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Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 09:57
by Japey Edge
So I recently purchased an unpainted Abelo poly national. I didn't want the crown board, but if I bought all the other parts separate it would still be £9 more than the full hive as a bundle.

So I decided to save money AND get a crown board to hack to bits. I like the idea of a clear crown board and I have some perspex. The idea of a window set inside a thick poly frame appeals to me, so yesterday I made a start:

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I used a stanley knife and a straight piece of perspex (of uniform width) and scored the poly, going deeper each go. As this is dense polystyrene, it's not as messy as cutting up packaging like what you get with a fridge or TV. However, it is still fairly messy. I learned to cut as much as possible and minimise any snapping off. Clean edges are my friend.

This is the point where I got a bit stuck and wasted my perspex. I wanted to get it flush underneath so as to maintain bee space. My efforts failed. super glue didn't work. So now I look to other DIYers here on the forum - how would you get a piece of perspex flush underneath?

I still have some "meat" left on the polystyrene to play with. I'm curious as to what the hard plastic frame looks like but I don't want to trim all the poly off to find it won't work.

I have some silicone and some pink grip - but I am concerned about anything that might affect the bees. This won't be used for a while unless I run into another large colony of bees any time soon so it will have time to off-gas.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Re: Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 11:08
by Chrisbarlow
Could you put a strip of wood on the inside to sit the perspex on. Could screw it or glue it with say gorilla glue (gorilla glue is a guess btw)

I suspect you could have just made wooden square and screwed the perspex to it and not bothered with the polystyrene. Just a thought

Re: Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 11:22
by Japey Edge
Chrisbarlow wrote:
13 Jun 2019, 11:08
Could you put a strip of wood on the inside to sit the perspex on. Could screw it or glue it with say gorilla glue (gorilla glue is a guess btw)

I suspect you could have just made wooden square and screwed the perspex to it and not bothered with the polystyrene. Just a thought
Yeah I'm going to make a wooden-framed crown board too, but I fancied a bash at adapting this. A wooden sub-frame sounds viable cheers Chris.

Re: Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 13:54
by Alfred
You can get non solvent adhesive/filler from Wickes,Toolfix etc for putting up polystyrene coving.Should work fine on the board if it's not too late.

Re: Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 14:04
by NigelP
Why not have got a disc cutter and cut clear perspex discs to fit into the 5 holes?
Much less work and same end result....
And how now are you going to generate a feed hole for winter feed?

Re: Abelo Crown Board Modification...

PostPosted:13 Jun 2019, 14:15
by Japey Edge
NigelP wrote:Why not have got a disc cutter and cut clear perspex discs to fit into the 5 holes?
Much less work and same end result....
And how now are you going to generate a feed hole for winter feed?
Yeah that's not a bad idea - will do that for my other crown board I think. This way I will get a full square, but yes your way would have saved some chew on that I am currently experiencing. I have a 30mm hole cutter that I'll use to make a feed hole. Will use offcuts to have a rotating disc to cover when feed is off.
Alfred wrote:You can get non solvent adhesive/filler from Wickes,Toolfix etc for putting up polystyrene coving.Should work fine on the board if it's not too late.
Cheers Alfred, I'll look into using that stuff