I left off with both boards and spacers glued up waiting for plywood sides..
With glue cured I planed and sanded the excess spacer and got everything ready for the plywood.
Remnants of side panel sheets provide enough for side caps with still some left over.
Plywood sides cut and everything hit with a coat of epoxy ready for gluing.
Glued spread, caps stapled down. Stapling turned out to be a bit of a pain, but got the job done. Once cured I flipped and repeated for the other side. After that came pulling lots of staples...
Staples pulled, excess planed, and corners rounded.
Not counting filling all the little holes and such, sealing, or painting...beams are complete! They came out to 16 pounds total..or 8 pounds each. According to my calculations, based on using this radiata pine, that is a total of 6 pounds lighter than solid beams with dimensions per plans, or a total of 10 pounds lighter than solid beams of same dimension used here.
Very labor intensive, but I'm happy with the results. They don't weight a lot and they are nice and stiff. I laid them across the saw horses and sat in the middle of them, was quite solid with almost no flex at all.
On to the next!
How come you are not making curved beams? Seems like roughly the same process. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI decided on straight beams because, to save time and money, I've pretty much decided to use a PVC ama as Gary has done on his Tamanu(s).
Deletehttp://outriggersailingcanoes.blogspot.com/2008/04/pvc-amas.html