Beekeeper’s Saw Bench

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 96, Issue 2, 15 February 1958, Page 133

Beekeeper’s Saw Bench

THIS article by C. R. Paterson, Apiculturist, and A. W. ' Bennett, Apiary Instructor, both of the Department of Agriculture, Hamilton, describes the construction of a saw bench suitable for the production of all wooden hive parts, and also gives much useful information on stacking timber, types and care of saws, and methods of operating a saw bench with maximum safety. A bench of this type could also be very useful for making household furniture or for maintenance work for farm buildings.

THE commercial beekeeper, even if he buys most of his hive equipment, will always find a use for a saw bench. Though a beekeeper would have some satisfaction in being the owner , of one of the many very good saw benches now on the market, he would find that most of them will not do all the operations required in the making up of hive parts from board timber. The ordinary saw bench will not allow accurate cutting off of short lengths of timber from long boards. Though special saws are available for doing this work, it is not considered desirable that too much capital should be tied up in equipment which is used for only short periods of the year.

The saw bench described in this article is designed to give the beekeeper equipment that will handle practically all his sawing jobs, even to cutting off accurately the long lengths of timber. The main points about this bench are: —

1. A solid, fixed table of suitable size. 2. The saw is fitted on to a swinging arm and is operated by a foot pedal when crosscutting long boards. 3. For normal sawing the swing arm is held in a fixed position. 4. An adjusting screw moves the saw up or down in the table. This takes

the place of the rise and fall table top and gives very accurate adjustment in the height of the saw. When the adjusting rod is disconnected the saw assembly is free to move on the pivot bearings and the saw is then controlled by the foot pedal.

CONSTRUCTION Frame Four pieces of good straight timber each 34in. long and dressed to about 2fin. x lfin. are used for the legs of the bench. This keeps the bench top at a very good working level and eliminates fatigue if several days of constant work are required. To hold the legs together at the top four pieces of angle iron are required: Two pieces 27jin. long of lin. x jin. (A in upper left diagram on page 135) and two pieces 23in. long of 1 jin. x jin. (B in upper left and lower left diagrams on page 135). When boring the holes in the ends of this iron make sure the holes in the ljin. angle iron are in such a position as to miss the bolts used in the lin. angle iron. If this is not done, the two bolts will not go into each leg; 5/16in. bolts can be used. Use engineer’s bolts with the hexagonal head if procurable.