After building several UJ pirogues I thought I'd post a couple of things that I have found helpful.
When the sides are attached to the stems....and the ribs are just "stuck" in, perhaps clamped in rough locations......I fit and install the gunwales, these help to "fair" the sides. Then I add another set of gunwale-stock sort of wood , but this time about an inch from the chine, and screwed in with drywall screws every so often from the inside. ( No glue )
These REALLY help to fair the sides even further, making it really easy to put the ribs where they belong. Then, I fasten and glue them, with the hull right side up.
Then I flip it over and work on the lower edge of the sides with the belt sander. It doesn't take much to make a uniform place for the bottom to land and sit.
I then drop the bottom on, scoot it around till it is centred and the scarf comes out where I want it, roughly pencil the outlline and cut it off with the jig-saw.
Now the fun part......slip it back in place, lift up one end, and run run a bead of Gorilla Glue, lower the bottom into place and use more drywall screws through the overhang, into the gunwale material strips you put on earlier......do the same for the other 1/2 of the boat.
Wait about 6 hours, pull all the extra screws, and the bottom will be glued down, nice and fiar, ready to trim back and fillet the inside corner. This saves finding a dozen cement blocks, or extra toolboxes....or buckets of water, whatever, to hold the bottom down.
I'm sure there are better ways.......love to hear 'em. (sorry for the typos...I'm not much of a secretary)
cheers, Piper
When the sides are attached to the stems....and the ribs are just "stuck" in, perhaps clamped in rough locations......I fit and install the gunwales, these help to "fair" the sides. Then I add another set of gunwale-stock sort of wood , but this time about an inch from the chine, and screwed in with drywall screws every so often from the inside. ( No glue )
These REALLY help to fair the sides even further, making it really easy to put the ribs where they belong. Then, I fasten and glue them, with the hull right side up.
Then I flip it over and work on the lower edge of the sides with the belt sander. It doesn't take much to make a uniform place for the bottom to land and sit.
I then drop the bottom on, scoot it around till it is centred and the scarf comes out where I want it, roughly pencil the outlline and cut it off with the jig-saw.
Now the fun part......slip it back in place, lift up one end, and run run a bead of Gorilla Glue, lower the bottom into place and use more drywall screws through the overhang, into the gunwale material strips you put on earlier......do the same for the other 1/2 of the boat.
Wait about 6 hours, pull all the extra screws, and the bottom will be glued down, nice and fiar, ready to trim back and fillet the inside corner. This saves finding a dozen cement blocks, or extra toolboxes....or buckets of water, whatever, to hold the bottom down.
I'm sure there are better ways.......love to hear 'em. (sorry for the typos...I'm not much of a secretary)
cheers, Piper