Thread: Redbird: a strip-built canoe ... the Journey

Day 7 (couple of hours after work)

Checked the jarrah strips the night before (6 days wrapped in a wet towel) still rigid as.

Completed the rest of the strongback. (see pic ... with clamps all over it)

Measured up the strongback and drew in the centre lines and the station mould lines.

Day 8

Ventured out to a local mill to check out his wares … a phone call told me that they had some green Sheoak (you beauty, let’s go the whole hog here). Generally more feature than Jarrah and supposedly easier to bend.

Walked away with half a trailer full of Sheoak … that should be about enough shouldn’t it? (see pic 1)

Finally got to the real work at about 2 pm.

Cut a few 6mm strips, cut beautifully … looks great.

Pulled out the steamer and warmed it up a bit, watched the little LED light pop out of its hole but this didn’t effect anything (a bit of CA is easier than taking it back).

Tied the strips loosely together to keep them in order and popped them in the steamer.
15 mins to go thru what I have to do in the 30-45 seconds after the strips come out.

GO!
Ripped the string off … 5 secs
One clamp … 10 secs
Bending sslloowwllyy, another clamp 15 seconds … whew … confidence building
Bend more … another clamp … going well
Bend more … YES … got there
Well with the right wood it went just as the book said it would

The next one went as per the first without a hitch and without the intrepidation.

Now I have to wait overnight for them to cool and set. (See pic 2)

Fantastic work there, and a great blow by blow description as well.

I know nothing of timber steamers, except for the one I once saw in a Murray River boat yard. This was a steel pipe that may have been up to sixty feet long, and a good one foot or more in diameter. It lay across a paddock on a gently sloped area on a flat part of the river. The boiler, was on the "high" so that the steam would have to build up and then push its way down the pipe ensureing that the steam managed to cover the timber completely.

You "kettle" idea has the steam going upward in contradiction to that "old way" of steaming boat timbers. To me, this seems to suggest the timbers weren't steamed thouroughly. :confused:

Just a thought, correct me if I'm wrong.

Buzza
as you can probably determine, I'm no expert in the art of steaming timber but I was referring to a book called "CanoeCraft" for this method of steaming the strips. I had a cap loosely on the top end with steam billowing out both the top and bottom of the pipe. I figure that if the steam is also being force out of the bottom the pipe should be fully "charged" but I could be wrong here. I know it worked well ... at least for the sheoak.
Worth more investigation if I attempt this again, thanks.

Steaming can be a great experience, but is optional.

The other common way is just to thickness the strips down until they can be bent easily enough around the required curve.

From that point the methods converge.

I think the stem strips for the balsa canoe were around 2.5mm and I used about 5. The external stem I used Australian Red Cedar about the same thickness.

The higher the density of the timber (eg jarrah) the more steaming or the thinner the strips. A good reason to choose medium density timbers (oregon, sheok, Aust Red Cedar).

Some of the higher density timbers will steam beautifully when green - straight out of the tree - but are horrors after drying.

MIK

MIK

You did well to get that stem done with only four (or was it five?) clamps. Laminating's great isn't it. I love it. And the results are stunning.

Hey Mik, did you notice that he hasn't done any epoxy work yet? The give away is the clean clamps The first time you glue anything together, those clamps get smothered

The clamps you're using seem to be the real cheap ones. I started with them too but discovered that if you go to the next level, the ones with the black, rubbery grip and heavier plastic buttons on the bits that do the clamping, you're a lot better off. They are a tad more expensive (but still cheap) but the rubbery grip is a lot easier to hold, especially when wearing gloves smeared with poxy and hence you get a tighter clamping force and the better quality buttons don't fall off all the time like the thin plastic on the super cheapies do. You can see the ones I mean here - the commercial ones at the front of the boat, not the wooden ones



This is a bit late now that you've bought yourself a trailer load of sheok, but for hardwood, I buy kapur decking. Yes, you usually wind up maching the ridges off but you get some nice colours and it's very easy to use. The rubbing strips on Sixpence are all kapur and all one piece too, none of this scarfing carry on.

