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  • One piece bottom bar, or??

  • Bee Hive building & a place to share howto's on equipment
Bee Hive building & a place to share howto's on equipment
 #3397  by Adam Bee
 05 Jun 2019, 23:41
I'm looking at buying some additional frames and noticed that I have the choice between one piece bottom bar and ... not. The current frames I have are one piece bottom bars... what is the other option? 2 piece bottom bars? And what's the difference and why does it matter?

I am assuming the opposite of a one piece bottom bar is to... slide foundation into the frame more easily??

I'm currently running Rose OSBs (eg: All Mediums) with foundationless frames (starter strips only) so the one piece bottom bar so far seems fine... but it wasn't an intentional choice.
 #3398  by Adam Bee
 05 Jun 2019, 23:43
Comparing:
https://www.thorne.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=rose&product_id=2003

with
https://www.thorne.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=rose&product_id=4962

(We will ignore the marketing gaff of selling then my the 10 count with a photo that says 12!)
 #3402  by AdamD
 06 Jun 2019, 11:59
I have only used two thin strips as the bottom bars. I generally put in one, slide the foundation in, nail the 'wedge' to the top bar to hold the foundation in place and then nail the second bottom bar. The slot between the bars allows the foundation to hang between them.
 #3409  by Chrisbarlow
 06 Jun 2019, 18:36
I suspect most people have two peice bottom bars. I don't think it matters.
 #3410  by Adam Bee
 06 Jun 2019, 18:42
Interesting. If most people use two piece bottom bars, why manufacture single piece bottom bars? I wonder what they are for... it never occurred to me they’d be any different than a solid bottom bar (as that’s what I received) and running foundationless it would give a good place to build to.

I’m considering the bamboo skewer support method for the next set of frames I buy, and the author of the most common article on it assumes a 2-piece bottom bar.

Hmmm. I’ll have some thinking to do.

-

On an unrelated note, Thornes have stopped supplying Rose OSB’s flatpacked, so the cost just went up by 50%.

:(
 #3416  by AdamD
 07 Jun 2019, 09:01
The advantage of the two piece bottom bar is that the foundation can freely hang between them so it doesn't matter if the foundation is too long or is not fixed quite right or stretches/sags when installed.

There used to be more than DN1/4/5's of course. One frame had a split top bar (DN3 maybe?) I believe which is no longer used. And I cannot see the point of DN5's. The idea is that DN5's with the wider top bars and a resultant bee space between them won't get brace comb in between. I have seen no difference compared to DN4's. And a DN5 at the side of the hive tends to get fixed to the inner side-wall as the space is too small - less than a bee space.
 #3417  by Alfred
 07 Jun 2019, 09:05
Adam Bee wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 18:42


I’m considering the bamboo skewer support method for the next set of frames I buy, and the author of the most common article on it assumes a 2-piece bottom bar.

:(
You could drill a hole then solder the skewer in with beewax.