> while building my cheasapeake 17 I decided to make the deck beams out of
> solid lumber instead of plywood laminated with epoxy. I went to the lumber
> yard and found a piece of white spruce that was free of knots . When I got
> it home I cut it to 15/16" by 1" by 40 " long. I improvised
> a steam box by taking a piece of 4" drain pipe and proping it on top
> of a kettle I stuffed the ends with rags and suspended the deck beam
> inside, the kettle was going full blast for about an hour with the wood
> inside of the pipe, the wood bent around the jig with some effort but
> never threatened to break.tomorrow I'll pull the new beam off the jig and
> see how it turned out, hopefully good because I dont like working with the
> epoxy.
>A far stronger deck beam can be made by laminating the deck beams in a vertical fashion rather than the standard horizontal method.