Cheers
Richard

this bloke's too keen Midge. We'll have to get him drunk and slow him down a bit

Richard
I haven't noticed that Kapur decking in my travels I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Looks somewhat similar to sheoak in colour ... can' see if it has much in the way of feature rays or grain.
Sounds like an indon/malay rainforest timber?? :eek:

But you're right if I pursue the sheoak for the gunwhales I will have to scarf join as the longest bit I've seen so far is about 4m long.
Ideally I would like to build with all aussie wood, looks like I'll have to settle for all aust grown timber.

Yes I find the cheapy clamps are good value for money. A spot of Tarzan grip or hot melt glue seems to keep the little fall offy pads in place for a year or two (after all I think I have had these for about 10yrs). I'm now into the cheap version of the quick grips now I'll agree they're not irwins they are about 1/6 of the price and are excellent value for money. I take your advice on the better ones though, I'll have just have to source them and pick up a few every time I walk in the shop ... just looking. I did most of my initial calpming with the cheap quickgrips as they are truly a one handed operation and can start clapming from 20cm down to nothing... good when you're trying to bent the strips then can be anchored in place with other clamps.

BTW if you guys (Richard & Mik) weren't only half way to the best part of Oz I would love to sit down and have beer (Coopers dark ale of course) or a local red with you.

Don't use those cheap quick grips for anything requiring real force, they don't like it - even aware of this fact, the two biguns I was given from christmas didn't last the first job :eek: . In fact, my Irwins are all stuffed too. There are some massive forces involved in pulling gunwales and things into place and most of mine failed while putting the gunwales on Redback. This is why I've gone to F clamps and the wooden wedge clamps.

Richard

Day 9
Again started half way thru the day.

Pulled the strips off the moulds … looks good the Sheoak has held it’s shape very well, the more flexible paulownia was less inclines to hold its shape but being more flexible that wasn’t a worry.

Contemplated putting the good light to use by setting up all the station moulds on the strongback but decided against the idea as it would make the gluing up of the stem strips that much more difficult.

Glued up the stem strips (see pic)

Set up a couple of the station moulds ….waiting for the stem moulds … waiting for the glue to dry.

Good on yer Ramps!! ... re the steambending issues... what are you steaming exactly? the stem peices to lay around the stem? these being in Jarrah right?... a trick I was told about which worked with my Jarrah stem laminations was to get a kettle boil the water and soak a tea towel in the boiling water wring it out and lay it over the Jarrah... slowly SLOWLY bend and clamp the Jarrah to the mould continue heating the tea towel as you go to keep the wood HOT... carfull of the digits mate :eek: dont ask

I used mdf for my original moulds but found they were the pits to screw into or tie the strips down HARD... so I have just cut out new ones from 1/2in ply for the new build... which will happen just as soon as my bloody bung leg gets more mobile! :mad:

Oh dear just looked at what I last posted and realised that I'm a bit behind.

Day 10
Half of a Saturday

Set up moulds on strongback … checked alignment and generally fiddled til they were all setup to my satisfaction.

Anchored a tie strip along the top of the moulds to give them some stability when I start stripping.

Stacked about one and half cubic metres of Sheoak to dry … all I wanted was enough for a couple of stems … largest slab weighed about 45kg. Tried to do this before it got dark … failed … still at it at 9:30 pm but very happy.

Hey there Ramps!
Thought you may like the sheoak better seems you got a fair swag of it eh!

Mate looking at that stem peice man thats some curve there not a wonder the Jarrah snapped :eek: ... way more than the wee lassie has

Lookin forward to more progress shots and tales

Yeah the sheoak is beautiful shall I post a couple of pics to make you all jealous?
Tell us about it. the stem has more bend than a crossbow.

Day 11
Couple of hours after work.
Anchored a few more strips … getting used to joining strips … three each side now

Extracted the thicknesser out from under a pile of boxes and dressed a piece of
Western red cedar that I bought for a couple of feature strips. Ran the wrc thru the thicknesser … love that smell

sorry nothing eventful see day 12 for some pics

Hi Ramps,
I am still following this thread with interest. I am looking forward to the next installment.