Looking for a Planner

[Drake Dunvian]

Hello,

I live in League City, TX (SE of Houston near Galveston). I was wondering if anyone near me have a planer I could use. I am building a 3 boats and I need to plane ~360 feet of spruce, widest being 1 1/2" and the longest being 10 feet, for various parts of the boats.

My friend Marcus Ward has asked me to post here to see if anyone could help since he was unable to give a hand at this time.

Thanks in advance,
drake dunivan

[Don Baer]

Drake,
I'm not anywhere near you so I can't help with the problem but I will say welcome to the creek. I am sure some fellow Texan will come to your aid. Now that you've taken the plun into the creek be sure and post some pix of you work when you have time and don't be a stranger.

[Marcus Ward]

Drake's a sharp cookie and is building 3 boats to get a fleet going in TX. Unfortunately he wasn't up for a 800 mile drive to come use my planer. If anyone in Texas can help him out please do. The boats he's building are just crazy! Sail powered hydrofoils, in essence.

[Tom Jones III]

I've got a little 13" planer that will (eventually) get the job done for you. You'd be better off if someone with production quality machines is available, but if you need it you are welcome to use mine. I'm in Pearland, so it is not too far, although for that much wood it might take a couple of trips to get it all done.

Thinking a little more about this, is it rough lumber that you will need to face joint first? You will need to get a decent sized jointer if you need a 10' board faced accurately. How accurate do you need the work?

How thick is the wood and what are you trying to accomplish, just getting a smooth surface or getting down to a finished size?

You may have a faster job if you use the tablesaw to rip the wood down to size, 1.5" tall should not be a problem for a decent TS.

Feel free to send me an email if you need some more help.

[Frank Pellow]

Drake, do you want a "planner" or a "planer"? :D I have some old planners that I could mail to you, but my planer is too big for that. :D

[Paul Canaris]

I'm not near, Waco TX. I have an industrial Griggio, so it can plane all day long with no complaint. Your more than wellcome to come over, But it would be about a five hour haul one way. :eek: There has to be someone on the board near you.:o

[Drake Dunvian]

well here is my list of materials (ommiting anything not wood) per boat:

2 - 3mm marine ply 96 x 48 (Decks and Side Tanks)
4 - 4mm marine ply 96 x 48 (Hull, Bulkheads, CB case, and Sidedecks)
2 - 11'6" x 5/8" x 1/2" planed spruce (Gunwales)
6 - 5' x 1/2" x 1/2" planed spruce (Bulkheads and Carlins)
2 - 6' x 1/2" x 3/8" planed spruce (Wing Inner Edges)
1 - 3' x 1/2" 1" planed spruce (Bulkheads)
1 - 5' x 1" x 1" planed spruce (Mast Post, CB Case, and Stem Block)
1 - 4' x 1 1/2" x 3/4" planed spruce (Foredeck Beam)
3 - 3' x 3/4" x 3/4" planed spruce (Foredeck, After Deckm, and CB Case)
2 - 5' x 3/4" x 3/4" planed spruce (Gunwale and Spray Rails)
6 - 6' x 7/8" x 3/16" planed spruce (Wing Edges Laminated)
1 - 3'6" x 1/2" x 3/4" spruce (CB Case Brace Laminated)
1 - 3'6" x 10" x 7/8" Mahogany (Centerboard)
1 - 3' x 8' x 3/4" Mahogany (Rudder)

Finding marine grade ply in such a small thickness is proving a problem, I have yet to check out Houston Hardwoods to see what they have. To have it shipped here from manufactors its roughly $38 per 3mm and $42 per 4mm plus $100 shipping fee (shipped to a commerical address).

As far as the accuracy of planing I am not really sure, most of the spruce is internal (gunwales, bracing, etc) I am sure the better the accuracy the better of a job everall... But again I don't need anything 1/100 inch accuracy .. I am sure something closer to 1/16 or so would be fine.

I prolly just buy some stock and attempt to rip it to make the the strips close to size and then try to plane them. So most of the stock shouldn't be rough at all. But I will take any pointers on this subject!

The reason everything is Spruce (except for Centerboard and Rudder) is that the entire boat is basically glued together with Epoxy.. and lets say epoxy loves to stick to spruce and forms a very strong mechanical bond.

thanks
drake

[Dave Richards]

Drake, I'm too far away to help but I want to know what kind of boats you're building. Any chance some details?

[Drake Dunvian]

Its called a "Mistral", the class is Moth. The boat can be either built as a US Mordern Moth or US Classic Moth.

You can go here, http://www.geocities.com/wpb1210/Classic_Moth.html (http://www.geocities.com/wpb1210/Classic_Moth.html) to see several Moths which fellow Moth racer Bill Boyle and his friends have cobbled together over the last several winters. Note: Bill's web site is a freebie site which means that it doesn't allow too many people to view for too long, so don't be surprised if it "times out". If so, you just have to go back and visit again a little while later. There's lots of pix of the different designs they have built.

[Cecil Arnold]

Drake, I live in Clear Lake, just over the county line as you know. If you have some extra stock and extra length so we can set up the plainer (it has stops at 1/2" & 3/4" but will have to hunt 7/8") and being a Rigid bread box it does have some snipe then I think we can work something out. I'll send you a PM with my phone number shortly. Houston Hardwoods has both 3 & 4 mm Marine Okoume. It runs $34 & $41. We may have a problem with the 11'6" pieces.

[Drake Dunvian]

Cecil,

Thanks for the offer, I haven't actually purchased the spruce yet.... I don't think HD or Lowes carries the spuce in 12' lenghts. Also I am trying to figure out exactly what is needed so i buy larger boards and rip them down.... Just have to sit down and do the math and find out whats avaible locally... I am just starting on this endeavor which shouldn't really take long to finish once I get things together.

drake

[Marcus Ward]

Pictures don't really do this boat justice. You have to see a video and freak out about how fast and insane it is. There is a good video at this site with an explanation about the design:

http://team.abnamro.com/web/show/id=111901

[Tom Jones III]

After looking at the materials list, most of that I would just rip to size on the table saw. If you are not getting the results you want, you are welcome to use my shop.

[Marcus Ward]

Tom - do you know of a place to buy spruce in Houston or nearby?

[Tom Jones III]

Call up Houston Hardwoods and they will fax you a current price sheet with all their wood species and also a list of their plywoods.

I'll bet Cutting Edge at BW8 and 59 will special order it for you.

Other than that, Clark's Hardwood Lumber Co. has the largest selection in town although I have never specifically looked for spruce.

[Drake Dunvian]

If anyone is following this post, I am sorry. I haven't beeen able to get out and buy the wood and spruce (I found spruce online but haven't had a chance to reserach the local area, as mention prior to this post) I should have some pics and some discription of whats going on by next weekend... The local weather hasn't been nice and when it was nice I was working my 12 hr shift!

Just letting everyone know that i am still here....

drake

[Drake Dunvian]

Okay I have the plywood, and have started cutting the hull sides and bulkheads. I have not been able to find spruce locally, which seems to be a real bummer. And shipping for wood isn't cheap... Right now i am looking at some alternatives... White pine or Ceder... neither which i really like but will do the job...

hopefulyl i find my camera memory card and i wil ltake some pics!

drake

[Drake Dunvian]

sorry still no pics,

I have the hull ply cut out and shaped, used some ceder for the gunwales... its looking really nice.

Since I wasn't able to find spruce I decided to go with ceder, a bit stronger, a bit heavier... but shouldn't make much difference in such a small craft.

Now the only problem I have is the lack of a tablesaw.... or bandsaw, to cut the rough cut 2"x4"x8'