


    My tools and materials 

    Below are pictures of some of the tools that I used to make my hive:


     This picture is of some round head nails I have found at home, these are good for use in woodwork and are strong and will last.




     The picture to the right is of my Dads drill, He will allow me to use it for drilling holes for screws or nails when I am building my hive and it will be very useful.

This is a drill for drilling screws into wood, this too will be very useful when making my hive, as it produces more power than I could when screwing multiple screws into wood!



This is my Uncles circular saw which he too has allowed me to use for the construction of the hive. It is basically a more powerful and accurate saw. It will provide much cleaner and smoother cuts in the quarter of the time it takes a saw to do it.

    This is a hand saw that is my dads and I have also been allowed to use it. It is unlikely that I will use it when building my hive as I already have permission to use the circular saw form my uncle, which is far superior than the hand saw.

 ·    This is Titebond III Ultimate wood glue that I purchased off amazon to be used for joining wood together along with screws and nails. It will provide a little but extra strength to the joins and will help it last far longer, it is also worth mentioning that this adhesive is safe to use for the bees and is non toxic to them.

     


     How this helped me?

     This helped me to clarify which tools and materials I will need to use to construct the hive, in order to make it easier for myself and to create a cleaner finish with the right tools. It has also helped me identify which tools I don't or do have at home. At the start of this project I was unclear what I would need to start construction through lack of knowledge and not having built anything like this before. So doing this research has made it very clear what suggested tools I might need, to help me achieve this - luckily I have been able to borrow quite a lot of the more expensive tools and so this in turn has helped keep costs down. 

     This research has also given me basic measurements of the wood that I will need to make for the hive, this is very useful as I believe that it will be easier and more cost effective to buy the wood in larger pieces than needed and then cut the down to size for the hive myself; rather than pay for someone else to do this for me.

 S




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