Because of a collision, I have to replace a portion of the rub rail, and the toe rail on my Typhoon.
It looks like about a 4-foot section of both pieces need to be replaced. How do I bend the teak? Any suggestions?
seandburke@cs.com
Replacing a toe rail
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Larry DeMers
Re: Replacing a toe rail -How to Steam Bend Teak
We lost an 8 ft. piece of toe railing last year..rafted up with 2 others, huge waves from circling tour boat, boats got out of sync, we lost..
So, I used a piece of heavy cardboard to cut a pattern of the curve of the toe rail. The actual cross-section shape is very easy to make, using a table saw with an angled fine-toothed blade. Copy the angle from the old piece. Someone a while back published the exact angle, and that would be nice to use if possible, but approximating it served well for us. Once the cross-sectional shape is made, you will want to bend the piece. We made a steam bender out of an old gas water heater. The inner core is a steel tank. We cut a 5x5 in. hole in the top (crudely, with acetelene) for hanging the wood rail. The burner heats the bottom of the tank directly, so I put in about 1 gallon of water, and had a hose ready to add more as the level dropped from steam..but it wasn't needed. We heated the tank, and the water steamed nicely. We divided the 8+ ft. piece in half using a scarf at 15 deg. to the horizontal, and a right-angle end cut..complicated sounding, but Cape Dory did this on all their scarfs, and it is beautiful work.
The piece was steamed, then placed on the plywood former. Woops, forgot to mention that. The plywood former is just scrap 1/8 - 1/4 in. ply, about 2ft. wide and 8ft. long..blocked up to approximate the sheer at that point on the rail. (ie: Sounds complicated, but really, all you will do here, is duplicate the sheer angle as viewed from say 10 ft. away. Use ply scrap to adjust the curvature).
Next lay the cardboard pattern on the plywood and trace it on the ply. Cut up some scrap 2x2 stock, about 4in. long each. Cut enough to have 1 per 4 in of wood to be bent..putting them at 2 in. intervals leading into the corners. Align these wood blocks with one side of the line you traced on the ply. Place another wood block oposite the others, but spaced the width of the toe rail + a tad (a really exact number..say 1/8th in. ).
Ok..suspend your rail from one end, into the top of the tank, and lightly cover the rest of the hole to trap steam inside, but *do not* build up any pressure in side the tank!!! This stuff is hot and will burn you. Heat it for some time..take it out, and carefully place the end between the wood blocks, and bend the wood in the form of the outline. It will probably bend onl y slightly at first, so take it as far as feels right..but not too much. Hold it until cool. Repeat the steaming process. Place it back intothe form. rebending carefully, and gradually. Eventually your piece will bend and follow the compound curves, but it wil take a full day to get it perfect. Leave the wood inthe form for a day or two, or until ready to scarf into the old railing. If you thought ahead, you probably gave yourself an extra ft. or so, to make the scarf with.
I use a japanese pull-saw, with a fine kerf. I try to make a 30 deg. to the horizontal cut to both pieces. This process takes time and patience, and an occasional beer. This is where your little beauty will be made better or worse..so give it your best effort. For the other ends kerf, cut the standing piece first, to establish the angle needed. Start on the new piece long of the final length..by 1/2 in. place the wood in parallel with the standing piece, and copy the angle with your saw. Because you started long, you will have to make a second final cut, which will contain the correction to the first kerf's angle. Still with me? whew..
Ok next is sealing and attaching the teak. I sanded first; 180, then 120..no further. Teak will seal up if it is sanded too fine before the first coat. Fine sand after the first sealer coat only. I used 3M101 to caulk the toe rail, and S.S. fasteners that were there originally. I drilled and countersunk the holes as originally done, to allow for bungs to be used.Start at the flatest part, working towards the largest curvature slowly. You may have to tighten three of four screws in sequence, to bend the wood evenly (where there is a small radius),otherwise the process is nearly done. At the final kerf that you cut previously, you may need to ***block sand***the new ends kerf to fit the standing parts kerf. Be very careful to keep the block at the same angle as the piece needs for a perfect match (this is where you earn that big check). Use a good exterior wood glue at the scarfs, and clean up your excess as you go. I used resorcinal, but it shows a dark purple coloration through the cetol, which does sort of make it visible.. but darn waterproof and secure. There are better adhesives to use that are transparent however..and I would recommend that approach.
That's it for this epistle..
Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~~Snowbound on Lake Superior~~~
Varnish it asap, so that the moisture content will not change much
demers@sgi.com
So, I used a piece of heavy cardboard to cut a pattern of the curve of the toe rail. The actual cross-section shape is very easy to make, using a table saw with an angled fine-toothed blade. Copy the angle from the old piece. Someone a while back published the exact angle, and that would be nice to use if possible, but approximating it served well for us. Once the cross-sectional shape is made, you will want to bend the piece. We made a steam bender out of an old gas water heater. The inner core is a steel tank. We cut a 5x5 in. hole in the top (crudely, with acetelene) for hanging the wood rail. The burner heats the bottom of the tank directly, so I put in about 1 gallon of water, and had a hose ready to add more as the level dropped from steam..but it wasn't needed. We heated the tank, and the water steamed nicely. We divided the 8+ ft. piece in half using a scarf at 15 deg. to the horizontal, and a right-angle end cut..complicated sounding, but Cape Dory did this on all their scarfs, and it is beautiful work.
The piece was steamed, then placed on the plywood former. Woops, forgot to mention that. The plywood former is just scrap 1/8 - 1/4 in. ply, about 2ft. wide and 8ft. long..blocked up to approximate the sheer at that point on the rail. (ie: Sounds complicated, but really, all you will do here, is duplicate the sheer angle as viewed from say 10 ft. away. Use ply scrap to adjust the curvature).
Next lay the cardboard pattern on the plywood and trace it on the ply. Cut up some scrap 2x2 stock, about 4in. long each. Cut enough to have 1 per 4 in of wood to be bent..putting them at 2 in. intervals leading into the corners. Align these wood blocks with one side of the line you traced on the ply. Place another wood block oposite the others, but spaced the width of the toe rail + a tad (a really exact number..say 1/8th in. ).
Ok..suspend your rail from one end, into the top of the tank, and lightly cover the rest of the hole to trap steam inside, but *do not* build up any pressure in side the tank!!! This stuff is hot and will burn you. Heat it for some time..take it out, and carefully place the end between the wood blocks, and bend the wood in the form of the outline. It will probably bend onl y slightly at first, so take it as far as feels right..but not too much. Hold it until cool. Repeat the steaming process. Place it back intothe form. rebending carefully, and gradually. Eventually your piece will bend and follow the compound curves, but it wil take a full day to get it perfect. Leave the wood inthe form for a day or two, or until ready to scarf into the old railing. If you thought ahead, you probably gave yourself an extra ft. or so, to make the scarf with.
I use a japanese pull-saw, with a fine kerf. I try to make a 30 deg. to the horizontal cut to both pieces. This process takes time and patience, and an occasional beer. This is where your little beauty will be made better or worse..so give it your best effort. For the other ends kerf, cut the standing piece first, to establish the angle needed. Start on the new piece long of the final length..by 1/2 in. place the wood in parallel with the standing piece, and copy the angle with your saw. Because you started long, you will have to make a second final cut, which will contain the correction to the first kerf's angle. Still with me? whew..
Ok next is sealing and attaching the teak. I sanded first; 180, then 120..no further. Teak will seal up if it is sanded too fine before the first coat. Fine sand after the first sealer coat only. I used 3M101 to caulk the toe rail, and S.S. fasteners that were there originally. I drilled and countersunk the holes as originally done, to allow for bungs to be used.Start at the flatest part, working towards the largest curvature slowly. You may have to tighten three of four screws in sequence, to bend the wood evenly (where there is a small radius),otherwise the process is nearly done. At the final kerf that you cut previously, you may need to ***block sand***the new ends kerf to fit the standing parts kerf. Be very careful to keep the block at the same angle as the piece needs for a perfect match (this is where you earn that big check). Use a good exterior wood glue at the scarfs, and clean up your excess as you go. I used resorcinal, but it shows a dark purple coloration through the cetol, which does sort of make it visible.. but darn waterproof and secure. There are better adhesives to use that are transparent however..and I would recommend that approach.
That's it for this epistle..
Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~~Snowbound on Lake Superior~~~
Varnish it asap, so that the moisture content will not change much
Jack Burke wrote: Because of a collision, I have to replace a portion of the rub rail, and the toe rail on my Typhoon.
It looks like about a 4-foot section of both pieces need to be replaced. How do I bend the teak? Any suggestions?
demers@sgi.com
-
Anthony P. Jeske
Re: Replacing a toe rail
Jack:
You may want to get a copy of Bruce Bingham's book "The Sailor's Sketchbook". It has some good info on making a scarf jig and copying curves.
