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

Day 27

A Whole Saturday :eek:

MILESTONE … good to pull the canoe off the moulds and turn it over … Happy boy

First glance at the inside made me baulk somewhat. Shaping and sanding the outside surface was fun. Working with the block plane, spokeshave, sanding board etc was a pleasure but inside curves and inside a canoe :confused:

Then I referred to the trusty book again … not there …arrh that’s what I looking for in Nick Schades book “The strip built sea kayak” … modified my mujifang block plane to give me a nice curve (see pic). Then hoed into the glue and epoxy that seeped thru the strips and staple holes (see pic of blade after this process). In the most difficult parts where room was restricted (bow & stern) I also used my modified “scraper” (I finally found the best use for “orange block plane” …see Dereks review @ http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ge+block+plane … throw the orange part away and shape the blade to the shape that you need for a scraper) (see pic)

When I got rid of most of the glue and epoxy I went and sharpened the little mujifang (I was beginning to really like this little plane) and seriously took to shaping the inside of the hull. Very quick and efficient for all but the tightest of curves where the bottle sander came into play. (see pics)

Howdy Ramps,

I think you have just won the Nobel Prize for services to canoing.

Not only does it look good but using a plane on the inside makes heaps of sense. I've used torture boards, shaped blocks with sandpaper glued to them, disk sanders (don't ask), random orbit sanders.

Whichever way - it is really rotten work. Now a curved plane blade ...

Why didn't I think of that.

So fess up Ramps - did you think of it or did you steal the idea from some superior being?

Either way is fine - most of my best ideas started off as someone else's.

MIK

(er, actually, ALL of them)

Yes MIK ... you're right ... I did get the idea straight out of a book ... but I did admit it ...

Originally Posted by Ramps

…arrh that’s what I looking for in Nick Schades book “The strip built sea kayak” … modified my mujifang block plane to give me a nice curve (see pic).

I aren't too bad at devising my own inventions but I find it hard to work out nowadays if it's something that I have actually thought of or if it was something that I read or saw in the past. The plane was brilliant, just had to be aware the the first cleanup was going to make a mess of the blade, but a 5 min grind and polish and it was back up to speed again.

have a couple of more pics just for good measure and cos you are interested

Day 28

Another whole Saturday

Finished the shaping with the 80 grit on the bottle sander. Finished the final sanding over the lot with 120 grit paper on the ROS. Wet it up to raise the grain, had lunch while it dried. Quickly ran over it again with 120, vacuum … arrh.

Ready to start glassing again. Laid glass over inside of hull with assistance from my beautiful wife. (see pic ... calm down, she's not in the pic) … then it starts again …. Tedious at first trying to anchor the stuff in place. Wow what difference stuff the epoxy is to handle in warmer temperature.

My wife assisted me for an hour or so mixing epoxy so I could work flat out pouring, spreading, squegeeing off excess. So much easier this time and used about 2/3 – ¾ of the amount of epoxy (very little waste scraped off to statr with) … the inside of the hull is definitely a lot smaller than the outside  … or maybe I’m learning something.

In the warmer weather the end I started at (can’t really talk about the bow or stern as it’s symmetrical) had gone off enough to recoat, so I mucked about for a little while longer poking a bit of epoxy only down the ends then I got stuck into the second coat and finished before dinner (just) … see pic

... having a hell of a time attaching pics tonight ... will try to attach them to a new post..

oops it works well when you're trying to upload the smaller shots than the original 6 megapixel images ... hmm

You'll be too busy admiring that timber to paddle Sweet looking thing isn't she.

Richard

Sorry I've been slack on the updates ... camera's in at the docs and I've been too flat out doing when I have a moment rather than writing about it ... will try to catch up over the next week ... so not so long between drinks ...

One month later … boy that was a long month … nothing on the canoe for 3 weekends … I’m getting frustrated!
What’s worse was when I was wandering past the other day and realised that the epoxy was going opaque . When I was working on it there was no sun falling on the boat but over the month the sun had spun around more than I anticipated. After beating myself up severely for a few nights I got over it and realised that it wasn’t as bad as I first thought (but still enough to really annoy me ).

Anyway … onwards another whole Saturday and some of a Sunday.
Got stuck into the inwales and seats today. Trying to work out the easiest way to cut the scuppers. As the inwales were bevelled on one side only and the scuppers had to be cup along the only bevelled side I developed a jig/method for the process.
I taped the two inwales together (bevelled faces together) then made an appropriate v-shaped block for the drill press table so the pair of bevelled faces were straight up and down. I then put a 1” forstner bit in the drill and drilled each end of each of the slots (or scuppers). See pics

I then got distracted with the seats and got to and glued then together. On the Sunday I got stuck into shaping the seats. First a little bit of poor mans bandsawing (the jigsaw) then off to the shed for a workout with the drum sander attached to the drill press. A bit of a round over with the router and then got stuck into them with the bock plane and spokeshave, dremel, back to the drill press drum sander and finally a bit of a buzz with me old mate ROS. A couple of coats of varnish and even I was surprised.

Over the next coupla nights I caned the seats. This was an enjoyable job that I could inside of a night and the girls enjoyed helping me by holding cane and unravelling cane and moving the pegs for me. Another pic below

Special thanks to Mattkk ... gee these Forums are great ... who sent me some left over cane from Sydney (free of charge ... I owe someone a drink ) after completing his great canoe see:
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=33862

He saved me ordering far too much from USA ... Thanks Matt

Here's a couple of pics of the seats being constructed

Days 31 & 32

Lost another couple of w/e’s one to family commitments and one to fires in Esperance.

