cutless set screw and sapele

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margitchris
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cutless set screw and sapele

Post by margitchris »

Should cutless bearing set screws be bronze, brass, or stainless? My stern tube is fiberglass. Also, just bought some sapele to make cap rails with. It looks like a great choice over teak. Does anyone have experience with this wood?
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earlylight
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Re: cutless set screw and sapele

Post by earlylight »

I have always used stainless steel set screws for the cutlass bearing. Never had a problem. Sapele is a nice looking wood, but I have never used it on a boat and I have no idea how nicely it mills.
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John, CD28
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Re: cutless set screw and sapele

Post by John, CD28 »

The boats I've owned over the years always had stainless set screws holding the cutless bearing in place.

I hadn't heard about sapele 'till your post - thanks for the heads up. Nice looking wood. I've worked with ipe in the past, but found it to be very hard, and extremely heavy. Felt like I should have been using a cutting torch on it rather than a saw. Is sapele softer/lighter than ipe?

John
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Idon84
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Re: cutless set screw and sapele

Post by Idon84 »

My cutlass is held in place with stainless as well.

I've used Sapele for just about everything in my rebuild. I haven't had a lot of woodworking experience but it seems to glue well, bends easily and has a DARK red color. Some of my sailor friends say that it is to dark but with Interlux Snow White as my white paint it looks awsome! I was told that Sapale was a little more brittle than Hondo. Mahogany but I haven't had any issues bending the wood to serve my needs. Keep it covered in varnish of some sort as one area that was raw got some water on it over night and made quite a stain.

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