I modified Bingham's scarfing jig plans for use with a router rather than a plane, which enabled me to cut a scarf into the undamaged part of the rub rail while it was still fastened to the hull.
I repaired one rub rail by removing the entire thing, and taking it home for repair. While this made the scarfing and gluing easy, transporting and holding this long, wobbly rail for re-attachment was a nightmare. The second time I had to repair a storm damaged rail, I used the router scarf jig and only replaced the damaged portion. I think that was a better way to go.
By the way, it's the heat, not the steam, that makes the wood bend. Any way you can heat the wood will work. Hot air was used sucessfully to bend the frames of the replica lake schooner built in Milwaukee.
Good Luck,
Tony Jeske
ajeske@ixpres.com
You may want to get a copy of Bruce Bingham's book "The Sailor's Sketchbook". It has some good info on making a scarf jig and copying curves.
I modified Bingham's scarfing jig plans for use with a router rather than a plane, which enabled me to cut a scarf into the undamaged part of the rub rail while it was still fastened to the hull.
I repaired one rub rail by removing the entire thing, and taking it home for repair. While this made the scarfing and gluing easy, transporting and holding this long, wobbly rail for re-attachment was a nightmare. The second time I had to repair a storm damaged rail, I used the router scarf jig and only replaced the damaged portion. I think that was a better way to go.
By the way, it's the heat, not the steam, that makes the wood bend. Any way you can heat the wood will work. Hot air was used sucessfully to bend the frames of the replica lake schooner built in Milwaukee.
Good Luck,
Tony Jeske
ajeske@ixpres.com
-
Larry DeMers
Re: Replacing a toe rail
Tony,
While heat alone will work, you need alot more of it, and for a lot longer period. Steam boxes work faster because the steam makes a better contact with the wood, transfering the heat to the wood quickly, while softening it a bit to make shaping easier. It is the way that shipwrights have done it for 300 years. It seems to be an easy step to go from building a container to hold a 4ft. piece of wood to be heated (dry) to adding a small amount of water, and steaming the wood properly. You avoid overheating and charring the wood in the process.
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
demers@sgi.com
While heat alone will work, you need alot more of it, and for a lot longer period. Steam boxes work faster because the steam makes a better contact with the wood, transfering the heat to the wood quickly, while softening it a bit to make shaping easier. It is the way that shipwrights have done it for 300 years. It seems to be an easy step to go from building a container to hold a 4ft. piece of wood to be heated (dry) to adding a small amount of water, and steaming the wood properly. You avoid overheating and charring the wood in the process.
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30
Anthony P. Jeske wrote: Jack:
You may want to get a copy of Bruce Bingham's book "The Sailor's Sketchbook". It has some good info on making a scarf jig and copying curves.
I modified Bingham's scarfing jig plans for use with a router rather than a plane, which enabled me to cut a scarf into the undamaged part of the rub rail while it was still fastened to the hull.
I repaired one rub rail by removing the entire thing, and taking it home for repair. While this made the scarfing and gluing easy, transporting and holding this long, wobbly rail for re-attachment was a nightmare. The second time I had to repair a storm damaged rail, I used the router scarf jig and only replaced the damaged portion. I think that was a better way to go.
By the way, it's the heat, not the steam, that makes the wood bend. Any way you can heat the wood will work. Hot air was used sucessfully to bend the frames of the replica lake schooner built in Milwaukee.
Good Luck,
Tony Jeske
demers@sgi.com
-
Jonathan Dodge
Re: Replacing a toe rail
Jack:
This summer I replaced the toe rail and rub rail all around my Ty.
With the help of David (my boat yard guy) and my self we were able to replace them with out steaming or heating the wood. We first did a dry run drilling pilot holes (every 1')in the teak and fiberglass, we then applied 3M 101 then placed screws.
Best of luck // fresh teak is worth the time
Jonathan Dodge
CD Typhoon
"Lion's Whelp"
Lindstrom MN
Jonathan.D.Dodge@HealthPartners.com
This summer I replaced the toe rail and rub rail all around my Ty.
With the help of David (my boat yard guy) and my self we were able to replace them with out steaming or heating the wood. We first did a dry run drilling pilot holes (every 1')in the teak and fiberglass, we then applied 3M 101 then placed screws.
Best of luck // fresh teak is worth the time
Jonathan Dodge
CD Typhoon
"Lion's Whelp"
Lindstrom MN
Jonathan.D.Dodge@HealthPartners.com