Virgin Plank

I have read about planks, dreamed about planks, feared leaky planks, dreaded sprung planks, scraped planks, painted planks, and ripped out old rotten planks. I finally got a chance to spile, steam, and hang a plank. Friday was a very salty day for me.

First, you take a spiling batten (an 1/8" thick piece of plywood) and lay it out as a template where the plank will be. "Spiling" is just a fancy, boaty term for "marking". Then, you mark the location of the back rabbet, as well as the outside edge of your plank (as previously laid out on the molds). Now you write down the bevels at the rabbet at all your station lines. Some are under bevels, and some are standing bevels. You are bewildered at this point, as this makes no sense. This is because you made minor errors when cutting your rabbet. Not to worry; you will bevel (continuously, of course) your plank edge to accommodate these angles you just recorded.

Virgin batten



Spiling marks at stem

Next, pick someone who doesn't suck, and have them swing your bandsaw table as you run your expensive cedar plank thru the saw. Now, build a fort around your steam box because its blowing 45 knts outside. Use a wheelbarrow and a piece of sheet steel if you are Yoda. This rig reminds me of Tennessee. It even has duct tape on it. Light her up. Beware the "woof". It is propane after all, and will likely explode in your face. Use a 4 foot rolled up piece of newspaper.

Now, while you're waiting to build up some steam, you have to plane the "wow" out of your plank, and bevel it according to your spiling batten. This only takes about an hour. (20 minutes for steam, and 40 to screw around with your board). Stick her in the steam box, wait 20 minutes (one hour per inch of plank thickness), and pull her out. FAST. You only have 4 minutes to clamp the plank in place before it cools and won't bend.

180 degrees in the steam box, and Yoda has no gloves on. I look like a weenus. Now, hang and clamp her on the molds.

Notice who is driving on the sharp end where the bend is greatest. Its apparently easy when the Force is with you.

And there she is, hanging in all her steamy splendor. When we got it clamped, i didn't even have enough sense to know whether or not it fit well. Turns out i was supposed to leave half an inch on the bottom edge for wiggle room if she didn't fit right.

OOPS. I apparently missed the memo on that one, and cut exactly to the line. I got lucky. The bottom edge split the pencil line marked for it on each mold, and the hood ends (curved end at stem) were only about 1/16" off. Ray laughed and said, "That's some Tennessee luck there, buddy! It doesn't get any better than that."

Turns out the plank fit exactly right. I told Ray I'd rather be lucky as good any day.