So I've got this big hunk of angelique... (Take two)

[Ed Harrow]

http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/08.24.03.JPG

And I'm looking for help (not labor in this case, just advice) on getting the damn thing reasonably flat on the "A" side (upper side in picture). It's twisted, cupped, and got a bow to boot.

For more pictures: http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/keel.htm

Thanks.

[Wild Dingo]

First... tell your offsider the legendary Finbar to get off it and get his furry self back to work!! :D

Okay will see what comes as Ive got this nice peice of keel timber that seems to be taking on the same attitude... great question Ed :cool:

[cs]

Ed the first thing you need to do is rip a total of 4 strips off of the thing. Say about 3/4" thick and about 16' long. Remember to take 2 strips off of each side to help balance it out. Than send those strips to me by FedEx and I will perform my vodoo on it and remove the curse of the cup and your piece will magically straighten out and my boat will have new rub rails. ;)

Chad

[Wild Dingo]

:D

[Mike Vogdes]

How bout getting it at a reasonable work height, block and shore it as level as possible, and go to it with a power plane and framing square?

[Bob Smalser]

Originally posted by Mike Vogdes:
....go to it with a power plane and framing square?Unless you have access to a jointer wide enuf to get the bad side dead flat, followed by a pass thru the thickness planer to even things up, doing the top by hand with plane and trysquare is the only way to do it.

But there's more bad news....this plank will likely cup/twist again because of the pith in it's lower third....if the pith runs out you can shorten the plank....if the pith runs the whole length you'd be better off by ripping it out, creating two quartersawn boards you could edgejoin back into one narrower plank.

If you do your windingstick, trysquare and plane magic with it the way it is, you will also thin it considerably....and that pith will likely cause it to split right down the center like the miscut fir 2X12 scrap below that split right down the pith that was left in there:

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/33205221.jpg

OK....now that I study your link I see it's a 4X20", 26' long 700lb flitch....but you are still subject to the same problems....

.....you need the whole length of this flitch for your keel? From the pics, looks like the pith winds around a bit...you gonna try to use it pith up or pith down?

[ 09-12-2003, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Seth Wood]

I just faced a less-severe problem with a hunk of white oak. I took my cue from Larry Pardey and various timberframers: you need a reference face. You can see the details in Pardey's book, but basically lay dead-straight cross-sticks at each end of the timber. Hand-plane the timber under each stick as needed to make them line up. Draw a line along the sides of the timber connecting the bottom of each stick. Cut, shave, plane, whatever, down to that line.

This becomes your reference face. Square the three remaining sides in relation to this.

n.b. of course you'd want to be sure the piece was already blocked and leveled as much as possible, otherwise your reference face will be nice and flat but at a screwy angle to the rest of the faces.

Failing that, find a monster thickness planer....

[Donn]

I'd try to set up a saw guide independent of the work piece, perfectly plumb and level on it's own. With that, and the rental of a giant circular saw, you could make a square edge to work the other surfaces from.

[David Thompson]

Hey, Thanks for the help guys! I have two 10' x6" slabs of white oak curing in the carport and awaiting my attempts to square up those bad boys. Whatever technique I select, it sounds like lots of work.

These will become the keel for the 17' Whittholz catboat I will build.

Dave

[George Roberts]

Ed ---

For what its worth and I know you lack the equipment.

Find a dead flat surface, perhaps a bench made up of I-joists with 3/4" ply on top.

Support the board every few feet with shims.

Use a router or saw to cross cut the board every foot or so to the same height above the bench.

Remove the waste and do the same on the other side.

Repeat until you are down to finished size.

I would rough out the edge shape well befor egetting to finished thickness.

The most important part is a bench (or floor) that is flat enough for a reference surface.

[Ed Harrow]

Thanks for your suggestions, esp to Bob, Seth, and George.

This piece is sitting on three supports, which are as close to horizontal as possible in both dimensions.

