Roy's Mystery Wood Canoe

[Roybrew]

Your sharp Jim. That is exactly what I've done is cut my strip out of a flat sawn board ( I think that's correct, flat sawn). I thought about it after I posted. The strips that I cut out of quarter sawn boards would break at the knots immediately after cutting.

Can I cut my strips out of the flat sawn lumber like the picture I drew? Be better then scrapping the board.

Thanks for advice penns woods and memaquay, I will avoid knots.

I know I'm going slow with this, please bear with me. I knew I wouldn't have alot of time to devote to this, but I'll get cranking on it soon.

Hey Penns woods, you really built a canoe in the basement of LMU? Wife said that is funny.

 

[Penns Woods]

Roybrew
Why yes I did. I had the laundry room, which was located in the basement, tied up for about 2 months. I guess the entire dorm can take a little credit in the build. Guys would come down to wash clothes and end up doing a lot of hand sanding. I can still remember when it was finished . Word spread and there must have been 50 guys to see the unveiling. It was a mixed crowd with some guys there that helped and a lot that said it would never get done or float.
I enjoyed and paddled that little green canoe all over Norris Lake. That summer back at home I let a friend borrow it for the week end, when he got home he placed it along side his driveway, next day he jumped in his truck to go to work and backed right over it. Since then I've had other canoes but none hold a candle to that little East Tennessee canoe.

 

[Jim Dodd]

That will work fine for cutting your strips Roy. Great drawing. A picture Is worth a thousand words ! and, 5 hours of typing ( at my rate )

No need to hurry, unless you are being paid by the hour. Ha ! enjoy the build !

Jim

 

[Roybrew]

Trudging along with my build. Lots of rain here, so hard to do things outside. Made several rookie mistakes and had some equipment issues. Me or the skill saw wasn't doing very well cutting strips, so I resorted to my table saw for strip making. I underestimated how well the table saw would do, with regards to the thickness, and cut the strips to 1/4 inch and figured I'd run them through the planer for 3/16. They are very consistent, but the planer was a needless step. Lots of short or going to be short strips due to knots and other voids. If I run short I'll rip some more strips. Got my router setup ready to bead the strips. I through together a feather board. It may be ugly, but it was quick and it does work.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Roy ! A tip that will improve the consistency of your strips when bead and coving, is to run them Between the fence and the router bit ! First pass will uniform them ! Uniformity is the key !

What trouble did you have with the Skilsaw cutting strips ?

Jim

 

[Roybrew]

Between fence and bit,.. I didn't think about that. Thank you. In regards to the skill saw, it just wouldn't glide along smoothly. Felt like I was twisting it. I destroyed one blade cause I cut through a miss placed nail. I think I need more practice with a skill saw. I don't use one very often.

 

[RickR]

It sounds possible that your skil saw troubles may have been due to the clamped on fence being out of parallel with the blade? Just a thought for next time. You're on your way and doing well! Thanks for posting your build. I'm enjoying following along!

 

[Jim Dodd]

On my early canoes, I wore out a few Skil brand saws, because they were under powered. Then I bought a 13 AMP Makita, and it's still going strong !

A Freud Diablo ( $10) is as good as they get . 24 Teeth.

As Rick said you need the fence adjusted Parallel to the blade. I use a caliper for this !

a link that might be helpful page 3.

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/paddlecraft-construction/25073-cutting-strips

Jim

 

[dogbrain]

As Rick said you need the fence adjusted Parallel to the blade. I use a caliper for this !

Since you have a planer, I use a nice planed strip to get the spacing between the fence and blade. For 1/4" strips you need one that is a little more than that to account for the blade teeth.

mark

 

[Jim Dodd]

I lower the blade to the deepest cut. Then measure front and back spacing, between the blade and fence. Make them the same. As Mark says a little over 1/4"

Jim

 

[Roybrew]

I'm still picking at it. Doing lots of head scratching, measuring and coffee drinking. I gave up on the skill saw because it was very under powered, and well what can I say other than I purchased a cheap saw. I've got about 2,000 linear feet of strips cut and beaded on one side. I figure I'll have at least 10 percent scrap, wood stove fuel, so I think I'll have enough. If not I'll make some more. I had to make a couple of feather boards for my router table. One I threw together and the other I put a little more effort in it. The strips are very consistent when running them between the fence and router bit.

