3 inch tongue and groove

[Jerra]

19 minutes ago, stegra said:

This is just a suggestion, and will probably be seen by many as heresy, but if you're going to paint it, why not use moisture resistant MDF and make the 'V' grooves yourself with a router? The best timber is generally characterized by its tight parallel grain and lack of knots; features easily achieved with an average quality paintbrush. I've seen a few higher-end boat-builders who have no qualms at all about using MDF provided it's moisture resistant. My initial reaction was disbelief but I now intend to do all of my ceilings and walls with it.

Why bother putting the grooves in?

[stegra]

Just now, Jerra said:

Why bother putting the grooves in?

Well, firstly, it seems that the OP wants the V groove effect. Other than that, the whole point of V grooves is to accentuate what would otherwise be cracks. I believe the adage is, "If you can't hide it, exaggerate it." hence, skirting boards, dado rails, cornices, coving, escutcheons, picture frames, grout between tiles, folded seems in Austin Minis, Blackadder's codpiece  et al.

[jddevel]

My contribution. Pitch pine. High resin content means extremely moisture resistant. Or for real patterns and aesthetically great on the eye a burr timber. But that is if money`s no object- which I very much doubt!!!!

[WotEver]

The trouble with pitch pine (apart from cost) is its annoying habit of oozing sap despite man's best efforts at sealing it. 

[Jerra]

27 minutes ago, stegra said:

Well, firstly, it seems that the OP wants the V groove effect. Other than that, the whole point of V grooves is to accentuate what would otherwise be cracks. I believe the adage is, "If you can't hide it, exaggerate it." hence, skirting boards, dado rails, cornices, coving, escutcheons, picture frames, grout between tiles, folded seems in Austin Minis, Blackadder's codpiece  et al.

OK if the OP wants it to look like tongue and groove fair enough.  But the rest has me lost.  Is accentuate really what you mean?  I can't work out how you make more noticeable "cracks" which by the nature of the material don't exist.

[stegra]

19 minutes ago, Jerra said:

OK if the OP wants it to look like tongue and groove fair enough.  But the rest has me lost.  Is accentuate really what you mean?  I can't work out how you make more noticeable "cracks" which by the nature of the material don't exist.

The cracks naturally appear in timber, it shrinks across the grain, (also, to a much lesser extent, lengthwise). Look at floor boards in an old house. They weren't laid with 5mm gaps between them, that's shrinkage. By easing the edges the gaps become less (more) obvious and so look intentional. Examples are everywhere ranging from fine jewellery to civil engineering. The cracks don't appear in MDF until separate pieces are joined. If there appears to be a joint every 3" then the real joints become less obvious.

[Jerra]

2 minutes ago, stegra said:

The cracks naturally appear in timber, it shrinks across the grain, (also, to a much lesser extent, lengthwise). Look at floor boards in an old house. They weren't laid with 5mm gaps between them, that's shrinkage. By easing the edges the gaps become less (more) obvious and so look intentional. Examples are everywhere ranging from fine jewellery to civil engineering. The cracks don't appear in MDF until separate pieces are joined. If there appears to be a joint every 3" then the real joints become less obvious.

MDF has cracks appear in it?  Having a father who was a wheelwright I am well aware of how natural wood reacts, however I am questioning why run grooves in MDF.  Apart of course from the obvious that you want to fake T & G  and try to make MDF look like T & G.  IMO if you aren't going to use T & G why trouble to cut grooves .

[Robbo]

With TGV effect panels I would need to trim the joins and that’s not something I want.  With Tongue and Groove the joins can be staggered so the whole roof looks as one.

I was looking at using MDF when wandering around wickes as they have some (although not water resistant).  I’m still swayed towards using wood tho.

[Robbo]

These two photos sum up the style I’m after.

 

[jddevel]

7 hours ago, WotEver said:

annoying habit of oozing sap despite man's best efforts at sealing it. 

I agree. However I`m fortunate in that I have a local reclaim yard where unless cut from very large beams where the sap/resin has been "trapped" this is less of a problem.  In fact I have made a replica of a grade 2 staircase in my home of pitch pine and mahogany.

[WotEver]

11 minutes ago, jddevel said:

I have made a replica of a grade 2 staircase in my home of pitch pine and mahogany.

Got any piccies? I'd love to see it

[jddevel]

For something different on my ceiling- traditionalists throw your hands up- I`ve used a planked vinyl type flooring which is 200mm wide by 1500mm long on my ceiling which I bought after much research from B&Q. It`s sufficiently flexible to take the curvature of the roof, textured, basically grey, the colour I wanted, V edged which provides the "groove", maintenance free and stuck with contact adhesive (613) across the ceiling to marine birch ply . Cuts easily for LED`s etc. Just a thought.