The piece is ~ 26' long, the keel will be ~18" long. I've got about 1/4 - 1/2" in thickness to play with, and no I'm not happy with the heartwood, but... I've been planning on the upper side remaining the upper side, and reducing the thickness on the lower side to get down to final thickness.

I like hearing planing under the winding sticks to get them in plane, that was my plan and I was looking for a second on that. The other end of the stick is still more queezie (SP?) I'll add a picture in a bit. I'm going to start "trimming" a bit off that end to start my exploratory. I've now got the extended-length 1/8" bits (Thank you McMaster-Carr smile.gif ) to punch thru the kerk to the other side so I can then connect the dots on the under side to complete the cut. I was hoping to have that done by today, but it's been one heck of a week...

http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/hmmmmm2.jpg

[ 09-12-2003, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Ed Harrow ]

[NormMessinger]

Perhaps nail a streight edge on both side to act as a sled track. Mount a router on the sled and set to take off the high places as it is moved along and across. George's table wold be better if you have it.

[cs]

So, you don't trust my vodoo method. I see how its gonna be. ;)

Chad

[Bob Smalser]

Got anybody around with one of these Lucas portable mills?

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/31503034.jpg

The distributor will be glad to tell you of any nearby:

http://www.baileys-online.com/

I could pop your flitch in my 8" X 26' mill with the backhoe forks and flatten the pith side in two passes....or at least 17" of it, the remainder we could take down with a power planer or squirrel the flitch around on the bearers to get the remaining 3".

I'd get as much of that pith outta there as possible and then epoxy up the checks...and I'd want to use it pith down....the growth rings will want to flatten themselves out over time and that's the way it will cup.

How much time you got? If the flitch was recently-sawed, it's still green...exacerbating your problem. You want it at 18-20pct ideally, but that'll take a couple years of airdrying. (Timbers really don't dry out in log form, so how long it sat around as a log means nothing.)

What's gonna happen when you flatten it is that you will expose wetter wood than what you took off, and it will move again because the newly-cut, wetter side will expand. After flattening, put the new-cut side face up in the sun and see if that helps.

Given the way it will want to cup, you could do the reverse and flatten the non-pith side, but that'll make it much more likely to split down the pith, which is a worse problem than cupping....and may even be why you old keel cracked - hard in some places to find a log big enuf for a FOHC timber that large.

If not, Norm's method of building a router sled sounds easier than winding sticks and a power planer, let alone buying 26' engineered joists to use to build an index surface....use the winding sticks or, better yet, a laser level to get those tacked-on sled tracks true.

But with any method, usually the closer you get it to your finished length the less thickness will have to come off, as the twists are generally worse nearest the ends.

Frankly, I'd consider replacing it with a FOHC stick of DF. See how the pith is centered in the board in your first pic yet is 2" high and 6" to the right in your second pic? That plank will very likely twist again...with a whole lot of force...and may take your garboards, floors and frames with it.

These FOHC DF beams are all 24' and 26' long and would be cheaper than Gluelams at a lumberyard...maybe $.60 a BF.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/31637369.jpg

[ 09-12-2003, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Dave Fleming]

Here is how I would do it.

First ya bought the wrong plank but we have been there before.

What you should have ordered is FOH or COHC.

That is one dense heavy wet piece of South American wood and it is not going to dry out in the foreseeable future soooooooo...

The only thing to do now is use the upcupping face as the interior or upper face of the "Keel Plank".
Plane off about a 3 inch wide area of both port and starboard side of the upward cupping edges and fasten in place. It will keep on cupping as it continues to dry out and the cupping will just make it that tighter against the garboard planks.
Where the ballast keel is attached you may have to add a filler plank scribed, to the shallow arc of the exposed side of the keel plank.
Doesn't have to be that tight of a scribed fit as the through keel bolts will pull it together and it is outside and watertightness is not needed. Just a good hardwood plank. Then the Ballast Keel is attached through the two wood pieces making a sorta sandwich of it all.

