In the spring of 2010 we built a garage attached to the house. It was a clever affair with side barn-type doors for lawn stuff and a 26-ft. front section accessed by a garage door, which will be the new home of my 1948, 17-ft. Chris-Craft Deluxe. The trailer is already there and previously held the very same model boat. A few dents here and there but structurally sound and with an elevated winch. A little paint, a new winch strap and we’ll be in business. A bit premature but too good to pass up.
Then the big boat had problems. The big boat is a 42 ft., Ed Monk Sr.-design power cruiser built in 1953 in Tacoma, Washington. What started out as a re-bedding of windows ended up with a near- complete rebuild of the fly-bridge window surrounds due to rot. As this boat lives in a shed, I was surprised, but further investigation showed there were some strategic leaks to blame. All is well but there is a serious dent in our savings account.
As for the runabout, the good news is that all materials and tooling to complete the deck planking have been in-house for some time. The only thing missing was courage on my part to get started. It was a daunting task. I had all these beautiful pieces of ribbon- grain plank stock in lengths to 22 ft., which I had to cut up into deck plank lengths. Pretty scary stuff. I drew layout “maps” and measured many times before cutting. This first step came out fine. Next, each plank had to be cut to exactly 7-in. wide and then all those false seams cut in. Mess just one up and you were in deep do-do—and there are sixteen of them. Sigh.
Study the book; study it some more. All those words about using a table saw to cut the width, the false seams and the live seam rabbet. I don’t have a table saw worth a darn. What to do? It’s time to eat a little crow here. At the onset of this project I was adamant about being able to use hobby-grade tools. I may have changed my mind. Read on.
I had been agonizing about these planks and all the cuts required for a long time, wondering what I was going to do. Not only that, it appeared that the original decking had 1/16”-wide false seams and they looked like they were “V” notched and very shallow. Mr. “D’s” book gave great council in this area and his second volume gives great detail on addressing white deck stripes. Taken all together, I developed a plan. But first I had to get some perfect plank stock.
I reasoned that I could cut straight edges using a commercial straight edge and a router. This could solve the plank stock issue with some modification to my planking bench. To do this, I milled a recess into the upper corner of the planking bench to give clearance to the nut holding the guide bearing on the end of the cutter. The commercial straight edge was then carefully laid in and drilled and screwed down so as to provide the guiding edge just below the plank stock. Now shim and clamp the stock down and run the router down the straight edge and viola, a straight edge. Wrong!
An example of the typical and exasperating cupping of match-booked stock.
Sighting down the supposed-to-be-straight edge shows clearly there is something wrong. There are obvious wiggles. Hmmm. A second commercial straight edge is procured and laid against the first. Yuk! What is causing the screwed down straight edge to deflect? I loosen the hold-down screws and it is once again straight. Hmmm. Bingo. The drilled guide holes for the wood screws holding down the straight edge are not perfectly centered in the countersunk holes. Each screw pushes the straight edge around just a bit, enough to ruin any possibility of a straight cut. I conclude that the straight edge must be clamped to the planking board so that it may seek its own straightness prior to tightening. I find a bunch of large washers in a bin that work. One can’t just lean them on the back of the straight edge and screw them down as this, too, may push the edge out of shape. Since the washer is about the same thickness as the flange to be clamped, the clamp washer is placed half on the straight edge flange and half on another washer. Screw her down and even pressure is applied. Struggle, struggle. I put them on every twelve inches or so and it works. I now have a reliable straight edge.
The plank stock is prepped with the router on the straight edge to give it one good edge so I can reliably pre-cut it on the table saw to about 1⁄4 in. oversize. Then it is clamped to the planking bench so that 1/8 in. (or so) extends over the straight edge; this is then trimmed with a three- cutter flush trim router bit. We now have one good edge per plank. Depth stop blocks are then set up at exactly 7 in. and the second side done. We now have plank stock ready to cut all those false seams.
My plan for the false seams came together over a year ago when a flyer from Rockler arrived in the mail touting a device called a “Router Fluting Jig”; it was on sale for $59.95 and only thirty miles away. If it could cut flutes in a pilaster, why couldn’t it cut false seams in deck planking? The salesman agreed with me and wrapped it up. I also took a 1/16-in. and 1/8-in. router bit while I was there. Now to make it all work.
In principle, the “jig” straddled the work piece with an adjustable set of guides attached to a plate (bottom plate) with an index on it. The router is then attached to a second plate (top plate) that fits into the bottom plate so that the scribed centerline of the bit moved along the index. Thus, the router bit could be indexed across the work piece and locked in place. The whole assembly is then slid down the plank stock and, viola, we have a false seam. Not so fast, Kemosabe!
A few issues remain. 1. The router must be firmly attached to the top plate and of course the provided holes don’t match up with my 35-year-old Sears router. Careful drilling and tapping and problem solved. 2. The writeable surface adjacent to the indexing scale must be marked at the precise points to assure equal spacing of the live seams and false seams. Mr.”D” goes on at length on how to do this (with a table saw). After much study and a few attempts I settled on a trial-and-error approach with dividers. It worked. 3. And finally, I must devise a way to clamp the planks down by their ends so the fluting jig will slide unimpeded. This was a true exercise in cobbling and trial and error.
Now I had to decide on 1/16 in.- or 1/8 in.-wide seams. Reading the book, Mr. “D” says this is more of a personal choice than it is a technical one. In other words: which one looks better irrespective of what the original displays. And, the original may not be as “original” as it appears. Further, in a subsequent chapter, he goes on to explain how these white deck lines will be painted on at whatever width you choose within some limits.
To help make this decision, I made a sample from scrap with properly spaced 1/16 in. false seams on one side and 1/8 in. on the other. This treasure is carried up to Faithful Crew [my wife] for a second opinion as I think I know the answer. Joy of joy, we both agree on the 1/8-inch. We now have a plan.
This much-abbreviated description of events took a long time and a lot of agonizing. In fact, it was over year ago that I finished the installation of inner and outer covering boards before even beginning installation of the deck planking.
Four corners of the cockpit and accuracy of symmetry obtained using Dannenberg’s guidance in the book.
All of the deck planks were dry-fitted, removed and the live seams at the edge of the inner covering boards cut as directed in the book on the table saw (even my el-cheapo could do this). This dry-fitting revealed remarkable symmetry. Looks like I got that part right. But once again, Murphy’s Law raised its ugly head.
For unknown reasons (bad luck as I see it), almost every deck plank when placed face up so that the matchbook sides were up, were cupped the wrong way sideways and fore and aft! As I screwed down one of them with locator screws, snap and a split too wide to ignore shoots down one of the false seams. I probably should have steamed these. Ugh. This cupping also created concern when I was sliding my “fluting jig” along, too. Depth of cut was not quite the same but I managed to keep good spacing (cupping causes a narrower board) by always pressing on the same side. I did get proper width, as I was able to firmly clamp the planks to the bench assuring a flat surface.
I had had a topside plank crack before and healed it with a 4 mm- by 1 in.- wide plywood spline placed in a cavity along the backside of the plank and epoxyed in place. It worked again. Sometimes you guess right. Just plain epoxy in the crack did not hold. When I screwed this beauty down, everything stayed in place. Fore and aft cupping or warping was not a problem and only one other deck plank cracked ever so slightly. Not enough to worry about as caulking fills these seams anyway.
Looking back at all those things I had to do with a router and straight edges, a proper table saw is looking pretty good. Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing!
This article by Bob Wheeler, Pacific Northwest Chapter member, was originally published in the Fall 2011 issue of ACBS Rudder and is part of a restoration series.