Thread: inwale spacers

Originally Posted by wvjohn

I love how some builders have that nice inward curve on the inwale spacers. Any tricks to doing that? Hopefully not requiring an expensive piece of equipment.

I agree they look very smart - I'd like to hear about this also?

Inwales.jpg
Photo from someones build thread, Im not sure who, hope they dont mind
Another way Ive read is to sand that concave in with the end of a belt sander.

That's from Biting Midge's Eureka build. I'm sure he won't mind. That brought up debates about how to make something simple complicated but they came out really nice.

They are on about page 4 of the Eureka Canoe thread at the start of this forum.

Cheer, Kev.

The end of a belt sander, perfect! I had sanding with a drum sander in mind, but don't have one. I do have a belt sander though. So simple!

I believe that davlafont used a router table to put the curve on both sides of a long strip of cedar, then cut crossways to make the spacers. He'll have to confirm. But I seem to remember pictures on the "New Jersey" thread.

Well, it appears that the change in board software has caused all David's pictures to go bye-bye. And the one's on his blog are gone too. Maybe they just linked back here? Anyway, my memory is correct: router table to contour the stock, then cut crosswise to make the spacers. I've see pics of the final product and it is GORGEOUS. Makes me wish I had done the same.

Yes Paulie, my method was to run a long board over a router on both edges and then chop off the spacers. In retrospect: I didn't quite remove quite enough material on at least one edge, so I got a little "shoulder" that ends up up on a dozen or so spacers. The also, the resulting spacers are end grain up--which is interesting visually--but they are quite thirsty for epoxy. Maybe they don't need as much epoxy as I think, and I just need to let the first pass cure before adding more.

Sorry that my pics are gone. It's my fault because I hosted them through Apple's service and didn't migrate them when Apple pulled the plug on that service. One day I will fix all that, but first I have to build a boat.

Also, Simonlew used a method similar to the pic above, using a plunge router to chop the spacer's length. His blog Planing Around gives good detail.

Originally Posted by paulie

Well, it appears that the change in board software has caused all David's pictures to go bye-bye. And the one's on his blog are gone too. Maybe they just linked back here?

Originally Posted by davlafont

Sorry that my pics are gone. It's my fault because I hosted them through Apple's service and didn't migrate them when Apple pulled the plug on that service. One day I will fix all that, but first I have to build a boat.

I couldn't see that being an update problem as no other pics have disappeared, but I guess it is natural to blame things on an update.

This is one of the main reasons we try to discourage people using off site hosting services, such as Photobucket, for their pics on the forum. If the hosting service disappears, or even when peple reorganise their albums on the hosting service, the pics disappear from this or any other forum or blog.

Originally Posted by davlafont

Also, Simonlew used a method similar to the pic above, using a plunge router to chop the spacer's length. His blog Planing Around gives good detail.

Thanks Dave. Here's the link to how I did it: Planing Around: Inwale spacers It was time consuming but the advantage of doing it this way over a sander is you get a semicircular cut so the ends of the spacers are tangent to the inwales and the grain runs horizontally. The edges are razor thin and fragile until you glue them in.

Dave's method looks like much less work and should give similarly shaped spacers except for the grain orientation.

Simon

To me this looks like a lot of extra work for nothing as I can not see any benefit of it.

This is what I have planned to do (if I get time):

1. Making the inwale spacers a few millimetre smaller than the inwale

2. Making the corners a little bit round (a couple of seconds with the sander at each corner).

3. Rounding the corners of the inwale just enough to get the rounding to end where the spacer begins.

inwale.png

I do not know if I managed to describe what I meant, but I made a quick picture with one inwale spacer to illustrate what I meant. In the picture to the left you have a "transparent" inwale, so you can see the shape of the spacer. In the picture to the right, you can see how I would round the inwales. The gunwales are not painted in this picture.

All this is very fast to do, but makes ropes tied to the inwales or the spacers to last better, gives a nice look and everything is softer for the hands.

At the middle of the boat, where I will sit, I am planning to have a wide board on top of the inwales/gunwales to make it more comfortable for the butt while hiking.

One of the best looking and quite functional inwale spacers I've seen is the use of dowel stock, all cut to length and set perpendicular to the inner and outer wales. Very simple to make, easy on the hands, handy to tie a line to if desired, sheds water easily, nice on the eyes, etc.

You are actually going to make far MORE work for yourself it you try to do that.

Read the plans. The inwales, spacers, gunwales, and gunwale caps are all attached with their top edges above the sheer. Then the whole sandwich is planed or sanded down to meet the sheer and make a nice smooth surface. If a spacer goes in a little high or low or crooked, no worries. They all end up flush on top.

Trying to get them all sanded and aligned right BEFORE gluing them all together will mean tons more work and attention. And any spacer which is a little crooked will look awful. So you'll have to put in a lot more time and attention to aligning each one.

You will also need to cut everything thinner than in the plans since you won't be sanding them down later.

The sheerline sandwich is more than comfortable enough without additional boards or cushions. It's wider than it seems.

I haven't noticed any obvious wear from the sharpish edges of the inwales and spacers. Not even on the traveler, which is wrenched tight and takes a lot of strain. That doesn't mean it won't happen eventually. I just haven't seen it yet.

Oh, and the "benefit" of shaping the spacers the way Simon and Dave did is that they look amazingly beautiful. No practical benefit, I'm sure. But it ratchets up the "stare" factor a lot. I still wish I'd done mine their way.