• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Cutting tapers...

Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Messages
2,338
Reaction score
182
Location
Warren, Manitoba
I need the supreme wood workers here to educate me on how to cut the tapers I need on the inwales for the Morris. The inwales for the bulk of the boat are 7/8" high by 1 1/8" wide. They taper at both ends beginning 40" back from the stems, from the 1 1/8" to 3/8". They do so to tuck in behind the stem which is 3/4" wide on the back side.

I know I could build a jig for the table saw to do this, or I could just spend a zillion hours planing them. Best bet would be to rough cut on the saw and finish with the plane. Anyone have photo's of jigs they have used on their saws to cut tapers? I will also need one for cutting the tapers on the ribs, although I could do those by hand considering I only need to do maybe 8.

If I can only get KD spruce, anyone have any advice on how to get the moisture content in the wood high enough for some serious bending without the wood delaminating?

Thanks
Karin
 
I don't have any photos Karin, but using a table saw is the way I do it. I just attach the piece to be cut to a scrap of plywood, with the cut line parallel to the edge of the plywood that will ride along the fence. I use this method quite a bit too, when I have boards with curves in them, to get me one straight edge along the board to start with.

JIm
 
A 40" taper from 1 1/8" down to 3/8" could be roughed out on a band saw, if you have one, then hand-planed smooth. Leave 1/8" to the 'scrap' side of the pencil line. Go slow, as it's easy to get sideways and cut too deep when you freehand it like that.

It could also be done freehand on a fully-extended table saw blade (which is actually easier as you can lever it off the center of the blade vs fighting the twist of a too-narrow band saw blade, if yours isn't wide enough.) Keep your fingers out of the blade... no need to get them too close when you have that long a piece to hold onto. Support it behind you on a sawhorse set even with the table length.

As far as bending it, I only know one way to get wood damp, and that's a PVC pipe full of steam. Have no pictures, but I'm sure you've seen that kind of rig before.... maybe make a clamping jig out of a couple pieces of 3/4" plywood... once it's soft, put it in the jig till it dries. Even if it straightens up a bit, it would be easier to re-steam and then put in it's final position.

Hope that all makes sense.
 
Steaming is nothing new to us, we have done it off the boat and on where required, but these curves will be something of a beast to do. Normally we would soak the stock for a week, using eavestroughing on the floor filled with water then bend and clamp under the existing inwales. That is how we intend to do this once the stock is shaped. The ends however may require individual steaming and I plan to build jigs for both ends so we can shape both inwales at the same time since once in the boat they will need about 2 weeks to dry.

A good bandsaw is on my wishlist and I may just need to drop the 600 - $1000 on one anyway since I feel it is the best tool for when I need to cut planking past the width of the blade on my table saw.

Plenty of ideas to work from for sure once I get the stock. Running 18 foot material through the table saw has it's own issues of course, but I will figure it out when the time comes.
 
You can get a semi decent band saw for less than $1000. I got a 14" from a second hand store for $250 about 10 years ago. If you want a top notch Laguna or something well then save you pennies.

Or, you can make your own like this you tuber I follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jER-GxU8DE0&list=UUckETVOT59aYw80B36aP9vw
That guy makes some really interesting stuff with wood. He is crazy engineery like
 
Karin,

I think all the answers above great suggestions for you to consider. I'll throw in a couple, and you can figure out what works best for you and your situation.

If you don't have a band saw, do you have a relatively good jig saw? This will certainly do the same thing as a band saw but with the added benefit that your 18ft long piece can be left on your bench and the saw brought to it. As long as you have a nice sharp blade, just follow your line like you would with the bandsaw.

To follow it up, I have 2 new suggestions...

1. You could make a router jig to clamp your part in and use a router bit with a bearing that would follow the jig. This would give you repeatable accuracy for multiple parts
2. Or you could make an angled chute. Basically it consists of 3 parts. A scrap piece of plywood, and 2 wedge shaped pieces that are as long as your taper. Screw the tapered pieces down to the plywood and leave a space between them just a little wider than your rough stock. Clamp your stock to the plywood. Then take a sharp hand plane and run it over your stock. As you get closer to your line,, you will also get closer to your wedge shaped pieces which will act as a depth stop. Once you reach them, they will not allow you to plane past this line.

If my description doesn't make sense. let me know, and I'll do a sketch for you. Let us know how it turns out.

Momentum
 
I like the tapered blocks as guides idea and was tinkering with something like that. I remembered last night it will be compounded by the fact the boat has hordes of tumblehome so the inwales need to have a good angle cut on the inside edge, but as it moves forward I will need to plane that flat and Then I can start the inner taper. I get to do all that before bending and then after I do all the rib pockets.

Of course, I need to find wood first and our friend Doug, whom said to just ask when we needed wood, basically said 18 foot clear spruce in Manitoba is from the Unobtainium tree. It doesn't exist here. I may have to pick through the HD piles of 20 foot 2 x 10's or 12's to find enough clear wood to get two pieces one inch wide.

Thanks for all the input gents, I appreciate it.
 
I know the desire to make it original, but why not go with cedar. It is naturally rot resistant while spruce is a week and rot prone wood.
 
Windsor Plywood has two locations in Winnipeg, they offer Sitka Spruce along with a bunch of other interesting species.

Here at the canoe shop we use Sitka exclusively for inwales and often for outwales, It bends nicely and in spar grade has fine grain lines. In addition Sitka has one of the best strength to weight ratios, hence it is often used in aircraft construction. We can get it in 18 and 20 foot lengths even here on the east coast.

Bring your wallet when you go to buy it,,,,,,,,
 
We deal with Windsor a lot for other woods and have had Sitka quoted in the past and it was over $40 a foot at the time. I will get a new quote and am sending out e-mails to other suppliers for quotes. Noah's in Toronto sells it 8/4 up to 24 feet long at $12.12 a BF. I have already e-mailed them.

It isn't likely Morris used Sitka, just plain old eastern Maine Spruce. However, Sitka seems to be the only spruce available.

I won't need my wallet, I'll need to see the bank about a loan. :eek:

The search begins...
 
Back
Top