Building a Canoe

31. Cranberry Lake

2009-10-28T20:44:00.001-07:00

In the first week of October, I took my canoe to Cranberry Lake, in the Adirondacks. It was a good adventure, though the nights were much colder than I expected. Below are a few pictures. The full set of pictures is on Flicker.

Setting off

Putting in

Merganser duck (female?)

This doe let me get very close

Beautiful split rock

30. Looking back on the project

2009-08-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Tom asks:

"I stumbled across your blog and was wondering about your experience building the canoe. Did you ever figure out how much you spent? I can't decide if I want to buy the kit from clc or do it all from scratch. Also honestly as your first boat how easy was it?"

Let's see .. about $45 on the wood, about $140 on epoxy, resin, and pump handles, and $60 on fiberglass cloth? Probably another $50 here and there. So that's about $300. I did not have to buy any tools (I borrowed a few), so that saved some money.

As a first boat, it was neither too hard nor too easy. My only previous woodworking experience was rough carpentry, like house framing, and some simple homemade furniture.

I learned about working with a plane, cutting bevels on the strips. I also learned about laying down epoxy and fiberglass cloth. The article in WoodenBoat was well written and photographed; easy to follow.

29. Sairy Gamp at the Adirondack Museum

2008-09-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

On my way home from Little Tupper Lake, I stopped at the Adirondack Museum on Blue Mountain Lake. I was happily surprised to see the famous canoe Sairy Gamp. In the Wooden Boat article that started this project, the author Nick Schade mentions Sairy Gamp as inspiration for my canoe. (See my very first post on this blog)

Sairy Gamp is only 9' long and 10.5 lbs. She is on permanent loan from the Smithsonian.

There were many other Rushton canoes on display (among many other classic boats, including famous speedboats)

Admission was pricy at $16, but the museum is Huge, with many other exhibits, not just boats.

28. Maiden Voyage

2008-09-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took the canoe up to the Adirondacks. She's not done yet (I still need to glass the gunwales and breasthooks, and add a backrest) but she was ready to go in the water.

I decided on Little Tupper Lake, which does not allow motorboats, and has many good campsites.

Also, I was expecting rain all weekend, and cold nights, but I got lucky. It was (relatively) dry, and warm.

Putting in at the launch on the northeast shore, I paddled to the southwest end of Little Tupper, went up the beaver creek to rock pond, and back, camped for the night, and then returned to the launch; about 12 miles total.

I saw a beaver and a pair of loons, and no bears :-)

Beaver out fishing

Beaver dam

Loons

Fall colors

27. Paddle Bag

2008-08-30T16:09:00.001-07:00

I've made a happy discovery. This $11 rifle bag fits my paddles perfectly. (For more about these paddles, see post #13 from March)

26. Gunwales

2008-08-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Using leftover cedar strips, I've added inwales and outwales (collectively: gunwales).

If anyone ever tells you that you have too many clamps, don't believe them. The spring clamps work OK, but the small C-clamps can apply more pressure, and I wish I had more of them. After the glue sets up, I will go back and plane down the top of the gunwales, then sand.

Next: Breasthooks

25. Status Report

2008-07-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

So, the past three posts catch us up to today. I have started bending the laminate strips for the next outer stem. After I finish installing both stems I will start on the gunwales. I had hoped to be in the water in May, or at least June, but I can see the conclusion approach now, and take heart from it.

This project has never been a chore. When I'm thinking about what I want to do with the next chunk of free time that comes my way, it is common for me to look forward to spending it on the canoe.

24. Installing an Outer Stem

2008-07-07T21:17:00.001-07:00

To prepare the surface for installation, I first sawed, then planed the strips flush with the inner stem. Then I cut a rabbet (stop line) with a pull saw, and chiseled to that line. (not shown below, sorry)

I used way too many screws installing the outer stem, but they were brass and so shiny.. anyways, do you see where the outer stem stops? (in the picture below) That's where I cut the rabbet. (The outer stem is inset a bit)

In addition to the screws, I used a mix of epoxy and lots of wood flour between inner and outer stems. There was a small gap ( < 1/8 " ) and the thickened epoxy hides it.
I shaped the outer stem in place with a sanding drum attachment on my corded hand-drill.

When I was happy with the shape, I applied another layer of fiberglass and epoxy over the whole thing. Below, I have started to feather out (sand down) the new fiberglass. (The white dust is mostly epoxy dust) When I am happy with that the whole assembly will get another coat of epoxy.

