Acorn to Arabella - Journey of a Wooden Boat - Episode 57: Bronze Floors

Floor timbers are a critically important structural member in wooden boats. As we've been building Arabella, there have been many decisions so far in terms of following the original plans or making slight adjustments. Each decision has pros and cons. When it came to the floor timbers, we felt the the wooden floor timbers she was designed with were actually very problematic. Wood floor timbers fastened through split frames cause a hard point and weaken the frame where they are connected. We therefore were pretty adamant about figuring out how to fabricate metal floors for her. Iron was not an option due to the galvanic reactions we have been meticulously avoiding so Silicon Bronze seemed to be the obvious choice. However, casting them was going to be difficult as well as potentially costly. We did more research and luckily came to find out that Bronze can actually be welded... so, that was one more thing we decided to teach ourselves and tackle! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign up for our email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hn3Qyv Acorn to Arabella is a boat building project taking place in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve and Alix started as amateur boat builders building their own 38' wooden boat in their backyard: designer William Atkin's Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel's gaff rig. These videos follow the journey from tree felling, to lumber milling, to lofting, to the lead keel pour and beyond—sharing details of the woodworking, carpentry, metal smithing, tool building, and tool maintenance that wooden boats command. This ultimate DIY project will continue well past launch, when they will travel and learn to cruise aboard the boat that they've built. Just kidding about all that, this channel is about a Siberian Laika named Akiva. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOLLOW US: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acorntoarabella Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acorntoarabella/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acorntoarabella Website: http://www.acorntoarabella.com