Build-A-Bear, mountain-style canoe

[Sailor]

WAY out of my league.

[MoMan]

OK--just a note (sorry, no pix yet). I spent a delightful weekend, some of which is boat-related. I spent a delightful Friday evening with a good friend, then slept very late on Saturday, took the dog for his walk, then visited one of my favorite locations: the lumber yard!

I am so grateful for a quality, friendly and well-stocked lumberyard (OK, there a a few) within an hour's drive of my house! I drove over to Clark's Hardwoods in the Houston Heights. I picked up some spanish cedar, peruvian walnut, basswood and a sample of lacewood. I really like the Peruv. Walnut: it looks and smells like walnut, but it's super-light!

I spent today machining the basswood and p. walnut, getting them down to the size of the rest of my strips. Then I applied a bead, then switched bits and then the cove.

I experimented a bit with lengths: I liked the 6", but felt that would take lots of time. Then I thought, "why not cut that time in half and make them 12" each?" So I stuck on a couple of 12" pieces to see what it would look like. Aesthetics were good, but with the gentle (sweet) curves of the forms, the 1' pieces didn't want to sit in the coves properly. So I compromised (as is the case, I understand, with every boat!) and went with 8" sections to make my little arrows with. And that where things stand tonight. The best part: It's all still fun!!! [oh wait, I hate fun]

Just got pix:





I think it looks pretty sharp. Let's hope the glue up goes well.

[Fitz]

Popol: That is some some serious woodwork. Thank you for sharing.

Fitz.

[MoMan]

Well, the deed is done: my 45-degree accent pieces are officially glued in place. Although you still have time to convince me otherwise, I've decided to make my design even simpler: I'm ditching the 2-strip arrow accent stripe in favor of a single strip of alternating 8" pieces (basswood/peruvian walnut), cut at 45:


The more I thought about gluing up the second row of short arrow strips, the more it felt like I would be trying to herd cats, and then I'd start throwing the stapler across the room. So, K.I.S.S., as my tech writing prof said at the beginning of his course: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Soon to come: more planking! The turn of the bilge is coming up, even at my glacial pace. That means the twists are going to become more challenging.

--Mike
Plagued by self doubt

[Sailor]

I'd double them up, you're half way there. No sense taking the short cut now. That's just me though. I've been building mine for 5 years and I still have yet to glass the inside. It won't look balanced properly otherwise. Beautiful craftsmanship though.

[MoMan]

Today, I ordered my fiberglass cloth. How's that for optimism?

[Canoez]

Hey Mo(e)!



I'll second the motion to add that second course of strips. If you're worried about the short lengths wobbling back and forth because they aren't at a form, take a strip (Fairly long) and put tape on the surface that would mate with your shorter strips so that this "caul" will not get glued to the strips you're trying to hold in place. The caul goes on the course above the pieces that you're putting in place and is only temporary until the glue sets.

Popol: That is some some serious woodwork. Thank you for sharing.

Fitz.

+1. That takes both patience and skill.

[P.L.Lenihan]

So....who is napping of the job? Is it you Mike or that chip off the old block Andy? A quick pass of a lit match under his arse ought to get him mighty motivated to move on with the planking,which looks great so far!!

Just trying to be helpful


Cheers!


Peter

[MoMan]

I'd double them up, you're half way there.

I'll second the motion to add that second course of strips.

Oh, wise guys, eh? Well nyuk nyuk nyuk ...

OK, I went with opinions of people who are smarter (or at the very least, more experienced) than me.

As I expected, it took some doing and corralling with the pieces, using practically every clamp in the shop. And Andy was as much hassle as help:

"Andy--I need more clamps, Pronto!!"


"Crimony Andy-- If you're going to do me any good, I need you to be in shape!"


"So you're ready to do some real help? Excellent. Climb up here ..."

Then I come across this lovely vision:

[P.L.Lenihan]

Judging from the brown streak on the sand paper,I think poor Andy musta sh!t his self something bad during some over exertion with all that weight lifting. Go easy on him Boss and give him time to build up his muscles......especially that little one called the sphincter ani externus(Latin word for"ring-of-fire").A brief period of quiescence should have him fit as a fiddle in no time.

