When my thickness planer came back from from repair (I'll tell that story shortly) I was able to plane the wide (10-11", 250-270mm) boards of Queensland Maple (Flindersia Brayleyana, no relation to Northern Hemisphere Maples at all) I had purchased from Anagote Timbers in Marrickville, rout a tongue and groove on matching edges and start fitting them. Unlike any of the other Rangers I decided to make the whole area forward of the bulkhead into a V-berth, a layout that worked great on a previous boat Blackwattle (see MY BOATS Page on the Menu above). The bulkhead will be trimmed with Australian Red Cedar. I built up a template with bits of timber and plywood and hot-melt glue for the board that adjoined the hull side that had to be fitted over the upper and lower sheer clamps. Like any template, I always cut conservatively when fashioning the board to be used because my templates never prove to be accurate enough, so I leave extra wood on and worry it down to a decent fit. I'll put out a video on bulkhead fitting later. My thickness planer, a DeWalt 735, seen here doing sterling service thicknessing a Tea-Tree knee spent 5 months being repaired. I left it with Sydney Tools from whom I purchased it a couple of years ago after it stopped when I asked a bit much of it. To cut a long story short, Sydney Tools sent me the quote in a no-reply email. There was no indication that it was a no-reply email so I promptly responded with a message to proceed, and it took many months and many phone calls to get the situation worked out and the bloody thing repaired. They did eventually apologise, but my advice to anyone leaving tools for repair with them or indeed anyone else is never assume. Keep ringing until you get a result. The Maple boards are bedded to the laminated grounds with low-modulus polyurethane (SIKAFLEX PRO), and are screwed to the deck beam, the bunk support beam and the structural floor. The sections between the stringers will be screwed to Spotted Gum frame sections yet to be fitted, which will themselves be bolted through the hull. This will be shown also in a later video on bulkheads. I have also fitted sections of hardwood (Jarrah in this case, which will be painted where visible) as a king plank forward of the mast, including a wider section which houses the Sampson post, a 4" (100mm) square piece of Spotted Gum, tapered slightly below decks. If you look closely at some of the images you might also see a couple of varnished Tea-Tree hanging knees under the beam against the bulkhead, another pair of (painted) knees on the next beam forward (they will be inside a locker), and a lodging knee forward of the bulkhead to Starboard, the only one yet fitted of a number of lodging knees to be fitted to the deck structure. The next video to appear will most likely be about fitting knees.
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AuthorIan Smith, Boatbuilder (ret'd) Archives
January 2024
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