Is that a rotty puppy? You're gonna have to design a new canoe for two dogs now.
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Composite Bloodvein build
- Thread starter Alan Gage
- Start date
Thought so at first from a distance but he's older and just a mutt. Vet thinks around 7 years judging from the teeth. Same size as Sadie, about 30 pounds. Really an amazingly good dog so far. If Sadie were 7 years older I'd keep him in a heartbeat but, alas, my "life"style (my dad once pointed out I'd first need a life to have a lifestyle) would not work well with two dogs. Multi-week cross country road trips and a month or more in the canoe have a one dog limit for me. New owner (friend who has been looking for a good dog) will be picking him up Friday if he's not claimed first.
The only two bad habits I've found so far are he likes to be on the furniture, but will grudgingly get down if you tell him to, and he snores.
Alan
Like most trippers I've spent time with. Sounds like a keeper.
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I realized this morning that it's actually getting pretty close. Seat and thwarts are in. Still need to do the grab handles. Then flip it over for a few coats of epoxy on the outside (still has peel ply texture) and varnish.
That doesn't seem like much but there's a lot of tedious work involved in those last few steps. Still more fill coats and sanding to go on the gunwales until I'm happy enough with them as well as a couple more fill coats on the float tanks and thwarts. Then more fill coats and blending once the grab handles go in. But it's getting there.....
I always get a little frustrated at this point in the build when it's just a bunch of small projects that can only be done a little at a time.
More pics soon.
Alan
It is the hurry up and wait part of a build. Like for me, I stripped the boat of the wood and am staining and varnishing before putting it all back in after I sand and varnish the inside of the hull. It is a good time to have two on the go, while something is drying on one you can work on the other. Same goes for w/c restorations, lots of busy, busy then waiting.
I've been a bit delinquent in providing updates but I've been plugging away a little at a time. Seat is in, thwarts are in, grab handles are in, and float tanks are in. Nothing left to do but work on the final finish. Flipped it over tonight to put a couple more coats of epoxy on the exterior as well as the dynel skid plates. Should have taken a picture before the flip but I forgot so all you get is an upside down canoe:
20160323_001 by Alan, on Flickr
I'm stopping well short of perfection as far as the finish goes on the exterior and the gunwales. Most of the hull will be pretty good but the knuckle area got a little bumpy and the gunwales are always a fight to get perfect. I looked at how much more work it would take to make it perfect, or close to perfect, and decided I can live with good enough and it will hopefully motivate me to figure out a method for next time that requires less fill and sand fill and sand fill and sand.
Before bed I'll go out to the shop one more time. The epoxy should be starting to set up pretty good by then and I'll help coax the dynel seam to flatten out a little more.
Weighed it again tonight. 41.25 pounds with only a couple skim coats of epoxy, the dynel skid plates, and varnish to go. Should put me in around 43 pounds; which would be about 6 pounds lighter than Bloodvein V1 and, hopefully, a good deal tougher.
Alan
20160323_001 by Alan, on FlickrI'm stopping well short of perfection as far as the finish goes on the exterior and the gunwales. Most of the hull will be pretty good but the knuckle area got a little bumpy and the gunwales are always a fight to get perfect. I looked at how much more work it would take to make it perfect, or close to perfect, and decided I can live with good enough and it will hopefully motivate me to figure out a method for next time that requires less fill and sand fill and sand fill and sand.
Before bed I'll go out to the shop one more time. The epoxy should be starting to set up pretty good by then and I'll help coax the dynel seam to flatten out a little more.
Weighed it again tonight. 41.25 pounds with only a couple skim coats of epoxy, the dynel skid plates, and varnish to go. Should put me in around 43 pounds; which would be about 6 pounds lighter than Bloodvein V1 and, hopefully, a good deal tougher.
Alan
It is in the fact that it doesn't fuzz like kevlar. From my limited experience it doesn't sand easily though, which I suppose is a good thing.
Alan
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The Peel Ply does help with smoothing down the Dynel some but from my experience it is a bit of a bear to sand. On my Courier rebuild I had never even heard of PP and those skid plates are a bit grizzly. On the Lettman that Mr. McCrea helped with we used PP and it is a huge difference.
Long overdue update with pictures.
Dynel skid plates came out well. Pretty smooth and I used black epoxy to cover the ugly dynel with black paint over the whole works. The paint strip is very wide to cover the ugly s-glass I used at the stems.
After painting today:
20160403_012 by Alan, on Flickr
Tomorrow the whole exterior will get one more coat of epoxy to bring back the shine.
The inside is done except for foot brace:
20160403_003 by Alan, on Flickr
20160403_001 by Alan, on Flickr
I'm happy with the cherry gunwale tips. I think they look nice and will also provide good abrasion resistance and hopefully help fling water away from the hull rather than letting it slip over the bow unimpeded in big water.
20160403_002 by Alan, on Flickr
I've got two coats of varnish on the inside that's very resistant to drying. I'm afraid I'm fighting non-fully cured epoxy. I wasn't aware until recently that Adtech 820 resin needs 80+ degrees to fully cure. It spent a few days covered with plastic with a heater below that brought the hull up to around 95 degrees. It's starting to feel better. Nothing to do but wait and see.
Alan
Dynel skid plates came out well. Pretty smooth and I used black epoxy to cover the ugly dynel with black paint over the whole works. The paint strip is very wide to cover the ugly s-glass I used at the stems.
