Help please on wood and tooling for carvel planking

[SunshineBridge]

Hi all,
These questions all relate to my work on Sunshine Bridge.

On the wood:
I've had my quote from the timber yard and they are giving me a great price on some 9 inch x 2 inch Western Red Cedar planks being deeped down to two 9" x (just over)7/8ths" planks. 7/8ths" is the finished thickness of my planking. The next option is to order in10 inch by 1 inch planks which is double the cost. In your view, is it a serious problem if I go for slightly thinner planking and then blend it in by thinning the existing planking by perhaps 1/16th inch? Over 75%of the planking replacement is under the waterline and the variation will make no practical diffenece in performance.

On the tooling:
The majority of my planks are around 8 inches wide and "quite parallel". I'm going to remove the old planks one at a time, spile a template and then fit the new plank to size. The planks I'm getting are 19ft long. What is the best way, to work on a piece of wood this size to get the slightly variable width exactly correct. I have a professional quality electric planer, circular saw & router. My jig saw is good diy quality. I'm wondering do I need a band saw or table saw for this size of work? I've also managed to get a Stanley Jointing plane from ebay at a great price :-)

In my experience getting the tooling right can greatly increase the probability of success, especially when you are starting out working on the edge of your abilities. On the other hand my common sense tells me, with wood this big you move the tool, not the wood... right??

Any advice and tips greatly appreciated. Nobody, wants to screw up $2,500 of wood!!!

[peter radclyffe]

its not clear to me if that is a finished size, if it isnt you need to add that
for cutting you can do this with a good hand circular saw,& take your time to make some fair battens to mark out or use as guides,
have you tried goldbergs timber merchants at uxbridge if they still exist
we used them for planking oak & elm narrowboats at tring & uxbridge drydocks

[peter radclyffe]

& timbmet, oxford ?

[Peerie Maa]

Please try to avoid going under thickness for the planking. The thickness will have been set to be correct for the strength required for the sheltered water of the Broads. You are already operating in rougher water with more stresses. If it will help, it won't matter if the inboard side of the plank is a bit rough with some saw marks left in, the bilge paint will fill the scratches.

You should be able to cut close to your line with the circular saw. The jig saw will be useful on interior joinery, but tediously slow for ripping out the plank. I would recommend a wooden smoothing plane for finishing the plank after you have sawn it out. Don't pay much more than £5 for one with a good iron. Look for one in the car boot sales.

[SunshineBridge]

The quote I have got is from a specialist marine timber suppliers in Bristol. Here it is:
(all in metric, the plank lengths vary)
16no 5490-6000 x 23 x 225mm Sawn W R Cedar: £1270.46
1no 1270 x 100 x 200mm Sawn Euro Oak: £134.39
22mts x 40 x 50mm Sawn Euro Oak: £126.67
4no 2750 x 40 x 80mm Sawn Euro Oak: £133.93

+VAT and delivery which was the cost of diesel only


Does this seem reasonable??

This quote is a lot cheaper than my local Timber Yard I approached first.

[MarkH]

try http://www.jbtimber.co.uk/ specialise in timbers for marine and boaty use

up in hull. if they can't do a decent price on delivery list the timber to be move don http://shiply.com and see what prices you get offered for haulage. I got 6 x 16' x 8" x 5" oak beam, a load of 10" by 1.5" oak planks and several 3" thick grown oak slabs delivered from the far north of scotland for £80

depending on how much of the plank you need to rip down to shape, I'd be inclined to forget saws, get the bulk off to shape with the power plane and finish off with a good hand plane.

I bought 2 rolson planes this year, brand new fiver each - they are brilliant, every bit as good as the record and stanley stuff I have, but take the blades out and spend an hour with a good whetstone sharpening the blades properly

those prices look a bit high to me for the oak

[bruce w]

try Barchards boat timber Hull uk , i usualy get boat skin timber as a sawn log and use the sweep of the tree Barchards know the trade well ,used a lot in the building of big fishing boats.

[MarkH]

pretty sure that http://jbtimber.co.uk above. They bought/aquired/merged or whatever with barchards a while back

[bruce w]

yes you are right i must have posted just after you, our boat is the mfv Honestas, perhaps we passed you in the canal this year. As for tooling a chainsaw is the main tool.

[SunshineBridge]

Many thanks all. I will be talking to JB Timber on Monday.

[Howard Sharp]

Before starting I would also recommend studying some of the many written sources on planking - it's not difficult but there are many small details to the work which you may find helpful - too many to go over in a forum like this. Bud Macintosh's book (which covers new construction) or back copies of our host's magazine have articles on replacing planking. Look upon them as another tool and they'll save you a lot.

[peter radclyffe]

clinker boatbuilding john leather, larry pardeys,
& richard birminghams book

[Canoeyawl]

A consideration might be how much the planks are "backed" and faired to conform to the hull shape. Carvel planks are rarely "flat" This can be determined from the old planks after they are removed.
I would want the planer close by (about fifty feet).

[Peerie Maa]

A consideration might be how much the planks are "backed" and faired to conform to the hull shape. Carvel planks are rarely "flat" This can be determined from the old planks after they are removed.
I would want the planer close by (about fifty feet).

Good point. I would suspect that your planking is all flat, but check with a straight edge, especially at the fore foot and the flare of the bow. If they are backed out you will need extra thickness so the backed out and faired planks do not end up under thick.

[MarkH]

yes you are right i must have posted just after you, our boat is the mfv Honestas, perhaps we passed you in the canal this year. As for tooling a chainsaw is the main tool.

now theres a lovely big lump o wood! we saw her on the caley april last year before we brought our heap down here

was named ardmore for a bit in her working days:
http://www.trawlerphotos.co.uk/gallery/data/869/medium/ardmore.jpg

(sorry for the slight thread hijack!)

[bruce w]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucewilcock/3939067712/" title="mfv Honestas airing sails voe ,shetland by bruce w1, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3497/3939067712_d66bdc4ec7.jpg" width="332" height="500" alt="mfv Honestas airing sails voe ,shetland" /></a> 6 ton of larch last winter and 2 ton to go in this year ,chainsaw planer brace and bitts.