Re: Soldiers, bulkheads and transom...

["Robert Harper" <rharper@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FWIW,

I think you want to still use strips with a cove and bead for the transom  
and bulkheads. You can go with wider strips if you want but I think the  
cove and bead will give you a stronger joint because of the increased  
surface area and shape. Butt joints are not very strong. In fact, they are  
the weakest joints you can make with wood.

I would not try to stray too far from proven methods. Often there are  
reasons that people go to the extra work for some things. No one wants to  
do more work than they have to but to take too many shortcuts and have  
things fail on you is much more wasteful of your time and money.

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to solve by using simple butt joints  
for the transom and bulkheads. If you are trying to save time, I don't  
think you'll gain much because you'll want to run the strips on a joiner  
so that the butt joints match up well without voids. I think running the  
router to put a cove and bead on will be easier and much less expensive  
than trying to get butt joints to fit properly.

When I built my canoe, I used butt joints to join shorter strips together  
to get the length I needed. This was very problematic for the stripping  
process so on the later boats, I've used a 12:1 scarf joint that is very  
strong and works great. I once tried feather joints but I had problems  
with those because the bond wasn't much stronger than a butt joint and I'd  
end up with a similar mess to what I had with butt joints. There was a lot  
more time involved in doing the scarf joints but it sure made a huge  
difference in the stripping process and the quality of the finished  
process. I had much less fairing to do and it looked much better. I hate  
sanding and scraping so if there is something I can do to reduce that part  
of the process, I'm all over it.

On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:57:43 -0700, Warren Stevens <warren@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  
wrote:

> Crusher (my blog) is mostly what I did with a few addendums from ideas  
> on the list.  The idea of cutting strips but not cutting the beads and  
> coves into them for the bulkhead material was something I dreamt up, but  
> haven't tried.  It theory it seems like it would be a good way to save  
> some time and effort, but of course, it's not tested...
>
> Be careful to ensure the grain is the right direction - on all the  
> strips you want grain visible on the wide sides, not the narrow side.
>
> Warren
>
> ----- Original message -----
> From: "Cameron Hunziker" <cameron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: swiftsolo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 17:18:43 -0800
> Subject: Soldiers, bulkheads and transom...
>
> I got my plans yesterday, and have been alternating between them, the
> mailing list archives and the Crusher site (You sir are a gem!) pretty
> much non-stop for the last 16 hours.  And I have a few thoughts:
>
> 1.  I read on the Crusher site of a discussion about using clean (not
> beaded or coved) strips for the bulkhead.  Further reviews of the
> archive turned up a conversation about the possibility of using
> plywood.  I will be ripping my own strips, and will likely rip them in
> 2 or 3 different stages.  So that got me thinking, could the bulkhead
> material be composed of cedar 1x4s ripped into 1/4" x 4" s and glued
> together to form the 5" x 5"  sheet of material?  The grain of the
> wood would still run vertically, but it would mean a hell of a lot
> less glue (roughly 16 or so glue lines) and fewer cuts.  It should
> also be lighter, but will it be less strong or less absorbent to shock?
>
> 2.  On a similar note, could the transom also be assembled w/o bead
> and cove (I'd stick w/ 1/4" strips here for aesthetic purposes)?
>
>
> 3. Bram's trick on how he did his deck design (gluing full strips of
> mahogany and cedar and then cutting into smaller segments) got me
> thinking about the tee soldiers.  Could they be assembled with the
> fillets and glass tape as a single strip and then cut to length w/ a
> think kerf chop saw?   With this approach it might be easier to attach
> the cedar strips without using staples (sandwiching the cedar -
> soldier - cedar with a couple of 2 x 4s either clamped or screwed to
> your work table)
>
>
> Are these reasonable solutions, or am I delusional from lack of sleep?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Cameron
>
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Robert Harper

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