Sassafras 12 builders?

[davebrown]

fellers: my dad and my wife and i are all starting builds on some sassafras 12 double paddle canoes. the kits are in the mail.
i am wondering, those of you who have built these, should we put together a strongback or a ladder frame, or are a couple of sawhorses and a workbench enough? i would not normally pose this question except this is a kit build, so i suspect they are meant to sew together on some horses, rather than a more traditional method such as ladder or strong back.

comments please.

[DGentry]

I haven't built one - yet - but I've got the book (The Canoe Shop by Chris Kulczycki) about building the Sassafras canoes . . . no strongback needed.
I recommend the CLC forum ( http://www.clcboats.com/forum/ ), which has lots of Sassafras builders. There are definitely some on here, though - perhaps they'll chime in with their own experiences.
Good luck!
Dave Gentry

[James McMullen]

I've built two of them. A pair of sawhorses that you can level with respect to each other is ample and sufficient. These are great little boats for fish-watching, as Emma is demonstrating here.

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/26883/2374345210088484686S600x600Q85.jpg (http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2374345210088484686UCvarg)

[davebrown]

you're killing me. is that a spaniel?

[James McMullen]

Half Springer Spaniel, half duck. She's always ready to go say hi to the fish. My house usually smells vaguely of wet puppy, alas.

[aldebaran]

Thats a sweet photo James. Nothing like dogs and water.

I know its another canoe, (sorry for hijacking the thread) Here you have me and my westie in the muddy waters of Portugal. The Canoe a 14 stich and glue prostector that I built this spring.
http://www.foroflamenco.com/upfiles/1443/Qo39188.jpg
When I´ve finished my current project, I might do something like the Sassafras. The prospector is hard to handle when you are alone and its windy. (hard work)

[BEConklin]

http://www.foroflamenco.com/upfiles/1443/Qo39188.jpg
The prospector is hard to handle when you are alone and its windy. (hard work)

P'raps a bigger dog would bring the bow down a little more? ;)

[davebrown]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3420/3823663237_b7072b85d9.jpg

i lost my spaniel in a divorce, along with a vault full of money. i never shed a tear over the woman, but i have never gotten over the dog. he used to be greatly troubled by a boat trailer following us around wherever we went. he also once got a large bass plug in his lip, which necessitated a trip to the emergency room. he followed that act by pulling a 1 gallon can of oil based paint off of a table (grabbed the bag and pulled, a game he loved: "what's in the bag"?) onto a carpet in my new-build house. i miss him like it was yesterday, instead of lo these yrs that have passed now.

[coelacanth2]

A couple of sturdy sawhorses about 1.5 to 2 x the width of the boat, 2x6 top so's you can rest tools onnit and , once leveled to each other, FIRMLY affixed to the floor, or to each other with stretchers. I used two sheets of OSB tacked together and paintedflat white to run a bunch of chalklines on to align the planks for gluing to length. Pay very close attention to the glue ratios - one pump resin, one pump hardener, second pump resin, second pump hardener and so on, mix for two to three minutes BY THE CLOCK before adding any fillers. Tongue depressors and plastic party cups and lots of good nitrile gloves and either open windows or organic respirators. I bought a Festool 6" random orbit sander to work with my Fein vacuum for sanding the googe once cured - 80 grit is great. Up at WBS they had these really nifty foam sanding blocks for sticky backed roll sandpaper great stuff, I'm hooked. Well sharpened card scrapers also word really well, without all the dust. Great little boats - we really like ours my pics are on the bilge and building/repair areas somewhere. Keep us posted , please!