Back to the inwales … hmm. OK decided on the router to clean up between the forstner-cut ends of slots. Seemed to do OK on the trusty old Triton router table. A little bit of clean up with the chisel and hey presto. Now to taper the ends somewhat … just marked out the taper with pencil and pulled out the HNT plane and that was done in surprisingly little time.

Now the hard part … fixing them to the hull. I started this step by making 24 clamps to add to my collection … this took a couple of hours. This was a bit more of a challenge then I had anticipated … mainly measuring the inwales accurately, then shaping them accurately to fit them snug against the stems. After much fiddling and measuring and clamping and remeasuring and reclamping and stuffing up the cutting (cut them short by a few mm in the end … don’t sound much? Looks bloomin awful. I pretty much gave up on the clamps except as a second set of hands. Picked up a packet of 100 self tapping screws and everything went like a breeze after that.

By the end of Saturday I had both the inwales epoxied and screwed into place.

Sorry no pics ... camera's still at docs and daughter has run off to a friends with hers ... the cheek of her

Days 33, 34 & 35
Now will you give us a break how am I going to get it finished by Christmas if you guys in Vic keep lighting fires… another 2 w/e’s lost to fighting your fires … OK OK I’d want others to come help us if we had fires that ran for 4 weeks and threatened communities… returned Christmas eve (good thing otherwise I mightn’t have anyone meet me at the airport).

So we’re now up to the New Years long w/e

Look what happens when you get behind … you can’t remember what you did on an individual day … just what you accomplished over the w/e.

To the OUTWALES …
Surely they can’t be as bothersome as the inwales? No scuppers … a bevel for the under edge … bit of a pain on 6m of flexible wood but decided with the help of my lovely wife and assistant the running them over the top of the planer/thicknesser with the fence set at the appropriate angle was the way to go. A couple of finger boards and went a treat in only a few minutes. … Now the end tapers, over about the last metre. I just drew them on, roughed them out with the electric planer (handheld) and finished them off with the help of Mr Terry Gordon again … worked like a charm.

Next I removed all the screws that were clamping the inwales on.

Now attaching the outwales … to screw or now to screw … they’re very cheap clamps you know. What the hell lets counterbore, glue, screw and plug … the only question is to go for contrasting plugs or the same wood … that’s a “later” decision.

First attempt (dry) went very well with only about 50 screws (compared to about 90 for the inwales) but realised that I needed to take the epoxy back to a nice even finish where the outwales were to attach (being my first attempt at fibreglassing I ended up with a pretty uneven surface in this area because it was the bottom where all the drips accumulated at the time). A run over the offending areas with my trusty mate ROS and all was well in the world again. Mixed up some coloured epoxy and whacked it all together, didn’t have to wait til one side was dry to use the clamps on the other side (the screws stayed there). A nice warm day (read that hot) so I had to get to the acetone pretty quick smart to clean up the coloured epoxy off anywhere I could, especially off the hull. Did you know that acetone dissolves the disposable gloves very rapidly?

PADDLES
I had time to design the paddles and cut the wood. I wondered thru Bunnings a few weeks beforehand looking for options for paddle woods. (Bunnings had the best selection of exotic light wood around here that I could find but if anyone has suggestions I’m listening). A bit of Meranti here and a bit curly Durian there … got out of it at a reasonable price … a bit over $30 for four paddles worth of timber (think there was a little confusion on the prices there! ) After much searching on the web for size, shape and constructions options I was more confused than ever. Sounds like there are a couple of rules for size, and decided on a longish, skinnyish model for the type of paddling I envisage doing but after that it just seems to be personal preference. After much more deliberating I decided to use polyurethane glue. Why? Still waterproof ... but not supposed to be used beneath the waterline on boats; much easier to use than epoxy (no mixing, easier to sand, quicker drying … did I mention no waste of throwing away mixed epoxy?). I might live to regret it but I figure I’ll want to make a few more paddles as the girls outgrow of theirs.

Over the next coupla days I glued up the other paddles (all up less than an hours work)

...and some pics of the paddles at glue up...

Originally Posted by Ramps

What the hell lets counterbore, glue, screw and plug … the only question is to go for contrasting plugs or the same wood … that’s a “later” decision.

What gets me is the way you take "the long way round" with meticulous detail work, and do it so quickly! You must be a really efficient worker who doesn't spend half the day in the groaning chair figuring out what to do next.

...and fighting fires in your spare time. Well Done!

Did you know that acetone dissolves the disposable gloves very rapidly?

I've tried to avoid using acetone, mainly for health reasons. I've been using metho for general clean-up and I certainly doesn't dissolve gloves. Don't know what effect it would have on existing epoxy. I'll give it a try.

Ramps

This journey has been really interessting - I was wondering what you had made recently

BTW - I use vinegar for epoxy clean up (cheap as chips in big bottles from the super market, easy on your hands, doesn't dissolve rubber gloves and can also be used as a rust remover).

Cheers

Jeremy

Originally Posted by onthebeachalone

What gets me is the way you take "the long way round" with meticulous detail work, and do it so quickly! You must be a really efficient worker who doesn't spend half the day in the groaning chair figuring out what to do next.

I suspect there's a lot of the old "here's one I prepared earlier" going on here!

The only consolation I take in all of this is that it's not finished yet!

I'm aiming to have the Eureka in the water by Christmas though....

Well done Ramps, and a great thread too!

Cheers,

P

Still watching with great interest
Awesome work so far Ramps