23. Laminating an Outer Stem

2008-07-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

As a guard, and a structural element, an outer stem covers the inner stem and the ends of the strips. Like the inner stem, I've laminated the outer stem from oak, except the outer stem is wider.

I've used waterproof polyurethane glue again, and as before, it's a bit messy. The glue drips come right of the floor easily, but I still should have laid something down.

I scraped the glue drips off ..

22. Fiberglass the Inside

2008-07-07T20:55:00.001-07:00

Long time, no posts. I'll catch up a bit tonight. Here's the fiberglass cloth draped over the inside, ready for epoxy. I started pouring epoxy in the middle, and worked outward. It was more difficult to spread the epoxy on the inside than it had been on the outside. Puddles formed in the middle, and the area around the inner stems did not turn out as well as I'd like.

21. Rainbow

2008-05-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Seen from my porch, while working on the canoe.

20. Fiberglass and Epoxy

2008-05-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

I've added fiberglass cloth and the first coat of epoxy! It didn't take long at all, but it feels like a big step!

Up close, it's not as pretty, but if you step back, it looks great.

You can see what I mean in this picture; the drips don't look good. Well, this is just the first coat of epoxy, so it'll get better.

The epoxy. The pump handles ($10) measure out the right amount of resin ($90) and hardener ($35).

The fiberglass cloth ($60 for 10 yards, only 5 yards shown)

Jamestown Distributors
Fiberglass Cloth 6oz
50" x 10 Yds.

19. Sanding

2008-04-27T09:40:00.001-07:00

I'm sanding now.

I've finished one pass with 60 grit ..

The level areas are easy to work with ..

The tumblehome is more difficult. It is not possible to use the power sander here.

Soon I will be ready to apply fiberglass!

18. Scraping

2008-04-16T19:41:00.001-07:00

I have finished adding strips! I have begun scraping off glue drips, in preparation for sanding. Here's the scraping tool I'm using. It was a little pricy (20$) (I bought it from the marine catalog when I bought my epoxy) but it comes with three different blades, with different shapes, and it's really sharp. It pulls off most glue drips in one stroke.

Note: If you get the stroke just right, you get a terrible screeching scraping sound, hence the earplugs.

What a difference a little scraping makes! This picture is a pretty good action shot.

It's pretty easy to gouge the cedar, so take it slow. Also, the blade is very sharp, so don't cut yourself!

17. Countdown: Four strips to go

2008-03-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

About four strips remaining! I like this picture. Getting excited ..

This was earlier in the day. I trimmed down to the centerline with my awesome rabbet plane! I'm getting a little better with that tool, I think. It's not a great picture, but I hope you can see the curve of the strips on the left, and how the centerline runs across that curve.

The final few strips will require some tricky beveling. I'm glad I've had some practice by this point.

16. Glue and Stapler

2008-03-29T19:04:00.001-07:00

Here's the glue I'm using.

It's at least twice as expensive as the regular wood glue, but it claims to be waterproof.

Besides, if I'm dropping $130 on epoxy, I can pay $7 for a tube of wood glue.

New Stapler!

Ahh, simple pleasures ..

I replaced my old (three months old) stapler that was jamming frequently. It's so nice to have a stapler that works again!

My old stapler could fire brads or staples. I'm not sure if that's such a great design idea? It didn't seem to work to well for me anyways. So, this time I made sure to get the regular version.

As with the last stapler, I've applied masking tape to protect it from my glue-y hands.

15. Cornell Crew

2008-03-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

The prize for first boaters out on the lake goes to the Cornell crew. They were preparing for a race the next day. It's cold out on the water, with the wind chill..

14. Progress

2008-03-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

I'm almost ready to start closing up the hull! Less than a dozen strips to go now.

13. Paddle Purchase

2008-03-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

I got a great deal on a quality paddle from a local guy. He was unloading a whole bunch of kayak equipment, and I was afraid I'd have to buy the lot, but I was able to just get the paddle.

It's very lightweight, well made, and attractive!

Lightweight carbon fiber offsets.

12. Cayuga Lake in Winter

2008-02-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

As seen from my dock, on Feb 26 2008, during a light snowstorm.
Click on the thumbnail.

Six more weeks of winter?

11. Trimming to a line

2008-02-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Life gets busy, progress gets slow, but I am still working steadily on my canoe.

According to the instructions, when laying the strips gets difficult, when I reach a point where they twist and don't want to lie flat, I strike a line where they do want to lie flat, and trim to that line. So, with a sigh, I cut into the strips I had laid, again, as I did at the tumblehome edge.

