17' Lapstrake Canoe

[jim_cricket]

Hi Vernon and Richard,
I didn't mean to imply that you needed frames, more just curious what your intentions were. I've built a few glued lap boats, some framed and some not. It will sure be easier to clean, and a lot lighter without.

I also realized that I carved a half model of your canoe maybe 20 years ago, after getting Walter's lapstrake canoe book. I still have it around, hanging on the wall. Its a very pretty shape!
Jim

[Vernon]

A few pictures out of sequence.

First on the moulds, I took this picture to remind myself to mention something.
I started using tyvek tape to make sure I didn't glue any laps to the moulds and then switched to using plastic sheets as shown in the sequence I did. I found out too late that I had partially glued a piece between laps. This turned into a easy fix, just slot it out with the oscillating tool and fill with epoxy. Anyway, I switched back to tape and that is what I'll use in the future.




found in the scrap pile - method to layout the width of the laps at the stems.

clamp ply to stem, draw horizontal line at garboard lap line and the stem's stern mark, measure out equally from stem on each line, draw the conecting line (angle), use dividers to get equal measurement along that line, transfer the lap marks back to the stem.

[Vernon]

Sharing something I ran across last night.

Pete Culler as quoted in the book Pete Culler on Wooden Boats)

"Any man who wants to can produce a good boat. It takes some study, some practice and, of course, experience. The experience starts coming the minute you begin and not one jot before. I sometimes hear the wail "I have no experience." Start. Start anything, and experience comes. Some say building a boat is one of man's nobler efforts. Maybe so; it's a lot of fun, anyway. As one of my builder friends says, "It's only a boat; go ahead and build it." If the first effort is a bit lumpy, so what? There will be another much less lumpy later on."

[Vernon]

Started sanding and cleaning up epoxy, I was too messy with the goo. There's a lesson, don't do that. Work as clean as possible, the stuff is pretty tenacious when you want some of it back off.

The arsenal.




I found that the simple paint scraper was the best tool to remove 90 percent of the excess. Good way to stay warm too...
This one is very sharp.

[Vernon]

On every post on this wall there is a duplex outlet on one side and a switched outlet on the other. I find it easier to use the wall switches to run equipment in some cases. This ones showing the vacuum plugged into the switched outlet near where I'm working and run outside. I dug up a 25' sump hose to attach. Nice and quiet when cleaning up or running the sander.

I was pleased with my own cleverness in preserving my health.

[Vernon]

Cutwater fitting
You could install the cutwaters and shoe with screws and a sealant so they are more easily repairable but I chose to use epoxy instead. Scarphs face the back so the fishes will think it looks boaty.

[Vernon]

cutwaters and keel strip glued on.

[Vernon]

Merry Christmas to all.

No extra time to post, but I did make a bit of progress last weekend.
Inwales and Guards cut, scarphing jig set up.
Not alot of time to spend, so I'm just rough cutting to 1" x 1" and glueing them up.
I'll mill them to 3/4" x 3/4" later



closer look at the scarphing jig. Particle board top clamped on and some scraps screwed down.
Cuts about a 10/1 scarph.



21' long pieces, I'll cut 3' off of alternating ends before milling. This will stagger the scarphs at roughly 6 feet and give me 4 1x1 pieces for the spreaders.

[Vernon]

Breast hooks glued up. I used the wedges from the scarph cutoffs, scrap and a few drywall screws to hold the parts together.

[Vernon]

Fast forward to today.
I planed all 4 sides of the rails.
The scarphs are cut on the radial arm saw and glued up without sanding or plaining
.

[Vernon]

Cut and glued breakhoods.
Here's a few images of the forward one going in.
Epoxy and 6 - 3/4" #8 SS screws.
These are left 7/8" thick and will be hand planed to 3/4" sides to add a slight crown.

[Vernon]

and a few shots of the back.

[Vernon]

[Vernon]

Ho, Ho, Ho - the best part of Christmas holiday is that I get to fart around in the shop for a week.

