Wooden strip construction

[Gillermoo]

I'm currently building a teardrop out of mahogany strips and have been running into some issues where the strips have been cracking over time. I started the stripping in October and it is now January. In October it was like 70° where I live and now it's consistently a out 30. I'm hoping that just the dramatic temperature change on the unsealed surface is what is causing this and once I cover it with fiberglass and epoxy it will become more stable. I have been filling in the cracks using a v-groove router bit and laying in strips as patches pictured below.

Has anyone seen this problem before with the wooden strip construction and has any tips or tricks to alleviate this problem? Is this likely to go away once I do the fiberglassing and epoxy? Thanks!

PXL_20250119_135206717.jpg (633.16 KiB) Viewed 426 times

PXL_20250119_140418713.jpg (595.25 KiB) Viewed 426 times

[GTS225]

Sorry, but that is the nature of wood. The air gets colder, and dryer, and wood reacts by shrinking, both due to being dryer and getting colder. Pure physics, my friend. Used to work maintenance for a local cabinet mfgr.....that was the bain of our existence during an Iowa winter......keeping the humidification systems running the way they were supposed to.

Roger

[Gillermoo]

No thoughts of whether or not this will be limited by fiberglass and epoxy? Or is this going to be a constant problem?

[tony.latham]

Yep, lumber (not plywood) expands and contracts, as you know.

Randall White and his wife, Mechelle built a gorgeous cedar-stripped teardrop using the plans in my book. They live in Alabama. In June, they came out–-along with two other teardroppers–-and camped with us in the wild (and dry) west.



They didn't cover the forward (flat) part of their teardrop with epoxy/fiberglass, and in our dry air, it cracked.

You might reach out to him through his Youtube channel:

https://youtu.be/N4FL152_Zgw?si=hjlDDWmHvVCldFBb

Or his Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2095771910747909

And hear his thoughts on it. Me?

Tony

[Pmullen503]

I've built 11 cedar strip boats. Your strips split because they were probably attached to wood framing with the grain running opposite to the strips. Wood expands and contracts with moisture across the grain much more than along it.

Sealing with epoxy and glass cloth on BOTH sides will stabilize the wood and it will expand and contract much less and the glass will keep it from splitting. Epoxy alone or on just one side is asking for trouble.