DN NA Class

I am restoring ( perhaps rebuilding) a 1950s Renegade. The 16 ft plank is in very nice condition and has a good springback. The really nice sitka top and bottom skins are opening up here and there along the horizontal glue seam line. I am assuming it was built with a weldwood glue in the 50's and not epoxy. The separations are a minimal hairline in width. I feel I need to separate the top and bottom and epoxy them back together. Is this unnecessary surgery? Is there a method to open the plank along the glue seems? An oscillating cutting blade seems to be fairly slim as compared to a circular saw blade. Again the wood is in nice condiiton. I may end up painting the plank when all is complete. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

That's a tough call.  ???

If the total separation is a small fraction of the total length of the seam I would be tempted to just try working some glue into each separated area and watching it carefully next season.
The basic technique for that is to spread the separated area as much as possible (ex. with a thin putty knife) and get glue as far into the gap as possible. I've used brushes, a putty-knife, and thin syringe needles to try and get glue well into minor separations.

I've also been involved with splitting a number of components (springboards, plank, and mast) when they had really bad separations, or when we weren't sure what the interior of the part looked like (ex. rot). It's not that hard (although a Renegade plank is pretty wide).

One problem is that any way you cut the plank apart will remove some thickness so when you glue it back together it will be softer.
This may be good if the plank is too stiff.

It might be possible to replace the wood removed by the kerf with a new (thin) layer when you re-glue the halves together.

Another option is to selectively cut where there is separation and glue in a replacement piece. You could "plunge" a circular-saw blade in and then fill with a half-moon shaped piece of wood.

Hopefully others will chime in with more suggestions...

Cheers,

Geoff S.

Thank you Geoff for the reply. I have not ventured into this yet..... still contemplating. I may attempt the pry technique with opposing putty knives. I have a Japanese flush saw to begin a thin kerf. I thought of the circulars saw kerf cut seeing that there is a crack fix photo and story on the Renegade website that used this method on a flatter sideboard. The plank is a bit stiff so getting her two havles back together will loose some stiffness, yes. I will post some photos as I start this. Thanks again.