Epoxy pre-coat applied to hull

Preparations for laminating the hull. A thin pre-coat of epoxy applied to the hull. About 175 grams to cover the 5 square meters hull area. This pre-coat prevents te epoxy to soak into the wood when the thicker layer with glass and epoxy is applied.

Thin pre-coat of epoxy. Color looks nice

Grinding of the hull completed

First step in grinding he hull is to remove all excess glue from the joints. This is made by using a triangular scraper. These ar modified to have various rounded shapes to also fit the inside of the canoe. The Titebond III excess glue comes off easily.

Scraper with various shape. Razor sharp.

Rough grinding is made with the battery powered sander or by hand using sanding blocks. All sanding tools is connected to a vacuum cleaner to get rid of all the dust. Sand paper is Mirka Abranet which is superior in terms of efficiency and durability. Starting with 80 grit and finish with 240.

Battery powered sander connected to battery powered vacuum cleener.

Mirka sanding block with interchangeable soles.
Flat, concave or two different convex ones. 

Two hand Mirka sanding block for the large flat areas. This
block is adjustable to fit both concave and convex surface

Looks OK

Other angle

Here is an area with both convex and concave areas. With right

tools it is not difficult to get a good result

Hull completed

Since last update I have now glued all strips in place and finally I put the last piece of strips into the hull. Next step is a lot of sanding.

Center strips glued into place. Cleats and pins to hold it in place

Center piece finally aligned

Fine adjustments of center piece

Center piece roughly cut out to the line.

Center piece aligned and secured by pins. The outline of the
strip was now drawn with a sharp pencil from the underside

This piece will be marked and shaped to exactly fit the hole

Two strips with straight edges glued together

Final cove and bead strip in place. On the next strip the cove side will be
planed to a straight edge to make it possible to fit the last piece.

Hole is smaller and smaller

Looks OK

Another strip

Easter update

Another few strips in place. The hole in the bottom gets smaller and smaller.

After weekend update

The build continues. Another few strips mounted. The stems aligned perfectly. Just the bottom part left. More measurements and adjusting as the strips must be aligned perfectly in both ends.

Just the bottom part left

Another weekend in the canoe workshop.

This weekend I spent most of the time helping my friend with his canoe and kayak. Still got time to add 4 more strips to my Solo day.



Most of the side ready. about half of the strips in place.

Another evening in the workshop

Ckecked the adustments from yesterday. Looks perfect. I had to put a crossbar between the hullsides to keep the hullside tight to the form. Also made a filler from fine cedar grind dust and tightbond III glue. Mix until it feels like peanut butter. Makes small gaps invisible. Finished the evening by glueing another strip to the hull.

Crossbar to keep the hullsides tight to the form

Cedar dust and glue makes a perfect filler

Another strip in place

Some adjustments

Found that the hull tended to be a bit convex at form 2-3 and 12-13. There was a 4mm play between hull and form. Made reinforcement cleats and glued into place. These will be removed once the hull is laminated on the outside.

Reinforcement cleats to strighten the hull side

Perfect fit to the form again

Looks nice after a light sanding

Another day with strips.

Just put some more strips in place. The strips fits nice with the cove and bead. No gaps and just some sanding to get a nice surface.

A couple of strips ready

Tested a light sanding. looks good.

Some more strips added

Glueing strips continued and some new tools

Today I added some more strips. As I am a lazy person I am more than happy to construct tools that helps in the building process.
Clamps to hold the strip tightly to the form and a clamp to keep the strips together. Simple design but works fine. Rubber cork for friction and elasticy. The strip clamp have an o-ring to protect the edges of the cove side of the strip. Rubber cork is usually made for gaskets.
Also made a change to the front form. As I make a stemless construction I decided to make the front and rear form i two pieces with a thin spacer running half way through. This way I get a nice guide for the saw when cutting exat angle of the strip.

Clamp to hold strip to the form

Clamp from below

Clamp to keep strips together between forms

Strip clamp with o-ring to protect edges of the strip. Rubber cork for
elasticy and friction

Another view. 

Clamp to hold the strip tightly against form. Again rubber cork for friction.
Note the rubber cork inlay in the center piece. That i to get movement
when tightend

Another angle

Slotted end forms to guide the saw

Add captionSaw in action. Easy to line up.

Perfect joint. Note the rubber cork on the plastic clamp. Sits firmly to about 45
degrees angle. Original plastic just snaps off.

First strips in place

Glued the first strips today. Also made a shelf ontop of the hull where i can have the strips ready.

Build of the hull started

After final adjustments of forms the two first strips are i place. just about 80 left to glue in place.

First two strips in place

Easy to line up with a string in the submerged slot

Stemless ends. Note the slot in center of form. This will allow for exact
alignment of the thin saw used for cutting the strips at exact angle.

All strips ready and all forms i place on the strongback.

Finally the arctic cold went away, and the temperature allowed us to finally grind the last stripes.
Also mounted and aligned all forms to the strongback. Next step is to start glueing strips on the hull :)

Forms mounted on strongback

Continueing strip grinding and more

Today we almost finished the strip grinding. Just a few strips to finish next time.

However I have done a lot of other preparations.

1. Redesigned the height adjustment of the router table. Worked OK Before, but a little redesign of the height adustment screw mechanism makes it easier to adjust height. Also made a locking unit to safely lock the height after proper adjustment.

2. Made the final clamps we will use when glueing strips.  Special clamps to secure strip to forms and also clamps to hold the strip firmly against the previous strip. About 70 of each. (for making my Solo Day and also my friends double kayak and small solo canoe)

Clamps to hold strips

3 Measured my old strongback and found that it had warped into both a banana and a propeller shape. Construction was a simple board ontop of 2 planks. Went into the recycling bin.

So... Just make a new, better one. This time I made a telescopic box construction. 2,5m-4m (8´-13´). Undercarriage on lockable Wheels.



New strongback

Forms will be clamped to the strongback by a clamp made of long threaded screws with a crossbar and wingnuts at the bottom. Easy adustment and no screws in the strongback. There will be a submerged track in the center of the strongback where I will put a thin string to get an exact centerline.

Form mounted by a clamp