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

Look mate, you are NOT allowed to proceed at such a pace, particularly when you are obviously achieving good things. Cripes, what do you want to do? Make us look bad? I mean, Midge has spent years not finishing that Eureka, and I have to physically force myself not to work on Sixpence, and here you are making us look like lazy layabouts ... which is not unreasonable BUT :mad:

Just make sure the launching photos feature the huge grin this thing is going to be worth

Richard

Originally Posted by Daddles

I mean, Midge has spent years not finishing that Eureka,

NO I haven't. I'm not up to finishing yet!

How do you people do this? I think it's all been done over the last few years, and the photos are just coming out now!


P

Originally Posted by Daddles

Look mate, you are NOT allowed to proceed at such a pace...

Sorry Richard for that I'll give you..

Day 13
A lazy Fathers day afternoon

More stripping.

Chuffing away quietly after lunch. Little nippers offering a hand here and there … always helps to have an extra hand to hold a strip or two especially when the strips are starting to get all bendy like.

Accumulating a nice pile of shavings as the Lie Nelson block plane bevels the strips around the tightest curves. Have found the rolling bevel is quite easy to do. After the first few strips I just eyeball the curve I’m about to tackle and start bevelling. I made a very simple little jig to hold the strips on the side of the zero tolerance table of on the Triton WC (see pic 3) and it does well to cut the mitres for the joins and holds strips well while planing the bevels. It’s unusual that the strip needs more (or less) bevelling than my first eyeballing of the situation. If it does I just mark where it needs some further attention and pass the plane over it a couple more times. So far I’m very happy with the results BUT I guess I’ll see when I’ve completed the glassing.

The light was just starting to fail as I was whacking on the last strip and I had a call the dinner was about to be served. And … the stapler failed …3 staples to complete the strip … didn’t feel good… didn’t feel like a misfeed … which the old B&D powershot very rarely had anyway …bugger … clamps and tape will do.

Pulled it apart after dinner … being US made it actually had screws … found the broken bit as I feared. Price new to replace this … $70. Saw the identical version (also called powershot) by GMC!! At half the price … must be just the chinese version … looks identical even to the writing (except the GMC part) on the side except the handle was a different colour... hmm

Oh yeah and another pic or two for good luck

Looking brillaint mate

Ramps, I'm not sure I like you.

Day 13 and strips nearly done! Even with the jarrah bend and snap experience.
Setting a good standard, mate. Raising the bar pretty high.

Makes me think I'd better make sure I'm sorted out when I go to make mine.

I like the two WRC strips.

Originally Posted by Ramps

I made a very simple little jig to hold the strips on the side of the zero tolerance table of on the Triton WC (see pic 3)

Ramps, I would be interested in hearing about your mod to the Triton WC

Originally Posted by Slavo

Ramps, I would be interested in hearing about your mod to the Triton WC

I agree with Slavo. I know there is a picture of it in post #3, but a bit more detail on how the jig is put together and what it does and how to use it would be great.

BTW the Redbird is looking great. I wish my projects went together so well and so quickly!

Cheers

Jeremy

Umm Ramps. I fear you've been hurrying too much. Seriously. I hate to tell you at this stage but there's a major blue in your boat. I reckon you must've had a fold in the plans or something, but whatever the reason, you've built it with two front ends :eek:

Richard
bastard - fast builder, compulsive builder, got a lie nielsen plane, got one of them nifty japanese saws. Sheesh, the ruddy thing'll probably float the right way up too **grumble grumble grumble**

Thanks for the feedback guys it's always good to know that I'm not posting rubbish that no one is interested in on the forum as I know there are some excellent "how to" sites out there. And thanks too for the support from the guys that have been there before me and have answered all my earlier questions on other threads. Oh how's yours Dingo? Am I going to be able to paddle up the Brunswick to meet you for a pow wow this summer? (if the Brunswick flows )

I suppose questions I had when I was going to build was: Could I do it (not having built a boat before)? How much time will it take (a woodworker with a humble number of tools)? How much (or little) would/could it cost here in Oz still using quality products?
If I'm not answering these questions pls let me know. Oh and happy to answer any others too but I'm no expert. They will, I'm sure help me out if you ask any hard ones.

Originally posted by Daddles ...
"Umm Ramps. I fear you've been hurrying too much. Seriously. I hate to tell you at this stage but there's a major blue in your boat. I reckon you must've had a fold in the plans or something, but whatever the reason, you've built it with two front ends"

Bugger
I thought I'd be able to cheat and just get to half way ... then duplicate rather than drawing out all those extra moulds. Now where am I going to put that outboard

As it is I delibrerately chose a symmetrical design after looking at apic of someone paddling a cannoe "backwards" ie facing what I tought was the wrong direction and sitting on the bow seat. Got me thinking that there might be times that I will want to go off paddling by myself (being a flyfisher) and that it would be an advantage to be able to sit more centrally and point the boat the other direction. When I have another person to assist with the paddling I'll sit in the seat closest to a pointy end and I'll call that the stern ... weird concept to me at first, but I got over it.

I'll do some more pics of the"jig" (it's so simple that I feel embarassed to call it such)... and some in action after work and post some tonight

Originally Posted by Ramps

Oh how's yours Dingo? Am I going to be able to paddle up the Brunswick to meet you for a pow wow this summer? (if the Brunswick flows )

The blasted Brunswick better bloody NOT flow!! :mad: PERIOD!!! cause that will mean we will have washed the inside of the house AGAIN And until I get another house put on this place at least 2ft higher and further up the hill I really dont want to go there again

Originally Posted by Ramps

I suppose questions I had when I was going to build was: Could I do it (not having built a boat before)?

