Big wooden boat project [Splashed Sept 2017]

[Ned L]

With things stripped down to nothing it was time to do a bit of cleaning up.

Started with some paint removal

and then some fresh paint

Then it was time for a trip to a local sawmill to pick out a white oak tree trunk and have them saw it to my needs. Went back a week later to pick up some sticks.

This is their room for sharpening the bandsaw blades for one of their saws

And a blade, ....... about 18" wide and probably 25 feet long.

The big black shadow is a bandsaw

And what I went for.

I was able to sticker it and let it dry for a couple of months, but that doesn't do much for 6/4 white oak. I ended up putting some planks in the steam box for about 4 hours and I think that helped drop the moisture content a bit.

Then it was time to lay out some deck beams and cut them out.

My 110 year old 26" bandsaw was up to the job of cutting the 10ft long 1 1/4" thick beams.

 

[Ned L]

I prefinished all the deck beams -- Traditional oil based varnish.

When it came time to start installing the deck beams, the first one was a bit of a challenge as the beam was actually about 2" longer than the distance I had to work it in past. The solution was to set up a 2x4 and some big clamps and actually bend the deck beam like an archer's bow to shorten the straight line length by about 2".

Here you can see it over-bent.

and here it is after unclamping, a perfect fit ---- you can also see where I had to again set up some rail road ties with chains and a cable hoist to pull things back into shape.

The it was a matter of fitting in the deck beams and hatch framing.

I had wanted to maintain a teak deck, but considering the original teak had been sanded to not much more than 1/2" in places (started at 7/8") a traditional laid teak deck with the original teak was not an option. --- And new teak for the foredeck was certainly NOT in the budget.

I opted for building a composite deck. I decided to lay subdeck of 1/4" doug fir marine plywood, glass that lightly with a layer of 6oz cloth set in epoxy, and then set the original teak in a "TDS setting epoxy" made just for this purpose.

Here is laying out the plywood panels with a cardboard pattern

and the underside

I marked all the frames from the underside and masked them out with tape

and pre-painted the two panels

Peel the tape up

Lay a bead of Sikaflex on the deck beams, lay the panels in place and fasten them down with 4D copper box nails

And instantly the underside is finished.

 

[nurseman]

Absolutely beautiful!!!:thumb: I am very impressed by your skill and attention to detail. It is always a treat to see a true craftsman work his craft! :yo:

 

[sphelps]

The old band saw is sooo cool ! Thanks for sharing this project ...

 

[DeepCMark58A]

I still don't get the hidden agenda to start the topic, nice work so far.

 

[Ned L]

Thanks.

.......... OK,... There was and is no "hidden agenda". As I indicated up in post #8, there was an attempt at some rhetorical humor. It obviously didn't get there. Unfortunately there is no way for me to go back and Change, edit, or revise the presentation.

I thought there might be some people here who have never seen a good size wood, boat what sort of issues can come up, and what kind of repairs can be made. Problems and needed repairs,.. Yes. Rotted stringers and transom like a 'glass boat,.... Not here.

 

[g0nef1sshn]

That is impressive work! You can probably have a mod edit whatever youd like from previous posts by message or ask here. Cant wait to see the completed project.

 

[Ned L]

Thank you.

.......... Maybe a moderator could at least remove the "should I?" From the topic heading????

 

[jbcurt00]

Thank you.

.......... Maybe a moderator could at least remove the "should I?" From the topic heading????

Done

Excellent work

 

[TruckDrivingFool]

Alright I'm caught up and looking forward to see the rest of the story. :lol:

Nice work Ned but from your windshield thread I expected no less.

 

[funk6294]

Keep up the great work! As you pointed out, we don't see to many wooden boat projects here and I for one am enjoying following along on your progress. Can't wait to see more!

 

[jbcurt00]

Check your PMs Ned

 

[Ned L]

Done

Excellent work

Thank you,.... And thank you.

 

[jbcurt00]

Thanks, got your PM.

 

[Ned L]

Thank you.

 

[bajaunderground]

I do enjoy a true craftsman's work. Permission to follow along?

That's going to be a gorgeous boat when finished!!

 

[Ned L]

Sure, ...... glad to see there seems to be some interest.

 

[Ned L]

The next thing was to do something with this pile of 58 year old teak sticks.

When laid out on the garage floor looked like a foredeck. Again, the biggest problem was that the deck had been repeatedly sanded over the years, to the point that the original 7/8" thick planks were only about 5/8" in many areas.

Though it was rough looking when you got anywhere close to it.

One problem I had to address was the dozen or so places that the planks had damage to the screw holes.
To fix this I first ran the problem areas sideways across a dado cutter on the table saw (bottom side), until I was in clean wood. This created the crescent shaped cut out.

Next was to cut some oversize filler pieces from spare teak. I had to make sure the arc of each filler piece matched the cutout in the plank (the #'s kept them matched up)

A little resorcinol and clamping

followed by some final fairing and I had planks that would hold screws.

 

[Ned L]

Once I had all the planks repaired I then had to think about re-sizing them to work as a composite deck.
With a true laid deck, the planks butt against each other and have a caulking bevel planed into one edge. The caulking bevel gives a "V" shaped seam that is about 2/3 as deep as the plank is thick. That seam is then caulked with cotton and topped off with a polysulfide like black caulking compound.

With a composite deck as I went over to, the planks are spaced 1/8" apart from each other as they are fastened down and the 'caulking seam' becomes a 1/8" wide, square bottom seam that is caulked with only a polysulfide type of compound (in this case I used TDS caulking).
This change required my resizing all the planks to allow the 1/8" seam.

I jointed the bottom of each plank to get down to fresh un-weathered teak. Doing the math made me realize that when I resawed the edges of the planks to allow for the seam, an error of only .005" in the width would result in a cumulative error of 1/4" across the 52 planks in the deck (or twice the seam width). Precision was pretty crucial here.

Once I had all the planks re-sawn I made up about 300 exactly 1/8" (.125") thick white oak shims to be used as spacers when laying the planking. Again, an error of only .005" would either not allow the planks to fit in the space (if to thick), or would leave extra space at the sides (if to thin).

After everything was set I completely installed the deck with spacers and the approximately 600 new bronze wood screws. Everything EXCEPT for the setting epoxy.

Here the teak is going down for the first fitting

if you look closely you can pick up some of the oak spacers.

Next was to take it all back up, clean everything, and begin to put it back down for the last time.

The TDS setting epoxy is about the consistence of peanut butter and is applied with a notched trowel. The teak planks are set in it and screwed in place.

 

[garbageguy]

Amazing! Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your project. Very much appreciated.