[WotEver]

7 hours ago, Jerra said:

MDF has cracks appear in it?

That's not what he said. He wrote that there weren't any...

7 hours ago, stegra said:

... until separate pieces are joined. If there appears to be a joint every 3" then the real joints become less obvious.

So the imitation T&G grooves disguise the actual joints between the sheets. 

Robbo has pointed out that there's no way to disguise the end joints of the sheets every 8 ft however. 

[jddevel]

3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I have made a replica of a grade 2 staircase in my home of pitch pine and mahogany.

Will get my dear wife to take one (when she gets up!!!!) on her tablet. Excuse the mess that`s in front as I currently use my hall as a storage area for the boats internal "fittings" Everything from a fridge to a IT transformer. Incidentally how do I then upload it to the forum?

[WotEver]

3 minutes ago, jddevel said:

Incidentally how do I then upload it to the forum?

When you're composing the post click the "Click to choose files" link, select your photos, upload then insert into post. It's all pretty obvious once you start

[jddevel]

Thanks WotEver. Have taken some photos and now waiting for her to "rise" to send them to me for me to post. She`ll be embarrassed by the mess!!!! You will gather that I`m not particularly IT savvy- or just lazy in my learning curve.

[jddevel]

Right can`t wait (got to get on) so having a go myself.

[WotEver]

Brilliant job. That looks really good.

Did you turn the spindles yourself (boring job) or have them machined? If the latter was it to your design or 'off the shelf'?

[jddevel]

Thanks WotEver that was easier than I thought. Certainly easier than getting my old brain around 12 volt wiring on a narrowboat!!!

2 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Did you turn the spindles yourself (boring job) or have them machined? If the latter was it to your design or 'off the shelf'?

No can`t get those off the shelf. Haven`t a lathe. They were all produced by me using a Elu router and table. Took quite a while especially as breakout on small 90% corners was frequent and created a lot of waste and frustration. Wouldn`t want to have to do it again. Built them about 6 years ago when building the house.

[jddevel]

Design wise they were copied as near as I was able from as stated from a grade2 listed set of stairs in a solicitors office in Liskeard Cornwall. I happened to see a picture of their offices in the local press when we were looking for ideas, visited them and took some pictures and went from there. Theirs were in pitch with the mahogany hand rail. Hope there`s no copyright!!!!!!

I was referring to uploading the photos when I claimed easier than thought .

[WotEver]

I don't envy you making all those spindles on a router table but well done for doing so

Hey, they're solicitors, don't give them an opportunity to sue you lol

[stegra]

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

That's not what he said. He wrote that there weren't any...

So the imitation T&G grooves disguise the actual joints between the sheets. 

Robbo has pointed out that there's no way to disguise the end joints of the sheets every 8 ft however. 

True. I guess I was guilty of thinking about my own case too much. My ceiling is 10' across and I'm running the 'fake' grooves cross-ways using 10' x 4' or 10' x 5' sheets. If it was a narrowboat I think I would run the grooves long-ways.

[Robbo]

9 minutes ago, stegra said:

True. I guess I was guilty of thinking about my own case too much. My ceiling is 10' across and I'm running the 'fake' grooves cross-ways using 10' x 4' or 10' x 5' sheets. If it was a narrowboat I think I would run the grooves long-ways.

My roof is nearly 10', so could do the same if I could get 10' sheets down the hatch!   However it's not for me tho.

[stegra]

I'm going for a wider 'plank'. For some reason my bearers are at 15" centres so they'll either be 5" or 7.5". The 5' boards make more sense even if I have to cut them in half to get them in but my local stockist is less than a mile away and only stocks the 4' ones. I'm only doing to avoid cover strips. I would have preferred a completely flat ceiling but can't see a way to achieve that, other than plastering it!

[Robbo]

Just now, stegra said:

I'm going for a wider 'plank'. For some reason my bearers are at 15" centres so they'll either be 5" or 7.5". The 5' boards make more sense even if I have to cut them in half to get them in but my local stockist is less than a mile away and only stocks the 4' ones. I'm only doing to avoid cover strips. I would have preferred a completely flat ceiling but can't see a way to achieve that, other than plastering it!

Reason why I'm going for 3" is due to the look.  4" looks to wide on a boat IMHO.   I looked at a doing a completely flat ceiling and the only way i could think of doing it was to use some kind of headlining vinyl stuck up, but I can couldonly find roughly 4' wide.