Warped Molds

Dave B. · Post by **Dave B.** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 12:43 am

I used plywood to make the molds. The center mold always had a curve to it so I added a 2x4 to the back of it, which took the curve out.
We have had 2 day's of heavy rain and all but the end molds are all warped due to the humidity.
Does it make sense that once it dries out and the humidity goes down that they will go back straight?
If they do I'm going to use some polyurethane on them to seal. I did give the strongback 2 coats of the poly.
If they don't go back like they were would it be ok to add some spacer blocks and use drywall screws between them on the sides (keeping back 1/2 inch) and on the top ?

Sure don't want to have to re-cut them out of something different.

The strongback is in the garage and they haven't gotten wet.

Thank you in advance and Happy Thanksgiving,

Dave

BillR · Post by **BillR** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 7:31 am

Dave,

I had a similar problem with my molds. They were warped in both directions - due to poor quality 1/2" plywood. I made "stiffeners" out of 3/4" plywood. They were cut 1 3/4" wide and were edge-mounted (screwed) to the molds. I used two horizontal stiffeners on one side of the mold and one verical stiffener on the other side. It worked great. The canoe was dead-on fair. Good luck.

Dave B. · Post by **Dave B.** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 8:36 am

Thank you for the idea.
I checked them today and their not as bad now. It's quite windy today, but no rain so I opened the garage doors to hopefully dry them out.
After the trip to the in laws I'll work on them.

Thanks,
Dave