Folla

[ 09-12-2003, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[Paul Griffin]

What you should have ordered is FOH or COHCWhat does that mean? :confused:

[Bob Smalser]

"Free of Heart" or "Clear of Heart Center"....no pith anywhere in sight.

[Stephen Hutchins]

If you have enough wood, the right way is as follows: Study the piece to find out how to take off the least amount of wood that gives you the largest, flatest surface. In other words if the majority of surface is flat but twisted a degree or two than plane the whole surface equal to that. The most acurate way to do this is with a digital level. Be careful working around this tool as if you breath on it too heavy, you'll change the numbers! So let's say the level reads 0.01 degrees across the narrow part of the timber; using a long strait edge as a guide lenghtwise and a short metal stait edge as a guide across, plane the wood with a power plane, checking frequantly with your pain in the ass digital level. Once you have the whole thing flat both lenghwise and widthwise, roll your timber over to the next face and make it square to your first face with a framing square and long strait edge. Now if you really want to stir up your unwitting apprentice, check his work with a dirty six foot metal strait edge by dragging it accross the timber and point to the dirty marks on the wood and don't even say anything. The apprentice will dutifully clean the surface up with a block plane or perhaps a number 3 smoothing plane. And when you can't get any more dirt to rub off your strait edge, and the apprentice looks absolutly sure he's got it flat, lay your stait edge on in in front of a sunny window and show him the slivers of sunlight creeping though. If this does not deter the young apprentice, perhaps he has just passed his first test of learning the art wooden boatbuilding.

[Ed Harrow]

Originally posted by Dave Fleming:
...What you should have ordered is FOH or COHC. ...Sometimes it's nice to do stuff in print, ya folla. In theory, of course, when the 'B' side is taken down it will be FOHC, yes?

I'm still hunting for a moisture meter I can borrow.

[Dave Fleming]

Sometimes it's nice to do stuff in print, ya folla. In theory, of course, when the 'B' side is taken down it will be FOHC, yes? Sorry Ed, I have NO idea whose advice you followed or even if you did ask prior to ordering your stock. I can only make comments on what I see and what little I know. It may sting a bit to be seemingly Monday Morning Quartebacked BUT I assure you it was NOT my intention to say, I told you so with a sneering smirk on my face. I feel for you and, believe I have a grasp of your enthusiasm and level of boatbuilding knowledge and experience. You have the piece and have to make it work, therefore my comments both here and off Forum.
I cannot see any way to remove the tendency for the piece to cup. In order to eliminate this you would have to remove the entire heart/pith and it looks to me to that it winds the length of the piece

I don't see the need for a MM at this time?

Doesn't really matter what the M is in the piece as it eventually will be in the water hopefully year round.

Just plan on placing that up-cupping face upwards. Fasten it to the keelson, well blocked and, get on with the rest of the structural work.
It will continue to move so understand this.

Because of the cut of the piece this must be kept in mind re: As a reverse of what would be done under 'normal' conditions, the garboards would be the last planks I would install. If you do install first, the rabbet will be moving all the time the vessel is out of water and that more than likely, would cause some real problems down the road. So wait to cut the rabbet and installation of the garboards till last.

That is how I see it.

Alternative is to scrap the piece and find a new one keeping in mind what you have learned from this as to what to ask for. Oak or Doug Fir might be reasonable alternatives.

To the poster who gave the instructions on 'the right way', this is not kiln dried stock. It is unseasoned very heavy interlocking grained wood from South America, because of this and the way it is cut it will not respond to your advice.
What I have advised is, IMOOP, the best work around that I could think of based on my limited shipwright experience

Edited: note removal of last sentence in this post and make mention of later post advising NOT to use the piece for its intended use.

[ 09-13-2003, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

[ishmael]

Study the piece to find out how to take off the least amount of wood that gives you the largest, flatest surface This is good. Why haven't you painted the ends? I've not read all this, so maybe it's been answered.

