| Many years ago my dad built a wooden sail boat of 23'. He steamed
his own ribs/frame. As the framing up of the boat was many, many
many years ago, the technical infomation may not be accurate.
First the frame was oak. Next he took a hot water heater and cut
an opening in the top larger than the diameter of the rib. Next
he raised the tank on a 45 degree angle. He put in some water (I
would guess about one gallon) and built a wood fire under the lower
end. When the water was boiling he put the wooden rib in. He next
experimented with length of stay/steaming to get the desired bend
without breaking. Once he had the time down he pumped out enough
in a short time to accomplish the task.
If I remember correctly the size of the frame was about 3/4 in thick,
by 1 1/2 inch wide by 3 feet long.
Hope this helps,
Good luck,
Tom
PS: Have you contacted any local boat yards?
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| .1 describes bOILING, not steaming. Boiling works well, but tends
to discolor the wood, particualry oak. Ive steamed dozens of frames
into boats using a 5 gal metal bucket (it originally contained driveway
sealer) with a rubber hose leading into a wood box nailed together
of 4 pieces of 1x6 pine. The bucket sits on top of my Coleman camping
stove. Ive always steamed for 1 hour per inch of thickness. Thats
one hour in good hot rolling steam, not one hour after you light
the fire. Canoe ribs take about 20 min of steam. Once you get started
it goes very fast, my box holds about 6 ribs,I put one in every
5 minutes, then 30 mminutes later take one out drop it in the boat,
and add one piece of stock to the box. An entire 17 ft boat can
be framed in a day.
When Ive had to steam big things, the 2x10 oak keel of a wherry
or the 1x6 by 16 feet ash coaming of my launch, I rent a kerosene
powered wall paper steamer. Forget the electric steamers, they dont
make nearly enough steam. For long objects where I dont want to
build a big box (handrail on my circular stair) I just wrap the
stock and the steam hose up with several layers of old tarp.
If you are anywhere near Framingham you are welcome to borrow my
steam box and boiler, but I suspect you can knock one together in
less than an hour.
One last note- I was really worried about steaming the first time
I tried it- I put off a job for a couple years, worrying about how
it would work. Once I tried it, its a real snap.
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