Unfinished

I was approached a couple months ago about a project that was never completed. This person's father started this canoe project some time ago, I'm not sure of the time line, but he passed away before he could finish it. When his children settled the estate they set aside some funds to finish the project so that they can enjoy this floating final memory of their father. 

As you can see from the photos, things are a bit rough but I am certain that we can make this boat shine like it was intended to. A few rookie mistakes were made but nothing that is not possible to smooth out and make solid. Fiberglass solves a lot of issues...

I will have to create some forms to bring the hull back into shape, then maple gunnels, black walnut seats and thwarts and decks should  make this project outstanding.

Canoe Seats Complete

If you are not into kneeling in a canoe then you need a place to sit. With me being hard pressed for time and wanting to finish the twins as soon as possible, I asked my neighbor to whip up a couple of seats for the twins. Because these are solo double bladed canoes what better way to paddle leisurely than with this?

Pointeee ends..

I used a method called stemless construction to build the twins. It saved me a little time and effort and has an attractive look as the strips interlock on each end. However, what to do with the pointy ends? They are extremely difficult to push fiberglass into without making a huge mess...

 


So I decided to do and end pour. Basically a cup of epoxy poured into the ends to hold it solid and give me a nice end to tuck the fiberglass into, also a solid block to drill through if I decide to connect a line through the end. Epoxy gets hot as it cures, and I was a little concerned about the wood, but it cooled off before spontaneous combustion could occur.

Inside Fairing

An hour..... one whole hour... that is how much time I spent with the 60 grit paper in my orbital sander to fair out and smooth one half of this canoe... I am starting to wonder just how many hours I can put on the RA sander before it goes into critical melt down....

On other projects..... this is the first attempt to make a caring yoke for canoe #2. Cut from a black walnut stump I had laying around.

Inside out

Yesterday we flipped the canoes and removed the forms from the inside... I am VERY happy at how the epoxy flattened out and the how little sanding I will have to do to the outside. Today I trimmed off the excess fiberglass and made the first pass with a paint scrapper on the inside. This helps to take out the glue drips, splinters and starts the fairing process. Right now I would estimate that the hulls weigh no more than 20 lbs...

Things are good enough that I think I can jump right in with 60 grit paper on my random orbital and give these babies the smooth..... another day of sanding.... oh well.....

Fiberglass and epoxy

Sanding is finally done and its time to move on to fiberglass and epoxy. You can see by the mat finish that the glass is in place and the first coat of epoxy has wet out the glass. With the two canoes it was about a 6 hour process from start to finish.

Next comes two fill coats of epoxy that, as it says, fills the weave of the glass and buries it a bit so that we can sand and smooth before the final varnish goes on.

Now its starting to look pretty shinny.... but we are not done yet! One more fill coat to go then we can flip them over, pull out the forms and start this process again.

Scraping, Planing, Sanding

Now that the canoes have complete hulls, the next step is fairing. This is a process of scraping, planing and sanding all the little ridges and bumps out of the strips to give us a nice smooth surface for the fiberglass to stick to.

The simple tools I use for this process are simple indeed. A paint scraper takes all of the glue drips off and some of the real rough edges. One side of the scraper is sharpened flat and the other side is sharpened with a convex curve to fit inside the hull. A low angle block plane is then used at an angle across the strips to level them and give us a nice smooth surface. This will take care of the majority of problems and makes a lot of cedar curls.

And then its time for the random orbital sander, starting with 60-80 grit paper to finish grinding smooth an then a final sanding with 120 grit to remove the last of the scratches.

This is also the best part of the building process to really get a chance to know the canoe, because it is a canoe now, no longer a pile of strips or empty forms. With each wisk, wisk, wisk of the plane you are in constant contact with the boat. You feel for ridges, check for smooth. Your fingers explore all of the joints, what your eyes can't see, your fingers will expose. As you smooth and shape you get a feeling for what the final hardware and rigging should look like, what materials should be used... call me crazy but it talks to you, tells you who it is and what it wants to be... 

Closure

Hay folks, we have closure at last! The hulls are complete on the two solo canoes. Next step is to spend the day fairing the hulls in anticipation of fiberglass!

bottom view

I just love this picture, it shows the strip construction on the bottom of one of the double bladed, solo canoes i am working on. Just a little further to go before we can do fiberglass and epoxy.
Its nice to see the progress. Still in rough form, soon will be lots of sanding, fairing and smoothing of the hull. The joints look pretty tight although i might have to fill a crack or two.

Today's Progress

Each strip adds another 3/4 inch to the bottom, the hole is getting smaller and smaller.... wont be long before it is complete!

Strips, strips and more strips

So here we go... the shop has been humming with all of the strips that have been going on. We are have turned the corner and are quickly advancing on that ever elusive "whiskey strip"

Once again this is a time lapse video... do try to stay awake...

Twins!

please read the following with the voice of the "Count" from Sesame Street...

I see TWO, TWO CANOES! ah hahahahahah!

Inwales

Here we are gluing on the in-wale spacers with epoxy. These will have another piece of maple glued on the inside portion to create the entire in-wale. Once its all in place, screws will be put in from the outside to reinforce the whole construction. Would hate to have it pop off at some critical point.

I don't have enough clamps to do both sides at once... have to put more clamps on my x-mas list...

Rough Lumber

Here is a pretty neat deal... I purchased an Alaskan saw mill attachment for my 20" chainsaw. Finally had time to set it up and install the ripping chain I bought from the local saw shop. After carefully reading all of the directions and safety information I managed to make a few black walnut planks. These will be used for the front and rear decks on the canoes along with accents and spacers...

Turned out pretty cool....

Glass Wetout

Finished the wetout on the inside of the canoe yesterday... here is a most boring video of a time lapse I did to see how the trail cam would work in the shop...

Shop Setup

The next two canoes will be 12 feet in length. I think it will speed things up a bit if I use two sets of forms and strong backs.

 

The design for these 12 footers are for a double bladed solo, with a couple design features from a two different craft. I am combining a more pronounced tumblehome with a two inch increase in width. This should add a touch more initial stability and a flare of style. Next step is form lofting and cutout... stay tuned for more adventures in canoe building...

New Project Boat

I am such a sucker for a canoe....

Obviously its missing a couple of parts, but I should be able to find aftermarket thwarts to stiffen her up a bit. I tried to do some research on the canoe and company but apparently Herter's no longer is in business. I  haven't found enough information to identify it... For now I'm just going to call it the 17' beercan canoe. This canoe does have one feature I haven't seen before, it has a chine at or just above the waterline. I would assume that this is to give the boat additional initial stability. When I get it out on the water, we'll see if it feels tipsy or not...

Please leave a comment if you know anything about these canoes!

bOOOORING!

Sand, sand, sand, sand, sand... boy I sure hate this part of the process but it is totally necessary to lay the base for that nice final finish. I start with an old paint scraper that I have sharpened the blade into a convex shape that fits the internal curves of the hull. This takes off the big glue drips and cuts some of the unevenness off. Then we are off with 60g sand paper on my random orbital for the leveling grind, then smoothing with 80g paper until I'm just sick of it. The final sanding is with 120g paper to make sure all the scratches are gone. This process takes an entire day to complete, an extra pot of coffee helps a lot.

And She's gone....

Good by Queen Charlotte, thanks for spending time in the shop. I hope you enjoy your new fiberglass and graphics....

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak of the graphics i am putting on the QC project. I had some custom

stickers made and did a little painting with plasti dip (cool stuff). I will seal everything with one more coat of varnish then reinstall all of the hardware...