Thread: hardwoods

have U thought about marine ply.

Daddles
Try Duck Flat at Mt Barker for advice and some supplies marine ply is good and less time required but try things like Boat Cote to protect by coating the whole sheet and then cut to size to find more on boat cote go to www.boatcraft.com.au Meranti is good if you want to do strip planking as it easy to get and use.

Good Luck Stephen Miller

maybe try using air dried Tas oak/vic ash..........gum tree.

If it is air dried it should take some bend ok and it is harder than meranti in use for gunwhales etc, the next step up in expense and durablity is mahogany or teak but is a big step up in price. In the end if you use the right methods for sealing it up tas oak would be fine and not to expnesive.
regards scottyk

OMG Scotty. Dredging up my innocence from two years ago :eek:
Bloody hell mate, I haven't improved much since

Thanks for the thoughts on Tassie Oak because it's one of those timbers I've wondered about ... being readily available from such shark infested establishements as (**gasp**) Bunnings (can I mention that name on this forum ?).

As for my current and past needs, the local TAFE, where I did a boat building course, two actually, put me on to Kapur. It's the Malaysian hardwood used to make hardwood decking. Great stuff. Available everywhere. Cheap. Easy to machine and, once you take those ripples off the top surface, entirely suitable for hardwood bits in boats. Ahh, doncha lovit when the consumer mentality does you a good deed?

But thanks for the thoughts on Tassie Oak. It's a nice looking timber and I'm not that far off building things that actually look as though I care ... as well as working well.

Cheers
Richard
building work boats, not show boats
(that's a cop out if you didn't guess)

Tassy Oak is a generic term for a range of hardwoods that are not in sufficient commercial quantities to market under their own name.
Flooded Gum (Eucalytus grandis), also know as Rose Gum in Qld is a good bending timber for Gunwales, stringers etc. I built the hull of my Hartley Spindrift 24 back in 1986 using Flooded Gum framing. I coated the whole lot in 4 coats of Evedure and she is as sound as the day I built her. My boat reached lockup in 1989 and has sat ever since under some old tarps and I have just started working on her again today. The only dryrot was in a corner of the cockpit floor and will be easy to repair.
This is my first post here so greetings to all.

Hello All
I'm new here and haven't lived in Adelaide since I was a boy....but generallywhen seeking hardwood I'd go to a mill or merchant who stocks the stuff, GREEN.I'd have a look in the racks ,ask the bloke doing the lifting and choose something that will bend ,especially if it were for that purpose.

If it were for rudders,cleat,centre board truck etc I'd off to the local demo yard and select from some very nice air dried stock...cheeep too !

Howdy,

As a boat designer and boat builder - with a small boat like a praam there is little scope for use of hardwoods. They just add weight - softwoods have EASILY enough strength to deal with the loads of the parts that you mention.

The only places I use hardwoods is areas where the boat is going to contact somethig hard. So Bottom skids or keelsons or gunwales (usually I suggest a thin layer or hardwood (6mm) laminated to the face of a softwood gunwale.

The general purpose species for ply boats used to be Oregon and Western Red cedar (for internal bits that were not going to be directly hit by anything).

These are getting pretty pricey - would probably recommend Hoop pine for just about everything (almost the same density as oregon)- will keep the weight down for lugging.

I don't fancy doing any rudder or centreboard shaping in hardwood unless the foil shape is pretty crude.

Green hardwood is probably not that compatible with modern epoxy glues - or any other glues - until it has dried out a bit. Green sawn hardwood is the best for Trad boatbuilding.

Wooden Knick Knacks like horn cleats etc are good in hardwood.

The aforementioned duck flat has the hoop.

MIK
http://www.storerboatplans.com

Richard
Life is a never ending learning curve there better places to get supplies, advice and products to use etc then what we knew of two years ago
Boatmik call yourself a boat designer and builder do that when you build and design real boats not canoes and skiffs that are a dime a dozen and most seem to replecate a previous idea

Steve, perhaps we should point out that your wee boatie is a thirty footer and I seem to recall you looking at that twenty footer we were building at TAFE and calling it a TENDER! :eek: ... or was that someone else

Besides, don't pick on MIK, he's designing my next boat for me
And a beauty it is too.
Long.
Lean.
Heated spa just behind the missile launchers

Cheers
Richard

Originally Posted by STEPHEN MILLER

Richard
Life is a never ending learning curve there better places to get supplies, advice and products to use etc then what we knew of two years ago
Boatmik call yourself a boat designer and builder do that when you build and design real boats not canoes and skiffs that are a dime a dozen and most seem to replecate a previous idea

WOW, where did that come from ...

I make a living out of designing boats and bits of boats.

I have built enough boats to have a chronic allergy to Western Red Cedar Dust.

So I build boats and I design boats.

Best Regards
Michael Storer

Welcome Blackdog

Formalities over onwards and upwards!!

Now I dont design or build boats... mmmm yes I do... mmm maybe?... well I have redesigned a boat! That is taken the offsets from a 50ft Pearler and redesigned it down to 28ft... And Ive built a wee canoe

... so ergo based on the aforgoing post... Im a boat builder and designer eh!!

(note here... no offence meant boatmik! Just pullin yer leg)

Now back to Daddles and his wee question... hardwoods okay cant say as Id build one without the guneles and such bein harwood for a start they will take the knocks better than any softwood

Okay now Richard me ol cobber... you have heard of Jarrah right? West Aussie red timber quite famous really and well lots of fellas scream for it but heck we just burn the stuff... burns good an hot... anyway!! Thats what you need mate! The tassy stuff is great and so is the banana bender gear mind here South Aussie should have some of its own hard wood available? use local if you can eh Richard?

Its not a show pony and even if it were would it matter? the weight adding that your doing by adding hardwood will be negligable but the wearability will be outstanding... and the uses you will torture it with it will need every bit of wearability it can get eh Daddles

If you get desperate give us a hoi and we will see what can be done...

Cripes, could you blokes read the dates? I've been using the flamin' boat for the last six months :eek:

Just teasing, but yes, I've had to rotten thing in the water often enough to realise that the design flaws match the design errors

Not to worry. In a few days time I'll be able to tease you all with my latest acquisition ... once I've done the acquiring part.

Cheers
Richard

STREWTH!!! 2003!! Man I gotta start lookin for the dates on these threads!! :eek:

So anyways did you get the Jarrah mate?

Jarrah? I can't afford the timber from the stringy bark the wind blew over last week, and that's free :eek:

Bah, humbug. Yeah, I'll remember the jarrah ...

Richard

ruddy boats - a bloke can't shovel the money fast enough