The Quick Canoe Thread: Boats, advice, tips. Add your own!

[Matt457]

... 6mm for the bottom and 4mm for the sides would appear to require 2 sheets of 6mm and two sheets of 4mm ...

Nope. Have a look a little further back in this thread, in Dec 2012. I got the bottom out of one sheet of 6mm, as long as it's a 2.5m sheet. You need to push the two bottom patterns right out to the corners of the sheet, facing opposite directions.

Edited: Now I see that you were hoping to start this a couple of weeks ago, so my advice is a bit late. Sorry. How did it go?

[Matt457]

I'll get back home in late January. I'll post an update here when there's progress.

Aaaaaaaallllrightythen!!

So, I said I'd get back to building in late January, and HERE I AM! Just like I said... err... in mid... March.

Aaaanyway.

I got the timber today! The gunwhales are screwed in place. She's ready to flip over and glass the outside of the chines. I'll post a photo when I get one. My father is visiting from tomorrow till Tuesday. We'll see what progress can be made.

I splurged and got oregon. Mmmmm... smells so good!

[Matt457]

The outside glass tape is done, plus three coats of epoxy on the whole outside of the boat. (Thursday)

Last night I started to sand down the edge of the tape flush with the plywood. I fired up the orbital sander and started into it. I lasted
about two minutes with the orbital sander before going insane from the noise and dust. So I unwrapped the as-yet-unused spokeshave I bought late last year and decided it was time to learn how to use it. This is definitely the preferred tool for the job. Compared to a power sander, the spokeshave is faster, does a neater job, makes no noise and no dust and is easier on the hands. What's not to like?

We're also tidying up a piece of furniture today, but should get the gunwhales and skeg doublers glued in.

[Matt457]

I have decided to keep this excess length on the keel timber, glass it into the skeg and wrap it in glass for strength, fit a sharpened bronze tip and use it to sink plastic canoes and kayaks! Mwuuhahahhahar!

canoe-spike.jpg

Just kidding. This was taken last weekend. Since then the keel/skeg timbers are shaped to meet the stems, and the inwhales are in. The end decks are made and ready to glue in. I only occasionally remember to take photos and I'm very slow getting them off the camera. I had a helper (Dad) for a few days, but he's gone home again now. I have to get cracking and get everything else attached so it can be splashed at Easter.

Question 1: Is it necessary to add glass tape from the keel/skeg timber to the stem, just at the ends for a few hundred mm ? Does just epoxy offer enough abrasion resistance, or is glass worthwhile?

I will probably fair and paint the outside eventually, but not before using her a bit.

Question 2: If I varnish the outside to protect the epoxy (and I admit it; to make her shiny, since I've already sanded her a bit) will the varnish likely be a problem later if I go to fair and paint? Will I need to sand it off, or just sand lightly and coat over?

[Boatmik]

The outside glass tape is done, plus three coats of epoxy on the whole outside of the boat. (Thursday)

Last night I started to sand down the edge of the tape flush with the plywood. I fired up the orbital sander and started into it. I lasted
about two minutes with the orbital sander before going insane from the noise and dust. So I unwrapped the as-yet-unused spokeshave I bought late last year and decided it was time to learn how to use it. This is definitely the preferred tool for the job. Compared to a power sander, the spokeshave is faster, does a neater job, makes no noise and no dust and is easier on the hands. What's not to like?

We're also tidying up a piece of furniture today, but should get the gunwhales and skeg doublers glued in.

One nice trick with the spokeshave if using it to remove the high edge of the glass tape is to skew the blade so it is just barely retracted on one side then wrap masking tape around the spokeshave on the low side so it just can't bite.

Another tool that works well is a cabinet scraper.

Well Done!

[Boatmik]

I have decided to keep this excess length on the keel timber, glass it into the skeg and wrap it in glass for strength, fit a sharpened bronze tip and use it to sink plastic canoes and kayaks! Mwuuhahahhahar!

canoe-spike.jpg

Just kidding. SNIP

Question 1: Is it necessary to add glass tape from the keel/skeg timber to the stem, just at the ends for a few hundred mm ? Does just epoxy offer enough abrasion resistance, or is glass worthwhile?

