How do you preserve boat components that sit?

[whflhff]

I need guidance on what to do about pieces that I build in my basement (dry in the winter, wet in the summer) and then set aside for long periods of time (years in some cases).

Example 1. I have finished roughing out the mahogany boards for the transom and am just about to complete the drift layout and bores so that I can assemble and glue up the transom blank. After cutting the plank bevels the transom will be put aside, probably until the summer of

[Barry Pyeatt]

Bill,

1st. Take a long slow deep breath and hold it. Then let it out slow and count to 10.

2nd. Don't panic about the cut out pieces.

3rd. Don't do anything to them except wrap them in plain ole butcher paper and put them somewhere that they will stay dry.

Think about it a moment. Unless you are working with green cut wood, it is reasonably stable material. Yes, it will expand and contract with the changes in weather. But then it will do that after you finish it as well.

But the thing that I would be most concerned about it keeping it relatively clean and to protect it from damage from impact, etc.

Wrapping the pieces in plain butcher paper will allow them to breath, expand and contract with the changes in the seasons and keep it clean as well as protect it from minor damage.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that you are using that would call for red lead primer anyway?

To give you an illustration of just how long you can store Mahogany, I recently cut some stock that my father had from earlier than 1942. He had this left over from turning handles for mallets. I wasn't certain just what it was because it was so banged up and dirty, but when I got it cleaned up it was beautiful red mahogany and I had enough to make my ships wheel with it and some left over to do some trim work and make some cleats. I know that he had this wood for quite some time prior to that and the wood is sound. It just got dirty and banged around.

I also have some unfinished handles for chisels and other tools that he made back in the 40's and they are still perfect and still unused. They were just wrapped in plain grocery bag paper and placed in a box.

So....bottom line is don't worry too much about it. I've seen a lot of unfinished boats that have been out in the weather for years and years and the wood is fine, other than being water marked.

[whflhff]

Barry,

[Arnie Eaton]

Just curious about what boat you are building.

[Frank Hagan]

Wood does move, mostly in width. If your transom is made up of boards edge glued, with the grain all running the same way, you shouldn't have a problem. You can have a problem if you have boards glued up with some at 90 degrees to the others ... this is common in tabletops, where there are planks running the length of the table and has a "breadboard" end on it ... a single plank finishing up the edge, with the grain running along the width, like the picture below

You have to be careful fastening wood with the grain running at 90 degrees like this.

The other concern I have is that it sounds like the transom is curved, since you are cutting bevels on each plank (making them like staves in a barrel). You can have movement in the width of the wood, which might affect the curvature, or produce cracks along the convex surface of the transom. Personally, I would make the parts, but wait to do the glue up until the rest of the frames can be built around it. If the designer is still around, he can be a good source of info about this as well; he would know if the rest of the boat is helping to support the transom.

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[Jack Gardiner]

I would stay away from red lead, I was under the impression that it was not used anymore. In my personal experience with todays space aged materials is that I would use epoxy and encapsulate and I would also use a light weight cloth to hold it all together so it does not check, split, crack, warp. If you are attempting "old world" boatbuilding with exotic woods then it gets more complex as some woods do not take to epoxy the same as others. so, what kind of boat ya building?

Jack

[whflhff]

Arnie,

I

[Dave Ruedel]

Red lead (and white-wash, its white, household counterpart) have actually been around since Roman times. For red lead was the main coating for below the waterline paint, but is no longer in vogue in these enviornmentally concious times. Remembering my teenage days working as a laborer at a boatyard in Niantic, I can still imagine the sweet taste you'd get in your mouth after scrapping and sanding boat bottoms, when safety equipment consisted of goggles and a bandanna tied around your nose and mouth. Today's bottom paints for the most part are either copper-based, or urethanes, which are regarded as more enviormently friendly, and, of course, more expensive, but also seem to be more durable. Have often wondered if my present mental condition can be attributed to the red lead I breathed, the soldering work I did back then, or raising my kids.

[Greg Luckett]

I used red lead for years and......what am I saying..........snore.

[Jack Gardiner]

hrmmm,

I have a 5 gallons of red lead and I havent used it beacuse someone told me that it was illegal. I used it in the ornemental iron business as a primer, at least in R.I. lead paint has been outlawed and the DEM is like the ATF here about the use of it and removal so I dont use it. if you are caught removing it with mechanical means, ie a sander, its $10,000 per person per offense, also if mechanical means are used they want a I think it was a 5 micron HEPA vac, then its haz waste..

in the late 70's and early 80's everybody was sandblasting the crap off the houses with no protection.

personally, I thought the stuff worked great

Jack

[whflhff]

Leaded paints seem to be on the out here in CT too, or least you can

[Frank Hagan]

Frank,

You