Rear Decks

Once again, I did not use the triangular wood called for in the plans. For the deck stringers, I used rectangular pieces that I milled from light-weight spruce. The dimensions were inspired by Rod’s Mana. I also cut the rear decks in one piece instead of two pieces joined down the middle as called for in the plans.

My plan to use triangular mortises and tenons in rectangular stock worked well. The jig I made for the table saw made it easy to cut consistent tenons. I cut the mortises by hand with a back saw. The fit did not have to be perfect because fillets would hide any gaps.

Fitting the decks was pretty easy when I followed the building plans. I glued the center stringer to the middle of the deck. And placed the lateral stringers in their places on the deck beams. I then put the deck in place and crawled inside to mark where the lateral stringers should be glued. I cut the decks a little bigger than needed because I planned to trim them flush with a router.

After gluing all the stringers on, I applied two coats of epoxy to the bottom of the decks and added cosmetic fillets to stringers where they could be seen from the cabin.

I glued the decks down with lots of nails and clamps. And crawled inside to make nice fillets around the perimeter.