After painting today:
20160403_012 by Alan, on FlickrTomorrow the whole exterior will get one more coat of epoxy to bring back the shine.
The inside is done except for foot brace:
20160403_003 by Alan, on Flickr20160403_001 by Alan, on FlickrI'm happy with the cherry gunwale tips. I think they look nice and will also provide good abrasion resistance and hopefully help fling water away from the hull rather than letting it slip over the bow unimpeded in big water.
20160403_002 by Alan, on FlickrI've got two coats of varnish on the inside that's very resistant to drying. I'm afraid I'm fighting non-fully cured epoxy. I wasn't aware until recently that Adtech 820 resin needs 80+ degrees to fully cure. It spent a few days covered with plastic with a heater below that brought the hull up to around 95 degrees. It's starting to feel better. Nothing to do but wait and see.
Alan
I've been gone a while. Glad to see this is coming along. Looking good. Love the little bit of wood trim peeking out at the stem. I'm guessing that adtech curing at such a high temp with also have a higher transition temp when cured. That could be really nice with a black hull upside down on the roof racks.
Just a thought.
I have some graphite powder from System Three, I wonder if mixing that in and applying to the dynel would make it slide over abrasions ?
Boat is looking good ! Do I need to send a pic of the rapids down by the shop ?
Jim
I have some graphite powder from System Three, I wonder if mixing that in and applying to the dynel would make it slide over abrasions ?
Boat is looking good ! Do I need to send a pic of the rapids down by the shop ?
Jim
I'm busy this weekend but if you can keep the water levels up and the weather cooperates I'll come down the following weekend for a paddle and we can see how the new boat surfs.
Final coat of epoxy on the exterior last night. From closer than 8' you'd never mistake it for a factory finish but I'm pretty happy with it; dust, cat hair and all.
20160405_001 by Alan, on Flickr
20160405_002 by Alan, on FlickrFor those of you who wondered what 6oz. of s-glass does to the 'carbon' look:
20160405_003 by Alan, on FlickrThe bottom 1/3 has no glass over it. The small bubbles in the s-glass section are my fault but even in the clear areas the difference is noticeable.
The brothers:
20160405_004 by Alan, on FlickrThe finish was hard enough that tonight I could flip it over and put the final epoxy coat on the decks, thwarts, gunwales, and knuckled tumblehome section.
Time to get serious about a foot brace and finishing up the yoke.
Alan
Awesome !
Looking forward to paddlin with you again ! Water levels will be good for sure.
Ebony and Ivory look great ! Will you varnish Ebony ?
Nice to see a little wood on Ebony !
I like the wide skid plate, and the Dynel is way thinner than Kevlar felt. Less of an issue with drag also.
Later
Jim
Looking forward to paddlin with you again ! Water levels will be good for sure.
Ebony and Ivory look great ! Will you varnish Ebony ?
Nice to see a little wood on Ebony !
I like the wide skid plate, and the Dynel is way thinner than Kevlar felt. Less of an issue with drag also.
Later
Jim
Kevlar felt is just plain ugly, I have those factory skid plates on my Swift and they gurgle as you move. Although we have hit things hard many times, they refuse to release themselves from the hull.
So Alan, the new boat is for your upcoming epic Beren's trip of 45 days both ways?
So Alan, the new boat is for your upcoming epic Beren's trip of 45 days both ways?
Wow, that looks fantastic! Very spicy!
Not for now I'm not. I'm having enough problems with the interior varnish that I'm in no rush to do the outside. Maybe in a couple months after some hot weather and paddling.
That's the goal. Depending on water levels I'm hoping to take the Berens down to Family Lake and then over to the Poplar River to lake Winnipeg. Down the coast of Winnipeg to the mouth of the Berens and then back up.
Or if water levels are low on the Poplar I could go all the way down the Berens and back. Or take the Pigeon to Lake Winnipeg and come back on the Berens. Or paddle down the coast until I reach the Bloodvein and take it upstream as far as the Leond which will get me back to Family Lake with a few portages to jump watersheds. Or take the Bloodvein all the way back to the Manitoba/Ontario border and then north to Family Lake. Just a boggling number of route options up there!
Alan
Have you taken her out for a paddle since the last post? Any final pictures? Nice job by the way!
I've had the boat out a few times and so far I'm happy with the small changes I made to the hull, the biggest of which was adding just a little more rocker and softening the curve of the stems, especially the bow, to add a little maneuverability and make it more forgiving when crossing eddy lines and paddling against the current. I haven't loaded it down yet but it feels good empty; better than Bloodvein 1.0 felt unloaded on the river. We'll see what happens when I add another 150 pounds. Haven't had it out for any lake paddles yet. I'm hoping it still performs well on non-moving water.
No new pictures but other than mud, water spots, and scratches it doesn't look any different than the last pictures except for the addition of the foot brace. I did it the same way I did Bloodvein 1.0; which can be seen on this page: http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...ssions/diy/25183-solo-expedition-build/page27
It's such a stupid simple way to build a foot brace. Cheap, lightweight, easy to adjust on the water and easy to build. Looks great once spray painted flat black.
Alan
No new pictures but other than mud, water spots, and scratches it doesn't look any different than the last pictures except for the addition of the foot brace. I did it the same way I did Bloodvein 1.0; which can be seen on this page: http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...ssions/diy/25183-solo-expedition-build/page27
It's such a stupid simple way to build a foot brace. Cheap, lightweight, easy to adjust on the water and easy to build. Looks great once spray painted flat black.
Alan
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