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I cut this out of a log with a chain saw. This is not the log I used because it had bad splits and voids but it will be usefull later for smaller pieces of wood. By the way this is Sheoak or Allocasuarina fraseriana. My favourite wood.
From the chunk it is cut into boards. I cut them 30mm wide to dress at 25mm
And with a "side " and “end” template marked out where to break them down. These slabs were proceeds of two separate logs and came off our property. Sheoak is strong along the grain but brittle across the grain and I had a high reject rate.
Then I cut the ends and sides. Planed and thicknessed them
The picture has them all planed flat on one face and edge ready to be thicknessed. Due to difficulty in planing (chips very easily and my band saw left some wobbles)) they all finished up at 22mm thick.
Now there are no prizes for picking up the mistakes. The recessing of the frame ledge was a problem till I got the technique sorted. I was sort of happy but annoyed I did some boo boos.
Wilfred, i am so jealous, checkout the beautiful fiddleback in the grain… Are you sure you want to use this for a bee box? I could think of some lovely pieces of furniture that could be made from this timber.
Yes if you have the jigs it is a easy way to go. Makes a good joint as well.
My first look at making brood boxes was dovetail joints. However found them too hard first up.
Maybe sometime down the track I will look at dovetails again.
They couldn’t afford me. LOL. From tree to box maybe 200 manhours.
Like a lot of hobbies you loose track of time. It is not important. The satisfaction at the end is all you remember.
Yes I love this timber. It is getting harder to get. Luckily it survives dead on the ground 50+ years. I am recovering these from my own back yard but very little left.
I have made a computer desk and hutch, bookshelves, pantry steps and jewellery boxes from this beautiful wood.
EDIT: Sheoak is very unforgiving though. It chips and splits at the drop of a hat when working with it. I am learning to get around these problems.
Yes. For its durability. They made water, wine and beer barrels from this wood in the early days . Many roofs have been made from sheoak shingles. It weathers naturally to a pale grey colour. Without any protection in the open, these boxes will outlast me by a hundred years.
These ones came from dead (many years) trees on the ground.
Previously I have slabbed up a green sheoak into 30mm slabs but only 200mm wide and they were air dryed for 2 years.
Beware cutting wide green timber slabs they split, buckle and do just about anything you don’t want when drying regardless of what prep you have done. Been there done that but won’t do it again and try to only cut 200-250 mm wide. Dead seasoned trees you can slab to almost any width with little problems.
If you are making more of them- can I suggest you look at making the top of the box joints like they do on the hoop pine flow hives? I decided to use that type of joint on my own hives. I works very well to neatly deal with the frame rest rebate- it looks like this:
Also for less work you could make less box joints- the number that they use on the flow boxes works very well as you can evenly space 6 screws- without having to screw every joint.
You never miss a chance to knock the flow do you chilli?
We had a few tiny discrepancies with our first cedar flow hive (beethinking) really minor- didn’t bother us at all- but I’ve put together 3 of the hoop pine flow hives- and they are superb- perfect- zero issue hives. Very nice heavy wood it is too- and 21mm- not 19mm… The laser cut box joints are perfect.
That wasn’t a knock on Flow, it was a compliment to Busso.
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I could think of some lovely pieces of furniture that could be made from this timber.