Fitting the Guards now - both Guards and Inwales taper from 3/4" to 1/2" over the last 4'.
I needed to clamp the Guard to a level to get a good line. Cutoff with the bandsaw and quickly smoothed with the belt sander. The cut side will be glued to the shear strake.



Fitting and Glueing the Guard in place on the canoe. I set up a tent so the glue and I could stay a bit warmer.
I tied 3 pieces of nylon pull rope across about 24' of the shop. The tent makes a nice difference - toasty in there at around 60 degrees F with just the little electric heater.

[Vernon]

I pulled the tarp back over just the center rope, it's set up so the tarp just touches the floor.




Snuggled away for the night.

[PaulT]

Excellent thread Vernon!... More please...Work faster

Thanks:
PaulT

[MoMan]

Great thread, Vernon! Like you, I didn't have a burning desire to own a canoe, but rather than start my first project on a 50 foot schooner, I thought a canoe would give me a bit of experience--both in boat building skills and in taking on a longer-term woodworking project. I'm really enjoying it, as it appears you are.

Yes, the best part of the holidays for me is farting around in the garage, dreaming of launch day. Best of luck. I bet you are ready to launch before me.

--Mike

[Vernon]

Excellent thread Vernon!... More please...Work faster

Thanks:
PaulT

Thanks PaulT, I'm limited by the number of clamps I own now. When I drained the boat fund I had a choice between more cheap spring clamps and cheap beer, or just good beer. ...I went with the good beer.

Here's the other guard now glued on and the quick clamps on the other side for 1 more day of insurance.

[Vernon]

Great thread, Vernon! Like you, I didn't have a burning desire to own a canoe, but rather than start my first project on a 50 foot schooner, I thought a canoe would give me a bit of experience--both in boat building skills and in taking on a longer-term woodworking project. I'm really enjoying it, as it appears you are.

Yes, the best part of the holidays for me is farting around in the garage, dreaming of launch day. Best of luck. I bet you are ready to launch before me.

--Mike

Thanks Mike, I've been following your thread as well. I love the decorative arrangement of your planking.
Winter is finally arriving here, so I'll have to wind it up soon and wait for spring.

BTW, 'Rule 34' on West 105/206?

Vern

[MoMan]

BTW, 'Rule 34' on West 105/206?

I fear I have missed something. What is Rule 34? Are you referring to the naughtiness that just occurred with my epoxy tins?

...I went with the good beer.

Clearly, this is a build to follow!

[Vernon]

I fear I have missed something. What is Rule 34? Are you referring to the naughtiness that just occurred with my epoxy tins?

yes, the naughtiness.

Rule 34
Generally accepted internet rule that states that pornography or sexually related material exists for any conceivable subject

[MoMan]

... any conceivable subject

Well punned, sir! Carry on.

[Vernon]

The Guards are glued on. I left the shear strake 1/8" tall, recall also that the breasthooks are 1/8" over thickness - they are at the top of the strake and will be crowned to meet the guard. All the rails will also be shaped right in place. I thought about routing them before installing, but opted instead for a more hand worked look - should be great practice and fun to do these right in place with my planes, chisels, and sandpaper later.

So the excess needs to be removed - at least in the areas I will be installing the spacers.


The easiest and fastest way was with the belt sander and 50 grit. There was also a lot less flexing the canoe around compared to chiseling or planing - important because the epoxy is still pretty green.



Both sides right off in about 15 minutes with the belt sander.

[Vernon]

Glued on the spacers for the inwale.



I guess I should have gotten closer, hard to tell what you're looking at in these pics.
Cool how the tent puffs out when the heaters crankin.

[Vernon]

inwale spacers



inwale spacers glued on the other side.
working on fitting inwales now.

[Vernon]

1 inwale on
epoxy and 8 - 1 1/2" SS screws



2 1/2" spacers at each station and 2 in between stations.

[Vernon]

Happy New Year!!

The inwales are on, spreaders are next

[Vernon]

[Vernon]

The boat shops closing for a few months, I'm moving on to projects inside the house for the winter. I'm just filling screw holes and cleaning up the shop this weekend. I am going to use epoxy for my primer coat just because I never have and want to see how it works - for a decent job that'll have to wait for spring. I'd rather sand outside too.



