Building Orca - Episode 13: Transom Planking
May 30, 2025 · 28 min · 60K views
What this video covers
Louis Sauzedde mills Atlantic white cedar offcuts into double-layer transom planking for Orca, a 34-foot L. Francis Herreshoff auxiliary ketch under construction.12:45 The cedar came from a pile too short for the 24-foot planks required by a previous v-bottom skiff build; Sauzedde cuts pieces to 12 feet with a chainsaw, rips them with a circular saw using a straight-edge guide, and runs them through a Boise crane benchtop planer.0:50 He feeds boards in halfway, then cranks the planer up until it bites — a method that skips measuring board thickness entirely.8:27 The finished transom will carry two layers of ¾-inch quarter-sawn cedar, chosen to match the edge-grain appearance of Orca's original transom; staining will be needed to match color.15:44 Sauzedde demonstrates a bench-top edge-planing technique for fitting the planks: he lays a reference board flat, sets the workpiece hanging a half-inch over its edge, and runs a sharp No.21:34 5 hand plane along the reference surface to hold a consistent 90-degree angle without clamping the workpiece on edge.21:40 He also describes clustering five machines — table saw, two surface planers, bandsaw, and jointer — in one central floor area to allow long-stock clearance on all sides.11:00 Keeping the plane registered on a flat reference board, rather than freehand, is the key to fitting long plank edges without repeated trial passes.22:23
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