Bee smoker

grabcad

I was a hobby beekeeper for a few years and I used my modest experience trying to design a new bee keeping smoker. I followed the main tasks and yet tried to keep it simple, user (and bee) friendly and easy to manufacture. Therefore my concept is based on compressed air tank which will be used for increasing combustion. I used rectangular tank but it is possible to use other custom made designs that can give up to 50% more air than this one. Just for comparison – plain deodorant bottle is cca 120ml and compressed up to 1.5bar. This tank is 40% larger and can withhold double the pressure (probably more). There is a safety valve that open’s on 3bar and I/O of air is done by using Shradder valves. Tank can be pressurized in matter of seconds via air compressor or by using regular hand (foot) pump. On top I placed sliding button (made of LCP plastic, just like the handle) that moves butterfly which regulates the amount of smoke coming out of bee smoker. Although there is no need to remove air tank, everything inside can be disassembled by turning a small safety key that locks air tank in place. I left 3mm space between two sheets of metal to place some thermal insulating material that can provide extra protection for air tank, if necessary. It’s simple, easy to disassemble in full, easy and cheap to manufacture. There is no use of any high velocity rotating parts (such as fans) that can hurt bees, no use of many batteries which you must recharge for several hours etc. Cheers!