I've reclaimed my parking spot - no more scraping ice in the mornings now.




The ropes allow me to easily haul the canoe up out of the way, it's also nice to be able to work in any postion. Getting ready to cut the top of the stem to shape in the following pic. I can roll up on a chair and place the canoe right on my knee for easy cutting.




I will likely make the seats and paddles this winter as time allows and maybe shape the stems and rails.
The plan would have me spending very little time on this project until around March or April, but we'll see if I can stand to let it sit there that long. In any case, I'll dig this thread out and update it when something happens.

Thanks to everyone participating in the thread and to those just looking.
I hope there is something useful to be found here.


Best Regards,
Vern VanFleet

[P.L.Lenihan]

Vern,

Finally got around to thoroughly studying your lap procedure and the install of the planks.Excellent! Also, enjoyed seeing your carefull working in of the gunwales and decks. Exciting to follow the whole works in one swoop as it gives the impression that you just didn't ever stop for a break

Last but not least, I am ever so relieved to notice how you kept yourself well hydrated throughout. A wise and sometimes necessary evil!

Looking forward to following the excitement on this thread once the weather gets back to a comfortable level for you.
2012 is going to be a happy launch year for you!!

Cheers!


Peter

[JayInOz]

G'day Vern. Just found this thread- weird how you can miss 'em sometimes- read it non stop and now find that you are taking a break I will be one of many looking forward to updates and to the completion of your most excellent build. I don't fully understand some of the planking procedures, but I'll re-read it until I do. If that doesn't work I'll ask Now while you wait for spring, I'll keep sweating and waiting for autumn. JayInOz

[Vernon]

Vern,

Finally got around to thoroughly studying your lap procedure and the install of the planks.Excellent! Also, enjoyed seeing your carefull working in of the gunwales and decks. Exciting to follow the whole works in one swoop as it gives the impression that you just didn't ever stop for a break

Last but not least, I am ever so relieved to notice how you kept yourself well hydrated throughout. A wise and sometimes necessary evil!

Looking forward to following the excitement on this thread once the weather gets back to a comfortable level for you.
2012 is going to be a happy launch year for you!!

Cheers!


Peter

I'm glad you liked my planking procedure, credit has to go to Walt Simmons for his fine reference CD - it's loaded with detail pictures, the whole process of achieving the hull shape was black magic before I started checking it out.

It got above freezing today after dipping to around 15F this weekend, but it's still cold enough to stick with hot coffee for hydration. I did manage to get a bit done though.

Thanks,
Vern

[Vernon]

G'day Vern. Just found this thread- weird how you can miss 'em sometimes- read it non stop and now find that you are taking a break I will be one of many looking forward to updates and to the completion of your most excellent build. I don't fully understand some of the planking procedures, but I'll re-read it until I do. If that doesn't work I'll ask Now while you wait for spring, I'll keep sweating and waiting for autumn. JayInOz

JayInOz, I didn't quite manage to stay away from the canoe, so I have another installment to post.
I started shaping the stems, wales, and spreaders this weekend. The extra material should have stayed in place until closer to finish time, but I really wanted to see how it would look.

Thanks,
Vern

[Vernon]

Roughing the aft stem.




And the other pointy end.





I'm shaping and roughly sanding, but I'll leave plenty of sanding for spring time.
I thought the rails were a little to chunky, so I removed a lot of material to lighten them up a bit - right about to the size the design called for to start with...

[Vernon]

Breasthooks just need cleaned up and final sanding.



Detail shot.




Close-up of the tip of the aft breasthook.

[Vernon]

End detail of a spreader




Left flat where the backrest will go.

[Vernon]

Spreaders are mounted with 1 1/4 #8 SS screws and will later be glued as well. When the time comes, I will remove the screws, fill the screw hole with epoxy, glue the mating surfaces, reinstall the screw and plug with epoxy and fairing filler (407, tan) This is typical to all the screws. I left a flat land for the spreader on the bottom of the inwales, this is too much and I'll be trimming some more out later.

[MoMan]

Looking great Vernon!

