[What wood should I buy ?]

Hi everyone

 

I am seeking advice as to what wood to buy.

I am happy about buying plywood, MDF, vaneered plywood, and similar sheet stock.

 

But for some of my woodwork I plan to build frames which will have vaneered plywood attached on the outside. I am not sure what to build these frames out of.

 

Typically I will want the wood to be 2"x2" by various lengths or 1"x2" by various length. I want to minimise any shape change due to shrinkage/warpage after I have made the frames.

 

Do I want to have "kiln dried" wood ?

Should I look for a softwood or a hardwood? Does it matter ?

Is redwood or pine better ?

 

The sides of the boat have been lined by the builder using oak vaneered plywood. I want to keep this look for some of the doors of built in furniture. I plan to build the doors in shaker style. 4 short 2" wide "planks" of wood being 2 rails and 2 styles. These jointed together to form a square with a piece of vaneered plywood in the middle. Should I make the rails/styles out of real oak ? Or can I use other woods that I stain with "oak varnesh" ?

 

I have bought some rough sawn treated timber for the first frame I have made for the rear steps. I bought this because I thought that treated timber would be better incase of water getting in through the back hatch. However I now see that this timber really was not the best choice. It was suppossed to be 2"x2" x various lengths but infact each piece is slightly different in size leading to problems lining up. Some pieces have turned out to be very curved. I now see why I want to use "planed all round" wood as it will be much easier to work with.

However I dont know if I should throw away my work to date. It's practially done but I am concerned by the posibility of shrinkage once I heat the boat and also some of the pieces of wood have bright green flecks on them, especially round knots in the wood. I dont know if this is a side-effect of the treatment process or if there is something (lichen?) growing on my wood.

 

Any and all help gratefully received.

 

Thanks

 

Monito

[winter and water freezing]

My problem is where in the UK can this RV anitfreeze be obtained, and at what cost?

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Aquafax sells this under the name of "freeze ban"

[Building bulkhead for bathroom]

We got the bulkheads in our sailaway lined done by the builder.

They use 3/4" vaneered ply.

They are trapped ceiling and walls by the lining.

At the floor they are held with screws angled into the floor at approx 22.5 degrees from vertical. Seem pretty solid.

[Calorifier location]

Hi I'm putting ours in the bathroom with a airing cupboard over it like a house one, if you are going to be a live aboard you will need to have some means of airing your bits and bobs.

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Thought about that a while back. Seems like a good idea providing the bathroom is at the stern of the boat, or you'r just using a single coil calorifier. I am thinking that with a twin coil if your bathroom is in the middle of the boat then in the summer you will be running your engine hot water down the boat and heating the inside up. Might not make much difference but boats can be quite warm enough in the summer I recon. Just my take at the moment.

 

Have you put your in yet or are you still fitting out ?

Let us know how it goes in the summer at any rate.

 

I would imagine that the engine space might not be such a good choice due to frost. I guess it depends on whether the boat is left unattended for long periods of time during the winter; would you drain the fresh water system down when laid up ?

We're hoping never to leave it for long, but if we were to then I would drain it.

[Calorifier location]

Hi everyone

 

I am fitting out a new sailaway, semi-trad stern.

The plan was to put the calorifier under the stairs at the stern end of the cabin area.

I came across the idea yesterday of putting it in the engine space.

 

This would save us the space under the stairs that could be used for storage,

but I am a little concerned that as the engine space will be a lot colder than

the boat we could run into trouble with cold, especially in winter (the idea is

to go liveaboard once fit out completed. (yes I know its not easy to find a place))

 

Do any of you have any opinions on if locating the calorifier inside or 'outside'

will have any affect on how long the water stays hot and/or dangers from

frost ?

 

Thanks

 

Monito