Bending the Gunnels
October 21, 2011

After ripping 1x2 strips from a larger board, as shown in the October 10 write-up, I needed to pick which strips I was going to use for gunnels, inwales, stringers and the keel.

A 1x2 is too bendy to cut with the circular saw and guide, so I went back to the tablesaw. 1x2s are much easier to handle than full-blown hunks of lumber. The trick here is to split the 1x2 exactly in half to get a pair of stringers. Because stringers are so thin and long - .75 x .75 x 14ft - they can't have any knots or flaws. I scarfed out a couple knots, but for the most part, the stringers are perfect pieces of wood.

I lightly sanded the stringers and set 'em aside for varnishing later.

The gunnels and inwales have to be bent on edge - the hard way. These things love to flop over on their sides, so I strongly clamped all four pieces together and suspended them between sawhorses. 35lbs of weight didn't do much bending.

I wrapped the middle of the bundle with towels (I have specific shop towels for this - you should, too) and hung 70lbs of weight on the middle - this got a couple inches of deflection.

Next, I poured boiling water on the bundle - I can boil 4 gallons at a time and I did 4 sessions. Then I let it set for 2 days. With the weight on, the boards deflected about 13 inches.

I took off the towels and let it dry for another day. When I finally removed the weights the boards remained deflected about 7".

Now on to sanding and varnishing.