Bending a stick

[Yellowtail]

I'm currently building Welsford's 'Tender Behind'. The gunwales specified are 65x12 mm. The sheer has a LOT of vertical curve - put a straight edge between the ends and the middle dips a good 6". This is in an 8 foot boat.

The task now is to fit the inwales (30x20) and the gunwales. I've proven that I can get the inwales to go ... provided I find a nice, flexible piece of oregon - don't you love that BANG when a stick lets go? Scared the willies out of me. But I know I can get the inwales to go. But those gunwales. Man. I've tried wrapping the things in towels and soaking them with boiling water for half an hour - made them very flexible and the horizontal curve went on nicely, but not a movement vertically (bending that 65mm dimension).

My plan now is to rip the gunwales up the centre ie, turn them into 32x12mm, and glue them on in two bits. I know that will work, but it precludes any thoughts of a bright finish (I was planning to use paint anyway but ...) Before I fire up the table saw, does anyone have any other suggestions for fitting these gunwales?

Early in the piece, I asked the designer why the inwales and gunwales were so large. He replied that the boat, being a tender, was designed to be bashed around and get squashed between yachts. Fair enough. But I look at her now and by crikey, you could squash this little boat between two oil tankers and the tankers'd sink.

Cheers

Richard

I'm building an epoxy boat, held together with bits of wood

[P Doug (WA)]

Sorry, I don't have an answer but doesn't the designer have any suggestions. They had to do it at sometime. Please keep us posted on the resolution. Very interesting.

[Craig]

Have you considered steaming the pieces? There is an example of a steam box in this months WB or you can do a search on it. It isn't all that hard to do and it will give you the vertical movement you need.

[Charlie Jones]

Cripes- Isn't 65 MM almost 3 inches??? (12 mm being right at 1/2 inch)

That ain't a gunwale- it's a piece of armor.

Why build it that heavily if not needed. I'd think something around 36 MM would be plenty, maybe with a rope set into a cove cut in the rubrail.

If you are insistant on the 65 MM, then I think you're gonna have to split it, bend in each peice and glue. If you still want to do it bright, why not set a thin piece of an alternate wood inbetween to set off the two halves? Like maybe the Oregon cut in half with a 3 or 4mm x 12 mm section of mahogany between?

[Yellowtail]

Oh good, I'm not as mad as I thought I might be.

I have considered building a steam box. Am very tempted to. I've even got most of the bits ... and my good mate Mike would like to see one in operation. Hell, I'm getting sick of doing his experimentation for him (he's cunning enough to stay well behind me with his project).

Ahh, firing up the table saw is easier.

Richard

[Yellowtail]

I forgot to mention. I did ask the designer about this. He made a comment about remembering towels and lots of boiling water. I'm not surprised.

She's a solid little beastie but with a good reputation. I'm building her solid, buying strength rather than chasing lightness. This doesn't mean she'll be overweight, just good and strong. I suspect she's going to have a rough life as her role will be general dogsbody.

And here's the ironic part. I chose this design partly because it'd go in the back of the vehicle I had at that time. I sold that vehicle soon after starting the boat.

But I can't wait to finish her, so I can start working on the Yellowtail, that gorgeous 14 footer you see on my avatar.

Richard

[Charlie Jones]

Good luck with it. Don't get all hung up on setting up a steam box. It's really easy. My wife made one one night from taped together cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil. Used a tea kettle as a steam generator sitting on a camp stove. I wondered what she was up to and wandered out to the little shop we have here- she had it almost set up. Used it to steam a part of a piece of furniture that was warped.

Welsford is supposed to be here in September for a small "messabout" If the timing is right I'll get a chance to meet him here on Matagorda Bay in south Texas. We'll see what happens.

[Barry Pyeatt]

I've bent some pretty big timbers in steam boxes in the past. But here is a simple, easy to build box that would work for you. My brother and I have both knocked one of these together in an hour or so and they have worked extremely well. Like Charlie said, it doesn't take a whole lot to do it.

Here is a link to the box I'm referring to: http://gaboats.com/tutorials/steambox_nonav.html

I would still split the wood down the middle as Ray and Charlie have stated and I rather like the idea of inserting a contrasting strip in it and then finishing it bright.

Let us know how it goes.

[P Doug (WA)]

I like your plan Barry. Could you use a piece of PVC pipe for the box like 4 or 6 inch? The reason I ask is because I think it would store better when not in use, than the foam.

[Yellowtail]

The deed's been done. I wandered out into the shed this afternoon and ran the gunwales through the table saw. Nicely split down the middle. Well, one is. Ironically, the piece I'd been trying to bend had adopted a slight vertical curve, enough to ensure that it wouldn't run straight down the fence of my saw. Doesn't matter. When I get a couple of hours tomorrow, I'll glue them on.

Doncha love this boat building game. So many interesting ways to get it wrong and with epoxy, it doesn't matter. My favourite quote comes from the above mentioned My Welsford - the mistake has not been made in boatbuilding that can not be fixed with epoxy.

Cheers

Richard

[mustangermatt]

P Doug, a friend and I built a few dog sled years ago. We use 4" pvc hooked to a my wifes canning pot, with a hose from where the canning pots pressure releif valve was. We just stuck caps on the ends (on with a 1/4" hole to relieve pressure).

Worked great for sled runners and bows. We could bend 1x2 oak 180 degrees in a radius of 18 inches.

I expect you might need a little more than 4 inch pipe if your doing planks though.

[Barry Pyeatt]

PDoug,

I've used both ABS drain pipe and the heavier 6" PVC pipe in the past. We used a steam generator with that that we rented. It was quick and easy to use. Bent some pretty heafty stock in it. Hickory, ash and white oak.

We built a smaller version to make snow shoes for my son and his buddies and did like Mustanger Matt did only we used a steam kettle on a camp stove.

worked out well. Just have to work fast with any of the wood.

[Yellowtail]

The plot sickens.

Grrr.

I'm beginning to wonder if this boat building game is great until you step into the shed whereupon it starts to go downhill.

Grrr.

The first of my half sized gunwales split before I even had it half bent. Grrrr. So I had a go with another stick, this time after wrapping it in towels and soaking it with with boiling water for half an hour. This helped but not a lot.

There I was thinking I'd have to buy another plank and cut some new gunwale stock. And I started thinking about what had been said earlier - especially the armour plating comment. So I dug the plans out and had another look. Sure enough, the only place gunwale measurements are shown is 65x12, buy he says 'ex 65x12'. And when I started looking at the various diagrams that show the gunwale, it's drawn as the same width as the inwales. So I'm guessing it's supposed to be a piece of 65mm ripped in half. Which I now have. So I'm going to use the two halves of my unbroken gunwale to make both gunwales.

It's still a hell of a bend - I measured it today. Straight edge from end to end, the sheer drops 4" about 2/3 of the way along a distance of about 7'6". I've got one gunwale bent on the boat at the moment. When that's had a chance to set, I'll boil up the other one and clamp that on. Then glue them. I could go buy some more clamps of course, so I can do them both together. Probably should to avoid warping the boat. Pity I spent my spare cash on beer the other day.

And the worst part of it is that I now have no excuse not to mow the lawns! Of course, there's always laziness.

Cheers

Richard