Emichaels/ Hess Cutter

[Emma56]

Hello Emichaels I see that you are building a Hess cutter ! I,m in the early stages of Building a 30 foot Hess cutter. Could you tell me what type of floors you are using [wood, metal ] ? I want to use wood , But feel that a 12" floor under the mast step seems rather high . Almost 16 + above the keel

[paladin]

wood will be easier to construct, less expensive, and generally easy to repair if you find yourself in some far out of the way place on the other side of the world...

[Emma56]

That is a good point ! Wood floors also seem very strong [ Over built ] Can floors be constructed like double sawn frames .

[paladin]

yes, or can be laminated from 1 X 4 fir. The frames etc in that boat can be made entirely from laminated fir, as can the keel, stem, ..entire backbone, and planked with the same material.

[TomF]

Wasn't it Roger Long, here on this very forum, who wondered once about perhaps using a lead allow for floors?

No rot, lots of weight low, adequate strength (esp. compared with sodden wood and screws into end-grain).

It would need to be checked out by a NA of course ...

[ssor]

Taliesin is built with cast bronze floors. Larry made all of the patterns and had them cast.

[kc8pql]

Taliesin is built with cast bronze floors. Larry made all of the patterns and had them cast.

At about $300. a piece these days.

[paladin]

The plans as drawn by Hess, indicate that virtually everything in the boat can be douglas fir...

[Emma56]

Taliesin is built with cast bronze floors. Larry made all of the patterns and had them cast.

He used 1/4 ply for the patterns
I'm not an engineer. let alone a navel engineer But does 1/4 inch seem rather on the thin side ? For a floor arm 19" long

[paladin]

basic tensile strength of 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch is approaching 8000 lbs...

[Emma56]

That is amazing !!! Now I understand

[ssor]

There was a post a few days ago about a left in place foam plastic pattern casting method that was used for aluminum. no reason I think that it wouldn't work as well with bronze. All it takes is money.

[Thad Van Gilder]

That was me, and yes it does work with silicon bronze, although you get a much better finish by coating the foam pattern with plaster.

Oh yeah, and the sand has to be totally dry!!!!

and if you have a hundred pounds of old silicon bronze screws, you got your floors!!!!
-Thad

[StevenBauer]

Em, I'm sure Eric will be along soon. Another thing you could do is look at the Hess boats listed on "My Wooden Boat". If you search Hess as the designer quite a few boats come up. Contact info (e-mail) is usually listed, too.

Steven

[paladin]

or....find an old boat repair shop that's pulled a lot of worn out bent keel bolts etc....but usually those guys haul the stuff to the scrap dealer.....