Cutting handholds in beehive boxes

[Randy Cohen]

Beehives that you buy from suppliers all come with cove shaped handholds on all 4 sides. I'm sure y'all know what I'm talking about. If not I will try to find a good pic of it.
There are many techniques for cutting these usually involving the table saw with a sled and a jig.
But how about using a SCMS? I would enter the piece vertically and then rotate the saw up and out of the cut by not locking the 'compound' mechanism. Am I explaining this properly?
Opinions? Does that sound like it would work? Be dangerous? Not work?
Chances are that I'm going to try this out anyway but before I do I'd like to hear what more experienced woodworkers have to say.

[Lee Schierer]

Not owning a cms, I can't say how the saw might perform doing that type of cut. There is nothing magic about the type of cut out made in commercial hive bodies. You just need a place to get a grip in the box which will weigh 90 pounds when full. I made my own hive boxes and I used a dado blade. I placed the side board on the table between two stops and then raised the dado blade up into the wood by counting the turns on the raise/lower handle. Then once the blade engaged the wood slide it forward to the second stop position, turn off the saw and lower the blade. It was quick easy and safe. You can also make handles that just screw or nail on the outside as a cleat.

[Art Mann]

I used the same technique Lee described and it worked well. I have also attached cleats to the sides but I don't like that solution. The cleats prevent close stacking of the supers and always seem to snag on things.

The technique you describe using a CMS sounds quite dangerous and I doubt it will produce consistent results.

[Randy Cohen]

i don't like the cleats to the sides solution either. Just wondering about using that tool to do that job.