gunwhales won't bend

[JeffM]

Maine Coast Lumber sent me a nice unfinished ash plank. I had it planed to 1" thick and ripped into 1-1/2" strips at my high school's wood shop. (Plans call for gunwhales made from 1X2 (i.e. 3/4X1-1/2), but I couldn't see throwing away 1/4" of wood.) Now I might regret my stinginess: in trepidation, I tried clamping one end amidship and bending the rest around to the bow. Couldn't get it all the way there with any reasonable amount of force. I assume the extra thickness is the main reason.

What now? Do I plane the pieces further? soak it? steam it? (I've never steamed planks before, by the way.)

[Arnie Eaton]

Ash is pretty strong stuff. I suggest that you plane it down to 1.5 X .75 and then soak it in water if you need to. Try to bend it before the water treatment and if that don't work soak and then bend it and let dry in place prior to gluing and screwing. The glue will work better if the wood is dry. Epoxy type glue won't work at all if the wood is wet.

[ken connors]

i let my gunwales pre-bend in my shop for a few weeks while i tended to other jobs. i kept them off to the side of the shop hanging and only supported at the very ends. first i hung a paint can in the middle of it to get a little bend. next day i added a little more weight. then a little more til there was quite a bend. i also added weight closer to each end so the bend wouldnt just be in the middle. then let it stay like that til i ran out of other things to do. when i took it down, it had quite a bend built into it. went on pretty easily.

i think Arnie may be right tho, you may need to plane it down a bit

[Barry Pyeatt]

OH boy! Talk about potential for wood movement. :shock: Ash/Mahogany/Spruce laminated together. Lets see, the growth rate with seasonal humidity and temp changes is ???? for Ash, """ for Mahogany and &&& for Spruce. I would stick to laminating Ash with just one other wood and keeping the Ash to both inside and outside with a much thinner inner strip for contrast. Not to say it won't work, it just may give you more surprises than you are looking for down the road.

Bent ribs and frames for a number of projects with just a simple steam box. And I do mean simple. Up to 2" thick material.

Try looking this over. It isn't all that difficult to accomplish. Bend Ash, and other woods all the time. Actually quite easy to do. Making a simple steam box isn't diffucult or expensive.

http://gaboats.com/tutorials/steambox_nonav.html

[JeffM]

Thanks, folks! I'm out of school for the summer and no longer have a thickness planer available, so maybe I'll try bending the 1". I'll see how far I get with Ken's method, then steam a la Ray. I don't think I'm ready to be distracted with a steam box, and I KNOW I'm not about to laminate ANYTHING! If all else fails, I'll find a woodshop for my other strips.

[tdrown]

A steam box for this application would be relatively easy to create. Just get some plastic piping long enough and large enough for your wood. Cap both ends. Add a tube that leads into large teapot (or some other closed container that you can boil water in, my borrowed steam-box used a metal gas-can). Drill a few holes into the pipe so it doesn't explode when you start to fill it with steam. Put the wood in the pipe, close it, and boil the water.

[Steve Day]

Nice little steam box there with the pipe. I may try that someday.

A comment on laminating for a gunwale. I did that with poplar and oak on my spindrift 10N. There is quite a bend in that gunwale and I had no problems with the bends, epoxy "glue" and the wood. The boat has since seen temperature extremes from over 100 degrees F to less than -10 degrees F. No signs of any distress from differential movement on the gunwales.

I like the look of different woods in this application and will use the laminations where I can for looks using bright finish. A lot easier to put together, too.

Just my 2 cents,

Steve

[Zeroice]

I did my splash coamings using the pvc steambox method. It worked perfectly and was easy to set up, cheap to. My splash coamings were the same size pieces 1"x2" red oak. I used a empty new paint can and clear plastic tubing over a camp stove to generate the steam. I had to fill the 1GAL CAN 3/4 with water to get the 45min steam time you need for 3/4 inch thick wood but it worked a great. You can load a partial board in it by stuffing with rags at the end were the wood will be coming out of the pvc. Also make sure the pipe is well supported through the length otherwise it will sag when it get soft from the heat.

[JeffM]

Gunwhale problem finally resolved. After a couple weeks of hanging gallon jugs of water from them and getting nowhere, I decided to get out my trusty circular saw. I first screwed them to the edge of my deck, drew the line and cut off about 1/4". ("About" because the cut was a bit wavy. [Did I mention I'm not a woodworker?]) Then I was easily able to bend them horizontally around the boat, but couldn't make the gunwhales lay flat to the side--I needed them to bend vertically, as well. Although the plans don't give final measurements for the gunwhales, one drawing shows them narrower than the inwhales. Back to the deck and the circ saw! Now my gunwhales are about 5/8" thick and less than an inch deep and easily bend to be flush and even. Despite all my butchery, the wood is still pretty. One of my wavy cut edges is against the side, and the other is just above the deck line (to be faired even with the deck). I'm going to glue&screw them permanently in place, and leave them bright. I definitely like the fact that they extend the deck a bit--hard to believe a half-inch more deck could be noticeable, but it is.

[Stump]

You might re-think making the gunwales permanent. I did that and now I'm wondering if that is such a good idea. They have taken a heck of a beating so far and I've been thinking about how I'm going to have to replace them. The top ones particulary seem prone to getting torn up from docks, even with bumpers.

Just my two cents.

[JeffM]

I like the idea, Jim. Graham's plans show the permanent gunwhale as flush with the deck, but the optional removable gunwhale a little below the deck edge. I don't know why they have to be different, but I know I want mine level with the deck. Graham?