I don't think so .. the screws from inside the boat will reinforce the keel. So far none have broken. But the design method is to pick a method that is reliable enough for any reasonable impact.

Also you can adjust the turnability of the boat by trimming down the end skegs.

I will probably fair and paint the outside eventually, but not before using her a bit.

Question 2: If I varnish the outside to protect the epoxy (and I admit it; to make her shiny, since I've already sanded her a bit) will the varnish likely be a problem later if I go to fair and paint? Will I need to sand it off, or just sand lightly and coat over?

Just sand. It will be fine. Use an undercoat if using paint though.

Best wishes - looks great!!! But drop the battering ram!

MIK

[Matt457]

One nice trick with the spokeshave if using it to remove the high edge of the glass tape is to skew the blade so it is just barely retracted on one side then wrap masking tape around the spokeshave on the low side so it just can't bite.

Another tool that works well is a cabinet scraper.

Well Done!

Yep. I don't have a cabinet scraper. (It's on my list!) So I set the spokeshave blade at an angle with less than half of it 'biting'. It made the task really easy. I could basically use the spokeshave flat and it cut the tape exactly how I wanted.

[Matt457]

Best wishes - looks great!!! But drop the battering ram!

MIK

It looks like a battering ram in that photo, but it's not finished!! It WILL be a spike for sinking the competition!

[Boatmik]

Often I add comments for people that might read this a year or three down the line

[Matt457]

Okay, okay. I'll settle down. )

[Matt457]

Progress!

canoe-latest-sm.jpg

The last epoxy waterproofing is going on tonight, on the keel.

Then she needs something in the rope holes in the stems to seal those and she'll be watertight.

I think I should have built a Eureka, as the level of finish I'm doing on this one is probably a bit over the top for a 'Quick' canoe. It certainly hasn't turned out to be quick. Still, I think with the kids the stability of this one will be appreciated.

The whole thing'll get spar varnish. Then later in the year (after some paddling) I plan to paint the outside, leaving the gunwhales and inside clear. Later it'll get the buoyancy tank faces too. I'm not doing those yet. The end decks are oversized for nice large buoyancy tanks.

I finished the end decks below the inwhales because I like (on my other canoe) having those little patches of deck to rest things on and not have them fall off the boat. that made for a fine bit of fiddling getting the inwhales to meet in a pretty fashion at the end. We did okay I think.

[Boatmik]

It looks so nice and .... woodie!

MIK

[Sumbloak]

It may not be the fanciest thing on the planet, but it looks like a nice, clean job.

[callsign222]

Progress!

canoe-latest-sm.jpg

WOW. I love this! You're going to like this canoe. Way to go, Matt!

Smiley face FTW!!!

[callsign222]

A note on using SurePly.

SurePly is cheap. It is vinyl flooring underlayment. It is great for building a cheap boat. I built my QC in late 2010, about 2.5 years ago. I kept it outside. One day in a T-storm it was violently thrown from it's resting position into a rock, and at some point little kids climbed on it.

Late last season I noticed some vertical bubbling in the plywood and some cracks along the chine. I was sure that the thin top veneer and the kids climbing on the canoe had cracked the chine a bit, and water had migrated in. Curiously the delam was in several locations, four to be exactly-- port and starboard stern, and port and starboard bow. The symmetry should have set my bells off. Today, I took a chisel to the delaminated portions to strip out the veneer and fill with QuickFair, and then do a quick repaint... when I found out something else entirely--

20130421_164515.jpg

As you can see, the middle ply (sureply is 3 w/ thin veneer) is joined by these shark tooth joins. Once water got in there, there was no stopping it from spreading, expanding, freezing, delaming, etc.

I encourage those working with SurePly to be aware of the construction technique, and to coat the ply with epoxy and seal the endgrain, and continuously inspect the integrity of the chines and other locations where water may intrude. In this case the boat is barely salvageable, all three plys are soaked and in four locations running from gunwale-chine-keel. A huge project, for a $100 boat.

This boat is now a planter! (Wifey is growing a certain flower for friends wedding which is very weedy, so QC will keep weedy flower and garden separate)

20130421_173917.jpg

(Red striped boat in background for sale)