Stringer / Framing Stock

[jwel1]

I humbly ask your opinion and advice, I'm in the preparation stage of material gathering and building the Penobscot 14. What are your ideas of the following woods for frame and stringer stock.
1) White oak
2) Purpleheart
3) Cypress
4) Clear White pine or actually SPF I believe they call it.
4) WRC- Very good grade of cedar.
Might be able to get most of these in 8' legnths, so I'll soon become a good scarfer or an expert toothpick maker

[almeyer]

I used white (shelf) pine for the permanent frames and stem. The stuff is relatively cheap, and easy to work. That's important when you start shaping the bevels on the stem, not so important on the permanent frames which will be hidden by the bulkheads. Also used white pine for the transom frame, if I were doing it again I'd use something a little nicer. For the stringers and keel, you'll be doing a lot of bending and shaping, so my advise is to use a softwood that is clear, knot-free, and straight grained. I used douglas fir, as the pine and cedar I can get around here didn't measure up. Just to be on the safe side, I got one 10-foot length and one 8-foot length and scarfed them together. Better to have a stringer two feet too long than one inch too short. As Bob Quick noted in another post, make a couple of spare stringers, just in case - it happened to me too. The temporary frames can be made out of just about anything - mine were made from what started out as a shipping crate.
Al

[mower]

I agree with Al. Your frames can be almost anything so you might as well get something cheap and easy to work with. I would use doug fir for your stringers for sure because it will be easier to buy it in long straight grained clear pieces. If I was going to do it over again, I'd also use a nicer wood for the transom frame. Additionally, I would use a hardwood for the stem in stead of the pine that I used.

Paul Mower

[jwel1]

Thanks for the quick reply.Well, I see there are more than one of these boats that have gone together with scarf joined stringers. I assume this went together with epoxy. I'm just concerned about keeping the stringers straight during glue up, and I've never used epoxy,... Fair lines,..you know [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bill Perkins]

Clear "c" grade Doug fir is available in long lengths here .My last order included 3 10 ft. 2 by 12's . The yard only had one ,and filled the order with a beautiful 20 footer at the same price ! Those are big trees out there . 16 ft. is common , in 2 by ,5/4 , and 1 by nominal dimensions . No need to scarf stringers made from this material,which saves time and money .This is sold as Finish ,not Framing lumber .Check the bigger yards and millwork supply outfits .

[ 05-17-2004, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: Bill Perkins ]

[Bob Quick]

I used douglas fir for all the permanent frames, transom, keel, stingers, sheers and stem. Got a really good price here in Seattle from Hardwood Industries. The biggest piece was 2x8x18 and I cut my stingers and shears from that. I did, however, burn up the motor on my old Craftsman table saw to do it. The kids thought it was funny. I like to plane so things like the stem and keel are really fun for me.

I don't know yet what I'm going to use for the outer stem, shear caps, quarter knees and breast hook. I thought about everything from walnut to oak. Al, what did you use to laminate things like the tiller? The light dark contrast looks really good.

Bob

[Ron Williamson]

Just so you know,White Pine(pinus strobus)isn't SPF.
SPF is framing lumber that can be spruce(white ,black red),pine(lodgepole,jack) or fir(balsam)
R

[Bob Smalser]

Originally posted by jwel1:
What are your ideas of the following woods for frame and stringer stock.

Doug Fir. Hand pick dimensional construction lumber from a good lumber company (not Home Depot) with 8 rings to the inch or better and lorsa heartwood. The builder's price on that stock runs $.80/BF.

Buy more than you need and "highgrade" it by cutting your pieces out so as to avoid sapwood and knots. Take a piece of chalk and your cut list with you to the lumberyard and chalk out your pieces as you select the boards.

[almeyer]

Bob, I used a combination of ash and mahogony for the tiller, red oak and mahogony for the rudder blade. On the tiller, the contrast is almost too much for my taste, although others have said it looks good. But if I were going to do it again, I think I'd use laminations of ash. The laminations take a little more time, but look better than a single piece of solid stock. On the rudder blade, the oak was spaced so that it formed the leading edge of the blade and also had a piece at the pivot bolt location, as I thought these were the areas that needed the greatest wear resistance. As a belt-and-suspenders approach, I also installed a brass bushing at the pivot bolt location.
Al

[Charles Burgess]

Originally posted by jwel1:
I humbly ask your opinion and advice, I'm in the preparation stage of material gathering and building the Penobscot 14. What are your ideas of the following woods for frame and stringer stock.
1) White oak
2) Purpleheart
3) Cypress
4) Clear White pine or actually SPF I believe they call it.
4) WRC- Very good grade of cedar.
Might be able to get most of these in 8' legnths, so I'll soon become a good scarfer or an expert toothpick maker

For a boat of that size I would stick with oak and save the use of softwoods you listed for the planking.

[jwel1]

Thanks for your suggestions, all who responded to my querry. Douglas fir in these parts is harder to find than hens teeth. I have a line on some ash, from a local sawmill, kiln dried. Also thinking about walnut for trim, and perhaps some butternut for seats. Since basically every part of this boat sees 2 coats of epoxy.I know these woods are tougher to work, but I want extreme high grade appearance. As I stated before white pine was one of my options, and is like cutting butter with the tools I use. Give and take,.. go with the ease of use/ workability or go for the furniture look. I'm torn, but leaning towards the latter.

[Nicholas Carey]

You live in the land o'White Oak.

Use it.

Do a little rummaging and I bet you can find a [relatively] local sawyer who can get you green vertical-grain white oak at a righteous price, just what you want.

[ 05-22-2004, 01:07 AM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]

[jwel1]

I sealed the deal this morning, with a white oak purchase for the backbone. I had the w.oak ripped into 3/4" strips, enough to make all the stringers anyway. Next snag is waiting for the epoxy to arrive. Will also use this wood to make transom frame.
Thanks all.

[Venchka]

Lumber buying. White oak ripping. On a Saturday morning in the Spring. Doesn't get much better.

Good luck!

Wayne