Rivercat,
First of all, thanks for all your informative posts (with good photos I might add). You mentioned that green English oak was used for this chassis; but what was involved in the whole process of getting and finishing the lumber used? I'm assuming that the paste seen in the photos was used to seal cracks which formed in the wood.
Hi Cannoneer,Well with Green oak of that size in the UK you would need to really go to a timber yard the size of the two side long parts are 16inch sq and starting about 25ft long the weight of these which is approx 3 ton before machining for the both of them or so the telll tale alarm in the forklift going off as I lifted them over the entrance gates to the Fort told me. At the fort we can only deal with timber up to 10inch through the machines we have. This was cut at a timber yard with a tungsten tipped bandsaw and then planed up on their planer.
Now you are right we do get some cracking, We decided to go for green oak as the carriage is and will be permanately outside and this would help with the timber movement until it settles down. In the UK we do have a lot more rain and wet weather so this is the better route to go rather that kiln dried which would then soak up the moisture.
I have found by trial and error the best way to sort out the cracks is to use a mixture of sawdust and PVA waterproof glue mixed together and fill the cracks that way, this still allows the wood to move . We have tried two part filler but have found that this after a couple of days then cracks again. We also coat the whole thing with a Zinc primer for adhesion, then 2no under coats and finally 2no topcoats.
Hope that helps.
