Decking, shaping a bowed board

Hi folks,

Have been reading these forums with great interest and got many great ideas and tips. Thanks everyone for the great threads. Now for my first post!

Am building a deck and placing the decking boards on. We're using treated pine planks 190x35mm - nice and wide for something a little different.

For the first few boards, I've been using a sash clamp to hold it in place and take out any slight bow in the board. Now I'm past the length of the clamp and have hit a bowed board I need to hold in place as I drill and nail it down.

Is there any way I can rig together some clamps, etc. to pull each new board into place? How else might I approach this as the job continues?

Thanks,
Af.

An 1800mm G clamp ??

For real?

The deck is going to be nearly 6 metres long, can't be buying any 6m clamps! Here's an image which hopefully helps explain things a little better. The yellow boards are already set, the green one is the new board I'm attaching and need to bend/clamp into shape.

Short of pulling it together with a rope, I'm not too sure what I can do here. Obviously I'm a novice at this woodworking stuff!

Af.

Could you have a small block which you put behind the bowed bit, push it straight and then nail it into the joist, just enough to hold the block. Then nail the decking board down and remove the stop block after that.

I was only jossing with you Af. It just seemed a very unusual post - using 190*35 for decking that is. But I can see you're serious so . . . . . .
Get a long length of solid timber to sit on top of your joists & clamp it down. Cut some timber wedges to place between the plank & your decking board & belt them in ( sideways) until you've got a straight line. Repeat the process with each board.
If there's a bit of give ( I doubt it being 190*35 ) you can try the usual method of driving a chisel into the joist & pulling the board in to a straight line.
I hope your using 100mm gal nails !

What your needing is one of these A Bo Wrench.

This tool lets you pull in any sort of board and when you get the swing of it you can pull the board into position and it will lock it there whilst you nail it down.

I figured you were pulling my leg there! :-)

Both great ideas. I'll give the "wedging" idea in the morning and see how that turns out. If that doesn't work I'll look at grabbing a "bowrench". Most of the boards are pretty straight so shouldn't be a problem.

Am using 75mm titadeck gal nails. Three in each joist. For this warped board I might use 100mm just to be sure.

Thanks guys. I'll let you know how I go.

Cheers,
Af.

Hiya,

Just wanted to let you know how I got on with this. The boards are too thick to bend and wedge by hand (even with all my weight behind it). So I went looking for a Bo Wrench. Seems like no-one in Mornington has heard of them - go figure.

So, I used a bit of both ideas, took the jack out of my car and used that. I clamped a piece of wood across the joists. Then I placed my car jack sideways so it pushes the decking board into place (I placed a piece of wood before it so it doesn't destroy the decking board.)

It all works pretty well. Not as easy and smooth as a Bo Wrench but it does the job nicely. I'll take a few photos tomorrow and show you how it's all done.

Thanks for the help and ideas. I never would've thought of this if it weren't for this forum.

Cheers,
Af.

Here's the pic. I call the contraption a Bo-Jack.

That's "Stanley" our Jack Russell looking as if it was his idea!

The Bo Wrench was on an american web site, so they may not be available here.If you are still having problems,go to a hire shop and get some floor dogs,which is essentially what the bo wrench is.

Tools

Of course the other way is to keep using the sash cramp.
When you get almost to the capacity of the cramp, place and cramp two boards (with spacers between them) BUT only nail the last board down. Pull out the loose board, reposition the cramp and go on.
when next you need to reposition the cramp, put the board you pulled out back in place and nail it down.

ian