Cheers!


Peter

[MoMan]

OK, this may not come as a surprise to anyone here, but as a boatbuilding virgin, I think I just fell in love with my boat. (OK, OK, it’s a canoe—not a “real” boat. I promise I shan’t make the mistake ever again …
[yes I will !! ] ).

But more on that later.

So I discovered a whole new, cheap [read: free] clamp:





OK, I stole the idea from Canoez’s blog. It’s the bicycle inner tube idea. I called the bike shop down the street and asked for their discards. They said some guy normally picks up a box of them, but he hadn’t shown up so they gave me a dozen. One word of warning for anyone pursuing these fantastic, versatile and free clamps: Just before the cyclists give up and abandon their tubes, they often try to repair the tube, which may involve using that “green slime” tire-sealing liquid. You don’t want that crap to end up spilling all over your canoe (or your boat—or your dog … DAMHIKT). I ended up cutting them up and rinsing with the hose, then drying overnight with a fan.

Anyways, about falling in love with my canoe: The “strip” tease is nice: Each cedar strip adds to the sweet curves of this vessel. She’s got curves as nice as Ms. June, 2010:






Now SHE knows how to hold a telescope, eh Andy?





OK Andy, this conversation is officially over.

[Popol]

Hey Mike,

Nice work.

I wonder if it is not possible to tight the tires to the strong back in that way that you would not need the clamps any more. If you connect the outer lower end of the tire under your first strip and nail it to the strong back, than you can pull over the other end, bring it to the insite and hold it with a counterweight. That way the forces are pulled insite so your stripes are pulled against the molds. By using the counterweights, it is easy to release and pull straight again.

By the way, I love your pictures with the little guy.

Cheers,
Paul

[MoMan]

Hey Mike,

Nice work.

I wonder if it is not possible to tight the tires to the strong back in that way that you would not need the clamps any more. If you connect the outer lower end of the tire under your first strip and nail it to the strong back, than you can pull over the other end, bring it to the inside and hold it with a counterweight. That way the forces are pulled insite so your stripes are pulled against the molds. By using the counterweights, it is easy to release and pull straight again.

By the way, I love your pictures with the little guy.

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul--Yes, as I look at the progress towards the turn o' the bilge, I think these tube clamps will work in my favor, pulling the strips both downward and inward. I could probably tie them to the forms, but I'll need to make another run to the bike store: I cut most of this first batch fairly short so I would have enough to clamp between each mold, so they're too short for that. In fact, most of these will be too short after one or two more strips. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Canoez]

Discovered the green goo, did'ja? I hate that stuff...

When we cut into a tire to remove the valve stem and it has that, we usually just throw it out.

It is possible to use the inner tubes to clamp the strips in place, but you need to be able to pull on the "free end" in a direction that lets the strip sit where you want it. Sometimes that part is a problem. The other downside can be black marks on the wood. Not difficult to remove, but a pain sometimes. The big plus is that the rubber doesn't stick to the glue.

We really find that the inner tubes are helpful when we're putting the football together (the two-panel method that we use) and for laminating the stems on the outside of the nearly-finished canoe.

[MoMan]

Well, progress continues, despite Andy's best efforts. I have officially surpassed the waterline on each side. The curves continue to reveal themselves. It's sorta like a reverse strip tease by WonderWoman:

Each button she unbuttons on her blouse, a little more of her becomes visible. Enjoy!






Yeah, I know--Fitz is like 2 months ahead of me. So what??

[MoMan]

I gotta say, I feel like I just expelled a giant, uncomfortable crap that I've been holding in for waaaay too long: For the past 2 nights, I've been reorganizing my workspace. i spent literally a couple of hours putting tools away, putting lumber scraps away, putting finishes, lubricants and solvents away. Now, I have no notions that my workshop is actually organized, just better organized than it was before!! Yeah, I know: cleaning the shop is one of the first steps to building a canoe. But, like everything else, I blew that off and jumped right it. I'll never learn it if I don't experience it!!

