My old Spotted Gum suppliers couldn't do it, so I had to look for an alternate source for green Spotted Gum for the ribs. Through another boatbuilder mate, I contacted Ulladulla Joinery who were able to cut it in their own sawmill. I drove to Ulladulla (about 230km) to pick it up (and had a couple of days at Hyams Beach on the way back). About 500kg (half a ton) put the back of the tray down a few inches and the steering was a bit light on the way home, but I put on more strapping than you see in the photo and arrived safely home. Machining it has taken the last two days. If you look closely at the pile in the second photo you will see the bits against the wall cut and thicknessed to 2" x 7/8" (51 x 22mm) for the ribs in the forward part of the boat where the bends are not excessive. The group in the middle are sawn to 63 x 7.3mm and will be steamed in, then removed, dried and epoxy glued back in as described in the previous post, and for the reasons outlined there, that is the tight s-bend curves in the after third of the boat would be too much of an ask for the full-thickness ribs. The pieces in the pile closest to the edge of the bench are sawn to 11mm for the ribs in the middle section of the boat in two laminations where there is less bend, but still some tight curves. Five bags of green Spotted Gum sawdust came off the dust extractor. Anyone have a use for that?
Preparing the stock for steaming and fitting will take a few more days and I expect to fire the steam box up later next week.
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AuthorIan Smith, Boatbuilder (ret'd) Archives
January 2024
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