Hi guys
After doing alot of searching, my understanding is that the skins for HWS are made from solid wood planks planed/cut down to 1/8" sheets. Can someone please explain how this is done? I’ve approached a couple of wood suppliers here in South Africa and the planks I can get are 25mm thick. None of these guys are able to recut the planks to 5mm sheets. Would it be possible to use 5mm plywood sheets instead for the skins?
Regards
Antman
The wood strips are planed to 1/8” thick and vary it width from ¼” to 2 ¼”…
A typical board might have 30 strips per side…
Arrange all the wood strips top-side up on a large table…
With good quality masking tape, start from the center of the board…
Use the tape to “tie” one strip to the next…
Put tape pieces on perpendicularly from one strip to the next…
About every foot…
Good quality tape has some stretch, use it to your advantage…It works great…
You’ll figure out how much tension to use in a short while…
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After the perpendicular tape strips are all on. Tape over all the wood seams lengthwise…The reason for this is you don’t want epoxy draining through, and gluing your deck / bottom to your work table …I learned this the hard way…You’ll easily go through a full roll of tape per side…
When all the taping is done, carefully flip the deck / bottom over, so that it’s tape side down…You are now looking at the surface that you’ll laminate with the Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber and epoxy…
I put one layer of Fiberglass or CF on the bottom and two on the deck…In the future I’ll add a 2" strip where the stringer makes contact with the deck / bottom skin…
To attach the deck / bottom skin to the frame, I use a heavy duty construction adhesive from a caulking gun…Run a bead on top of the ribs, stringer and rails…Carefully lay the deck / bottom skin on the frame, and use spring clamps to hold the skin to the rails…
Let the adhesive set up firmly before removing the clamps, overnight is good…
Use a flush trim router bit to remove any deck / bottom skin overhanging the rails.
Repeat procedure on the other side of the board.
Plywood also works fine…
Ply works fine, especially for a first HWS…
Or you can use plywood door skins, and veneer…
The veneer is easily cut with a razor knife. You lay it out on a peice of regular ply wood and just go at it after drawing the lines. Use a steel straightedge up against the blade.
Use contact cement and a roller to lay it all down. After you have glued the plywood deck on the frame, as then it’s easier to keep the sides even.
It’s a cheater way, but it looks good…
(my apologies here Paul, but I wanted the same look as yours with half the work. Plus I wanted to go a bit fancier on the inlay design.)
The pics should tell the story.
Hi guys
Thanks for the responses. I’ve just got a couple more questions.
Will 5mm plywood be thick enough? It feels a bit flimsy but I presume that if I use Paul’s method the laminate will make the joined strips of plywood more rigid?
If I decide to use solid wood, how do I get it down to Paul’s suggested 1/8" without too much waste? Paul, how thick are your planks before planing? Mine will be 25mm(almost 1". I think!).
Regards
Antman
You could probably go down to 3mm, 5mm is really heavy so I’ve found out.
Glass will strengthen it so don’t worry about how flimsy it feels.
Hi paul, your local saw mill should be able to cut your planks thinner than that. I just had some sawn to 8mm though they were reluctant to go below 10mm at first. Finished off with a thicknesser to 4mm. Even then it’s a shame about the waste but I can’t think of a better way to do it if you’re cutting wide stock.
Don’t worry about going thinner than 5mm. You’ll be surprised at how stiff the deck will come out, especially if you put some roll into it.
good luck!
