I'm getting ready to purchase the lumber for my cabin rafters. I used mahogany throughout my Weekender, including the rafters, and was planning the same for my Vacationer. Unfortunately, mahogany is locally available as 8/4 stock that I will have to plane down to 1-1/2" thick, and the cost is $14 a board foot! Thats over $300 for the rafters alone! I like mahogany as much as the next guy, but that is nearly cost prohibitive! Any suggestions on substitutions for the mahogany? Saepele is available, but only in 4/4 thickness and is still expensive at $10 a board foot. Any ideas?
Would staining or dying another species with interesting grain be reasonable? We have red elm, 8/4 available at $2.90 a BF. I've seen some furniture using the wood, and it looks good. Would this be reasonable?
Dave
Hi Dave,
Wow! $300 is a lot of money. I saw a photo of your Weekender and it is one of the nicest ever!
I could probably win a contest for the cheapest Weekender built in 2010. It cost me $1500. and I used epoxy. My rafters cost under $10 and I used spruce that I stained mahogany. The boat looks pretty good and it is on the Stevenson builders site on page 13 or 14. The tanbark sails cost an extra $700 with one reef. I am nowhere near the craftsman you are. I'm just a beginner. Anyway I'm now trying for the record of the cheapest Vacationer ever built. I turned it over yesterday and it's looking pretty good. I look forward to seeing more pics of your build.
See if you can get meranti, which looks like mahogany. It's got good strength, though doesn't like to bend so much, but neither does mahogany. Douglas fir is much cheaper, though it doesn't look like mahogany, you could stain it or paint it. The same would be true of SYP. I'd avoid cypress and other woods that like to check. Live oak would look good, but avoid red oak as it's not very strong, tends to be brittle and rots easily. White oak is common, but can check, unlike live oak. All the oaks bend well.
Paul: What about red elm? I know it's not terribly rot resistant, but the rafters will be eopxied and not subject to weather.
Herschel:Â Thanks for the nice comments!
Dave
I don't know enough about red elm to comment, but I tend to use softwoods for cabin beams, as you want things light in this area of the boat. I also compensate for stiffness (the advantage of hardwoods) by laminating softwoods. The last cabin beams I made (a 37' Atkins design), I used alternating layers of yellow cedar (for strength) with red cedar (for contrasting color and light weight). The beams where pretty deep, about 3" molded. I made the beams with 8 layers of 3/8" thick stock (alternating) and they held the curve perfectly after coming out of the jigs. I had less than a 1/4" spring back across the over 8' long beams, which is really good. The number of laminations made this possible. The alternating colors made for a great clear finish, especially on the ends where they were heavily rounded over.
Why not just use a nice piece of douglas fir, like the instructions call for? The rafters in my cabin have aged to a nice orangey colour, with just varnish on them. This isn't a great photo, but you can see the aft beam below the hatch. (Please excuse the outside woodwork; it takes a lot of use and weather.)
Keith: I'm looking for some clear Dou8g fir. It may be the best option.
Dave
The tongue and groove decking sold at Lowe's/Depot is usually nice, clear Douglas fir.
I didn't build the cabin on my weekender but I think I would use whatever wood is available at a reasonable price and paint it. I started to go the "bright" route with the rails and mast/boom but realized that I'm too lazy to keep up the finish. The only piece on my boat that's bright is the tiller which I made from 9 pieces of steam bent oak. It was too much work to hide with paint.
I like to start with varnished surfaces and let them piss me off enough in their care to eventually paint them.