bend teak for toe rail

[arch007]

I wonder if there is a risk of the teak piece breaking when i bend it to form the toe rail ?

I plan to put screws every 2 inches in the teak piece as i force it to bend to follow the hull.

I would also use 3m 4200 as bedding.

Do not plan to steam the teak.

Thanks

Arch

[bhartley]

I had no problems bending my toerails. I replaced bow to stern not just a scarfed in piece. The long pieces will be a lot more flexible than you think. You need 4 hands. Do a complete dry-fit first. Screwing every 2" seems very excessive. I don't have dimensions in front of me, but I think mine were closer to 12". All rail holes were drilled and countersunk before dry fit.
Bedded with Boatlife caulk. I would avoid adhesive.

Keep your scarf joints 12:1.

[Paul D.]

There is generally a risk whenever bending wood. Having said that if your doing toerails for one of the smaller CD's I think it should bend fine if you go slowly. You could try wiping it down with a rag and very hot water as you bend if it seems really stiff. Consider the grain too when shaping the rails. I'll second the previous post re avoiding adhesive, I would use 3M 101 or LifeCaulk for this application. Good luck!

[tjr818]

Start at the bow. Gentle use of a heat gun often will help with the bending, but I rally don't see any bend on our 27 that would threaten any bending at all. Do be careful of the grain, check that out carefully before scarfing and shaping. the closer to quarter sawn that you can get the better. you want to bend perpendicular to the grain (so that the grain is running horizontal, not vertical).

[John Stone]

I would have no issue in using 3m 4000UV. It's one of three bedding compounds I use. It's grippy but not permanent like 5200. But it is not my first choice on teak if for no ther reason than color. Boat life comes in teak color and is much better at blending in than refrigerator white 4200. I am will to bet the toe-rail bend radius on all the Cape Dorys is the same regardless of size.

[Nebe]

Every hole you make for a toe rail screw is a spot for a potential leak. Id go every 6 inches at the most.

[John Stone]

That's a great point that I failed to comment on--2" is way to close. 8-12 would be be better. Yes to the leaks. So much so I removed the toerail from the Far Reach, glassed the hull deck joint over with three layers of biaxial and installed a 6" tall bulwarks. If my memory serves me correct there were 56 holes in each toe rail on the Far areach. Many of them leaked.

[Steve Laume]

Lots of speculation and casual opinions on hole spacing. Matching the factory hole spacing, if not the location would be the option I would pursue. Teak or just about any wood should be able to make that bend. It would be a clamp as you go sort of project. Teak doesn't steam well anyway and it would be a huge PIA.

This is one job where a helper could actually help, Steve.

[John Stone]

Arch, there is another thing to consider as you make plans to install a new toerail and that is the color of the bedding compound. This from a previous post.

The reason for using dark caulk, other than the fact that it won't yellow and may well be more UV resistant, is that if there are any visible caulking lines, and you want to varnish the trim, the varnish will not show on the caulk if its dark as it will on white colored caulk. To my eye, I think it's a cleaner look. Here is an example. If you click on this link and scroll to the 10 Feb 14 entry you will see a picture of the varnished winch pads next to the mahogany coaming.

http://www.farreachvoyages.com/dailylog ... esent.html

I bedded the coaming with white caulk against white gelcoat . . . which you can see in the left foreground. I thought it looked good at the time. But, it's hard to varnish as no matter how well you tape, eventually you will get some varnish under the tape and on the calk and over time it gets grubby looking. But, note the teak winch pad to the right of the coaming. I decided to use teak colored caulk. It blends nicely with the winch base. You have to work to see it. The dark caulk wont get as grubby looking over time as the white caulk and is less likely to show varnish. Again, it's no crime to go with white but you might think the dark looks better. Chose how you wish.

Polysulfide comes off gelcoat easily, as long as you attend to it in an expedition manner. There are a variety of reason for choosing different approaches. Like I said, I have done it both ways, and had good results both ways. But I tend to go with dark caulk all things considered equal. I don't know if it really matters in the long run . . . do what makes sense to you.

[bhartley]

We used the teak colored Boatlife on our toerail replacement. Would highly recommend.