You have access to a planer wide enough for this beast, eh? With an eye to the above rec. take a sharp hand plane and in a few hours you will have a flat enough side to run through a planer. Look, as above, to make the face 'flat' so the planed side will be flat, and then turn it over.

Using a piece of stock such as this is not simple. Ripping the edges could help. With an army and an eighteen inch jointer you could make short work of it.

I like the original quote. Imagine the finished piece and then think on how to get there. Don't think too long. smile.gif

[holzbt]

If you can borrow an alaskan mill you could straighten the timber out in about 20 minutes. Most of the time would be spent setting up the guide plank, the cut should only take a few minutes. If you have a properly sharpened chain the cut should be very smooth,only needing a quick swipe to smooth it up.

[ishmael]

BTW, a power planer. smile.gif

[Lulworth]

Ed,

No real advice here but to quote my favorite president: "I feel your pain". My s-boat keel timber was clearly on a whole different scale (in terms of keel size not problems!) to yours but the problems had a similar feel. I bought this huge hunk of oak but, in my case, I was just too damn ignorant to even check to see if there was pith in it. In fact, I was stupidly delighted (I may have even giggled as I hauled it home) to imagine that it was quarter sawn --hah! It wasn't until I had cut out the shape, flattened it, and trimmed the ends when I discovered:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid41/pa8fcf684291fe12f718cc33b2ae3ecbf/fcf7da65.jpg

I am not on a schedule for this project so I just started again with a new piece (flat sawn like the original). I know I feel better than I would have if I had gone ahead with the pithy one. Of course, your piece may (as you say) cooperate enough to allow the majority of the pith to be cut away. I hope so since I recently saw an s-boat where the keel timber had some pith in it (topside) that actually lifted out. You'll still have the cupping problem but, as other have said, in the keel, kept wet, maybe it'll be ok.

Good luck hacking away at that thing!

David.

[ahc]

David,

Have you got any more pics you can post on your S boat progress?

Ed - hang in there bud, it'll work out and think of all you're learning (and we're learning due to your kindness in sharing).

[Bob Miller]

At the risk of blowing my cover, a few thoughts on this chunk of wood.Thought one as useual, we waltz around the problem! Gitting it flat is no problem, keeping it flat is a real nightmare! Thought two, We have technoligy on our side now and do not have to depend on bruit force (drift pins) to hold this puppy in place! just RIP IT through the pith center, step out to half the resulting two pannels and rip them also. Turn every other one end for end to fold the deck just as you do when ever you want to minnimize movement in wood! (This ain't rocket ,ect) Laminate with your choice of adheasive. Just for the record, next time you order a keel, specify box the heart and save your self some greef! Bob miller, yours in boats!

[Art Read]

Waaay over my head here, Ed, but if that pith, (and what appears to be a pretty severe check) are just too hard to work around, or continue to cause disconcering movement in your timber, I wouldn't lose sleep over condeming the piece as a keel timber. You've got a LOT of work yet to do still. I'd be very surprised if you won't find MANY uses for almost every board foot you've got invested in that big hunk of wood there. Someplace else. I assume it could be used for other purposes? Floors, sawn knees or backing blocks perhaps? My "scrap" pile is made up of smaller and smaller pieces remaining from what I once thought was proflagate wastage of good timber. (I never did find anybody who would sell me SMALL pieces of good, green, white oak...) But I somehow always needed just about every usable, offcutt piece I ever saved.

That's PHOENIX's backbone you're contemplating there. You're investing much more than any one, single piece of wood's value in it's renewal. Perhaps that hunk of Angelique would be just fine... None of us can judge it from here... but it sounds like you feel somewhat doubtful? It's still early days yet. You've got lots of options.

Just a thought...

