Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Educated guess
By:Pete Rudie
Date: 6/3/1999, 10:45 pm
In Response To: How do they do it? (David Dick)

> Are you familiar with their construction methods? Do they build from
> veneer or plywood?

Struer's web site is vague, but there are enough clues to arrive at a reasonable guess. They talk about pressing, molding and stretching the mahogany, so I believe they take thin mahogany veneers (1 mm or so) and laminate them over a compound-curved mold, apply an adhesive (probably epoxy) and then clamp the assembly with a reverse-mold top form, in a large veneer press. Heat may be used to accelerate the adhesive, and to give the wood fibers extra pliability. The result is custom-formed plywood, with the compound curves laminated in, that can be trimmed and glassed together. Given good molds, little or no fairing would be required.

The next question is whether the process can be duplicated at home. Perhaps large-radius compound curves can be generated by vacuum-bagging the assembly around a full-size buck or male mold of the boat, but it would be very difficult to make small-radius parts like coamings or the little "windscreen" lip at the front of the Struer cockpit by that method. The veneers could be obtained from a number of sources, but costs would be high, and quality would be an open question. There will not be any time savings here for one boat, because the buck is actually a full-size kayak, but if the design works it can then be easily duplicated. For the utmost in homebuilt race boats though, it would be fun to experiment with this technique.

Messages In This Thread

Wood is still winning
Hans Friedel -- 6/3/1999, 10:14 am
How do they do it?
David Dick -- 6/3/1999, 9:43 pm
Educated guess
Pete Rudie -- 6/3/1999, 10:45 pm
Re: Another example of Molding
Dan Lindberg -- 6/4/1999, 1:24 pm
Re: Educated guess
Don Beale -- 6/4/1999, 12:58 am
Re: Educated guess
Hans Friedel -- 6/3/1999, 11:59 pm
Re: Educated guess
Hans Friedel -- 6/4/1999, 12:20 am