Thank you both for your replies and the information it has made the task of making the pinion a lot easer.

My extractor also has a some what interesting past. I have had it for about 17 years, it was one of the items that were sold off when the psychiatric hospital that I was working at as a gardener was being closed down. The hospital in its hay day was like a small town with everything service you could imagine, including an apiary. By the time I worked their the hay days were well and truly over. I purchased it with the intention of one day getting back into bees. The last time I kept bees would be back in 1987, then I had 4 hives in the back yard but with the increasing urbanisation around where I live made it increasing difficult to continue. Getting the extractor working is one of the step in getting back into bee keeping another is moving.

I will have to get use to a different way of keeping Bee from 1978 as we now have varroa mite no these shores since 2000. Until then the use a chemicals in the hive to control disease was not allow. Now it has become a necessity. I heard on the radio the other day that bees are now completely reliant on humans for their continued survival, which is a little sad.

On that sobering note I will say thanks once again for the information and head off to start working out how to construct the pinion.

Regards
Mark

Auckland
New Zealand

I know it has got to be close to the honey harvest down under because it has been so late winterish cold up here: snow, ice, and the bitter north wind that cuts right through the house. And my barn is like ice, but I went out to check the Root Novice and…

Cheers! You hit the measurements right on the button. The tapered gear does have 12 teeth. It is about 3/4 ” high (with the teeth themselves being about 5/8ths of an inch in height). The diameter of the largest (lower) end is about 1 3/16ths of an inch. The measurements are all approximate as I could not undo the housing so had to squint between the housing itself and the large vertical gear,

As to the taper, I must confess to being – as the extractor states- a complete novice in such matters.

You might be interested in the provenance of my extractor: I got it from a blind beekeeper about 30 years ago. He managed about 20-30 hives, and could tell their health by the smell and sound. And I have to assume he had a rather gentle touch when it came to manipulating the chambers and frames.

I came to know him from one of my students who was a Pennsylvania Dutch conscientious objector to war and was assigned to work in a facility near the apiary. He –my student- was so impressed that first he, then I also became beekeepers. (My first package was $15.15 from Sears Roebuck and Co., delivered by US Post. Last year a package cost $85 and involved two auto transits as the Post won’t deliver them any more.) And it has become much more problematic to keep hives alive over the winters what with the diseases and all.

But the extractor is a honey. Even blind men can use it! I am confident that you too will find it elegantly simple. The only problem I have had was in spinning too hard on the first side allowing the heavy back side- still loaded with honey- to break through the foundation and reinforcing wires. Silly energetic me! Once the front is spun out, however, the second side can be run more forcefully.

Good luck in your foundry and apiary.

Bill

I am in the process of trying to get a hand operated 2 frame honey extractor working that I have had for years. While trawling the web for information I came across your page with Bill operating the exact same extractor as the one I am trying to fix. The reason that it is not going is because the small bevelled pinion gear is missing and was when I purchased it. I am about to make a replacement gear and have been trying to establish how many teeth it would have.

My conclusion so far is that it would have 12 teeth giving a 1 : 5 ratio which does not fit with any of the information that I have found. A.I. Roots books talks of 1:3 ratio (20 teeth) but to achieve that ratio by my calculations the gear would be too large to fit, so it would be good to have the number of teeth confirmed.
I have estimated the gear would be about 20 mm high (3/4 inch) and has a 7 degree taper.
The other measurement that would be most helpful is the diameter of the gear at the widest end given that the gear is tapered.

It would be greatful if any of this information could be supplied.

Regards

Mark
Auckland
New Zealand

Think he probably is aware of the dangers as he’s attentive to when and where he puts out the gear, to maximize the likelihood it will be cleaned by the bees that made it.

Meanwhile, please explain to us outsiders how making honey available encourages bees to rob weaker hives. Intuitively, it makes sense ( draws outsiders to the hives just harvested; creates a taste for easy eats in the original bees ) but I’m not sure I understand how one would prove such a thing without marking bees to see who’s robbing who.

thanks again

Leslie