[ 09-13-2003, 04:28 AM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[bugeye]

Hi,
That looks like a terrible piece of wood you got there. If I were you I'd call your supplier, whom I'd guess was Brad Ives/Gannon and Benjamin, and ask for some compensation. This is why I like to deal directly with a sawyer, rather than go through middle men. There's alot of really nice white oak in your area. I got alot of oak from Jim Aaron in New Salem, and was very happy with it at around $2 bf. Not to discourage your efforts, but you're going to have alot of diifculty because of the slow progress of this job. If this were being done quickly, by a crew at a yard, they'd use a very green piece of wood, get the job done, and get it in the water before it had a chance to distort. If you put in a dry piece of timber in, so that it's stable while yu are working on it, its going to swell and strain floors etc. It took me two years of full time work to rebuild my boat, because I was cheap and wouldn't pay anyone to help until the last six months. If I were to do it again, I would have hired someone right from the start to get it done more quickly. Being in a plastic shed for as long as it was, I had alot of "dry" wood shrink up on me, which added alot of worries that I didn't need. I certainly don't mean to step on your toes, but I thought I'd just give you an opinion from someone still recovering from a long battle.

[Bob Smalser]

"Frankly, I'd consider replacing it with a FOHC stick of DF. See how the pith is centered in the board in your first pic yet is 2" high and 6" to the right in your second pic? That plank will very likely twist again...with a whole lot of force...and may take your garboards, floors and frames with it."

The other pitfall with heartwood I didn't mention is that even in a durable species, the pith rots rapidly compared to the surrounding wood....then that plank will crack for sure.

You may be able to find a FOHC stick of local White Oak large enuf, and builders near you do use DF in those sizes...DF because it's easy to find logs big enuf for FOHC beams....all for reasonable money.

I'd strongly recommend ripping the Angelique into two FOHC quartersawn boards and using it for something else...you don't really have that much money in it compared to the rest of your project.

Why jeopardize the integrity of your restoration over one plank?

[ 09-13-2003, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[ishmael]

Yep, on reflection, you need a new piece of stock.

[whb]

Ed

The idea of calling your supplier might work out as follows: They likely have access to large saws. Given that you will be removing a fair amount of the stock to get to final shape anyway, why not ask them to cut the original into 1" slabs which could then be relaminated with the pith removed as per Bob Miller above.

You would still have real wood but without movement and with the dimensional stability of the reversed grains.

Good Luck,

Howard

[Bob Smalser]

Looking at the pith locations and spiral on your website....ripping it out and laying the resulting boards up into one plank will only give you a 12"-wide piece....you don't want any of that pith in there at all for a stick of that importance.

...and somebody might educate me on how Angelique glues...I have no idea.

[ 09-13-2003, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[Dave Fleming]

After much looking and thinking about the piece in question and taking into consideration what I feel I know about your skill set I must advise, for what its worth, ***to scrap the idea of using that piece for your plank keel***.

Everything Bob S, and Bugeye have said makes sense to me and I therefore I cannot advise you to to otherwise.

My original advise was based on a fairly quick restoration and hope that the piece was not as bad as it appears to be but, that seemingly is not the case, sigh.

If you dealt with the seller and were clear about the intended use of the wood and he then sold you that piece, I would certainly give it my best shot to get him to make some accomodation based on how it really is.
If the above is true, it sure doesn't make me feel confident about dealing with him and, puts into question what Gannon and Benjamin have been doing with timbers supplied by him.
Wonder if RGM will see this thread as he has made mention of ordering from him too?

[Ed Harrow]

Sometimes we (especially kids) shop around for the answer we want to hear. Thank you all for you comments this time around, tho they certainly aren't the ones (by and large) I want to hear, LOL.

Question on the second picture. Note that there is what looks like, at first glace, heartwood to the right of center and about midway from upper surface to the lower surface. Then look to its left and below, and at the general pattern of growth rings.

