# Beehive Handhold Cutting Jig



## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

*Cutting Handholds on the table saw*

We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.

The hive box uses a 7/8" box joint, I built a box joint jig for that but I found it more difficult to devise a way to make those nice scalloped handles you see on hives.










The requirements for the handles are that it needs to be long enough to get your fingers in there, obviously, the top of the handle needs to be 90 deg from the side of the box and the bottom needs to slope outward to allow moisture to run off, instead of sitting in the handle and rotting out the box.

After some research online, I saw a jig that looked good to me. This jig idea came from Jim Hensel. It uses a sled that runs perpendicular to the table saw's dado blade. The sled has a sloped surface on which to place the box side.

Here's a rough Sketchup on the jig.










The sled sits at a 15 deg slope and the dado blade is also tilted to 15 deg to match the plane of the sled surface.

The hive side is placed in the sled (two sleds are needed to accommodate two sizes of hive side).










The sled is placed in the jig base…which in turn is clamped securely to the table saw.










The sled is then moved across the blade, making a nice scallop in the hive side.










I'm thinking of adding some clamps to hold the work piece securely into the sled.

Now to build the thing…I hope it works out.


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## KenNashua (May 12, 2015)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


How'd it work out? Have the sketchup to share?


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


Hi Ken. It worked out well but it wasn't perfect. The challenges were:
1. It's pretty hard on a dado blade and those aren't cheap.
2. I had to cut the hand holds twice, once with the blade a little lower, then raise it up and cut again. That's because the hand hold is deeper than the blade and there aren't teeth on the side of a dado blade.
3. Dust/chip control was terrible…with enough work you could probably make this work better. I'll see if I can get my sketchup plan uploaded.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


Search for "Ten Frame Deep Langstroth Beehive Handhold Cutout Jig" and you should find the model online.


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## Blair613 (Mar 8, 2017)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


How do you ensure the table saw blade is in the centre of the bottom part of the jig?


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## builtinbkyn (Oct 29, 2015)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


Does the handle need to be recessed? If not a wedge shape inverted with the flat on the bottom would work. Water would run off. They would need to be glued on.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...





> How do you ensure the table saw blade is in the centre of the bottom part of the jig?
> 
> - Blair613


Hi Blair. You just have to measure it out and get it as close as you can. The exact location of the handle isn't critical.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...





> Does the handle need to be recessed? If not a wedge shape inverted with the flat on the bottom would work. Water would run off. They would need to be glued on.
> 
> - builtinbkyn


You can. If you want external handles. Some don't. I don't.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Cutting Handholds on the table saw*
> 
> We are planning to get some honey bees this summer and we will need about 25 hive boxes. Since the boxes look pretty straight forward to build, I thought I'd leverage my wood shop and build them myself. A retail box is $15.00 plus taxes and that's not assembled.
> 
> ...


I used this jig for the first 25 boxes then I gave up building my own boxes all together. I found a direct supplier and the boxes are so cheap that it's a waste of time and money for me to make my own…and I'm now a bigger beekeeper and I need hundreds of boxes. Here's the handle that was cut with this jig.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

*Dado Blade vs. Shaper Cutter*

I've assembles most of the jig but I've been reading the comments on Jim's video and apparently he has opted to use a shaper cutter on the table saw rather than a dado blade. Because the hand hold is cut by sliding the material into the side of the blade, the dado blade's short teeth don't do a good job. Fortunately I have a shaper hear I bought on ebay a while ago. It fits on the table saw but since I have a SawStop saw and the shaper is even smaller than my 8" dado blade I can't use it on the SawStop. Fortunately, when I bought my SawStop, I kept my old Rockwell 6201 9" table saw. The shaper head works great in that machine. It'll be nice to have a purpose for the old Rockwell once again.

The old Rockwell. It's seen better days but it still cuts like a champ.










The Sears shaper head I got on ebay.










After mounting the shaper head in the Rockwell, I learned that, as feared, the diameter of the head is not big enough to protrude into the side of the hive body as the jig is constructed.