The 2 shop vacs I have hooked up are a life saver, plus I wear a dust mask now. I was ripping the strips outside on the table saw one evening. I figured I was out in the fresh air, so I didn't need a dust mask. When I got to work an hour later I started sneezing and all kinds of, stuff, was running out of my nose. I was miserable for most of the night. The 2 guys I work with wouldn't come near me. I thought for sure all that hair in my nostrils would've acted like a filter.

 

[Roybrew]

[No message]

 

[Jim Dodd]

I wore out a couple of low amperage Skilsaws when I started ! Once I spent the bucks ($130) a lot at the time, I had no problems !

I've screwed up enough feather boards too !

Stay at it ! maybe you can move the dusty work outside ?

Jim

 

[Roybrew]

Ok. Crawling right along like in slug speed. Memaquay was right about the pitch pockets in the sassafras, these are spots that will be cut out.

I've got all strips bead and coved. Lots of shorter pieces then I expected, but that's ok. I work it out. Going to get my plywood for the stations. Any advice on what plywood to get? Thickness and any thing else?

I've been reading Memaquays and Cruisers builds. Lots of stuff I didn't know thanks to both of you. Sorry to hear about having to put off your build Mem. My wife just got word they were closing schools here in East Tennessee till the end of the month, she substitutes at the high school.

A couple guys at work are calling my canoe build my, retirement project. I turn 55 this month, but I've still got ten years till I retire..... Umm they may be right, it may just be my retirement project. Ha that's ok like Jim D. said I'm not getting paid to build it.

Roy

 

[memaquay]

I'm not too fussy about width for stations, I usually take whatever I can find for cheap. 1/2 inch is the minimum, 5/8 to 3/4 works well. I have used plywood, particle board, MFD, tops from old school desks that were destined for the dump, just about anything. Particle board is the cheapest to buy up here, 5/8 is only about 20 bucks a sheet.

Short pieces for strips are fine, I wasn't sure if I had enough strips for this Osprey, so I was using everything over 12 inches, lol. I butt joint everything, not always on the station either. Are you stapling or non-staple? If stapling, it is a lot easier to use short pieces. Once you get fast at putting strips on, if your short pieces aren't lining up or are behaving in a naughty fashion, they can usually be corrected by firing on a long strip above them while the glue is still wet. If you have to walk away from short pieces that aren't behaving, I use very small c clamps to hold them in place till the next stripping round.

2000 linear feet is a lot, you should be fine. Have fun!

 

[Roybrew]

Thank you for advice. I just left work and stopped by hardware store to get plywood. I'm enjoying it so far. In no hurry and it's not putting me out for space or anything.

Roy

 

[Jim Dodd]

Looks like a fine set up ! I used to set up infeed and outfeed tables, but the strips are so flexible, it's not needed.


I always try and splice between stations, and where there is the least amount of stress on the strip ! A 2" Spring Clamp gives you enough room to run another course of strips. The bead and cove holds everything in place ! The blocks between the clamp jaws are tape covered to prevent sticking.

 

[Roybrew]

Sorry I didn't answer your question Memaquay, I'd like to use as least staples as possible. Are the but joints very noticeable when the hull is finished? Is there tricks to hiding where the joints line up? I am going to try to match the grain pattern for the joints. Don't want it to look to much like Granny's home made quilt

 

[memaquay]

I like Jim's method for clamping the butt joints! I just started using those spring clamp things, they are awesome. I can't give you much feedback on matching grain or the visibility of butt joints, I'm a random guy, with a fondness for Hot Grannies and their quilts, lol. See if you can see the butt joints on the pic below, imagine if I had matched the strips. They probably wouldn't have been very visible. I have also scarf jointed strips to make full length strips. I made up four glueing jigs and used five minute epoxy. The scarfs were more apparent than the butt joints, in my opinion.

 

[Roybrew]

That's the first picture I've seen that clearly shows the joints and staple marks. That looks better then I thought. Most wood strip canoes I've seen on line have been mostly made from full length strips. I feel more optimistic now. Thank you. Jims got some great ideas. How many people do you know with special clamps named after them? Jimmy Clamps.