Anyway, as soon as The Lurker arrives I'm going to continue the process of whacking some off of each end and seeing, at the second picture end, where that upper "knot" is heading. And yes, I'll also contact my supplier to get his comments.

Ed

PS: I like the router approach, that sounds like an excuse to buy a big KA router, LOL.

PPS: Rest easy Ish, as soon as I'd taken the picture of the fresh-cut end I slathered it with paint.

[ 09-13-2003, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Ed Harrow ]

[Art Read]

Ed... Martha's Vinyard is nice this time of year. Any chance of taking a "road trip" with some detailed pictures of that whole timber over to Vinyard Haven? I know that with my own little project, being able to confirm my worst suspicions and/or hopeful surmises with the professionals here in Seattle has been VERY reassuring. While the "obvious" problem with your timber is easy for all of us to diagnose "on-line", we don't really KNOW what the final scantlings are, where that pith really runs, or how bad it's moving. We're guessing. But even if you do have to regroup and start over, I'd bet the folks at Gannon & Benjamin would be a wealth of information about how best to utilise that timber for other purposes, and perhaps even offer themselves as a valuable ally in procuring a more suitable replacement?

(For what it's worth, one of the first posts I ever made on this forum concerned the somewhat "questionable" keel timber I'd already brought home for MY boat... After the first pass thru the planer, I discovered a small knot right dead smack in the center of the thing. It was hard and tight and it didn't go all the way thru, but it kept me up at night. The advice I got here ranged from "Leave it alone, don't worry about it and just build your damn boat..." to "Forget it... Cut it up and feed your steam box boiler with it..." I wound up just drilling it out and plugging it with a dutchman. And I still look at it every day and wonder. But other, more recent "worries" are what keeps me up night these days. God, I hope she doesn't float BELOW her marks on launching day... :eek: )

[ 09-13-2003, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[George Roberts]

Ed ---

At some point you are going to need to make a template for the keel. You might as well do that now using some type of heavy paper.

The big box stores sell 36"x100' rolls of paper used to prevent floor damage for less than $10.

Then you can realy see where the defects will fall.

[Ed Harrow]

The Lurker and I have done some exploratory surgery. Interesting. Picture to follow.

Stephen. You're but a short drive away. We used to drive weekly to Shady Oaks :( for milk. Bob Briggs (and Reggie before him). Great folks, the passing of another era. Anyway, why don't you take a wander over here some time? 508 435 4057/774 278 0106.

[Stephen Hutchins]

Wow! Everything happens for a reason. --When I originally joined this forum as a member, I lived in Medway, since then I've been living on MDI in Maine. It just so happens I'm in Medway tonite after the boat show in Newport. (Good boats, good beer) I'll give you a call tommorow Ed.

[Ed Harrow]

Stepen, I'll either be here or at The Lurker's (a hop, skip, and a jump away). The second number is my mobile number.

http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/Exploratory.JPG

Note the progression of the "knot/heart" towards the bottom of the piece in these three pictures.

http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/on_end.jpg
Here I've stood up the first piece (the one closest to the original end of the stick) and you can see the continuation of it on the underside (which is towards the inards of the tree).

So, I'm thinking it's a limb. How does that impact your thoughts on this piece.

George, I've been sliding the original keel about on this thing finding what seems to be the place where the new keel is, hopefully, hiding. (See, I really am an optimist, despite what others might think, LOL.)

[Paul Scheuer]

That's an impressive piece of wood, (mostly). I'm way out of my league here, but if you decide to relaminate, per the comments above, the tapered ends could make up for what you may need to remove at the center. I'm sure the brotherhood could assemble enough pipe clamps for the job. I think I could come up with six on a loan basis, just so I could say that I was part of the Phoenix Project.

