Posted by John Nichols on February 01, 2005 at 14:42:43 from 165.91.196.13 user Mcneacail.
In Reply to: Re: Rainfall posted by Mike Field on February 01, 2005 at 08:21:41:
Mike:
Thanks for the email about the epoxy.
If I was not so busy with class I would put some pictures on the web site. I was even thinking of mounting a web cam in the garage, but I would have to turn the sound off.
You asked about the Cedar planks. They use offcut planks here for fence posts. I am a bit of a nut at the local hardware store as I stand and go through the stuff looking for the odd good piece amoungst the rubbish. It was worth it as the planks only cost about $3 a piece. They are easy to work. I used one of these pieces to check the keel line. It bent nicely and showed me the one low point in the design. The only other sort of timber you can get in the town is red oak and it is very expensive per board foot and you can not use it for boat building.
Yes the forms are made from cedar. In buying wood in the last few months I have really started to look at the cost using the board foot measure. It is really good. One board foot equals 1 foot square by one inch thick or 144 cubic inches (sorry about the non metric). My gauge now is pine which is about $1 per board foot but it is knotty and 2 inches thick and warps like crazy.
The white oak (4/4 (or 1 inch thick) planks - 9 inches wide) cost me $3.50 per board foot but it is much more expensive from a boat lumber yard running at about $11 per board foot. The place James and I went allowed us to sort the lumber from two pallets - we looked for clear boards with good grain patterns. It took us four hours of hand sorting to find 10 planks and an assortment of other pieces for the mast. I got a nice piece for the mast - lighter than oak and expensive to boot. ( If you want to add up our time cost, the travel cost and the beer money then the planks are worth about 11 bucks per board foot.)
I was looking at the cedar strip 0.25 inches by 0.75 inches and it runs at 17.50 per board foot for the cheapest I could find upto about 30 per board foot for 18 footers. Throw in the cost of the epoxy and you have a right expensive boat. A small canoe kit is about 1000 from one of the US shops.
I have spent about 500 on white oak, and about 180 on fasteners. I now need the epoxy.
Based on the costs so far I reckon the Swallow will cost me about 1500 for materials. I was looking at the cost for a new carbon fibre Mosquito Catermaran and it is 13,000. I could not afford one of those boats but they sure look nice.
Anyway goto go to work.
John