Canoe Question | SouthernPaddler.com

Canoe Question

a Bald Cypress

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2007
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80
Northwest Louisiana
Accepting the fact that I don’t know a whole lot about anything. I decided to follow the lead of some of the people I have read about who have built wooden boats. The advice gathered would be put to use on my current build. So with visions of a well made stripper in mind, I started out.

Now, on my last boats, I used many clamps to hold the strips in place while the glue dried. This has worked but, it requires a large amount of clamps and the glue must be given time to set prior to removing the clamps and continuing the build. HAH ! not for me. For this build i would hold the strips in place with nails, small nails to be sure but, nails. So far the master plan has worked out just fine. the strips were held in place with only a couple of gaps discovered after stripping was complete.

An air driven brad nailer worked GREAT for doing this. A small piece of wood was used to insure that there would be the “head “ of the nail available to grab with pliers for removal. The little angle pieces from the scarf cuts worked perfictly for this. There were enough of them since I could not find Cedar in lengths long enough so 8 & 10 ft boards were used. Now on to the “minor area of concern.

After completing the form and removing the brad/nails. There are an un-countable number of holes in the boat. Differing thoughts have been put forth on whether to “fill” the holes with toothpicks or just let the fill coat of epoxy do the job.

I decided to go with the [ fill the holes with toothpicks] method.

Now to my area of concern. As you can see by looking at the attached pic, it is my belief that I will have a bit of trouble laying the glass over the hull smoothly. I will say, that once it is in place, I won’t have much worry about it moving around while applying epoxy.

My other concern is [and please note, I am not an engineer, nor am I well versed in fluid dinamics] BUT, it seams to me that this method will at best make it harder to paddle the canoe and I feel that it will not move as swiftly through the water as I had wished.

Your informed opinions would be of great value here.

Thanks



IMGP0734.jpg
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
You already know that you have now made yourself a lot more work to trim off the unrequired toothpicks. Maybe use the end of a 2X4 to break them, and then a block plane to trim them down, and a final sanding.

Next time, forget the toothpicks. Dental floss won't be any better either. :wink:
 

woodchips

Well-Known Member
Mar 29, 2010
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Montgomery, Alabama
I can't remember where the artical was, but I just read where a man is using fishing line tied to the molds and pulled around and attached to the strongback to apply presure, in multiple locations.
This allows him to continue adding strips then line, strips then line, strips then line, etc... without waiting for the epoxy to cure. Then he cuts the lines and says you can't see them in the finished product. But I like Jacks idea. if you used waxed dental floss you should be able to just pull them through ( may be I'd have to try a sample of that idea first )
I do know when I put in bungs I use Tight Bond III, because when I set them in with epoxy the wood around them would sand away faster than the epoxy ring I created :oops: !!!
Then It was chisel time . I would hate to have to fix 100 of those. It would look like acne.
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
OK.........

Ya all had some fun and now it was my turn...... a Bald Cypress asked a serious question and it went way overboard ....I wanted to see just how bad it was going to get and it exceeded my expectations. .. As you might of noticed they have vanished. :D

Please keep your responses to the matter at hand in everything in the Canoe , Kayak , Pirogue and Serious Questions Section , if you do not know where that is ...... Take a look ..... The others have a lot of leeway ..... Like the humor , fishing , hunting and especially the General and Geezer section's .....The last two were set up for anyone to have fun in since they are not meant to be for reference. By the way .... The General section in the near future is going to only keep the latest posts for 180 days .... then an automatic vanishing.

The rest are there for reference when someone wants an answer to something they are thinking about .... Rambling along into areas that are not associated with it will vanish.
 

a Bald Cypress

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2007
577
0
80
Northwest Louisiana
O K, as much as I hate to do it, I have to agree with Chuck. I put a soaker coat of epoxy on my boats since I think it is easier to wet out the glass without trying to put on enough epoxy to soak into the wood at the same time. So, after I decided to try the toothpick thing, I wanted to see what the difference would be .

The side you see is the only area of toothpicks. After tapping them in solid I broke them off and then sanded the hull. Then I vacumed and put on a coat of thined epoxy to soak into the wood.

RESULTS

The side with the toothpicks still had tiny dimples where the picks are placed.

The side without picks has tiny dimples at the holes.

I therefore conclude that using the toothpicks is, in truth, not the way I will go if there is another boat in the future. [4 canoes and a kayak should be enough for 1 person.]

Perhaps now I can get started on some honey-doos.

The Glass and epoxy from RAKA was just dropped of at the door. $ 275.00 . Not bad .
 

Jimmy W

Well-Known Member
May 1, 2006
611
1
north georgia, USA
a Bald Cypress said:
Now to my area of concern. As you can see by looking at the attached pic, it is my belief that I will have a bit of trouble laying the glass over the hull smoothly. I will say, that once it is in place, I won’t have much worry about it moving around while applying epoxy.

My other concern is [and please note, I am not an engineer, nor am I well versed in fluid dinamics] BUT, it seams to me that this method will at best make it harder to paddle the canoe and I feel that it will not move as swiftly through the water as I had wished.

Your informed opinions would be of great value here.
IMGP0734.jpg

oldsparkey said:
OK.........

Ya all had some fun and now it was my turn...... a Bald Cypress asked a serious question and it went way overboard ....I wanted to see just how bad it was going to get and it exceeded my expectations. .. As you might of noticed they have vanished. :D

Please keep your responses to the matter at hand in everything in the Canoe , Kayak , Pirogue and Serious Questions Section , if you do not know where that is ...... Take a look ..... The others have a lot of leeway ..... Like the humor , fishing , hunting and especially the General and Geezer section's .....The last two were set up for anyone to have fun in since they are not meant to be for reference. By the way .... The General section in the near future is going to only keep the latest posts for 180 days .... then an automatic vanishing.

The rest are there for reference when someone wants an answer to something they are thinking about .... Rambling along into areas that are not associated with it will vanish.

Just exactly what was the serious question here? Were you serious about glassing and paddling the canoe with the toothpicks still sticking out? Just wondering. Jimmy