Boat Building Forum

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

Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
By:dbynoe
Date: 12/17/2010, 12:23 pm
In Response To: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice.. (Simeon)

Lashings would be best, if the glue fails the lash will help hold it in place (mind you the skin will also do that, but all the same).
As for dowels, hardware store ones work fine, the stores here tend to stock mostly softer brown colored ones which kinda suck, or harder white ones which are better. No clue on the species, just pick ones that are harder to tend with your fingernail.
I have also had issues with gorilla glue, if the joint is perfect it works great, but if its uneven it tends to crack on me I switched over to PL Premium in a caulking tube. Its not technically marine rated, but it gets used for a lot of outdoor construction, have it on three boats, one about 3 years old, seems to be holding up just fine.

: I've built most of the frame for my small (kid sized) SOF.. it's
: sort of yosty in construction, but mostly not.

: Having built the deck, and flipped it I discovered that the glue
: wasn't quite as miraculous as I'd hoped, and some of the joints
: have separated. Predictable really given that there are some
: butt joints onto end grain, and it's a 'sprung' frame.

: So, I'm thinking that some dowels will be in order. Given the scale
: of the boat, I'm looking at a choice between pine toothpicks,
: and bamboo kebab skewers.
: The skewers will be the stronger of the two, but I wonder if the
: glue might stick better to the pine toothpicks.

: The frame is all Radiata pine, and I'm using 'Gorilla glue' -
: polyurethane glue which foams up as it absorbs moisture and
: sets.

: Any ideas as to which way I should go?

: Thanks.

Messages In This Thread

Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Simeon -- 12/16/2010, 8:25 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Simeon -- 12/18/2010, 1:13 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
ancient kayaker -- 12/26/2010, 10:47 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
dbynoe -- 12/17/2010, 12:23 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Bill Hamm -- 12/17/2010, 3:50 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Bill Hamm -- 12/16/2010, 9:21 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Bill Hamm -- 12/16/2010, 9:21 pm
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Dowel material choice..
Jay Babina -- 12/20/2010, 10:18 am