Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[ebb]

BENDING FAT RAILS
7/30/2015 Hey Tony, Just erased the olde post here -- couldn't understand it !
You know, Ebb bent the wood toerails on littlegull by screwing plywood L-shape angles to the deck, using them to bend, hold, suspend the new mahogany to the molded rail. Took pictures, but don't know if they ended up here in the Forum. Milled the wood rail so that the base is 1 1/2", tapering up to around 1". The long run is also tapered: about 3 1/2" up front to maybe 2 1/4" at the transom. This made the bending a bear from the chainplates forward, but easy, almost neutral, going aft. Trouble bending the ends, the tips don't bend, want to run straight off the molded toe rail...even if you start the bend at the front.
That part, mostly aft of the chainplateis, made easier by having the wood itself act as a lever. The more the bent piece is out of square, the harder it is to bend. It can't bend flat like a rectangular shape, it'll follow it's least resistance, it wants to bend toward its thinner dimension. In this case upward !!!!!!

Really screwed up the toerail angle as it sits on the boat rail* , because I spent an inordinate amount of stress drilling the fricken bolts, which I got wrong about a third of the time. The hull radically angles-in up front where I had the longest bolts to drill. Can't remember the spacing: 16"-18", and had to redrill a number of times to get enough real estate around the shaft to screw on the nut... a number of times without the washer.
*May actually have switched port rail with starboard at some point.... giving the rails an unplanned and pronounced outward flare. The
truncated section was milled on one side of the rail: one side square, one side angled. I unconsciously switched the rails and mounted the
'short side'. the right angle side outward. I only admit this to you, Tony. Made the rails look like they leaned, because they did.

Two things: coved the wood rail at the interface to hold butyltape (helped register new rail to the old, and it's by far the friendliest compound to clean up after, whatever other good reason to use it.)
AND chamfered the thru holes on the molded rail, where all of the waterproofing is really accomplished.

So if you have this semi-permanent clamping jig along the decks by using ply 'L' brackets screwed to the deck... when setting up, each bracket can be customed to the clamping it's doing... many brackets need no clamps, just shims, because the force is all inward. Depending on the thickness and shape of the new rail, the jigs forward, where bending is more fierce, will need reinforcement. You know, what the hell, the deck can be easily repaired, just screw-in the props where they're needed, no problem. No problem removing work off the jig to make adjustments, or as I had to, aim the drill with a shorter bit without the toerail in the way. Used 5/16" bronze bolts. Cheated a few times with 1/4". No way I do anything like this again!
How can holes be chamfered in the molded rail with the wood rail in the way....? Actually the jig uprights were long enough so that the
wood rail could be suspended on the boat with a few clamps, except forward of the chainplates, which was a growler. And chamfering done with the right-angle drill.
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later EDIT (after Tony's three-years-gone following post, #544)...so as not to interrupt...... YOU'RE BACK !

To quote Thoreau: "Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them." ... Or another:
"There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know.
The keeping of bees, for instance."
Or, for instance, if Henry David were a sailor:... 'Sunny day, tiller in hand, and a freshening breeze.'