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Keel lumber question


Charles Newton

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This is a question mostly directed to the Miami Boys, Knut And Bob or people in my geographic area (Florida) but I will take any input.

Can't Find any Fir or mahogany keel boards but Found plenty o Southern pine What did you guys use? White pine is easy to come by too but I heard it is too soft.

thanks

Chuck

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White pine is NO GOOD for much of anything, maybe siding on a house. It is VERY weak and soft, like any fast growing tree.

Though it may be a controversial choice on this forum, I find treated pine to be a fine choice for a keel or other structural scantlings. One of the finest boats I'ver ever seen, worth nearly a million bucks, is made of the stuff, even the planking. It is available in 4/4, 5/4, and 8/4, and in some very nice grades. (few, tight knots)

Dimensional stability, though, is an issue. It is often quite wet when purchased, and must be dried before use. Lean the boards against a high tree limb so they stand up on end, and protect the bottoms from the ground. This allows the most rapid drying, aside from a heated kiln.

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Hi Charles, Southern yellow pine will work. I used Douglas fir for mine. I'm not sure what Knut used. There is no place structurally on the boat that you'll want to use white pine. Home Depot down here has the douglas fir but only in 14' lengths. Did you check all the independant lumber yards? That's usually your best bet for finding good lumber in lengths you will need. It will also be of better quality than at the box stores. I couldn't find 1x material in 20' lengths called for in the plans so I used 16' and scarfed the keel. I bought all my lumber from Shell's Ace Hardware and Lumber here in Miami. All my screws came from Bosun' Supplies here:

http://bosunsupplies.com

A good supplier of Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue is Wicks Aircraft supply:

http://www.wicksaircraft.com

The glue is on page 12 of their internet product catalog. Fourth item down on the left. You can also get the glue at Ace Hardware. If they don't have it in stock they will order it for you. Personally I liked the stuff from Wicks better, plus it's cheaper even with the shipping if you by it in a 5 lb. can. Just my personal prefrence. :)

Good luck on your search for lumber. The process of finding materials, supplies and hardware is like a scavenger hunt on the internet.

Bob

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I used 3/4" plywood for my keel. It is very strong from my experience rolling the boat and movving it onto the trailer. You can also make the but joints in the layers farther apart from the original plans call for, which in my mind feels much stronger. I got the idea from another weekender builders website that had done the same as well as building with thicker ply all around. I only made the hull sides a little thicker with 3/8" ply instead of 1/4". I noticed it is only really about 1/16" thicker but it seems to be more ridged when done. There is a slight weight consideration but I didn't glass the whole boat just the part from the lower rub rail down.

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Southern Yellow Pine is a great wood to use for this use, but most of it is cut for the construction trade and plain sawn. It is usually covered up by other materials and not a problem in construction. But when you are building a wooden boat and it is hopefully going to last for many years, you don't want any more maintenance problems down the road than absolutely necessary.

Try a good lumber yard catering to the construction trade rather than a Home Depot or Lowes. They will more than likely have what you are looking for. Show them what you are doing and if they take an interest, they will pick the best stock that they can find for your buck. Often they have really good lumber that isn't so pretty as far as the edges are concerned, but you are going to probably not use the edges anyway. So dings and nicks are not a problem, where they might be for the contractor.

When you are looking for boards for keel planks, try to avoid those with wild grain patterns across the face. If possible and you can find boards with relatively straight grain, (even if they have a few small knots in them), you will be getting better lumber for this use.

The wild grain boards are plain/riff sawn and these will tend to warp and cup as they dry and are subject to seasonal temp/humidity changes.

In looking at the end of the boards, the grain runs across the narrow portion of the board rather than in a curve across the width of the board.

Ideally you would get vertical grain stock because it won't warp or cup, but it is more expensive and harder to find. You can often find quarter sawn or nearly so in the bins with plain sawn boards, you just need to look for them. And then replace the other neatly. Quartersawn boards have grain that runs across the narrow portion at about a 45 degree angle and is pretty consistent across the entire width. On the face of the wide surface the grain will be relatively straight. These boards will have less of a tendency to cup or warp.

I know that others will say it isn't a problem, but there are lots of examples of the separation problems brought up each year for it to be a headache.

If you can't find good boards in the full 16' length, try getting good boards a little shorter (10' or 12') and stagger the ends with the different layers by a couple feet and cut the keel out of shorter wood and butt the ends together as you assemble it.

Try to find at least one 16' with good straight grain and relatively knot free to cut for stringers.

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