Got my plans, read them carefully and now I am ready to loft the Keel and stem. Plans say to use 1x12 pine, fir is an upgrade. cautions aginst useing 2x12 fir. Why? It seems to me that if I use 2x12 fir I can make a large rabit joint at the keel stem joint. Useing 1x12 pine boils down to a large rabit joint at the keel/stem joint. 2x12 fir would involve much less glueing and screwing. I read where one builder used 2x12 fir and had it milled to 1x12. That seems really expensive. Thanks for all your help. Mike/Twodog
Mike,
Two boards laminated together will be more stable than a single thicker board. Ideally you would select straight grain, quartersawn wood as it will have the least amount of cupping or tendency to warp or twist. Working from a 2X12 planed down to 3/4" thick will get you to the longer pieces of wood at sometimes a more reasonable cost.
In selecting the wood, try to avoid the White pine that is commonly available in the Box stores around here. It really isn't suitable for boat building. It makes nice shelving for indoor use but not for keels or other structural parts on boats. Same with the poplar that is sold locally. Not a good choice.
I ended up using hemlock for mine. It is a little less than 3/4" thick on a finished 1X board but it will work OK. The most common will be either the brown mahogany or doug fir in 1X stock around here. Try to pick straight grain and as close to quarter sawn stock as you can find. Try to avoid plain cut lumber as it will cup on you and twist. Small knots are fine, larger ones will ultimately work loose in many cases.
I'm in Mukilteo area but will be happy to help if you need it. There are other builders in your area, Capt. Jake is the best known with his fine Weekender, "Fire Escape." He is a good person to get to know if you haven't met him. He is also a fire fighter. Unfortunately he doesn't frequent this forum. You will find him on the other forum as are most of the Pacific Northwest builders.
Ahoy Mike,
Welcome to BYYB.
You want the keel to be as straight as an arrow. Laminated stock is your best chance of achieving that and of keeping everything straight once the keel is submerged. Laminated stock is also stronger than its solid counterpart.
If you laminate from three planks, just check your growth rings and reverse the direction on each subsequent board. Ideally, if you could use quarter-sawn stock, you would have the best of all possible choices. Most of us, though, use what is readidly available (and readidly within our budget range) and simply laminate our stock.
White oak would be an excellent choice wood for the keel. We used pine for our keel, though. It was what we had and what we could afford at the time.
(I just noticed that Barry Pyeatt posted an answer. You can't go wrong listening to Barry, and he's up there in your neck of the woods. Maybe you'll get a chance to meet him.)
Thanks Barry and Jim, I appreciate your help. I suspected I was missing something. Otherwise, other folks would have done it. I am overwelmed at you offer of assistance Barry. Perhaps we could meet somewhere and have a cup of coffee sometime. You folks sure make a fella feel wecome in a hurry. What other forum. I would like to meet Capt. Jack. Thanks again for all your help. Take careb be safe Mike/twodog
Ahoy Mike,
The other forum would be the
Messing About Forum. It's Frank Hagan's forum, and a good one. You'll even find there a photo or two of Barry's nice boat.
http://messing-about.com/forum/