[MoMan]

Actually, I have gotten a little done ...

Beer is for scale only.





Said goodbye to station 7 yesterday, and hopefully station 6 tomorrow! Slow but sorta steady ...

[MoMan]

I'm closing in now! The inner stems are covered, so now I will proceed with one side, up and just over the centerline (Ted Moores doesn't use the football method, at least in his CanoeCraft book). Then, trim the center line and finish off the other side.

I am biting my nails a bit: I looked over my remaining strip stock pile and it's getting smaller and smaller. The one good part is, now that I'm up to the stems, I can finally start using single, 12-ft. pieces without needing to butt up shorter pieces. But I'm now concerned that I'll run out of strips to finish. I'm gonna be really pissed at myself if I have to re-set up the whole machining process! Hopefully, as the lengths needed get shorter and shorter, I can use a single strip to cover multiple rows. Keep yer fingers crossed!!

One other concern I have relates to the decorative strip. A couple of the arrow pieces got slightly out of alignment in that they bulge outward along the bead & cove joint. So, When I go to fair the hull, I'm worried that I'll have to sand down to within a millimeter of thickness before the bulge is fair, plus, I'll have a similar (reversed) issue on the inside: instead of a bulge I'll have a void to fill. Is this something to worry about?

[MoMan]

So, on my way home from work, I found the perfect refreshment for canoe-building.




Well, I dug out all the remaining strips, and it looks like I'm a little better off than I thought. Regardless, I still have to complete the shear line up to the bow, and I've got 4 sections to do, so it's either going to be really tight or I'm going to be refreshing my machining skills.



And judging by the outpouring of comments from my last 2 posts (I STILL haven't finished reading them all!!), I'm assuming you folks just can't get enough of my bandwidth-wasting antics, so here's some more ...


















Time Wasting Adventures with Andy & Mike!






[it's only going to get worse, folks!]

[Fitz]

Blue Paddle - "Follow Your Folly".

I can relate to that.

[MoMan]

Blue Paddle - "Follow Your Folly".

I can relate to that.

Yeah, that really struck home; although for me, it really should be "Follow Your Follies"!

[Canoez]

Save me a Blue Paddle, will ya?

As far as your misaligned strips, how bad are they? If they're only about 1/32 - 1/16" not a problem. If it is more, you may have some issues. Don't forget that the outside is much easier to fair than the inside...

When assembling short sections of cove and bead for a feature strip, misalignment can happen even if you're clamping fairly carefully. Take the example below - the bottom strip is the hull and the short sections are mis-aligned.



The solution here is to use another section of "clamping strip" that is covered with tape as a release from any glue that comes up between the small sections. This clamping strip is stapled into place until the glue sets. It also helps to make the short sections follow the contour of the boat. The top strip in the image is the clamping strip with blue tape on it:

[Sailor]

I have a question about these accent strips. I used simple colour differences to make accent strips on my Redbird. It was easy and looks good. These also will look good. They'll require a bit more work of course but it will be worth it in the end. To my eye they make for a more busy appearance but that's not bad. Just not for me I don't think. ANyway, my question is this. how strong are these little bits and pieces glued together? Are they glued with Epoxy? are they glued to the full strip you have pictured below so there is strength? If so, does that cause problems with the bends the planks need to take. I know there's not much bend to take andit's not really very much of a compound bend either but still. Nice progress, like you, I can't wait to have my Redbird in the water. Looking forward to seeing more progress with your boat as well as mine. Thanks for keeping us up to date.

[Canoez]

Generally, to bond the pieces of feature strip together, the same glue that you use to bond regular strips is what you use. We use wood glue - Titebond 2 to be specific. MoMan is using Weldwood Plastic Resin glue. Epoxy isn't necessary for bonding the strips as they will be sheathed with epoxy and fiberglass, waterproofing the wooden core.

