Been asked to machine some new batten for an extended SS roof rack. What wood are you suppose to use Ash/Sapele/Teak or something else? Ash would look good however I'm concerned it will corrode and damage the paint work. Regards Geord.
Andy ash is used on the morrìs minor traveller frame and I think on the Marcos chassis so you should have no issue. Just make sure its treated before fitting
The local boat builders use oak or iroko for external stuff Andy due to their durability. Oak goes black and patchy though if its not treated due to water damage. We recently had a front cratch frame made from iroko which I treated with osmo and its awesome. Lovely grain and colour and proper durable. It's hard on cutting tools though so plan on factoring that in if you ever use it.
@theBusmonkey Thank you, forgot all about iroko not used that for years. used for lining trailers i think. But from memory not very stable when machined down to 25mm what would the local boat builder recon? Thank you for the reply, love Andy x
ha, dunno mate as we're not there at the moment but I reckon you're right. The cratch frame was machined down from some pretty large lengths into some fairly chunky components! I'm guessing the roof rack battens probably need to be a bit more bendy
It's very rural and traditional, I've been here 20 years and people still wonder what I'm doing here Still don't know what they made of this crowd that turned up last year
