Keel bent - on to the rabbet

[Lulworth]

After months of fretting and several false starts I finally have measureable progress. In the end, the newest piece of oak for my keel was acquired, cut, and stream bent in the course of two weekends. Now it's time for the dreaded rabbet! I have recorded the bevels at all the floors and I know that the rabbet lies 0.5 inches above the bottom of the keel plank and I've got a pretty good idea what a fid is used for. Any suggestions of fool proof methods for the creation of rolling bevels?

Here are pics of the steaming:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/peda7c5c23626b7d599a43958348bf527/fced44d4.jpg
All knots were avoided save one smallish fairly tight knot in the center of the board. I don't think its going to be a problem.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p26d9878252b743a81d46d2e1f4e0e802/fced44d2.jpg
A quick steam box made from staging planks and 2x6's. The wood sits inside and has been in steam for 2 hours. It's getting dark and it's raining, perfect conditions for inviting unsuspecting nieghbors over for a visit! Little do they know that they are going to wrestle a hunk of oak up the ladder and through the window.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p1513198805cbf62f30eeac92a1d1c788/fced44d1.jpg

Amazing how easy it was to bend the plank. With four people and everyone clamping the job was done in five minutes!

Now I lay out and cut the bevel.

David.

[Art Read]

:cool: Way to go, David! It IS amazing how easy a big hunk of hot oak like that bends, ain't it? I was really worried about it when I did mine, but, in actual practice, it was a piece of cake. It's those little pieces, like the frames at the sharp bends aft, that'll drive you nuts...

[Art Read]

Oh, and good luck with that rabbet. That IS a pretty scary job... (At least it was for me...)
I did mine right on the boat, after framing, using my doorskin planking "patterns" as a rough guide to help determine the bevel angles. Probably wouldn't be real easy though, working upside down, if the boat's right side up?

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid16/pf6d9bd7045a4bb3cac06a38f2cefff56/fdef50bf.jpg

[ 12-16-2002, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[ishmael]

Take your time fairing between bevels. It get's easier and more intuitive.

[Paul Scheuer]

OK Lulworth. Which window is the boat coming out of ? ;)

The Yankee Tender has bevels at each lap. I made a guage. The "smart end" had a notch cut in it. The other end had a "tail" that would span to a batten placed where the other edge of the plank would eventallly lay. The notch was cut so that the eventual lap and bevel points were at corners.

As I planed the bevels, I could lay the guage on the work to check the bevel anywhere.

Maybe a similar guage would help with your rabbets.

(P.S. Mine was built in the basement shop. I made a scale model of the door and stairs to test with a model of the boad.

[ 12-16-2002, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Paul Scheuer ]