Thread: BIG canoe

Great job. How did you scale the pieces onto the plywood and how did you cut the plywood?

The plans are excellent in that respect. You simply take the first sheet of ply and mark out in 300mm stations. Then at each station it give a set of 9 or 10 vertical marks.

Put a long bendy edge (carefully weighted at one end with a 9year old boy) and draw.

First set were cut with jigsaw and spokeshaved to a precise shape, the rest were rough cut and trimmed in one go with a big router and trim cutter.

The boat as you see it is about 10hrs work. The scarfing it the bit that takes the time.

yep I'll say great job too, looks like it'll make it's way + family beautifully...boats can go beautifully can't they?

Nice job on the scarfs, what was the process you used to cut them and align?

The scarfs were done on the plywood sheets before the parts were marked and cut so alignment not really an issue.

For the actual cutting, I built a scarf jig that allows a circular saw to run along the edge and cut a low angle bevel. That method is ok, you need to clamp very carefully and spend a long time adjusting the jig. I ended up going back to the old fashioned method of staggering the sheets and planing the scarf and dressing it up with a sander. Harder work but much more accurate and neater.

Nearly finished!!

can't wait for the launch day report.
Cheers,
Dave.

Beautiful absolutely beautiful. I am so jealous.

I want it! Great job

Yes, nice job. There are bigger canoes:
5.9 meters 19' 9" Chaa Creek Expedition | WoodenBoat Magazine
5.7 meters The White Guide | Newfound Woodworks Inc, Bristol, New Hampshire and Plywood Boat Plans

The company that sold me these plans 'Selway Fisher' have a range of big canoes from mine at 5.2m, through through to dragon boat style canoes of 11m.

Its a big range of canoe options.

jem watercraft have their bhc aswell. I bought the plans haven't had time to build it.

I wonder how feeding the ply through a safe T planer on a tilted bed drill press might work ?

It is difficult to scarf if the wood is moving as the ply on a canoe is so thin, even the tiniest movement messes the scarf joint.

90% of the difficulty in scarfing thin ply comes in trying to clamp the wood down hard enough. If you could mount the drill press on a sled and push it past the wood, that could work brilliantly.

Finally, the champagne was cracked and the big canoe set forth on her maiden voyage.

Happy to report she was dry as a bone (no leaks....!!!!) and is incredibly stable.

I am really happy about how easy it is to paddle and move around, even solo was a breeze...

Fishing trip next week me thinks.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1357283071.342470.jpg