The most trimming happens at the ends. So, for the last few strips on each side, I could have used shorter strips. If I had read ahead a little bit, I would not have used my finer, full length strips.

I have been a little reluctant about this step. Yes, after trimming down to this line the next strip went on more easily. However, the strips are still vertical at the ends and horizontal at the beam (in the middle) Having said that, I'm still going to follow the directions closely. Just take a look at my last post (#10) to see what Mr. Schade can do .. so I will follow his instructions.

Here are the tools I use for trimming down to a line; chisels and planes.

This wooden rabbet plane belongs to my father and has a wonderful patina. It is more difficult to use than the modern plane, and more difficult to adjust, but it's blade is full-width (the definition of a rabbet plane?) With it, I am able to plane next to the forms. The forms get in the way of the other plane I have.

This picture shows the stamp of a previous owner, a "C. Nelsen"
A much fainter stamped impression reads:

Ohio Tool Co.
Columbus

The number 11 or perhaps a roman numeral 2 is also visible.

10. The Professional Version

2008-02-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Nymph was spotted at the Wooden Boat Show last year, according to a friendly forum member, who provided this lovely picutre.

This is what a professional can do. And how about that paddle?

The dark cloth inside is carbon/kevlar + epoxy, which I am not planning on using. I'll be using S-glass + epoxy.

9. More Strips

2008-01-27T22:09:00.001-08:00

I've added a half-dozen strips since my last post.

Trimming to the tumblehome edge and beveling the next strip to match was difficult, and took a long time, but now that I'm past that point, the strips go on quickly.

Next: I'll put on another half-dozen strips before I switch to the other side.

8. Laying Strips

2008-01-13T11:20:00.001-08:00

After some delay swapping blades on the bandsaw, I now have a whole stack of cedar strips and I've begun laying them on. I've been impatient to get to this point, and I'm excited to be making progress again.

The cedar was expensive, by the way. I just got my heart set on it, but a cooler head might save some money buying another species.

Shavings from cutting bevels

Close up of staples.

The strips are stapled to the forms. Here I'm using a bit of cardboard in-between so that removing the staples will be easier later. [Edit: Later, I gave up on this. The staples are easy enough to pull without the cardboard] You can also see masking tape holding the strips together while they glue.

7. Choosing wood for the strips

2007-12-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

Over Christ Mass, I've been researching the wood I will use for strips. As usual, the Wooden Boat Forum was very helpful. Based on their suggestions I came up with the following priorities.

Do not use the following:
- very heavy or weak wood
- highly resinous wood
Preferable qualities
- Clear (or close to it)
- Long and straight
- Workable
- Strength to weight ratio
My needs
- Not too expensive
- Available in central New York state

Everyone seems to agree that Western Red Cedar fits these priorities most completely. Many other woods were suggested, but I can get WRC and it is within my budget.

The best quote I have found for WRC is $0.79 / lin. ft. or, for my project, about $90.

I hope to buy the cedar early next week. I'll either buy my dad a thin-kerf blade for his table saw, or try to use our neighbor's bandsaw (which I hear is pretty nice, with a good wide band)

6. Laminating the Inner Stems

2007-12-09T15:00:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard the phrase "from stem to stern"? How about "stem the tide"? Well, both phrases stem from a boat's stem. (sorry, I couldn't resist) To "stem the tide" is to sail fast enough to make forward progress against a tide.

On a boat the stem is the foreward edge of the bow. A canoe has a "point" at both ends, and so has a stem in the bow and in the stern.

Traditionally, the stem of a wooden boat would be made from one piece, but I will laminate mine from 1/8" oak strips my dad had sitting around from about 20 years ago. (see below and right) Oak seems like a good choice because it is strong and attractive. The author of the wooden boat article chose cedar, but leaves the choice up to the reader.

The author recommends using a waterproof glue, like polyurethane glue. Gorilla Glue is a common brand here in the US.

The strips will be clamped to the stem forms. I have cut 2" holes to accommodate the clamps, and taped the edge of the form with masking tape to protect it from the glue.

Gluing six 1/8" strips gives me a 3/4" thick stem. Use disposable gloves for this! You'll be glad you did. With the strips glued together, but not yet set up, I bent them around the stem form, and clamped them down. The strips complained a little bit as I did this, but I don't see any cracks, and I think it'll be OK.

