cedar strip canoe

GPintheMitten · Feb 1, 2012

Great craftmanship, Army! All those bent laminates are a thing of beauty.

WayneB · Feb 1, 2012

stratton said:
I bought their dvd. It has helped me out a lot. I did make my own strong back. Its made out of 3 pieces that fit together. I am able to adjust it to different lenghts incase I decide to make another model later on. It took me a while to find a lumber yard that has clear cedar decking 14' Once spring gets here I will probably order the resin and cloth from Newfound.

Michael is really a good person and helpful as long as you know a little about building things and working with tools. He has a really nice workplace on New Found Lake. He does sell the router bits for preparing the cedar strips. I am just about done with the cedar stripping and will be into the sanding and then resin and cloth work. At some point I will send or post some pictures.

Take care!

Wayne

stratton · Feb 1, 2012

I did a few more strips tonight. These are the accent strips. Now it will be darker cedar going up the hull. So far so good. but the tricky pieces are coming up soon.

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Army grunt · Feb 2, 2012

Do you taper the strips?Or are they left square?
Grunt

Western · Feb 2, 2012

stratton said:
the tricky pieces are coming up soon.

That would have happened for me with just the plans!!

Iplayfarmer · Feb 2, 2012

stratton said:
I did a few more strips tonight. These are the accent strips. Now it will be darker cedar going up the hull. So far so good. but the tricky pieces are coming up soon.

[/IMG]

Give me a few more details of how you are doing this. I love watching this project, but I don't know enough to fully understand the process.

How thick are your strips? How wide?

Did you buy the strips precut, or did you cut them yourself?

What are you gluing them together with?

Do you have to heat or wet the strips to get them to conform to the shape of your forms?

Did you get the pattern for the forms from somewhere or did you figure it out yourself?

Sorry if some of these questions have already been answered.

GPintheMitten · Feb 2, 2012

I took a quick peek into my crystal ball. I see several of these beauties being built by TBN'ers.:laughing:

Army grunt · Feb 2, 2012

Yes , but your going to be so busy answering questions you'll not finish yours

Army grunt

stratton · Feb 2, 2012

Iplayfarmer said:
Give me a few more details of how you are doing this. I love watching this project, but I don't know enough to fully understand the process.

How thick are your strips? How wide?

Did you buy the strips precut, or did you cut them yourself?

What are you gluing them together with?

Do you have to heat or wet the strips to get them to conform to the shape of your forms?

Did you get the pattern for the forms from somewhere or did you figure it out yourself?
Sorry if some of these questions have already been answered.

I bought the plans off the internet. I did a little research on the shape of the boat and how I want it to perform. a stable canoe for fishing but light enough to carry on long portages. But it needed to have enough displacement for a 240lb guy and gear.

I bought 4 boards which are 3/4"x8"x14' clear cedar. I rip them to a 1/4". I needed about 70 strips total. I could have bought 3 boards but i like extra just in case. After that i run them through my router with one side having a bead or round over and the other side having a cove. this way they interlock together. I left some of my accent strips square just because they are to little to put a bead and cove on.

Because the boards are thin they will conform to the molds pretty well. sometimes you need to use a hot air gun to help bend them a little more with out snapping. If it is a really tight bend i have heard people using a steam box, But so far i have not needed that. I glue all the coves and beads together and this hold the overall shape pretty well.
I am using ash stems front and back just for support and a looks, But a lot of people skip that step. Its really not needed. Plus it adds a few extra steps like shaping the stems so the cedar strips taper nicely into each other.
I am not using any staples so i can only do a few strips a night and then i have to wait for the glue to dry. If I was using a staples i could keep progressing as the staples hold everything in place while it dries.
Then comes the sanding to smooth out the boat and remove any left over glue and high edges.
After that comes a coat of resin and then fiberglass with more coats of resin. a little more sanding and then a spar varnish to protect it against sunlight.
I am also adding scuppered gunwales along the top of the canoe. It makes it rigid and adds a desired look. plus a place to tie things off to.

Iplayfarmer · Feb 2, 2012

stratton said:
I bought the plans off the internet. I did a little research on the shape of the boat and how I want it to perform. a stable canoe for fishing but light enough to carry on long portages. But it needed to have enough displacement for a 240lb guy and gear.

I bought 4 boards which are 3/4"x8"x14' clear cedar. I rip them to a 1/4". I needed about 70 strips total. I could have bought 3 boards but i like extra just in case. After that i run them through my router with one side having a bead or round over and the other side having a cove. this way they interlock together. I left some of my accent strips square just because they are to little to put a bead and cove on.

Because the boards are thin they will conform to the molds pretty well. sometimes you need to use a hot air gun to help bend them a little more with out snapping. If it is a really tight bend i have heard people using a steam box, But so far i have not needed that. I glue all the coves and beads together and this hold the overall shape pretty well.
I am using ash stems front and back just for support and a looks, But a lot of people skip that step. Its really not needed. Plus it adds a few extra steps like shaping the stems so the cedar strips taper nicely into each other.
I am not using any staples so i can only do a few strips a night and then i have to wait for the glue to dry. If I was using a staples i could keep progressing as the staples hold everything in place while it dries.
Then comes the sanding to smooth out the boat and remove any left over glue and high edges.
After that comes a coat of resin and then fiberglass with more coats of resin. a little more sanding and then a spar varnish to protect it against sunlight.
I am also adding scuppered gunwales along the top of the canoe. It makes it rigid and adds a desired look. plus a place to tie things off to.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the build even more knowing that you made all the strips yourself, too.

So did I understand correctly that the final strips are 3/4" X 1/4"?