Oh I know, I love gadgets. This is one of my best purchases…so far…lol
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I have one of those too! It is a bit heavy though… 
Especially with a frame rest, blow torch, smoker, hive tools etc.
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This is mine
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I only use it for one purpose; traveling to pick up a swarm: It closes for transport, has ventilation, and holds 5 deep frames.
My lovely wife in a tree.
This hive turned out to be the meanest bees we’ve ever owned and it’s queen will meet her maker shortly!
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Isn’t it fantastic when your partner/spouse is enthusiastic about your hobby too?
I haven’t painted my box yet, but it doesn’t live outside. Perhaps I should - yours looks nicely sealed (except for the bottom!). I am interested that we have similar taste in gadgets and suppliers - first the feeder, now the tool box! 
Well, I’m putting together my own slatted rack for next to nix, mostly from ‘recycled’ wood. Has anyone thought of cutting a couple of viewing holes into the side/s? They would only be about 1 & 1/2 inches, but using a hole cutter, the piece cut out could go back in as a cover. I’ve also found a place that sells perspex offcuts. Could provide some interesting viewing of the goings on in the slatted rack, even if it’s only a small porthole. What do people think? I’ll upload some photos soon of my ‘simplified’ rack design. (Sort of a ‘Slatted Racks for Dummies’ thing!)
Really need some advice here re. beespace. I’m building a slatted rack, mostly out of recycled materials. I have some slats that are less than the recommended 3/4". They are 11/16" or 18mm wide. This means that the gaps between the slats will be around 3/4" or 20mm. Is this too wide? Will the bees fill the spaced with comb?? The spacing in Andrew’s photo from August 2015 looks pretty wide. Andrew, is that working for you? Thanks to all for any help.
Simple slatted rack, work in progress, showing end supports, slats ready to fit, front draft board, as well as portholes with perspex in place. (Lids for the holes not shown.)
Here’s what mine look like:
And here is C.C. Miller’s (the guy who probably invented it):
Miller’s is probably not as refined as you were imagining…
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Are your slats going the opposite direction of the frames?
Yes. It was only after screened bottoms got popular that anyone ran them the other way. It does it’s job better (causing ventilation without drafts) when it runs at right angles to the frames.
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So this design is less effective with a screen bottom board?
Not if you have the core flute in place… 
Not less effective with a SBB. Less effective if the slats are parallel to the frames. The reason people wanted to move them parallel to the frames was to allow the mites to fall on the screened bottom and not hit the slats. I think it’s irrelevant to the Varroa, but the direction of the slats in relation to the frames is relevant to its original purpose, which is to baffle any drafts while providing ventilation.
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Yes. I think too much is made of varroa falling through the mesh floor.
At last, I have had some time to knock this slatted rack up.
The design came from here http://beesource.com/build-it-yourself/slatted-bottom-rack/
there are many others out there.
The difference here is the slats go crossways to match my crossways frames.
@skeggley it is really quite straight forward. I did a 19mm dado right through both sides and the front. Looking at the top of the picture you can see the slats sitting in this. The dado was 5mm down from the top and 8mm deep. The shelf sit in the front and two sides dados.
I used a router with a 19mm bit to cut the dados but you can do them using a saw with many cuts and chiselling out the scrap.
Else you could take the pieces to your local cabinet maker and he /she would do all the cutting and dados for you to then glue and screw.
For those interested the sides, ends and shelf is made from some sheoak (my favourite timber) I had left over from a bookcase I made and the front from a piece of scrap used as a stake for tomatoes(you can see the 5mm slither of silver from being outside). Sheoak, because it does not need any treatment for outside use and weathers to a sliver colour after a few years in the sun and rain.
The slats are made from an old bed I knocked down for scrap. Have no idea what it is but suspect it may be Ash
Edit: Much as I have tried in the past to use the kitchen bench as a work bench, no kitchen bench was used in the production of this slatted rack, only the photo. Women have some funny ideas when you want to use the kitchen to clean a carburettor or bang up a bit of woodwork .
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Glad you anticipated my question. The grain is beautiful! Nice job on the slatted rack, I am glad you decided to try one. I would be very interested to hear what you think of it once you have tried it out. 
By the way, all of my hives and nucleus boxes were built in the kitchen or living room! 
I should have built it, firstly before I added the second brood box and later before I added the Flow super. Now I have 3 boxes to move drat. Will probably put it in when I harvest the Flow frames.
The bees seem to be less enthusiastic about the flow frames last couple of days. Maybe the change in weather Can’t see any honey yet. I feel like an expectant father waiting for something to show. 
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I noticed a bit of bearding last week on the first hot day, well 35 deg C, of summer so I disassembled the hive and put the slatted rack in place.
The hive entrance bar between the 1st and 2nd brood box’s is the just there to help me align the box’s. There is no access to the hive there.
Hi all,
Seasons Greetings n Merry Christmas 
here’s one of my options in Beekeeping ! A bee hive Christmas tree … I’d love to see a new Flir Adaptor for my phone under one of my trees but this year it’s going to be a 7 frame Flow-Hive super for one of my ten frame Langstroth hives.
Can hardly wait to open my new super on Christmas Morning. Probably assemble it few days after Christmas as I can find room in my small wood shop. Right the shop is filled with non-hardly plants that go around my backyard pond n waterfall. 
. I did install hive monitoring sensors in my Flow a couple weeks ago before it really started to chill down here in the foothills SE of Seattle.
What’s on your beekeeping want list. Extra hive tool is nice as well.
Cheers n Happy Holidsys
Gerald
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