aussi expertise on saligna

[ongolo]

Hi all,

Friend os mine is very close to completing a 48ft Warrham. He stillhas to make the beams, considered aluminium, to expensive, various other option,it boils down,best seems to be wooden beams on a wooden boat.

So he now considers making them from saligna.

I have worked very little with it, but the two comanion ways I built from saligna gave no problems, it glued well and has not warped.

Some carpenter said it does not stand up to sea environments.

Question: How strong is it? Could one laminate the cats beams from saligna.?

How does it stand up to sea water assuming worst case that protective coating has been damaged and water get to the wood?

Being an australian wood, some from down under should know more about it.

Any info most appreciated.

Thanks

Ongolo


<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats

 

[Talbot]

suggest you contact oldsaltoz

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[insider]

why not ask James Warrham the designer?
go to warrham web site
regards,

<hr width=100% size=1>Logical progression is fault finding tool in every tool box.
Regards,
Insider

 

[Rick]

Assuming you refer to "Eucalyptus saligna ", commonly called "Sydney Blue Gum", then I know of no-one who uses it here in Australia for building, although a "Blue Gum" (Eucalyptus Tereticornis) is widely used for frames in (typically) work boat styles.

An extract from a timber guide (in relation to E Salinga use):
"Most of the milling and lumber quality problems are those associated with growth stress-severe end-splitting of logs, spring of cants during sawing, compression failures, and brashness of the wood near the pith. Because of this, the tree is now planted primarily for early harvest as pulpwood, or, if it proves economic in the near future, as industrial fuelwood to replace oil.

Elsewhere in the world, particularly in South Africa and Brazil, the trees and their close relative, E. grandis, are grown extensively for pulp, poles, and fuel."

Although I couldn't find a fgiure for E Saligna, Gums are typically very heavy timbers, most going way beyond 1,000 kg / cu metre. I'd figure a Wharram already has enough weight issues without imposing those sorts of additional weights.

Suggest your friend looks at one of the cedar family - local Queensland Cedar is readily available if a little dear. There are some stands of Mexican (White) Cedar in Queensland around Maryborough if he can find them, but there are lots of near neighbours (PNG, Indonesia, Burma, Malaysia etc) exporting cedar here under various names - I've got some Burmese Cedar I got for under $1,000/cu metre last year in 350mm x 30mm boards 5 metres long that has nice tight straight grain, and glues well. Alternately, suggest he contacts Austral Plywoods in Sydney and asks if they still make their cedar ply - it was 6mm in 5 ply - very light, and he could use to make Gougeon style wing mast sections to use as beams.



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[ongolo]

Rick

Thank you for the information. Problem is we live in africa, so many of the good things are not available to us.

He will visit me the weekend and I shall let him read your reply. I suppose he will have to rethink and consider something else. I can't give him advice, I am a metal man.

Thanks again Rick.


<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats

 

[William_H]

Hello Ongolo I would suggest he seeks out a building design engineer or if you have such a thing an Aeronautical engineer familiar with wood aircraft. I don't think the salt environment would be so significant compared to structural strength weight and availability. I live in the home of the best harwood in Aus if not the world yet I would end up using Asian timber. Wood seems to go by many names just to confuse things regards will

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[dickh]

African Woods Book - aussi expertise on saligna

Ongolo,
If it's any help I have an old book at home which lists all the tropical woods obtainable in Ghana/Nigeria(I can't remember which...) I acquired it when I worked for a company which exported sawmills to W Africa. If it would be useful, PM me and I'll try and find it.

<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif