Spline in Deck?

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cagreen
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Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:58 pm
Location: Rondeau, Ontario

Spline in Deck?

Post by cagreen »

Hi everyone,
I plan on having a strip of walnut down the centre of my decks. My question is this: Will my decks be strong enough if I only use thickened epoxy to glue my deck pieces together? Or will I need to use a spline or biscuits?

Thanks for the help!
-cg
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Patricks Dad
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Post by Patricks Dad »

Walnut glued to what other wood species?
Direction of grain?
Any support under the deck?
Plans to use the deck for lifting the canoe? (or separate small thwart near deck?)

The decks on my first canoe have a very narrow wedge of cherry between wider walnut wedges (see avatar to left). No spline but I do have a steambent cherry arch below the deck.
Randy Pfeifer
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Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
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Bryan Hansel
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Post by Bryan Hansel »

Using thickened epoxy should yield you a strong enough deck.
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Glen Smith
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Post by Glen Smith »

But don't foget to saturate the joints with unthickened epoxy first. You could also apply a layer of fiberglass to the underside to beef it up.
cagreen
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Location: Rondeau, Ontario

Post by cagreen »

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll epoxy the joint (long grain) and add a layer of glass underneath for additional strength.

-cg
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Bryan Hansel
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Post by Bryan Hansel »

You won't need the glass. I've build paddles using just thicken epoxy to bond the lamination without any extra glass. They hold up fine. Any paddles receive much more of a beating than a canoe deck.

IMHO, you're just adding extra weight.
AlanWS
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Post by AlanWS »

Glue alone will be as strong as the wood, if the grain runs the same way in both pieces along the join. And how strong do the decks need to be? If you are concerned about strength if someone picks up the canoe by the deck, you can add a small thwart that's easier to grab, cut a decorative edge to the deck that is not a good handle. making the gunwale a more convenient handle, put fiberglass on the top surface (the underside will help much less for this direction of stress) or simply use 3/4" thick stock for the deck, which should be plenty strong to allow lifting.

So while I list a lot of solutions, I'm actually saying that you probably won't have a problem in the first place.
Alan
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RonMc1954
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Post by RonMc1954 »

Hi cg; I did just what you are planning with my deck. I have had no problems what so ever. You can re-enforce the deck with some fiberglass strips on the inside in a few places especially if some one might sit on it (behind the seat). One thing about the center line strip it is easy to mate your strips up to the centerline. Here's a pic of mine:
http://groups.msn.com/Buildingstripcano ... PhotoID=77

Ron
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