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Western Red Cedar for laminated coaming?


Welsh4life

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Is it possible to use my leftover western red cedar to build a laminated coaming?  I have the first round of cedar on the template and it made a lot of noise as I heated, sprayed with water, and bent the cedar around the form.  Not sure if I can find maple to make one like Jeff recommended in the video on Youtube.

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You will find it way too brittle to bend around such a small radius.  You would also need to make it much thicker to achieve the needed strength even if you could bend it.  Hardwoods both bend easier and achieve needed strength with much less thickness. Oaks, of all woods bend the easiest, especially if green. But many hardwoods will do the job.

 

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Bad idea. Some woods bend well and some don't and cedar is one that doesn't. White oak is the best. Maple worked well for me too as you know. There are a few others that will work but these are what I have used.

 

As a side note spraying water on it does nothing. It is the heat that makes in bendy, not water. You don't want extremely dry wood but again the heat is the reason it bends. We use steam because it will not get hot enough to burn the wood, not because of the water.

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On 2/18/2020 at 6:07 AM, Kudzu said:

As a side note spraying water on it does nothing. It is the heat that makes in bendy, not water. You don't want extremely dry wood but again the heat is the reason it bends. We use steam because it will not get hot enough to burn the wood, not because of the water.

 

Actually, both heat and water aid in bending.  Water does more than heat. You can soak wood for a period of time and add no heat at all and it will bend better than before.  Steam is used most because it helps the water penetrate faster as well as the heat helping. Here is a better explanation than I could give:
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Bending_Wood_Steam_or_Heat.html

 

edit:  The link Andy posted says basically the same thing, good read as well.

 

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I made my curlew coaming from WRC but it was done in several thin laminations. The cedar also needs to be straight grained and heat is required. If you are getting cracking then halve the thickness of the strip and try again. It may take twice as many layers but it will be strong.

 

There's not much info on the coaming in my thread but it is here if you want to look:

https://messing-about.com/forums/topic/8574-a-curlew-in-adelaide/?tab=comments#comment-75335

 

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On 2/24/2020 at 6:29 AM, labrat said:

 It may take twice as many layers but it will be strong.

 

 

I noticed that only the lip was WRC. That is why it was strong.  Had it been only WRC it would not have been nearly as strong.  You can bend any wood if you make it thin enough, that doesn't make it a good idea.  But if you like the look of something, have resolved the strength issues, then you should always do it.  That is why we build our own boats.  Cause we are opinionated and picky, and because we can. I pride myself in some of the details I have used on some of the boats I have built.  They are tediously ridiculous, and hardly worth it to just about anyone but me.  They cost me nothing but time, and when time is spent doing something fun, then who gives a $#!+? I gain something of a twisted sense of satisfaction when done too.

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