Bee Hive.skp (458.5 KB)
I just finished these, and tomorrow I’ll start making tags and scenes. The hive, brood
frames inside, and spacer were straight forward. The Smoker was a challenge for me
at my level. Especially the cage parts; ring, lid, lift; and the bracket parts. Whew.
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Bee Hive (2).skp (1004.6 KB)
Besides making the tags and the scenes, I made some additions and tweaks to the smoker.
I did not make scenes out of the smoker or tag it yet. I may just make tags but not smoker
scenes, since I don’t plan on making a smoker. I just modeled it for fun.
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that’s the best kind of modeling. no pressure to make money and please a client 
looks cool, I like the smoker, the whole tube structure. looks good !
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Bee Hive (3).skp (1.0 MB)
I tagged the smoker parts and made one scene - “Smoker Exploded View” to complete it.
The only things I couldn’t tell from pictures is how the air is pumped into the smoker from the billows. There must be a tube leading from the billows to the smoker. Also there is probably
a ring/leaf spring inside the billows to force it back open when it is pumped.
I found an image online and saved it as a jpg. Then, I imported the image shown in the screenshot. It is the insides of a smoker billows showing the tube and spring system.
This is something I can play around with later.
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Here’s a screenshot of the Smoker, Exploded View. The “Billows Inside” and tubes
are shown. The Billows Insides do not resemble a spring at all. It’s more like a balloon.
Here’s the updated skp:
Bee Hive (4).skp (1.2 MB)
Bee Hive (5).skp (1.3 MB)
I suspected some dimension problems and inspected the spacer, brood frames, and hive box dimensions. They were not in compliance to the Langsroth standards. I corrected them as best I could. I had to manually enter widths for the spacer and brood frames because of very tiny fractions involved. For instance the correct internal length of the hive box divided by 10 (# of brood frames) equals 1.8375". When making these widths for the spacer and brood frame sides, I had to enter that exact number to get uniform spacing. Selecting a line and right clicking/dividing, left the first and last space different from the ones in the center for the spacer. This had to do with the model settings that can’t be set that precise in inches. Anyway, I figured out that I had to enter some dims manually.
I’m a hobbyist beekeeper… There is no tube from the billows to the canister. The exhaust on the billows is lined up with the intake on the canister, and air passes through a small gap.
The smoker needs to pull a small draft even when the billows aren’t pumping, so there has to be an opening at the bottom of the canister. As the air comes into the bottom of the canister, the material smolders and the smoke goes out the top. Sometimes you need a little more smoke, so you puff the billows and it forces a little more air into the canister, providing you with enough smoke to calm the bees.
Thanks for the model of the hive parts!
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