Amazingly, the bond doesn't need to be that great - I had a student build an over-the-top feature strip out of a bunch of tiny pieces of wood (1/4" square pieces making a checkerboard and stripes pattern - incredibly detailed.) He hasn't had any issues with cracking or failures.

Feature strips don't have to be fussy or detailed. Some people leave them off altogether.

[Sailor]

I have my hull sheathed outside and off the molds so I know the "bendability" of the planks but I was wondering how they'd bend to the stations made up if they were like that check pattern. Must be incredibly beautiful. Super time consuming though. I used regular yellow lepage's carpenter's glue to glue my hull up. No fear of any issues as like you mention, it's sheathed inside and out. My dad used marine glue, Can't remember what exactly. poweder mixed with water and my brother used the leftovers on his. I think it came in a blue and white can..... I figured Lepage's yellow carpenters would work just fine. And it has. Maybe one day I'll build another one and make a more detailed accent strip. I guess if you were patient enough, you could inlay a name or something. Or build the name up out of the check pattern. that would take some time patience and planning though. What a beautiful result though. With all these 1/4" pieces, did they just bend into place when he put the strip in or did he have to glue them up on the hull?
Sorry for the thread hyste but I think it's a little relevent.

[MoMan]

I decided to build my accent strip on the forms: I put a stripe of glue down in the cove, like I would a normal strip, then arranged the lower row of pieces, adding glue to each end. I then took a scrap strip to hold it in place while the glue dried. Then I put another stripe of glue in the coves of the small accent pieces and added the second row, forming the "arrow" shapes of the accent strip. Apparently, when I clamped either the lower or upper stripe, I clamped a little too hard. I set up these two scraps to demonstrate how the strips on the boat look.


I checked and it looks like the worst two places are about 1/16" out of alignment, so I guess I won't lose too much sleep over it.

They don't show up very well in pix on the boat:


One note: My strips thickness are closer to 7/32 instead of 1/4.

Canoez--I'll save you a Blue Paddle in the fridge. And, I'll save you plenty of Houston humidity: it's already 90 degrees and it's not even May. Time for the Houston summer bitch slap!

[P.L.Lenihan]

Looking good and exciting Mike!! Are you gonna make a small"canoe" with the left overs to tow your beer in on trips. I'd be terribly tempted!


Cheers!


Peter

[MoMan]

Looking good and exciting Mike!! Are you gonna make a small"canoe" with the left overs to tow your beer in on trips. I'd be terribly tempted!

Please don't put any new ideas in Andy's head: he would insist on commandeering such a vessel and there's no way I'd trust him to be in charge of such critical supplies!!

[MoMan]

Well, I’m obviously no Fitz. I STILL haven’t finished planking!! Yeah, it’s embarrassing to admit. So let me just throw out one semi boat-related excuse: Last week, my wife and I were discussing Good Friday weekend plans. I casually threw out tentative plans to drive to Bastrop for the Centex Messabout. I found out that Welsford’s new SCAMP would be there.








To my surprise, she was interested, and we turned it into an impromptu weekend road trip to Austin.


Anyways, here’s a few of the boats we saw, including a Herreshoff 12 1/2. My wife was quite drawn to it, as was I.





We only stayed long enough to get a sunburn, so I didn't get to see her launched.









The wind was blowing pretty good, so folks were rightfully assessing their situations carefully.



But I have been making microscopic progress.

[Sailor]

Looks like you're gonna need something to get yourself up to level when you come to planking up the bottom. My Redbird was nowhere near that high and I stood on a stool to finish it.

[MoMan]

Ya, that's one of the downsides of adding the wheels.

[MoMan]

[MoMan]

Very funny, Andy. Right now I am biting my nails. Let me explain.

[MoMan]

Well, I’m getting bitch-slapped* for ignoring Canoez' P-List



Yeah, that's pretty much how I'd categorize it.

