Ronald Shanks's Page

"Another  option is MDO for the plywood but that would require a painted boat."

"if you're looking for ease of maintenance I would shy away from coating any wood with epoxy and clear coat...recipe for ALOT of future refinishing...unless you plan on using your boat as a coffee table..."

"I don't know if Ultraply is the same as the plywood that Don Hanson recently tested. A good initial test on new plywood's is to submerge a piece or two in water for a few days and see how it responds. The plywood he tested swelled up quite…"

"I saw that Ultraply, but I need 3/8 for the sides, and 1/2 for the bottom.  I am building a 14' drift boat.  Another appeal for using that Ultraply is that it seems much lighter than regular ply too - not sure if that is true or not.…"

"Maple is a definate no, its rots easily. Maple is never used as an exterior wood in house building for example.   Red oak is a no because it turns black under clear sealers. Also the end grain absorbs water more than white oak. But if you seal…"

"Actually I do have access to Maple as well, but the cost is pretty steep, and I haven't read anything about the water/rot resistance of maple......"

"I have the ribs all built using Ash right now, but before I toss them onto the jig and attach the keel, I thought about the treated lumber - 1x4's.  Mostly for ease of maintenance, simply stain them and move along.....if the stain ever…"

"Thanks Frank, I did search around for older posts, but missed this one."

"Do you have access to Atlantic White Cedar,  Northern White Cedar, or Bald Cypress where you live?"

"Any marine grade plywood must have no interior voids and use waterproof glue. Pressure treated wood fails the first test. Bending it creates problems.   Also, they only guarantee that pressure treated wood will not rot. But the wood will twist,…"

"The pressure treatment is essentially skin deep. So if you machine or cut the wood you pierce the barrier. So as long as you leave the wood in the as-treated dimensions it works pretty good. That would, no pun intended, make for a pretty heavy boat.…"

"I was searching through the archives, and came across this old post.  I have stopped by the MR site many times to get ideas/advice/knowledge, but the plans don't seem to be free anymore....?"

"How long are you cooking your wood?  I go about 25min on an air dried/ wetish 1/2" piece.  Longer on kiln dried less on dead wet.  I find it hard to believe that I get the wood temp more than 180.  The trick is high volume…"

"Seamus: I am interested in hearing more about your steaming and bending epoxy joints.  The reason I was doubtful as to an epoxy joint holding up in a steambox is the methods used to clean up epoxy drips on hulls.  I use a heatgun set on…"

"I haven't had a problem steaming glued up wood (epoxy).  I would dimension, scarf, sand, steam.  You may only need to steam in the bend at the stem.  If you are worried about the glue leave the scarf out of the box and plug the…"