Of course you could cause YOU ARE!

Originally Posted by Ramps

How much time will it take (a woodworker with a humble number of tools)?

Time taken is up to you and how much time you have available... your doing EXCEPTIONALLY WELL

Originally Posted by Ramps

How much (or little) would/could it cost here in Oz still using quality products?

cost is a bit hard to determine cause its dependant on many variables ie if you already have the timber needed to hand if you have relations friends in the industry to get you discounts on epoxy fibreglass and stuff like that... if however you dont I sorta halfassed worked out that by my already having the timber to hand it would cost me in the vacinity of $3-$400 for the rest to build a canoe... however!! that was variable depending on where I sourced the epoxy (note here it was cheeper to get it ex Adelaide than Perth) of course this may have changed as it was about 5 years since I last checked on the prices side of things

Originally Posted by Ramps

Now where am I going to put that outboard

Well ramps you make a wee overtheside hangyuppy thingy and attach it to the side of the canoe then attach small outboard to that and away you go! easy as

Originally Posted by Ramps

I'll do some more pics of the"jig" (it's so simple that I feel embarassed to call it such)... and some in action after work and post some tonight

And thats the very beauty of jigs... the simplicity! Time for a show and tell Ramps me ol cobber!!

And as for my canoe... ahem... well... aaahhhh.... uuuummmm... Well I did actually get around to re-cutting the moulds and made a new building board the other week!! then got hyjacked again She has this list you see... and when that gets low the girls top it up for her or I do somethin stoopid and she thinks of this massive list of things that suddenly MUST be done... NOW!!... And Im still muckin about sorting the shed out new shelving an stuff so I can put stuff on them and loose if

sigh... soon... other things first... for now lets say hospital then no movement of one shank... but after that? Call it physiotherapy!!

Cheers and mate? Shes looking great Richard is simply a jeolous guy me? Im proud of you!

oooh... why the blazes did you use staples for? :eek: didnt I tell you the majic secret? fishing line? oh well remember to pick up EVERY single one of those things when you take them out... nippers tootsies dont like them!

Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

oooh... why the blazes did you use staples for? :eek: didnt I tell you the majic secret? fishing line? oh well remember to pick up EVERY single one of those things when you take them out... nippers tootsies dont like them!

Yeah I know, you did, some people gotta go and do something stupid themselves before they learn ... found the dusty sucks them staples up OK though

If you need a well earned break on Saturday feel free to drop in if you're up to driving at the moment. I'll PM my address if you're interested. BTW we missed you on the forums for a couple of weeks back a couple ... thought you may have been back up in the desert there for a while.

Hi Ramps - looking really good. Did you notice any diff between the cedar and the Paulownia in use?

I have just been corresponding with a NZ gent who has built several kayaks.

Says it tends to dent a little more before glassed but no different from the WRC after (and he likes to play with his seakayaks amongst rocks).

During building if you dent the timber you can put a drop of water on the dent or the NZ gent reckoned wetting a clean white cloth (so colour doesn't run into the wood and ironing it on the boat.

MIK

Ramps mate the offers much appreciated ...but sadly I will be being ministered to by those wonderous creatures called nurses on Friday and Saturday

But definantly when Im up an mobile again!

Originally Posted by Slavo

Ramps, I would be interested in hearing about your mod to the Triton WC

Originally Posted by jmk89

I agree with Slavo. I know there is a picture of it in post #3, but a bit more detail on how the jig is put together and what it does and how to use it would be great.

I have posted a few pics to try to functionality of the jig
It is comprised of offcut strips.
What I was trying to do is to make two things
1) a simple mitre block that I couldn't lose. (in the pic the bottom two strips)
2) a simple clamping arangement to hold the strips with the edge up so I could plane a bit at a time and just slide it thru so I could plane bit at a time. (in the pics the upper two strips

Firstly I have the zero tolerance table top. As I have the Triton WC Mk3 I found the gap in the table too dangerous to be cutting 6mm strips. So I grabbed on old piece of 19mm MDF threw the table top on top of it, traced the blade gap (for the wide cut setup) on MDF then cut a skinny piece of hardwood to fit snugly in the gap and screwed it over the marking.

That done put the table top back on the WC and put the mdf on the top so it slotted in the apropriate slot (ie not the one over the blade). I clamped the mdf to the table, turned on the saw and slowly raised it thru the mdf. I gave enough room to put the std splitter back in as I thought it would be handy when cutting the strips. (See pic 1 & 2)

Well after that I decided it was a good workbench to sit beside the canoe while under construction ... very nice to have a portable workbench with a timber (almost) top to work on. The real workbench is in the tiny garden shed where I store my tools (can't do much else in there) and it is too big and heavy to move out to the "canoe shop".

Pictures 3 & 4
The bottom two strips (the mitre block) are glued in place cos I had the glue and clamps handy.
I wanted to attach the upper most strips (for the beveling jig) with screws as I deliberately selected a bent end of a strip and screwed both ends with a gap of one strip thickness from the other one at the screws. Because the strip was bent it was closer to the other strip in the middle. This worked well as another hand and offered a gentle clamping pressure on the strip as I was bevelling it with the block plane.

More pics in the next post