Well, I’m dangerously low on strips, yet tantalizingly close to finishing! I am reluctant to go out and buy a new WRC plank and have to start the whole process over again: jointer, table saw, planer, table saw again, router table, router table again … So I have some basswood and Peruvian walnut left over from the accent strip. And fortuitously, I had been thinking about a bilge-area accent strip. So this past weekend, I worked on machining the basswood and walnut, and just finished the final pass thru the router for the cove. The question of the hour/day/week/month is: will this be enough? I saved an equivalent number of strips for the opposite side, so double anything you see. Consider that as you view the pictures! I do have a few scrap strips here and there to finish up the bow/stern sheer.





*Gobsmacked, for the blokes across the pond. Is that even close to an equivalent? Hell, I don’t know. I’m makin’ this whole thing up as I go!!

[Popol]

Keep up the good work, man, you're almost there.

Paul

[MoMan]

Thanks for the encouragement, Paul! I may need to stock up on some more Blue Paddle Inspirational Juice.

[MoMan]

OK--same idiot, new problem:

My Peruvian walnut strips have cracks in them. A couple of inches long. These are natural cracks that I saw emerge as I machined the strips. And, as I expected, the strips proved greatly weakened as I dry-fitted them and the cracks issued their audible warning. My instinct was to dribble some Weldwood plastic resin in, clamp it overnight and call it a day/night. Then I thought, "Hell, I've got an international resource at my fingertips. Let's see what some experienced people have to say." So, what say you? Will this work? Would I be better off using epoxy-based "dookie schmutz"? Should I just set the whole thing on fire and run??










Note: the strips are just long enough to bridge this particular length, so I'm REALLY reluctant to just cut the cracks out.

[switters]

You are the only one who will ever know.

And you will never be able to forget that it is there each time you see the boat.

I vote new strips, for sanities sake.

[Canoez]

Good materials are the beginning of good workmanship. I think you're going to be short of strip material at the sheer. While I hate to say it, I think it's back to a bit more strip milling.

[Sailor]

I second the motion for more milling. You'll never forgive yourself for installing less than perfect planks when you could have easily (relatively, you have done it before after all) milled up new ones and had perfect planks. An accent strip on the bottom? Not sure it would be the way to go, Contrasting strips side by side but a built up accent stripe. It would look to me like you were trying to stretch the planking stock as you ran low. Don't want everyone to think you skimped now do you?

[Woxbox]

Plus, if you glue there, they'll probably go and crack at another point.

[floatingkiwi]

It is times like this that decide whether starting in the first place, was even a good idea. If I had, a jointer, table saw, planer, table saw again, router table, router table again, at my disposal I wou......hang on, I do..........See ya.

[hokiefan]

Hey MoMan,

You can waste time better than I* can! I love your Andy chronicles.

You've got a ton of effort in this thing so far. It looks pretty amazing. And you know you won't be truly happy with it if you don't finish it right.

Cheers,

Bobby

* and I set the bar pretty high

[MoMan]

[MoMan]

[MoMan]

Hey MoMan,

You can waste time better than I* can! I love your Andy chronicles.

You've got a ton of effort in this thing so far. It looks pretty amazing. And you know you won't be truly happy with it if you don't finish it right.

Cheers,

Bobby

* and I set the bar pretty high

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Bobby! Yep, trying to stay on the path of "right" to finish this baby.

[MoMan]

You are the only one who will ever know.

And you will never be able to forget that it is there each time you see the boat.

I vote new strips, for sanities sake.

You are right, just like everyone else here! Thank you for taking the time to reply, Switters!

[MoMan]

Good materials are the beginning of good workmanship. I think you're going to be short of strip material at the sheer. While I hate to say it, I think it's back to a bit more strip milling.

I want you to know I have a huge amount of respect for your advice, Canoez. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[MoMan]

Plus, if you glue there, they'll probably go and crack at another point.

Yeah, Woxbox, I think you're right about new cracking points.

[MoMan]

It is times like this that decide whether starting in the first place, was even a good idea. If I had, a jointer, table saw, planer, table saw again, router table, router table again, at my disposal I wou......hang on, I do..........See ya.

Toys are fun! My woodshop is the whole reason I bought my house. My real estate agent thought I was nutz when I wanted to view the garage first.