Unfortunately, I only have enough clamps to do one stem at a time, so I'm taking a break while the glue sets and posting this.

5. Mounting the Forms on the Strongback

2007-12-09T14:25:00.001-08:00

Yay! I have finished mounting the forms on the strongback.

The forms are attached to 2x3 blocks, which are attached to the top of the strongback. There are two forms not shown in this picture; the most forward and the most aft; the stem forms.

Even though I did my best to level the strongback, I still needed to level the forms as I installed them.

This I did by putting in one screw to pivot on, and holding the level on the center line while adjusting a shim.

The clamp is just there to hold the form fast to its station while putting in the first screw.

You can see the shim behind my left hand.

The view out the window is Cayuga Lake.

It's cold, and it's a little ways out of town (Ithaca) but it has been a wonderful apartment for three guys who like boats.

Finally, when all the forms are mounted, I can take a step back and admire the shape of the canoe.

You can see that I tried to line up the center lines for the picture, but a few forms are not perfectly lined up.

They're not too far off though, and I may leave it all as-is.

After all, this is the first boat I've ever built, and I'm not trying for perfection.

So far, I have probably spent about 20 hours on this project.

Next: Laminating the Inner Stems

4. Building the Strongback

2007-12-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

To provide a stable, level platform for the forms, I built a strongback of 1/2" plywood and 1x2 furing strips in the form of a box beam. The box beam is supposed to be easy to build square and level.

Unfortunately, my plywood got rained on, and took on a warp, so my end result was not perfectly level. To fix this, I added an 8" strip of MDF left over from the forms, and shimmed it level.

Also, the porch I'm working on does not have a level floor, so that complicates things. Ideally, I would like a woodshop to work in, but for now I share a 3 bedroom apartment so I am happy to have any working space at all.

The porch is well lit during the day, and though unheated, it is enclosed, which will help when I apply epoxy (Epoxy needs a minimum temperature to cure).

3. Cutting Out the Forms

2007-12-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

I have finished cutting out the forms, and there is a certain satisfaction in seeing them stacked, showing the eventual shape of the canoe.

After roughly cutting the forms out of the 4x8 sheet of MDF with my little cheap jigsaw, I took them to my dad's woodshop and used the bandsaw to finish them. If I could do it again, I would nail each primary form (the one I drew) to its blank, and cut them both at the same time. (Instead, I cut out the primaries, and then traced them onto the blanks, which took longer, and was less precise.)

2. Drawing the Forms

2007-12-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

Nymph is a strip-built canoe. This means that thin wooden strips will be laid over temporary forms. The strips will run the length of the canoe. When all the strips are in place, they will be covered in fiberglass and epoxy, for strength, and the temporary forms will be removed.

Historically, before fiberglass and epoxy became standard, wooden ribs, perpendicular to the strips, provided the strength. (see below)

Sairy Gamp 1883 by J. Henry Rushton
(technically lapstrake, not strip-built? but shows ribs)

The first step I will take is to build the temporary forms. The forms are cross-sections of the canoe. Taking the table of offsets from the Wooden Boat article, I draw a grid, like graph paper, onto 3/4" MDF fiberboard. Then I carefully plot the "data points" from the table of offsets onto the grid. Finally, I play connect the dots. It's like drawing a graph back in high school (middle school?)

The horizontal lines of the grid are called waterlines, and the vertical lines are called buttock lines.

This process is a simplified form of lofting.

The form I am drawing in the picture is form #0, the middle form. Nymph is symmetrical, so I will make one copy of form #0, but I will make two copies of every other form, saving a lot of drawing. That's good, because the drawing is pretty slow.

My roomate had an aluminum T-square, which is very useful for drawing the grid.

Next: Cutting out the forms
Then: Building the strongback

Update: 3 of 7 forms drawn (12/3)
Update: 5 of 7 forms drawn (12/4)

1. The Canoe

2007-12-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

The canoe is Nymph, designed by Nick Schade. It's design and construction are outlined in Wooden Boat no. 199. It is the first boat I've ever built. It will be the second boat I've ever owned.

My name is Jared, and I live in central New York state, USA.

Nymph is a lightweight wooden double-paddle canoe (think "kayak paddle"). Her design incorporates "tumblehome" (the sides curve in a bit at the top) to make paddling easier. The dark strip (walnut) in the picture to the right highlights the tumblehome.

Construction is strip-built, plus fiberglass and epoxy.

The picture is from the Wooden Boat article, and I use it here in the spirit of fair use.