[Bob Smalser]

Sorry, but it isn't a limb...it's pith...see how it snakes thru the whole length of the board center? Plus, look at the curve of the wanes....they only got two flitches this size out of that tree.

http://home.fiam.net/eeharrow/hoisting.JPG

A limb is knottish grain coming into the pith at an angle to perpendicular, like the opposing limbs at the top right of my DF example below:

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/33205221.jpg

[ 09-16-2003, 12:13 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]

[cs]

See Ed, my vodoo technique is looking better all the time. ;)

Chad

[kpenokie]

Ed.

When building a workbench out of 9/4 maple with a twist I used a technique described in "The Workbench" book:

Build a frame out of ply slightly wider than your hunk of wood and wedge it in so that the best side is as flat as you can make it. Build a sled that will ride on the rails of the frame with cross-members which are sized so that your router rest on top, or in groves on them. You then put a flat cutting bit into your router and shuttle back and forth on the sled taking off the high spots.

I hope this confusing explanation helps. If not check out "The Workbench" book, they describe it much better and with pictures.

[Ed Harrow]

Bob et al, I know about that (the pith showing on the 'B' side) but, for purposes of discussion, if all the pith is removed in planing a stick to final dimension, does it still represent a problem?

[Bob Smalser]

Depends on how much board thickness you have left...the more thickness, the less likely to split...but those small-dimension cups seen in the end grain on the pith side will guarantee some significant cupping....the cups want to straighten themselves out as the board dries. Those small cups are why the usual solution is to rip the entire pith section out and lay up the two resulting boards by flipping one end-to-end before drifts and glue....so the cupping tendency in each board opposes each other.

But the larger problem with your plank is that the pith isn't straight...it spirals by at least a couple inches in the vertical and 5 or more inches in the horizontal as it runs thru the wood...removing the pith will reduce it's instability some, but as the grain (picture a series of cones stacked on each other with the pith as the center) remaining still runs parallel to the removed pith - the board will also twist again - and there's no way to fix that except using it in shorter lengths.

Logs are ideally lined up in the sawmill by centering the pith, not the outside of the log. Yours doesn't look like it was done that way...but even if it was, occasionally you get one with spiral pith...and when you do, the long lengths near the pith go into the utility stack for use as short cribbing and blocking wood.

You can't cut a straight board from a crooked tree. You'll get your money out of that stick when put to other uses, but I would not try to make a keel out of it. There's better wood out there at a reasonable cost....why risk it?

[Concordia..41]

ED

Sarah’s keel has what appear to be bolts thru the keel to keep it from splitting and probably twisting some. The second 4&1/2” keel that bolts under it does not appear to have the bolts. One of the differences between the Concordia 39 and the 41 is they bolted the extra plank under the keel on the 41.

I have two slide bar cutters that I made out of industrial air cylinders that have an air driven die grinder mounted on it that you could borrow. It takes ¼” router bits and I use it to cut scarf’s. The larger one has a 22&1/2” cutting distance from end to end.

I set up 2 pieces of aluminum angel for the bar to ride on at the angle I want to cut and then start cutting across the plank sliding the bar cutter down the angle after each cut. It does take time and you do have to have compressed air to run it.

If you are interested I will have Margo e-mail you a photo of them.

Dave

[ 09-16-2003, 10:08 PM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]

[Ed Harrow]

LOL, hot air we gots. Take it all and zip it and then it would be compressed. ;)

How many cfm does that medival torture device require?

[ 09-17-2003, 12:32 AM: Message edited by: Ed Harrow ]

[Concordia..41]

Ed

It is just a cheap -o from Harbor Freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/53100-53199/53177.gif



1/4'' IN-LINE DIE GRINDER KIT
Free Mounted Stone Set
Reach the tight spots with this compact grinder. Great for production work--deburring and finishing fabricated metal. Includes five mounted stones, nipple and two double-ended wrenches.
Maximum speed: 22,000 RPM
Air requirement: 3 CFM @ 90 PSI
Collet: 1/4''
Air inlet: 1/4'' NPT
Rear exhaust
ITEM 53177-6VGA
$14.99
Dave

[ 09-17-2003, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]