Stumped? or just too lazy to think it out!

[Drew]

Okay, I'm living in Thompson hell! I got 3, yes three, all in misc.. dissarea. I've replaced all the frames in one, that was pretty easy overall, cause the garboards were still in place. Now the perplexing problem, I've got the gars removed from my current project, a Sea Coaster of 16+' LOA and I've got to replace all the ribs from the transom to midships. Now if I replace the ribs, there will be a small bow upwards, towards where the garboards should be. And I'm afraid that once the garboards are replaced, that they will become distorted by the bow in the frames. Keep in mind that I'm dealing with 3/8" Mahogany ply. I've thought about adding a iron pig weight on a lenth of nylon cord in the center of the new rib to bow it inwards to prevent this, but, I've come to find that once a frame is pulled from the box that you really don't have alot of time to do this procedure because the ribs cool very fast and become difficult to bend. I have a bunch of photos' posted at www.imagestation.com (http://www.imagestation.com) , their under Sea Coaster garboard replacement in the search engine. I've cut the new keel and keelsons' and I'm going to work the new stem by the weekend. And once their in, here come the new frames and then the garboards, so time is of the essence, Has anyone ever encountered a similar problem? so, am I just lazy, hazy, or just plum crazy?? :confused:

Money won't buy you happiness; but it will always buy you LOVE! hehehehehe.

[ishmael]

There must be something I'm not seeing here, but why not replace the garboards before you bend in the new frames?

[Drew]

Because they have to be nailed and screwed to the bottom of the keelsons, and the bilge stringers. Drew. :eek:

[TimothyB]

That's a great set of pictures Drew. smile.gif

Well, personally I wouldnt steam bend in new ribs. I would laminate them in out of small stuff after I had assembled the keel/keelson/garboard/stringer assembly. One at a time. I'm lazy that way. smile.gif

BUT, if you really want to steam bend them in and insure they don't bow the garboard then you could preshape some angle iron, really thick stuff. The frames you were worried about you could attach them with zip strips (or some sort of thin film tape to be able to remove it after assembly) during the 'bending in' process. If they really do cool that fast, then you should probably boil them rather than steam them in. If you boil them they will stay limber longer. It takes longer though, something like 2 hours. Experiment with your stock to get the right time. Dont let the wood sit on the bottom of the boil pan.. set it up on blocks of wood of the same type. And use a stainless steel pan! Mild steel (including galvanized) turns the wood black (generally). Aluminum -might- work.. I do not know.

I've used this method to bend wood and it works quite nicely. Takes a while to dry out mind you, but gives great results. I got the method from an article on a wooden hoop maker in WB #65.

--T