Twisted Oak

K

Ken Martin

New member
I unfortunately inherited a sneak boat from a good friend (hunting partner) who passed away. He had this boat for a few years and we were planning on getting back on the water. It is a fiberglass hull with a plywood deck. There is some spider cracking on the inside of the hull which I feel confident in fixing and the plywood is in good shape but needs a good sanding and a coat of FME.

There is a plywood "keel" board inside, running most of the length of the hull that is rotten. I asked my friend Lou what to replace it with and he said white oak. I was lucky to find a 22' X 8" X 2" (dimensional) piece of rough cut white oak from a local sawmill.

It has a slight twist and I would like to get the dimensions to ~16' X 6" X 1". I have a good planer and band saw (resaw blade with fence) and can always pick up something that could help.

What would be the best way to get a fairly square-ish board to fiberglass in the keel of the hull? I have flange studs to glass in prior to the board and it will be bolted in as well as glassed in.

Thanks in advance,

Ken
 
Is there a fiberglass channel that the board drops in? Or will you have to stand it on it's edge and glass to the hull? Is your oak board dry? Most sawmills sell green wood unless they have a kiln on-site. First order of business is making sure you have dried wood to work with. As for machining the wood do you have access to a table saw and jointer, in addition to your planer? A 16' board will bend a fair amount when setting in place, but it's always nice to have straight lumber to not fight with. You will probably find a jigsaw will be better than wrestling a 16' board on the bandsaw if you have to cut top/bottom profiles to match the hull.

Eric.
 
Is there a fiberglass channel that the board drops in? Not really. The hull drops into a molded keel and the inside is filled by glass and this plywood. I do not think there is an actual molded channel for the wood.
Or will you have to stand it on it's edge and glass to the hull? The plywood that is in there currently is ~4-5 wide flat along the keel.
Is your oak board dry? Very
Most sawmills sell green wood unless they have a kiln on-site. First order of business is making sure you have dried wood to work with. As for machining the wood do you have access to a table saw and jointer, in addition to your planer? I have a table saw and I have been looking for a jointer.
A 16' board will bend a fair amount when setting in place, but it's always nice to have straight lumber to not fight with. You will probably find a jigsaw will be better than wrestling a 16' board on the bandsaw if you have to cut top/bottom profiles to match the hull. Are you suggesting a taper from the center to better follow the hull?
 
Something that big is difficult to flatten using average, home-sized stationary power tools. I would use a hand plane to flatten one side of the plank, then from there, the stationary power tools can take over. Personally, I would use a #3, 4, or 5 bench plane or "smoothing" plane because this is the most suitable thing I have on hand. Make sure it is really sharp, and it should only take a few minutes to get that first side flat. It really helps to lay a few straight sticks or rods across the plank and sight down the length of the plank like you are looking down a shotgun barrel. The sticks or rods, being a couple of feet long, will stick out beyond the width of the plank and offer an exaggerated view of the twist. This makes it easy to visualize where to remove material or not.
Once that first side is flat, the rest is easy, and the stationary power tools can do the rest.
It might also save you some time if you first run the whole thing through the planer for a few light passes to clean up the surface enough to evaluate the grain of the plank. Then you can pick the most suitable area from which to make your keel. Cut that piece out of the plank first, a little oversize, and the flattening job is on a much smaller area, so, easier. This way, the rest of the plank is left full-thickness, to be used later, while the much smaller piece can be resawn or planed down to its final thickness.
Is this an old-fashioned, double-ended Great Lakes-style sneak boat? Or something else?
 
Yeah it is a Great Lakes double ender. It has a motor mount that might have been added after first built. Oar locks look original. I plan on documenting the restoration.
 
Is your planer a hand planer or one that you pass the board through? Def worth checking the grain. I often barter jobs and odds and ends for rough sawn boards from local mills and age them inside, then pass them through my power planer to make them the dimensions I want. I'm currently building an outdoor bar out of solid maple (8'x3' bar top, with shelves, wine racks, a sink, and a spot for a fridge under the bar) from maple from a friends house and some of the remaining boards from my old farm. I've found it easier to cut the rough sawn into pieces closer to my target working pieces (take a 1.25"x10" into two 1.25"x4.25" and then plane to size). Helps to know what the grain wants to do first.

When you say very dry, does it feel dry or do you have a meter to measure moisture content? Because there's a big difference.
 
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