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bow and stern stringer attachment


flynfysh

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Back to my question..what is your experience of bending air dried vs. kiln dried lumber

 

How a wood is dried has little to do with bending.  As a generality,any dried wood does not bend as well as green.  But the genus/species of wood matters even more.  As a rule, hardwoods steam bend better than softwoods, but again, a generality.  The thinner the wood, the easier it bends.  Any wood will bend, if thin enough.  Green White Oak when steamed can be tortured into a pretzel if that is of any value.

 

Of all the easily available woods, kiln dried Maple bends well if approx. 1/8" thick, and even better if also steamed.  I have been using Maple for combings.  Fir, and most softwoods bend poorly, but again, will bend if thin enough.

 

Hope this doesn't just confuse things.

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thanks for the all comments, around here softwoods are about all we have. The one lumber yard in town gets the dregs sent up to it (down south companies know it's too expensive to barge it back) and there is little to no specialty lumbers.  If I'd planned ahead I could have gotten some green wood. Oh well, next time, after all this was planned as a learning project as much as anything and it sure has been that :-)

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I must be really fortunate.  From reading these forums I have concluded no one has as much access to the varieties of woods and other forest products as I do.  I found it almost (key word is almost) unbelievable to read the stories of the troubles people, mostly in the south have finding lumber.  Then I spent 11 days in Georgia (Brunswick/St. Simons area) helping my daughter and son-in-law house hunt.  I couldn't find a single full service lumber yard during the whole time.  Just "big box stores".  What a sad impact big corporations are having on finding the things we want and providing real service to go with them.  I also did not find any really full service hardware stores either.  These are closing up north too, faster than lumber yards.

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it's really frustrating here, there are trees everywhere (it's a rainforest after all) and yet the only lumber store in town has to import everything from Seattle and most of what is sent up is crap. Also it's too expensive to have small quantities shipped up as everything gets here by barge or airplane....oh well, first world problems. I'm still painting my first kayak, it seems to be taking lots of coats...all of it has 4 coats, some has 5 and I still am going to need at least one more, is that normal? post-5556-0-44408300-1460229619_thumb.jpg

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I'm still painting my first kayak, it seems to be taking lots of coats...all of it has 4 coats, some has 5 and I still am going to need at least one more, is that normal? 

I know what you mean here. I had the exact same problem on my FreeB, particularly where the fabric touched the frame. I think some portions got 10+ coats trying to get all the pinholes finally sealed. This was with the economy 6 oz though. I'm hoping the weave on the premium stuff doesn't exhibit this same problem. What cloth are you using?

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  • 2 weeks later...

last night my kayak past the "pinhole light test" for the first time...celebration!!! I was afraid I had used too much paint and that the boat would be too heavy....with all the gear, minus the spray skirt it's 31 lbs. I also finished carving my Greenland type paddle. With the paddle I decided to burn my initials into one of the blades. When I got done with that I wondered if the burner could be used to cut the fabric, it says that it heats to 950 degrees F and comes with multiple points. I tried it on some scrap pieces from my first boat and it seemed to do a good job...if it works cutting the fabric on the second kayak I'll try to report back. The burner was hugely expensive at $14.00 at a local store (just saw it at Amazon for $10.00) BTW I am smiling in this picture, it's just hard to tell from the outside post-5556-0-31177200-1461691557_thumb.jpgpost-5556-0-32202900-1461691783_thumb.jpg

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I just finished skinning the second Vardo..it's a better job than the first one but, there are still some holes to cover that are too big for just paint (about three around the coaming). On the last boat I used lexel to fill in but in our very humid climate it took about two weeks to fully gas off so I could paint it. Any suggestions for something that will work more quickly?

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I'm using oil based paint and I'm pretty sure the label said to wait a week before painting with an oil based paint, I waited a week and painted..... after 3 days the paint was still tacky..I went to my paint guy and he claims it's due to the cool weather( 40s and low 50s) and high humidity and suggested I use heat on it which I did (plus brought it into my livingroom)...it still took 3 more days to completely dry.  

 

I was thinking of using a dab of fast cure 5200, do you know how it takes paint?

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I have used construction adhesive. I would have to look for sure but I think it was PL 300. I found it much easier to use than Lexel. It cures hard but flexible (if that makes sense).  Cures quickly and is paintable. 

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I used BoatLife LifeCaulk to fill a few holes along the seam and to bed all screw attached items like lifeline tabs and keel chafe strips.  The 3M version is 101.  Both are polysulfides, mildly adhesive, pliable and paintable.

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