[Vernon]

Looking great Vernon!

Thank you. Say Mike, did you get the Caner's Handbook that Fitz recommended over in your thread? I might have to grab myself a copy too, I'll be caning my seats sometime soon. Or I could probably just wait for you to post lots and lots of detailed pictures and just do it that way!

Vern

[MoMan]

Amazon is supposed to deliver it in a couple of days. I hope to post updates to my thread tonight.

Thank you. Say Mike, did you get the Caner's Handbook that Fitz recommended over in your thread? I might have to grab myself a copy too, I'll be caning my seats sometime soon. Or I could probably just wait for you to post lots and lots of detailed pictures and just do it that way!

Vern

[Vernon]

I was able to mix in a bit of boat building with other projects this weekend. I needed to make 4 access panel doors for the house. While I was at it, I made the frames for the canoe seats. They are made with 3/4" x 3" ash half lapped and epoxy glued. Since I had set up a jig, I built the door frames the same size and thickness and with half laps too.



The doors are made from red oak. The center panel is 1/4" oak ply set in a dado - it's the material that was temporarily covering the accesses to the hot tub and the shower valves. I just recut and reused it instead of making solid panels.



Glued and clamped for the night

[Vernon]

I got all the access panels sanded and ready to finish, so I had time to start the back rests. I decided to carve them up out of solid chucks of wood. Still needs some material removed and sanding, but pretty close.




There is a 1/2" curvature to the back and 1/2" crown top and bottom. The seat back is cut to lean back about 5 degrees.

[Vernon]

I only made 1 of the seat rests. There was no real plan, I just started cutting - hopefully I can recreate 1 more identical back for the other seat.

Here's a few images showing the rough location of the seats - still need to make bases for them. They will mount to the plank keel.

[Vernon]

I made a bit of progress last weekend, finishing up my bathroom access panels and a bit of work on the canoe.
Finally getting around to posting.

Making a second back rest.


Cut the concave back rest at 5 degrees on the bandsaw


Flip and cut the 2 concave surfaces on the backside at 5 degrees.


lay flat on the back at cut the arch and end. I really need a new bandsaw blade.




chunk off the excess material on the back top and bottom.

[Vernon]

my chisels need sharpened up again - I reached back behind the belt sander and used the stone, then worked the convex surfaces down a bit more



worked down some more on the belt sander to a pretty close match with the first one.


both the back rests were then finished off with a palm sander - sanding by hand will wait until just before finishing time.

[Vernon]

My seats were to chunky so I cut off an inch all the way around.
Laying out for the holes.



3/4" setback, 9/64" holes, 1/2" spacing.


then beveled with a countersink bit. I had thought to cane the seats (even bought the Caners Handbook), but remembered a pic on Walt's Canoes CD that I liked. These will be done with a simple cross pattern with heading twine. It's a very clean and simple look.



Seats and backs in their appoximate locations. You can see I also have the bases for the seats cut.

[Phil Y]

I know its wrong to covet another man's shed, but you don't make it easy. Nice work.

[upchurchmr]

Vernon,

I've always admired lapstrake but never took the plunge.
How much will this boat weight?

The stiffness of the rail and the overlapping planks seems like the boat will be very stiff. Do you think you need 3 cross braces?

Thanks

[Vernon]

I know its wrong to covet another man's shed, but you don't make it easy. Nice work.

Thanks Phil Y, can't be wrong - I've been shamelessly coveting some of these boat's we watch progressing. Only the imaginary one's are safe from me.

Vern

[Vernon]

Vernon,

I've always admired lapstrake but never took the plunge.
How much will this boat weight?

The stiffness of the rail and the overlapping planks seems like the boat will be very stiff. Do you think you need 3 cross braces?

Thanks

The canoe should be less than 70 pounds, but I haven't weighed it.

I was amazed at how strong of a hull 1/4" glued lap produced, but there is still alot of flex in and out at the sheer even with the wales on. I would guess that you could go only with the seat spreaders provided strong connections at the wales, but i'm in no posistion to second guess the plan so I just went with what Walt said.

Thanks,
Vern