Hey fellow Aussies
What timbers are you guys using for stringer material? (besides plywood)
The norm overseas (balsa, basswood,cedar,spruce etc) seem to be non existant here in OZ
Western red cedar is available but very pricey.
I have used furniture grade pine before in a SUP, but only because it was faily cheap. My SUP is for flat day messing around with the wife and kids so performance is not an issue.
Whats out there guys
Cheers
Is PVC available there? One sheet 8’ long could supply a few boards.
If it’s for eps epoxy all kind of wood work, even plastic, more or less dense foam etc… The simple is no stringer with more glass around and or UD fibres strips here and there. Pine wood is what use starboard and JP in their produits so must be good for stringers.
Looks into that option but very pricey
Not a fellow Aussie, indeed I am almost directly opposite across the globe, but -
Here I get into heresy in the surf world. Your stringer is pretty much a centreline to work off of. Maybe adjust the blank rocker with, if you are working from styrene foam billet stock or a molded polyurethane blank and you need to do that. Nothing more. It contributes pretty much zip to structural strength unless you are talking multiple stringers and greater than, say, 10mm thickness. Some minor effects on the harmonics of the board: it’ll sound different as you paddle through chop. They have been made from glue-saturated paper among other things, colored foam, foam sandwiched between veneers - you get the picture…
As you mention, they have used balsa, basswood, cedars (some of which are a kind of fir), spruce, I’ll add the mahoganies, African and Phillippine and Honduras. What do they all have in common? They’re easily available kiln dried or air dried fairly inexpensive, can be found fairly knot-free, non-toxic, good straight grain if the grain is relevant ( not so much with basswood or balsa) and above all easy to work with, especially compared to, say, teak or ironwood. They take glue well, not too much resin or sap in them like some pines or ‘tropical hardwoods’. I knew a guy made stringers out of our local ‘locust’, which is more a perennial legume than a tree and the wood can be an almost pistachio green. Worked fine as a stringer, misery to work with. Back when, Japanese motorcycle crates were made out of some very interesting wood.
So I’d ask, what is available there, plain old house lumber? What do they use to build houses with? Or trim houses with? Get a nice piece at the lumber (builder’s) yard, find that buddy with the woodworking shop and give it a few runs through the thickness planer. Do it glue it to it.
Pick something pretty. Lots of those in Australia. I’d love to have some for furniture making.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Hi Doc
I guess the norm timbers, as you said where selected based most likey on price and workability.
There are a few timbers available here but the price doesnt warrant their use.
I may have come across some western red cedar beveled siding at a good price but havent seen it yet. Looking next week
Im hoping in turns out as I want the red wood timber for a triple stringered nose rider
General building materials here is radiata pine. generally cheap, readily avalable twisted and knotted. Dresed pine is usually better but still not consistant.
If this Cedar falls through, I think i will be sticking with plywood. There is a supplier here who specialises in plywood and he has already found me some burch ply at 3 meters long 6mm thick.
Can pretty much get what I need but would much rather go with the timber for the visual asthetics.
Cheers
Interesting -
I should mention that here, at least, red cedar bevelled siding ( clapboards, we call them) tend to be nice grain, yes, but are tapered, call them about 120-140mm wide and tapering from about 2-3 mm thick at the top to something around 8-10 mm at the bottom, and its a curved convex taper, not really amenable to gluing as is and the milling and gluing you’d have to do to build up a usable thickness, well, more work than it’s worth. Though it may be quite different there.
Umm- while the house timber may not be ideal, how about some of the outdoor decking wood? A quick look tells me that they’re pretty, durable and more. Again, very quick research on my part, some ‘bleed tannins’, which might tend to bleed into the foam and discolor it, but the dimensions and strength and definitely stiffness would lend themselves towards what you’re looking for
doc…