More to come.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

RoadHogg said:


> *Dado Blade vs. Shaper Cutter*
> 
> I've assembles most of the jig but I've been reading the comments on Jim's video and apparently he has opted to use a shaper cutter on the table saw rather than a dado blade. Because the hand hold is cut by sliding the material into the side of the blade, the dado blade's short teeth don't do a good job. Fortunately I have a shaper hear I bought on ebay a while ago. It fits on the table saw but since I have a SawStop saw and the shaper is even smaller than my 8" dado blade I can't use it on the SawStop. Fortunately, when I bought my SawStop, I kept my old Rockwell 6201 9" table saw. The shaper head works great in that machine. It'll be nice to have a purpose for the old Rockwell once again.
> 
> ...


Here is my take on hive bodies and handholds.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

*Dado Blade it is!*

The shaper cutter was just not working out. The biggest issue was that is was just not big enough in diameter and therefore it wouldn't go deep enough into the box side. So I checked things out with the dado blade in the SawStop. That worked 99% perfectly. I wish I'd have stuck with plan A to start with. The only issue is that yes, the dado blade "bottoms out" on the box side once the cut gets deeper than the height of the teeth. I can manage by making one revolution on the blade height and making two passes. I'll actually be making three passes so I can get a slightly wider hand-hold scallop.

Here's the base of the jig. It just clamps to the table saw.










I use a removable 1" strip along the right fence in order to shift the sled side to side, giving me a bit wider hand hold.










I tried to leave some gap under the side fences to allow for the copious dust and wood chips that accumulate.










The jig cuts a nice 1/2" deep scallop, that's one revolution on the height adjustment down from full height. I do have to make two passes, lowering the blade one revolution on the crank, in order to account for the size of the blade's teeth.



















One sled for short sides, one for long sides. Place the sides with the inside up and top down toward the sled's fence.










I want to create a dust collection chute to collect the debris. I'll work on that later.


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## DocK16 (Mar 18, 2007)

RoadHogg said:


> *Dado Blade it is!*
> 
> The shaper cutter was just not working out. The biggest issue was that is was just not big enough in diameter and therefore it wouldn't go deep enough into the box side. So I checked things out with the dado blade in the SawStop. That worked 99% perfectly. I wish I'd have stuck with plan A to start with. The only issue is that yes, the dado blade "bottoms out" on the box side once the cut gets deeper than the height of the teeth. I can manage by making one revolution on the blade height and making two passes. I'll actually be making three passes so I can get a slightly wider hand-hold scallop.
> 
> ...


Seems like you're going to a lot of trouble to get this done. I have kept bees for years and have made lots of supers. I just glue and screw a 5 inch block (with a finger groove on the bottom) to the side of the super low enough to not interfere with the top outer cover and use it to lift those heavy honey filled supers. Bees don't mind if it's not factory cut.


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## RoadHogg (Feb 14, 2013)

RoadHogg said:


> *Dado Blade it is!*
> 
> The shaper cutter was just not working out. The biggest issue was that is was just not big enough in diameter and therefore it wouldn't go deep enough into the box side. So I checked things out with the dado blade in the SawStop. That worked 99% perfectly. I wish I'd have stuck with plan A to start with. The only issue is that yes, the dado blade "bottoms out" on the box side once the cut gets deeper than the height of the teeth. I can manage by making one revolution on the blade height and making two passes. I'll actually be making three passes so I can get a slightly wider hand-hold scallop.
> 
> ...


Thanks Dock. Yes, it does seem to be a lot of bother and I had considered doing exactly as you suggest. Two reasons I chose to give this a good try before doing that though. 1. More material and 2. More weight…I know the additional weight is minor but, my wife is the head beekeeper and I wanted to keep the weight down as much as possible for her benefit.

As it stands, the dado blade is going to work out just fine. I can't wait to get the jig glued up and finalized, then I have to make about 22 boxes.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

RoadHogg said:


> *Dado Blade it is!*
> 
> The shaper cutter was just not working out. The biggest issue was that is was just not big enough in diameter and therefore it wouldn't go deep enough into the box side. So I checked things out with the dado blade in the SawStop. That worked 99% perfectly. I wish I'd have stuck with plan A to start with. The only issue is that yes, the dado blade "bottoms out" on the box side once the cut gets deeper than the height of the teeth. I can manage by making one revolution on the blade height and making two passes. I'll actually be making three passes so I can get a slightly wider hand-hold scallop.
> 
> ...


Good solution.


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