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spearshaft rail material

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Purple heart is used by Merlo in his spearguns. Because of the weight, you'll have to make speargun's cheeks with a lighter wood.

With a good epoxy finish, almost every kind of wood will be good.
I'm building guns with oak, red cedar and mahogany. 1/2" of oak in center, 1/3" of red cedar on each side, and 1/4 of mahogany for the color, on each side. I think it will be good and well ballasted, because of the cedar. Still in construction.

So if those woods are good, be sure that your purple heart will be very good, and great looking.

 
Milhouse ! I tried the first link but it didn't work.The second is fine
though.Have you had any probs with laminating the different woods?I would like to see more pics if you got them. I put the photos in my pictures then hit browes and go to my pictures and pick the photo I want to insert.What type of oak are you using?

thanks AJ.
 
hey guys,
don't "preview" when you post images... took me 4 flase uploads and some tips from others to figure it out... previewing screws it up some how. Just upload and post, no preview.
 
Dear Ajwaverider,

This gun is made of one piece of mahogany. The oak/cedar/maho. is under construction. Lamination is not a probklem, but
I didn't put in water yet, so I can't really tell.

The oak is common oak that we find here in Canada, and New-England. Like I said, I will soak it with many epoxy coats, so the water won't touch it, so I think it'll be O.K.

Other pictures of the gun will come later, they're at my job.
 
Good idea to soak non-oily woods with resin. Go the extra mile on the endgrain. That's where the wood will soak up water like its drinking it through a straw. I've had it happen to me a couple times before. I put some tender loving care into a laminated gun, but skimped on the resin coating because it was too messy and too much of pain in the butt. First time out into the salt water, and the sucker splits at the seams in a couple places. Delams will piss you the hell off. I was using the good stuff too, West Systems. If the water gets behind the resin bond, its only a matter of time before it splits since the wood will expand as it drinks water. This expansion will stress the bonds enough to make them fail.

Gil
 
Oak is used in marine's applications. It's similar to mahogany, but without good looking. Red cedar is a very oily wood. I'll be carefull to soak it very well with epoxy. A trick is to put a bit of epoxy on each potential hole made by hitting rocks after each dive. When the gun look bad because there's too much touch-ups, I sand it all and give a couple of coats again, and it's new. It works at least with mahogany, and am sure it will be the same with oak/cedar.
 
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