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My First Canoe Build

Nice job on the video, good editing. To be honest, I’m not really interested in stripper builds but I watched to see how your video turned out, good one, not too long and your on screen part was very good.
Looking forward to some tripping videos in your new canoe.
 
Good video !

You will learn a lot with your first build ! Please share as you go !

Good Luck !

Jim

Jim,

Thank you! I will continue to share my videos. The video and the canoe building is new to me so at times I must admit that when I am dealing with the experience in this room it can be slightly intimidating, but I am just trying to keep it real as I am no expert. I am sure I will make plenty of mistakes along the way but the goal is to learn and grow from this experience.
 
Nice job on the video, good editing. To be honest, I’m not really interested in stripper builds but I watched to see how your video turned out, good one, not too long and your on screen part was very good.
Looking forward to some tripping videos in your new canoe.

Robin, thanks for the kind words! Having fun with this canoe project and integrating the video aspect. Happy to share this experience in this forum even though this is all new to me. I look forward to wetting this hull and sharing this canoe in action when she is seaworthy!
 
Part 3 of my canoe build continues with material preparation including building a router table using canoe station mold scrapwood. The router is used to process the bead and cover edges of the rough cut eastern white cedar that has already been ripped down to 1/4" on my table saw. Follow the link if interested in watching the progress!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U7gVCSW19s&authuser=0
 
I just left a comment over on YouTube, which I will repeat here: Don't forget to get some packing tape/duct tape on the leading edges of those forms to prevent glue from sticking and don't forget to do some beveling on the bow and stern stem forms.

Another comment I didn't leave there but will say here is that one of your forms looks like it might be a little wavy along the edge. It may just be the lighting, but check it. If it is wavy, I'd urge you to consider cutting a replacing form. The forms define the hull and even small errors in how smooth the curve of the form is will translate to the hull and make it difficult to make a fair hull. I think I saw in your earlier videos that you cut these forms with a hand held electric jig saw, which should work fine -- as long as you cut to the outside of the line, leaving it as a reference and then sand (a stationary disc or belt sander works best) or rasp just to the line. Another tip: to ensure each pair of forms is identical, you can temporarily screw two blanks together while cutting the form or while doing the final sanding.

Everything you do now to perfect your setup before your start the actual stripping process will make the stripping and subsequent sanding process easier and pay dividends in the final product.
 
Alsg, appreciate this feedback. There is indeed some waviness on one of the forms that I still need to address. I may just replace it like you mentioned but I still have some material to remove up to the the tracement line so after final sanding of the forms I will do a comparitive check once again and see where I end up. I had tacked on the two short cedar strips of the canoe to check the sheerline from port side to stbd side for level. Just another check that I did that probably wasn't necessary but did anyway. I also wanted to actually get a visual of the bow and stern height. Just playing around really due to my excitement. The strips currently attached will be removed and the forms will in fact be masked with tape. I must admit, although I have checked and rechecked just about everything establishing that sheerline is without doubt going to be the most nerve racking part of the build. This has to be perfect. As always, I appreciate any and all feedback that you have to offer. Having a great time building this canoe and the experience and feedback from all of you can only be helpful!
 
Really nice job on the router table build, love those feather boards, and the vac system makes for good working conditions.
 
Really nice job on the router table build, love those feather boards, and the vac system makes for good working conditions.

Thanks Odyssey! I was very pleased with its performance. The best aspect of this router table is that I can easily hang this table in my workshop...out of site..out of mind.
 
...I must admit, although I have checked and rechecked just about everything establishing that sheerline is without doubt going to be the most nerve racking part of the build. This has to be perfect.
As long as you have a full length strip (and it can be multiple strips that you have scarf jointed together) establishing the sheerline on the Wabnaki is as simple as making sure the bottom of the first strip is even with the bottom of each form and stapling in place. Cove up so glue will sit in the trough. Leave the first side a little long and when you do the opposite side, join the ends of the two sides together and your sheerline is done.
 
dcloots

Here is a thread that explains how to fit the ends of your strips at the stems. They mate up quite nicely this way !

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/paddlecraft-construction/73909-pearl

I hope this helps

Jim

Jim, that makes an incredible amount of sense. Especially the interlocking method with the rat tail rasp. However, I didn’t stop reading there!!! Lots of great information and pictures that you provided! I will be referencing often. Thank you for sharing your build.
 
Thanks RoyBrew, have to find more time to get back in the shop to support the next video. Work always gets in the way of life! Thanks for watching and glad you like it.
 
Making progress. Slow but steady. Had a few issues with some cedar strips buckling and this issue created a decent uneven surface (at least to my calibrated eyeballs and calibrated fingers). I hope to fair this problem area with a block plane when that time comes. Only one strip on each side was affected. Continued as I did not think it warranted going back to tackle this issue. All the other strips are laying nicely. Not sure if I should cut out the strip or try to fair it the best I can then fill with epoxy / silica and wood flour when the surface prep filling gaps phase starts. I might also add that I have adjusted the amount of glue that I was using. Went to Rockler and purchased a new glue bottle nozzle to lay a much thinner bead of glue. Also I began sanding the cove edge of the strips to remove the spurious burrs that I had not done with the initial stripping. I assumed that that very thin layer of fragile wood would not interfere but I found that it might have so moving forward I will lightly sand each cove edge of the strips. I will not have enough strips and miscalculated the amount I needed. This will pose a problem due to workshop space. I will have to move my canoe which I really don't want to do but I really have no choice. Need space to infeed and outfeed. The floor is slightly unlevel, but at this point with the amount of strips on the canoe I would assume that racking of the canoe would not occur. Maybe some in this forum will tell me otherwise.
 

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Great progress!

I wouldn’t worry about moving the strongback at this point but you might want to try an put it back in the same spot. This could be done by marking where the feet rest on your floor with tape.
 
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