Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on February 9, 2014 at 10:14am

Dave:  There are no silly questions but you might get some silly comments.    When you laminate several sections of wood you are building a beam  that will be much stiffer than a single thickness of wood.  Think about it this way.  Laying  a 16' long  1"x6"x3/4"  between 2 saw horses and put a concrete block in the middle and measure the "deflection" to the ground.  Then repeat the same with 3 -1/4" sections laminated together to  give you a 3/4" thick beam.  You will find the laminated beam has less deflection.  Now back to the chine.  If in fact you laminate before installing the chine I have doubt you can bend the thing  to fit the curvature of the hull(in 2 directions).   If you laminate each 1/4" section on the boat   you will have one mess of epoxy and how will you clamp the thin sections together.  The chine would then be epoxied to the boat and would be a real PITA when it came time to remove it.

Just one comment- the real pros might have better experience than this old coot.

Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on February 9, 2014 at 8:38pm

Dave, 

I personally think 1/4 laminates are too thin to do on the hull, as Lawrence Long has pointed out.  It could be done but it would require a bunch of screws for each piece, or a bunch of clamps.  The epoxy set up time may come into play also. I wouldn't try it. 

I had to laminate mine as I broke two sets of chine logs (one Ash and one Cherry Wood) trying to make the compound bends required.  I then went to a two piece each 7/16 thick.  The first was clamped to the frames and the second to the first.  You need to clamp the second piece North-South as well East-West to keep the edges in-line.  It took a bunch of clamps to accomplish this.  Thickened epoxy was used for each piece.  I turned out fine.  They are White Ash.

G'Luck,

Dorf

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Permalink Reply by tungsten on February 10, 2014 at 7:55am

You can build a jig on a bench to match the curve,then glue and clamp it all together much like stair case guys do.Once dry clean it all up and install,you'll end up with a piece slightly thinner from the sanding but I see no problem.I wonder if tight bond glue would be strong enough?Be a lot easier to clean up compared to epoxy.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on February 11, 2014 at 3:07pm

There are some existing research online by one of the woodshop magazines that you can find about about Tightbond III.  It has superior strength and in some situations was as strong as epoxy on wood because it is the wood that is the weakest part of the bond. However, the Tightbond III lost much of its strength in a wet environment. 

I like Tightbond III for many applications on the inside seats and outfitting of parts but I wouldn't use it at the chine area inside or outside of the boat.

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