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On 18 Aug 2005 23:30:59 -0700, said:
...
But correct if I'm wrong: If a wanna build a cold molding runabout I
need a lot of plywood. If I wanna build a batten seam boat I need a lot
of "real" massive wood.
Cold molding does not really involve plywood as such, rather strips of
veneer. Plywood and cold-molded boat hulls are similar in that they are
both made from veneer, but veneer is not plywood.
Batten seam construction probably is not really for the beginner, the
actual planking is close to the old style carvel planking and unless
your edge to edge joints are very good indeed you'll be using a lot
of gap filler. This would probably best be some sort of epoxy putty,
and you'd end up turning a lot of that into powder when smoothing.
You'd want to use epoxy as the adhesive anyway, but really the safety
measures are no more than you ought to take for any adhesive. Or even
any significant woodwork: airborne wood dust is pretty nasty in its
own right, and more hazardous than epoxy fumes in a well ventilated shop.
There are several other methods and materials for planking wooden hulls
which you may wish to consider before making a decision. If you're
interested in a hull that looks like real timber when clear finished,
you might look at strip planking. Glued plywood lapstrake is also
very pretty, immensely strong for its weight and current thinking
seems to suggest will result in a boat that lasts forever.
For a first project, you might consider a plywood boat from a design
that uses the stitch-and-tape method. This is a very fast way to find
out if you have the particular disease that compels otherwise perfectly
sane people to build wooden boats  .
Traditionally runabouts have been built using mahogany. Are there any
alternatives for that wood? I mean if the boat gets 10 coats of varnish
anyway - how important might the rotting properties of the wood be?
I'd only seriously consider using timber for strip plank construction.
And if you were going with a timber boat, be guided 100% by the advice
of the designer.
--Damian
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