mahogany bendability

[And-Con]

OK i have a boat(clearly) and the slide in part of the rub rail is damaged in several areas. I've found a very good price on some Honduran mahogany that, with a little table saw work, would fit nicely into the slot left by the previous rub rail. Also, as i said, a very good price on the mahogany, its actually cheaper(bearing in mind that i do my own woodwork) than replacing the original taco (manufacturer) part. Now my concern is whether the mahogany will be able to bend, preferably without steaming or anything like that, to the hull, I'm not concerned about the actual corners yet, but the boat is rather wide, i believe about 6'4, on a relatively short length, 14. I would like to not have to slot the back of the insert, but if needed, how deep, how many, how close together, etc. thank you for any input.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: mahogany bendability

I wouldn't even attempt it without steam....but then...I can't get mahogony cheap.


ian

 

[And-Con]

Re: mahogany bendability

why was i expecting that... o well i would still rather use the mahogany than the plastic and actually i found the mahogany on ebay a while back and picked it up it was like 40 for a slab of 10x1.5x60 and its been floating around the garage waiting for me to find a good job for it...its just a pity to be cutting down such a nice big piece, especially when it is actually Honduran(much easier to work than African) but i have yet to find a use otherwise for it, but once cut and everything its enough to wrap the boat so i guess its found its place. thanks for the heads up about steaming it

 

[marine4003]

Re: mahogany bend ability

Re: mahogany bend ability

cant do it..most tropical hardwoods have a very tight grain,imposable to bend without steam and clamps, although..you can try building a jig , in the radius you need..using clamps to position the wood...immerse the wood for 72 hrs..then insert into jig..it MIGHT work also alot simpler than steam.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: mahogany bend ability

Re: mahogany bend ability

to immerse a strip of wood, lay it in your rain gutter and block it from draining

 

[LIQUID PROZAC]

Re: mahogany bendability

what if it didn't rain????-jk-gotta have a little fun--awesome idea let us know how it works out

 

[Ned L]

Re: mahogany bendability

Depending on the bend you need to make you may have a hard time even if you steam it (mahogany isn't the best bending material). More than likely your mahogany has been kiln dried which won't help either. In any case, I think the only chance you would have is to actually steam it (non of this 'just soak it in hot water' stuff.) If you have never steam bent wood before it is pretty neat what you can do with proper stock. Here is a piece of 1/2" x 1/2" white oak, air dried.

 

[nlain]

Re: mahogany bendability

Is the wood going to be flexible enough to go through the curve of the hull without binding in the rub rail channel. From what has been said I think you are going to have to start at one end and slide the wood all the way to the other end including through the bend area. I would get a sample piece and try before I cut up that piece of wood and then find out it would not work. Just a thought.

 

[And-Con]

Re: mahogany bendability

actually I'm not planning on sliding it all the way through, I'm just going to make it narrow enough to fit in the channel and remove some of the screws holding the channel in place, replace with longer screws but this time going through(hopefully) a chunk of mahogany. thanks for all the advice, and i will steam rather than plug up gutters.

 

[TopNotch]

Re: mahogany bendability

We used to have a 15' runabout that we converted into a center console. Ripped the entire topside off and replaced with mahogany all the way around. We did it by taking 3/4" x 3" boards and putting cross cuts every 3/4" on the inside to take the bend. Clamp and screw. Once it was on, put a mahogany cap on topside.

How many cross cuts you put in, how close together, and how deep will determain what kind of bend it will take.

Hopefully that made sense, i'm sick.