Kayak Coaming

[ttkayaker]

How thick should the strips be to make a laminated  coaming, 3/32, 1/8, or 3/32" thick? Should the final

thickness be near 1/2" or greater?

[Bcone1381]

I built one coaming from oak using strips that were 1/8" thick and built the coaming to a thickness of 1/2".  The coaming feels sturdy and not the least bit fragile.  It flexes slightly with a 30-50 pound force applied to it.

[Kudzu]

It all about getting it thin enough to bend and thick enough to not bend excessively.

[CapecodJohn]

I made the inner strip thin and made the next ones a little thicker as I added each one,  I started with  about 3/16th maple then

redwood a littile thicker and ended with the lip strips at almost 1/4 inch  I figured the inner strips were a tighter radius so I made them thinner.  I soaked them one at a time with water and used a heat gun on them and clamped them every 2 to 3 inches, worked very slow.

I heated and bent each one in place with out glue then took  the clamps off after a while and did it all over again with the tite bond glue each ring took a day

check em out at the link below

http://s850.photobucket.com/user/John_Casanova/library/?sort=3&page=1

[msaxton]

I used steam bent oak strips 1/8 inch thick and actually layered mine about an inch thick then used a router to route out the excess on the bottom for the spray skirt lip, and used a round over router bit on the top edges.