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Example construction of a Warré hive lift
Left:
A version of the Marc Gatineau lift (with a Warré hive body and quilt on the fork for
demonstration purposes). The design exploits the projecting handles of the Warré hive
body. This lift easily picks up a person of 65 kg.
Construction details (referring to the photo, starting at the top)
Except for the pulleys and cord, this version of the Marc Gatineau lift was made out of bits and pieces lying around the workshop. The windlass is from an old two-frame tangential honey extractor. The design was essentially copied from http://ruche-warre.levillage.org/La visite de printemps.htm. Its principle is somewhat similar to that of the guillotine used in France after the 1789 revolution. The white board slides in a groove, upwards through turning the windlass and downwards under the weight of the hive, but controlled by the windlass.
Top beam 514 x 53 x 44 mm
Overall height: 1245 mm (could usefully be made taller).
Top back bracing board 150 x 19 mm set out on spacers 13 mm thick to clear pulley.
Windlass bar, steel 16 mm thick. Passes through greased bushes in the frame cut from scrap
steel pipe.
Top pulley tied over top beam with loop of cord.
Windlass crank length 178 mm.
Two pulleys each with two wheels; bought from a yacht chandlers.
Bottom pulley tied with a cord to a bracket on the back of the white sliding board;
bracket secured with the two bolts whose heads are visible in the photo.
Frame uprights 53 x 44 mm. The 44 mm is the front surface as viewed.
Distance between uprights: 432 mm.
White board: 13 mm thick good quality plywood; 425 mm high x 450 mm wide set in grooves in
the uprights.
Board sides and upright's groove beeswaxed before assembly.
Fork tine length: 356 mm.
Fork height and width: 200 x 32 mm. The gap between the fork tines must be
tailored to the Warré hive-body box to be used, allowing some clearance to ease sliding
the fork into place, say 3-6 mm each side. The box used in this example is 350 mm
wide.
Bottom back bracing board 150 x 19 mm; glued and screwed to upright.
Triangular side bracing boards: 300 x 300 x 13 mm plywood.
Foot: 425 x 95 x 44 mm.
Make a strong joint between fork tine and board: On the bottom of the
back of the 13 mm thick white board is glued another plywood board measuring 413 mm
x 200 mm x 19 mm. The tines of the fork are cut perfectly square at the ends and
butt-jointed with glue onto the board and clamped in place at right angles with the help
of supporting blocks. When the glue is dry, two 100 mm wood screws are screwed into the
tines through holes drilled and countersunk into the back. The screws are size 12, i.e. 6
mm thick at the widest end. The screws were lubricated with wood glue so any play was
taken up by the glue as it set. The extra board glued on the back takes the vertically
sliding unit ('guillotine blade') to a thickness of 32 mm and confers great rigidity. It
must clear the inner edges of the uprights. The clearance here is 9 mm.
If used on uneven ground, a thick plywood U-shaped board could be slid either side of the hive base to improve stability.