Kingfisher Drift Boat Build - Preparing the Solid Stock

I've got about 60 board foot of rift sawn white oak that will end up being lots of small dimensional pieces used to build the "Kingfisher". This is a process of making small pieces out of larger boards.

The plans from Cajune Boats include a complete parts list for all the dimensional parts for the boat. I made a master list from the parts list to manufacture the individual parts. As with building cabinets, I rough in the stock to 1/16" over and then will use my thickness sander to take it down to the final dimension. I also cut all the parts 4" longer than the final size. This allows for fine tuning the length when the parts are fit.

Here's a picture of all the white oak parts ready to be finish sanded to width and thickness.

I've got a Powermatic 17" wide platen sander. What a difference it makes having one of these. I used to run miles of trim through it when I was building custom homes. It is basically a thickess sander. I rough in my stock 1/16" larger than the finished dimension and then sand it down to the final thickness. It comes out perfect. The sanding belt is 17" wide.

This is the feed side. The control panel is on the right. The conveyor/ feed belt is at the bottom. It is connected to my vacuum system and uses compressed air to control the sanding belt tension. Sweet. It sure beats a planer and a belt sander.

Here's the wood all finish sanded to dimension.

Next step is scarfing the plywood side panels. That will be the next post.