Carry yoke

[Bill Perkins]

This started with my considering the Adirondack Guide boat as a build , and my reading of “The Adirondack Guide-Boat” by Kenneth and Helen Durant . John Gardner’s measured drawings of the Grant boat in that book included accessories like the oars and the carry yoke .


I was not ready to build ,but I was intrigued by the carry yoke and thought if I built one that might draw me into building the boat ( I built the Yoke , but the boat has yet to follow ). I chose Basswood ,which is one of the traditionally used woods , painted . Of course it’s light and easily shaped .I bought a plank and set up to laminate the piece out of it .Students of the book will see that I added a fourth longitudinal section to the supplied drawings to give me the shape for 5 laminations ,which produced the yoke out of the available stock and gave me an extra reference when shaping . That section was atypical in that it was discontinuous - 2 solids separated by the void of the neck opening .

This was a bit like building a boat model ,and this may end up having been a warmup for doing that . I simply enlarged the drawings from the book to full scale on a copy machine to make my patterns . If I was working with wood to be clear finished I would draw the piece full scale and reconcile the Plan with the transverse and longitudinal sections to make the patterns . In this case I knew I could fudge a bit if needed on the painted piece . I also knew that John Gardner had taken the measurements and made the original drawings .

A longitudinal sectional drawing was lightly glued onto the appropriate lamination and the profile sawn out with the bandsaw . This eliminated allot of grinding and more importantly produced lines of reference for the final shaping.

Here’s the dry clamp up . And here’s the glued-up blank. #3#4#5

[Bill Perkins]

The plan pattern was traced onto the piece ‘s bottom.#6#7
The interior shaping up . There were 5 transverse stations ,which you can see marked off on the rim . Sectional shapes were tried against these as I worked the wood down . The joints between the laminations gradually disapeared.#8 #9#10
I took a little too much wood off in the underarm area ,but no harm done .#11

[Bill Perkins]

With a coat of grey primer on, the piece started to sing . I could see the shape better and made some small adjustments with an exterior grade spackle .#11#12#13

We have a Sherwin Williams store nearby ; I had the paint deck , and so I went with their All Surface Oil Base Gloss Enamel . The directions stated “No reduction required “. I rolled and tipped this ,but it would not lay down right till I’d thinned it . In reality I had to thin 1:3 . Apparently the solvents needed for application are now taken out of these products to meet regs ,and the end user is expected to add them back in ,nod nod ; wink wink . I’ve since resupplied myself with penetrol ,which might have been helpful as well. The yoke is now hanging up in my office , but the high gloss is inappropriate for a yoke in actual use .I would buff it down with a fine scotsbrite pad .#14 .

Some of my shapeing tools .

My Sioux drill is an ergonomically superior tool for mounting mini sanders on . #15
This setup is great in concavities ; bowl turners use them to finish the insides of their work . The sanding disks are available in a wide range of grits .I started with 60 and worked my way down . I also glued sheet sandpaper to ripped strips of plastic to make small sanding boards to fair the interior . Curved scrapers were useful . I used a piece of bandsaw blade to test for fairness inside and out .

The Mini Turbo Grinder by Arbortech .#16 .This is mounted on a 4 inch grinder and fits well into concavities . This worked away most of the wood .

[Gib Etheridge]

Looks good. How well does it fit?

How do you sharpen that critter?

[Breakaway]

Cool!

KEVIN

[Bill Perkins]

Gib ; I bored holes in the extra square ends and fitted lines with snaps for general carrying . I've carried 2 buckets with 30 pounds of water apiece :a bit less than the guide boat weighs .The yoke fits well and the weight is easy to carry . I think it could also be useful for gardening or harvesting in places a cart can't go . Some heavy yokes were made for gathering maple sap .This is at the other end of the spectrum. It's comfortable and extremely light but breakable if overloaded.

The teeth are replaceable Tungsten Carbide . They are "diamond honed" and no dought could be touched up with same . They are attached with a center screw which can be loosened and the tooth rotated to expose a fresh edge . I haven't needed to do either yet , this is my first time using it . You use the side handle on the grinder and hold on with both hands.

Thanks Kevin . It was a pleasure to work with a big chunk of Basswood ,I hadn't done that before .