The grain does look like pine but the density is way off (25-27 lb/cu ft for pine vs 47.5-48.5 for your piece of wood).
I've seen some honduran teak with similar grain at the local hardwoods store, but what I really wanted to tell you is to make the gun. There are a lot of guns out there made of all kinds of woods some better than others and they hold really well. Laminate and epoxy coat yours and you'll do well. Go for it!!
hopeuflly the weather will cooperate today and I'll be able to rip some pieces and start gluing a blank together. Experienced gun builders: Do I need to let it hang for several weeks to see if it bows/warps?
Yes, let it hang and check it periodically to see if it moves. That's a well seasoned piece of wood. It's going to come out fine.
I've seen some honduran teak with similar grain at the local hardwoods store, but what I really wanted to tell you is to make the gun. There are a lot of guns out there made of all kinds of woods some better than others and they hold really well. Laminate and epoxy coat yours and you'll do well. Go for it!!
Dam right Billy.. My first is made from a pretty Hibiscus tree just like the thousands made by other Tatitian divers.
Mike, I agree with woodguy, at that wt per cubic food is a hard wood. We know for sure it;s not green.
Teak has a smell you should recognize if you worked with it before. If you can take a well lite close up of a knot
area and post it.
That wood needs to be a gun, a boats plank, or a coffee table that stays in the family.:laughing:
Cheers. Don
I cannot wait to see this take shape
If it is as heavy as you say it is . . . . .and looking at the grain, it is very possible it is Heart Pine or what the Crackers called Lighter Pine or "Fat Lighter". Take a splinter of it and hold a match up to it and see if it burns quickly . . . like it has gas on it. In Florida the old cattlemen used these lighter logs to make fence posts, beam structures, and a host of other things due to the fact it hardly rots, even burried in the ground and bugs don't get into it. I've pulled logs from rivers that have been down for 80/100 years, and you run them through the mill and it is just as good as the day it was cut. If you should need some mahogany, ipe, purpleheart and even some paduak let me know. I have a uncle that owns a sawmill and he cuts all sorts of imported wood. I just finished up a blank myself and I'm going to start the milling process probably this weekend.
Good luck with your build :thumbsup2:
I will in a week.
Mike sent me this pic...thought I'd post it as it was getting me pumped for the build progress...that is a CANNON to be sure
I'm currently experiencing a rain delay so I thought I'd update a little on my progress. As Judah posted I glued and clamped all the vertical lams the other day. Today I pulled the clamps off, pulled it away from the foil and wanted to get it squared up so I could glue the horizontal lam on before squaring it one last time before hanging it up for a month. Now armed with only a planer I've been trying to come up with a way to make something square. I started thinking about a jointer and to my understanding (its been 8 years or so since I used one in high school) is that a jointer makes cuts perpendicular to the fence. perfect for squaring something if you have a flat side. My planer has given me 2 flat sides so I had to try to come up with a way to turn my planer into a jointer so-to-speak. here is a picture of what I came up with: (again this is to get it roughly square so I can glue the horizontal lam on, if it proves too inaccurate I will go to a cabinet shop and have them square it for me after it hangs for a month)
Basically I took a piece of 1x6 and planed it flat then using steel angle i made a channel that the blank sits into. In theory no matter how un-square the top/bottom are the blank should be held square because its held tightly in place by the steel walls. I checked it as best I could with a carpenters square and it looks good (again this isn't the final squaring). When the rain subsides I will run this entire setup through the planer and, again in theory, it should plane the top surface square with the sides. I'll post more after I'm done on the results.
Also wanted to post this picture showing the end grain of the wood I'm using *I turned the lam on the left before gluing to keep the chevron pattern*
Looking good
man that is some beauiful wood..I hope you do a lot of shaping of this blank to reveal the awesome geometries contained within.
man that is some beauiful wood..I hope you do a lot of shaping of this blank to reveal the awesome geometries contained within.
HAHA I would love to but honestly I'm a bit intimidated. Being my first gun build its nerve-wrecking to do anything to it. I plan on doing some shaping because I want it to be a rear handled bluewater gun. I need it to be somewhat streamlined so that I can swing it side to side to track but I prefer a gun to be taller than wide for carrying purposes while I'm swimming with it, because unfortunately I spend more time carrying my gun than I do tracking. Hopefully I can incorporate everything fairly well. AND if I screw up I've got enough wood for at least 3 more tries :laughing:
The good news is that my jig seems to have worked surprisingly well. I made a couple passes on both sides to square it up, it is now 1 7/16"w x 1 15/16"t without the top horizontal lam. Which should take it to 2 3/8"t. I'm starting to think that the top lam is unnecessary/overkill. I can't imagine swinging something that size through the water. hmmm, what does everyone think?
that sounds a little too tall given the width.
I need it to be somewhat streamlined so that I can swing it side to side to track but I prefer a gun to be taller than wide for carrying purposes while I'm swimming with it, because unfortunately I spend more time carrying my gun than I do tracking.
Is there a reason that people dont just rotate the gun 90 when they carry it? When I built my gun I went with wider than taller for better tracking and I will admit that holding the wide part is uncomfortable especially when loaded but when Im in the water i just hold it sideways and its the same as if it was taller than wide.
I hated the feeling of ruining all my work every time I went to make a cut or drill a hole etc. It was really hard to overcome the quest for perfection. I spent weeks trying to perfect a gloss epoxy coat that im still not 100% happy with but after nearly 10 coats and hours of sanding :crazy: Im not going to try again until the next gun. However one of the best things about working with wood its easy to fix mistakes and make changes.
Good luck with the build the feeling of getting the first fish with a gun that you built is unparalleled.
I don't like to use a top laminate either.......I put it on the bottom. Why put it on top just to split it in half when cutting the track?? I do believe that the horizontal laminate gives the blank resistance against side bending. You could glue it to the blank and then size it to the desired dimentions. Anyways take your time building and you be fine. Even if you mess up the blank you'll learn so much that you'll be way better making the next one. Also try some practice cuts on some scrap wood when setting the router before taking your actual blank to it. That way you could check for depth, width and looks. Also resist shaping the blank before making all the center cuts (mech pocket, track, etc.) since you'll be setting the centerline on the blank and all those cuts are easier if the blank still square.
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