To replace or not to replace?

Let me just start out by saying that I will never be going to Lowes for anything ever again. There wood sucks and all their hardware is super expensive. So at the beginning of the build I was using "Select Douglas Fir" from lowes, 1x2x8 that was incorrect dimentions to begin with. Anyway I had made the pieces for my rails and when I went to install them today I ran into some trouble.

 

First the outside of the first side split, though not all the way so it still may be usable. Should I just go ahead and epoxy the crack and glue the pieces in place?

Not the end of the world, but when I went to install the other side the first piece split in half! The funny thing about it was that it broke right next to the scarf joint... but the epoxy held, shows you the straingth of that stuff. So should I re cut the long piece and attach another 1x2 and use the other 12' and hope none of these fail on the river? Or do I go back and try to find some good CVG at a lumber yard and re do all the rails?

Before this the day was going very well though.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 1, 2011 at 7:12am

I was wondering about screwing from the inside, it seemed like a good idea, but I wanted to dry fit the pieces first. I dont have a ton of clamps, but I do feel like I have enough.

 

Is there a lot of stress on these pieces? Its not too late for me to use something differant, as I said I have not glued yet.

Permalink Reply by chris towles on March 31, 2011 at 7:34pm

as i said i had good luck with a 2x10 of select framing fir. go to the lumber yard and pick thru the stack till you find a piece that has little to no knots and tight grain, might take you an hour but you'll find a piece. get 16' and there is no scarfing.  i just ripped 5/8 vertical strips for inside rails and 7/8 strip which got a 1/4 rabbit lip cut into them to cover the end grain of the ply. worked nice...heres a few pics

 

 

Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 1, 2011 at 7:13am
Chris, Looks really nice. I would love to be able to use one solid piece, but I need 18' and im not so sure how I would even be able to get that big of a piece home.
Permalink Reply by justin nicola on April 1, 2011 at 12:14pm
a good trick to transport long lumber assuming you do not have a lumber rack is to put an extension ladder down first to provide rigidity. 
Permalink Reply by chris towles on April 1, 2011 at 1:02pm

Well getting 18'  lengths of fir still should be no prob. I also wasent lying anout the price, that framing fir is dirt cheap, just gotta pick thru the stacks til you find the right piece. Getting it home might be another story. Mine went all the way to the windshield of my truck and stuck out the back of the cap by about 3 ft. Luckily I live right down the street from the lumber yard. As for the outwale i would prob put 2/3 screws between each station. You might want to do as I said and try and train to wood to bend slowly. And do as Roger says and listen to the wood. It'll tell you which way it wants to go. 

You probably want to wait to glue up the outwale until the sides are glassed and prepped too, the battens and gunwales cover the edges of the glass and protect them. If you are done with all that screwing thru the hull you are probably ready to flip and glass. Did you glue and screw the decks in already. I see in your pics where you are worried about the captains boxs pooling water. If it's not glued and screwed could you shim that support on the side panal to raise it to the height of the rest of the decks? Also, if you are looking for nice tight lines on your cabinet seams (where horizontal ply meets vertical ply), try tightbond III. Its a joy to work with compared to epoxy and is cheap and readily available. Cleans up quick and easy with water and sands well. It's a great glue if you use it for the right job, and interior cabinets should be no prob. Those tight seams on my gunnels are from tightbond, not epoxy fwiw. You'll still want to seal the sides of the decks (where ply meets side panel) with a tight bead of 5200, and all interior seams should get a nice thick bead of 5200.

Oh, Did I mention how rad that boat of yours is lookin. Since you will be done before summer I propose we should find a short multiday permit free stretch of river (Idaho?) and go catch some trout out of wooden boats and rubber. Mabye get some of our cat crew back together. mabye some WBP would like to join the party. Lookin forward to a long summer of floatin. 

RIg to party!

chris

Sent from my iPhone

Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 1, 2011 at 9:21pm

Not sure if I have time to go to ID before work starts up. Should be good water looking at the snow pack of N. CO.

 

Cabinets are glued and screwed and I spent a few hours today taping seams. Im doing what you suggested, except that since I am new to this and all I have a few larger gaps where my decking should meet the side pannel. So I just extended the tape out to about 1 cm. I did a test run with it and it looks good on a small scale, hopefully it will look good on the larger one as well. And if it does not turn out how I want it to look then Ill have a painted interior!

 

Suggestions for gaskets material? It needs to be as flat as possible. I was actually thinking of using some rubbber boat patch material... but there is no give to that.

Permalink Reply by chris towles on April 1, 2011 at 10:08pm
Start small and then work up from there . You can always do the seams over with a fatter bead later. You can also fill the gaps with your inside seams. You only want the caulk to go 1/8" or just a little more past the gap on to the plywood. Again you can make it fatter later if you are worried about it. But having a huge caulk joint right off the bat probably isn't the best way. also, a stright tape line will hide any irregularities in your cuts.

For gasket material, i just used the thinnest weatherstripping foam I could find at the hardware store. Are you building lips for the cabinet lids? Without the lips you're hatches with likely be damp and not dry. Not a huge deal, you still need to keep your stuff in drybags anyhow. My next boat with use temperess plastic gasketed hatches on compartments I actually want to keep dry... expensive, but probably dry
Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on April 2, 2011 at 6:49am

Im ok with semi dry, like you said coming from the rafting world I already have ammo cans, and many style dry bags.

 

When I finish school and plan another grand trip I may be making another boat. Grand spacific with better dry storage, but for now this will be just fine. Of course thats after I make a fishing spacific boat...

Permalink Reply by Troy Nicolls on April 1, 2011 at 8:49pm
That's some nice looking framing lumber. I used some prime strips cut off a 16' 2x6 GDF for the chine caps on a boat I rebuilt last spring. It worked fine, but is not near as nice as that you have here. I've tried looking for suitable fir framing lumber since, but have not been lucky enough as of yet. One advantage of using framing lumber is it will still be a little green which will allow it to be bent much more easily. Conversely, it may shrink after construction and cause some gaps in your joinery. I've also used mahogany and white oak for gunnels. As everyone says, white oak is hard to beat.

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