The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I haven't built a canoe for some time, preferring to concentrate on building Adirondack guideboats. I am therefore a bit rusty on canoe seat placement. The canoe in question is a 16-foot Bob's Special, being built under my direction by a group of student woodworkers of the Northeastern Woodworkers A...

Hi all- On the calibrated epoxy measuring cup thing, I got the idea originally from Ross Leidy of Blue Heron Kayaks and Kayak Foundry fame. I merely documented it. I mention this in my web site article about fiberglassing.

- John Michne

A cabinet scraper would be totally ineffective. Start at one end at the stem and heat the stem with a heat gun. The epoxy will soften, and the glass can be lifted, albeit grudgingly, from the wood. Work a putty knife under a small section as you go. When you have lifted enough glass so that the putt...

Todd -

I built the Wee Lassie II from 3/16 Honduras mahogany using bead and cove strips cut with 1/4" router bits. The whole build is documented on my web site, http://michneboat.com. Click through to my site, then click Builder's Corner. Scroll down to BUilding the Wee Lassie II.

- John

Lance – Assuming you cut 1/4” strips with a 1/16” kerf saw blade, each strip will consume 5/16” of a board. You will need about 75 strips, so 75 x 5/16 = 23.4 inches wide. If the planks are 18 feet long (I could only get 16 footers locally), the 18 feet x 12 inches/foot = 216 inches long. Now a boar...

I use a 1/8" round over bit in a router table. The bit is the one with the brass pilot, not a bearing. I simply drop the hole over the spinning bit and give it a circular "shake".

-John

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Just curious - what is a hull identification number? Is it a state requirement? As far as I know, here in NY we don't need any registration stickers unless the craft is motorised. None of my boats have any numbers, only a brass plate with the name of the boat and the builder's name and date - purely...

To answer the question about guideboat internal construction and finishing, the following is excerpted from Building an Adirondack Guideboat, co-authored by Michael Olivette and myself: A FINAL CONSTRUCTION NOTE More than one boat builder has questioned our method of fiberglassing only the outside o...

The Adirondack guideboat is a unique regional classic, indigenous to the Adirondack Mountain area of New York. It was not specifically designed, but evolved over time to meet a need. The guides of the region needed a boat that was light, strong, and could carry two people and all of their gear for e...

If anyone is building, considering building, or knows someone who is or planning or building an Adirondack guideboat like the ones seen on the left, I have full-size rib and stem drawings available at no cost. I made these drawings using a free CAD program that does not permit business use. Both the...

Dawne -

Here is a link to a section on my web site about making and installing scuppered gunwales. Too big to detail here.

http://www.michneboat.com/Gunwales.htm

John

I had the same problem until I switched to back-routing, also called climb cutting. Normally it would be considered dangerous to rout with the feed in the same direction as the rotating bit, but properly done with good featherboards, and with the minimal stock removal for strips, it is quite safe. S...

I have a large (24 x 36) sheet of paper with boat rib patterns drawn on it. I want to glue it to a sheet of plywood and cut out the patterns. What is the recommended glue and technique to get it glued down flat without wrinkles?

- John

Just about any wood glue will work for gluing stem laminations together. The problem with the PVC wood glues (Titebond, Elmer’s, etc.) is the glue will tack, or grab, within about 5 minutes. It is nearly impossible to spread the glue and get the stack aligned and clamped within the 5-minute tack tim...

What is this? The glass looks like it came through the varnish! http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a362/jmichne/DSCN9361.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a362/jmichne/DSCN9362.jpg It is on most of my boats, some more severe than others. I don’t believe it is typical sun damage, since the I had t...