Cheaper rub rails and more?

[tomstock]

I went to pick up wood for the rubrails over the weekend. I decided on 2 16ft 1x6's of clear fir for ripping the rails, but then was quoted a price of $40 per board.

Thats $80 for the rubrails! That's more than it cost me to put the sides on the hull. I then priced 1x2 clear fir which was only 50 cents a foot. Problem is, they only have 8 (and maybe 10) foot lengths.

Should I buy the 1x2's and kerf them? How can I do this?

I also thought about picking up some pressure treated 1x2s from home depot or something... any thoughts on this?

One more question: How should I attach these? The plans say to place screws every 9 inches for the top rail, but for the bottom rail, only mention a screw on each end. Are they leaving something out? Should I screw and glue them, or just glue them? I've heard people talk about replacing them after time... how can you do this if they were glued in place?

Thanks

Tom

[Dave Ruedel]

I didn't even try to find pieces long enough to do the rail in one shot - I angle spliced mine out of two shorter pieces. There is a proper term for that but I'm having a senior moment, someone will give the poper term. If you clamp an overlap of the two boards together, then make your angle cut - I went 60 degrees, both pieces will be cut to match in one operation.. The lower rub rail is screwed from the inside. Lay out where you want it on the hull, draw a line, drill your holes every 9 inches from the outside, then go inside and do the coutersinks for the screwheads. And yes, they are glued.

[Dave Williams]

Tom,

I would ask again or try another yard. I think maybe they made a mistake on price. Although I am in the NW.

Good luck,

Dave

[JMetzner]

Tom,

Yeah, I kinda ran into the same thing up here. Major sticker shock on clear fir. Decided I didn't want to take out a second mortgage. I ended up getting some 8ft. ash for the rubrails. Since I knew I was going to paint the rails, I just butt jointed them to fit tight where they met in the middle of the run. I did not 'scarf' join them (I think that's the term Dave was looking for). I ended up with a bit of a hardspot though. If I had it to do over, I would have scarfed them. It was a real pain bending the last foot or so of the forward half of the rubrail when you butt joint them. No leverage.

--John M.

Fairbanks, AK.

[tomstock]

Thanks. Sounds like my best bet would be to pick up 1x2's and scarf joint them. I'm assuming clear wood goes up exponentially when you increase width and especially when you get over 8 or 10 feet in length.

[Dave Fleming]

Buy the longest clear fir you can. Look at some planks and see if you can rip out some pieces to do the job might be cheaper.

You want 'flat sawn' not vertical grade stock.

Scarf and glue with 1:12 or minimum 1:8 scarfs. Make them over long and starting at the middle fasten to the hull side.

Since I have no idea what boat you are building or what a Weekender is I cannot be too specific about details of the particular attachment procedure.

My recommendation is not to butt join the rubrail pieces. Oh, if necessary you can fudge by using butts but after joining drill a hole vertically at the butt and insert a dowel glued in place this will help keep the butts aligned.

Don't forget a drip cut on the underside of the rubrail. This breaks the waters tension and lets it drip off rather than running down the sides and possibly leaving streaks in the paint. Just a saw cut about a fat 1/8th of an inch deep set back about 1/2 inch from the outboard edge of the rubrail behind the 'bullnosed' edge.

[Zeroice]

I searched through the stacks of lumber for the clearest 16ft 2x4 I could find at home-cheapo and ripped 3/4" strips. I stained and varnished them. They look good considering what i used. It took a little bit of sanding to smooth them up but was quick work with a belt sander. This is the least expensive way to get doug-fir rubrails that i know.

[Barry Pyeatt]

That is what I would recommend as well, find the best looking 2X4X16s that you can find in the stack and rip off 3/4" lengths. Should have good grain orientation as well since most of the 2X4s are plain sawn. So ripping them will give you nearly quarter sawn rails. You can run a router down the edge of each of them when attached to relieve them and either stain/varnish or paint to your hearts content.

[tomstock]

Home Depot 2x4's are douglas fir? Somehow I thought they'd be some sort of white pine. Ok, I'll check it out. Thanks guys.

[Charlie Jones]

Agree with Dave totally on the butt joins. Don't do it on rub rails. Use an epolxied scarf , run the feather of the scarf aft on the outside and arrange it so it falls midships or aft of that.

I found it easier to start fastening in the bow and work aft- gives you lots of leverage to pull the rail in - If you try to work to the bow from the middle, you'll be getting into the hardest bend (plus some twist) while running into decreased leverage to pull the rail in to the hull. You can fit the rail to the bow before you scarf it if you don't have room (or help) to work with the full length pieces. Then remove it, glue up the scarf and continue.

Also- I WOULD NOT glue it down. I'd use a good caulk such as 3M 4200. Sooner or later you'll be removing at least a part of the rail for repairs. After all - that IS it's reason for being there- to protect the hull from scrapes

[Mark Hughes]

I made mine from Southern Yellow Pine. I bought a 16' 2x12 and ripped them from that, then scarfed them at 1:12 with a hand plane. I glued them up using polyurethane construction adhesive, left them clamped together for a couple of days, and then installed them. The scarf is so neat, that I still have to look really hard to find the joint, and I know where it is! Didn't have any bending issues, although I started at the bow, rather than the middle, and worked my way to the stern. I had enough extra length to give me plenty of leverage all the way to the transom. Fussing with the shear line until I was satisfied with the look of it was probably the longest part of the whole process!

[Dave Fleming]

When you start at the middle and, making sure the scarfed and glued piece is about 4 feet longer than you need, the ends can be pulled in with a Spanish Windlass/clamps/rope lashing and, following the shear is, at least to me, easier.

BUT, what is important that Whatever Works For You is the most important factor. Folla?

I reckon that working alone on rub rails that are just a tad longer than 20 or so feet affects my thinking. :wink:

[tomstock]

Checked the local home depot and 16ft 2x4s are only $6.50. They looked pretty good so I'm going to go back tonight and get two. I'll rip them into rub rails and whatever is left I'll use instead of the 3/4" round on the inside edge of the toe rail.

Think I should pick up a belt sander? I've been using an orbital and it's slow going, especially on the hull sides where I did a lot of bondo filling knots, etc.

Thanks for the help

Tom

[Johannah]

Careful with that belt sander on the sides! :shock: Slower is sometimes better, though many people consider this a heretical point of view.

[Frank Hagan]

Ripping the stock and then scarfing them is the way to go. We have a little tutorial on it at http://www.messing-about.com/weekender/scarf.htm. In the picture of the scarf, consider this a "top view":

Some have made the mistake of scarfing so that looking at the side of the boat, you would see a long angled joint from top to bottom. The scarf you should cut is from back to front, so you would only see this view by looking from the deck straight down on the top edge, or from the ground looking at the bottom edge.

We show a commercial tapering jig for the table saw, but you can easily make one similar to it with a couple of pieces of scrap and a hinge, along with another piece of scrap tacked across the two pieces once you find the right angle. There's also plans for a jig to use a block plane to make the scarves.

Starting at the bow, you just glue and screw the scarfed rubrail on. The gentle curves of the topsides of the Weekender make this a pretty easy task; here, I'm using a single C-clamp to hold the aft end of the rubrail to the topsides:

I have a few more shots, but nothing really interesting about scarfing, at my Weekender site at http://users2.ev1.net/~fshagan/side1.htm