Cratch boards

[Rambling Boater]

Has anyone got an idea of the typical cost to to make a good quality cratch board (including plank section) using hard wood like mahogany and two triangular glass sections?

 

Then there is the measuring up, coats of marine varnish and fitting with existing canopy (old plywood cratch board is rotten).

 

I'm thinking it's probably similar in cost to making a bespoke cratch cover.

 

 

 

[Higgs]

9 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

Has anyone got an idea of the typical cost to to make a good quality cratch board (including plank section) using hard wood like mahogany and two triangular glass sections?

 

Then there is the measuring up, coats of marine varnish and fitting with existing canopy (old plywood cratch board is rotten).

 

I'm thinking it's probably similar in cost to making a bespoke cratch cover.

 

 

It wouldn't be mahogany. More likely, sapele. But I could see the cost going north of £500. 

 

 

[Tracy D'arth]

The last few I made some12 - 14 years ago were in iroko with 6mm polycarbonate glazing. I reckon that they cost around £280 in materials, I sold them for  for £450 I think with the top plank and roof block.

They mostly had one piece glazing which made a lot of waste until someone wanted one with two triangles. There is a lot of machining angles and rebates then making the glazing fillets.  Using glass it should should be laminate or at least toughened.

You won't find real mahogany unless it is reclaimed. The last I had was school laboratory benches, lovely stuff.

[AndrewIC]

11 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

It wouldn't be mahogany. More likely, sapele. But I could see the cost going north of £500. 

 

I made my own last year. Sapele, single glazed window (Perspex not glass). The materials came to somewhere around £200, and a couple of large router cutters that I didn’t already have about another £60. I was also replacing an existing rotten ply board and wanting to keep the existing cover, and that made the construction of the board significantly more time consuming (and therefore expensive, had I been paying someone to do it) than if I had had free reign. 
 

That was in mid-2021, so I imagine the material costs will now be significantly more expensive, and with labour costs you could easily be looking at more than £500.

 

 

[tosher]

Mine is West African iroko and cost £600 including toughened glass and about 9 years ago. A recent new cover cost £600. The wood has weathered very well and still in very good condition, it's varnished every year.  tosher.

[Stroudwater1]

Some mahogany furniture is cheap as chips now and some being thrown away now but wouldn’t teak be the ideal from a less likely to rot perspective?
 

 In which case hang around at a municipal tip or on Facebook marketplace for garden furniture being chucked out as the dowels/pegs have broken and the owners  don’t know how to replace them so chuck them? 
 

So if you know what you are doing and are lucky with glass being thrown  it could be free …..plus labour costs 

[David Mack]

44 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

 In which case hang around at a municipal tip or on Facebook marketplace for garden furniture being chucked out as the dowels/pegs have broken and the owners  don’t know how to replace them so chuck them?

I don't think garden furniture has been made of teak for years!

[Tracy D'arth]

Furniture is rarely of a significant section for making such as cratch boards. I suppose you could laminate lots of pieces together, Heath Robinson would be impressed.

[Tony Brooks]

FWIW I wrote an illustrated piece for the magazine detailing how I made my own from stock materials. If anyone wants a copy email or PM me and I will be pleased to email it. It will come in .DOC format and is 7 pages long and 1.6 Mb so best not try to put it on the forum

[Stroudwater1]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

I don't think garden furniture has been made of teak for years!

It seems to be David , not at B&Q but there’s a fair number who still do it, theres plenty around being binned though as B&Q were doing till at least 8 years ago. Some of the chairs and tables will have enough of the right length I suspect. 
 

https://www.sustainable-furniture.co.uk/set-of-2-classic-teak-folding-armchairs?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_puqxfvr-QIVym1vBB15MAR6EAQYBSABEgJY5PD_BwE

 

2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Furniture is rarely of a significant section for making such as cratch boards. I suppose you could laminate lots of pieces together, Heath Robinson would be impressed.

 

Old tables are being thrown away at an amazing rate Tracy, found this with two D ends and the centre extending part in a skip two weeks ago. The builders were fine with me having it, and found a brass attachment too 🤣 . It’s a 8-10 foot extending table, Early Victorian I suspect.  Brown furniture generally isn’t desired especially big bits as they often  aren’t able to fit in small London white houses &  flats (Teak chairs on the grass as Im clearing the patio today ☹️🤣)

 

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Stroudwater1 said:

It seems to be David , not at B&Q but there’s a fair number who still do it, theres plenty around being binned though as B&Q were doing till at least 8 years ago. Some of the chairs and tables will have enough of the right length I suspect. 
 

https://www.sustainable-furniture.co.uk/set-of-2-classic-teak-folding-armchairs?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_puqxfvr-QIVym1vBB15MAR6EAQYBSABEgJY5PD_BwE

 

 

Old tables are being thrown away at an amazing rate Tracy, found this with two D ends and the centre extending part in a skip two weeks ago. The builders were fine with me having it, and found a brass attachment too 🤣 . It’s a 8-10 foot extending table, Early Victorian I suspect.  Brown furniture generally isn’t desired especially big bits as they often  aren’t able to fit in small London white houses &  flats (Teak chairs on the grass as Im clearing the patio today ☹️🤣)

 

Nice bit of timber but its not very thick for a cratch board is it?

[Tony Brooks]

1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Nice bit of timber but its not very thick for a cratch board is it?

 

No, but if planked to suitable widths they can be doubles to provide a glazing rebate at the same time

[Tracy D'arth]

10 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

No, but if planked to suitable widths they can be doubles to provide a glazing rebate at the same time

That is what I said, laminate layers together. But its  a lot of extra work rather than buying a 3m length of   100mm X 50mm timber.

Then cutting mortices and tenons will be difficult.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Tracy D'arth

[Stroudwater1]

41 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Nice bit of timber but its not very thick for a cratch board is it?

 

its 3/4 inch Tracy, how think would a cratch board be? 

 

[Tony Brooks]

45 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

That is what I said, laminate layers together. But its  a lot of extra work rather than buying a 3m length of   100mm X 50mm timber.

Then cutting mortices and tenons will be difficult.

 

Why mortice ad tenon, apart from that is the way it would be done traditionally and in thick timber. I dowled and plugged the dowel holes with plugs cut form offcuts. Mu dowels were no orientated like the tenon souls be but through the planks.

[Tracy D'arth]

28 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

its 3/4 inch Tracy, how think would a cratch board be? 

 

I used sawn 7" X 3" , run through the thicknesser to make 4" X 2 1/4" framing and all the glazing beading. M & T together with pegs through the joints but the I had the machines.  Stood up to one customer ripping the whole lot off his boat under a lift bridge without breaking the woodwork or the glazing.

21 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Why mortice ad tenon, apart from that is the way it would be done traditionally and in thick timber. I dowled and plugged the dowel holes with plugs cut form offcuts. Mu dowels were no orientated like the tenon souls be but through the planks.

If using two thin sections I would use opposing lap joints and dowel through. Leaves a lot of places where the damp could get in though.

What about the top plank? Needs to be thick enough to stand on IMO.

I just find it better to use big sections and machine everything.