Freedom 15 complete and Launched!! (warning-long post)

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vann evans
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:52 pm
Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Freedom 15 complete and Launched!! (warning-long post)

Post by vann evans »

Freedom 15 Construction

We launched our new Freedom 15 on October 3,2009. We paddled it both as a tandem and solo boat. The canoe was fast, comfortable, stable and predictable. The weather was beautiful-calm and sunny when we started out. By later in the afternoon, the wind picked up considerably and it had no noticeable effect on the handling or paddling of the boat. It was truly a joy to paddle. It more than met my expectations and got a lot of admiring looks and comments.

I certainly want to thank this wonderful group for all of the ideas, help and knowledge that have been passed on. I may have been able to build the boat without the help, but it certainly would have been a lot harder, not as beautiful and much more frustrating. Obviously, I also want to thank Ted and Joan and The Bear Mountain Boat Shop for all of the great resources and information they provided. I think Steve Killing has done a great job in designing a great contemporary boat. My wife, Laura, deserves a boatload of thanks for her part in this project. She was my helper, my inspiration, my guide and my paddling partner-I could not have done it without her help and encouragement.

I started building the strongback and making stations in November, 2008. I wrapped clear packing tape around the edges of each station so glue would not stick. I finished that part of the project and ordered my wood in December. I special ordered 1x6 16’clear western red cedar from my local lumberyard. I left it in the shop for 4 months to acclimate.

In March, 2009, I started the boat construction. We set up 16’ infeed and 16’ outfeed tables for my tablesaw. I thought I could rip the boards myself, but the infeed table resistance was too great. It took both of us to push the boards through the blade and keep them tight to the fence, even with several featherboards. We ripped each 1x6 into ¼” x ¾” strips. I kept the strips in bundles by board so I could match colors later on. After ripping, I moved the tablesaw out and replaced it with the router table to which I attached the infeed and outfeed tables. I used the Freud ¼” Canoe Joint bead and cove bits from Woodworker’s Supply to machine both edges of each strip. We used full length 16’ strips for the entire 15’ canoe.

I laminated 3 layers of ¼” cedar for the inner stems and laminated 3 layers of ¼” ash for the outside stems. I steamed, bent and clamped the pieces over the end of the stem stations to shape them, dried them and then epoxied 3 layers together for each stem. I found that using a spokeshave and rasp were the best tools for shaping the stems as we went along with the stripping.

One unusual thing that I did was to use my first strip (sheer strip) made of ash rather than cedar.. I thought that with ash in/out wales it would look better to have all 3 pieces the same instead of having the cedar strip sandwiched between the ash inwale and outwale. After the boat was finished, I thought it looked very nice and still seems to be a good idea. The Freedom 15 has a low sheer line without much recurve, so the sheer strip follows the line of the gunnels. I made an accent strip that was placed on the fourth strip down from the top. It is ¼”ash sandwiched with ¾” mahogany and another ¼” ash. There is also an accent strip (1”ash) at each side in the bilge.


I installed the first strip (ash) by tacking it to the stations. (I left the tacks in place until I had installed all of the strips.) From then on, we installed 2 strips at a time and then clamped and waited for them to dry. We used a 10cc syringe to draw up glue and apply a thin coat to the bead side of each strip. We laid the second strip on the first, clamped it vertically to the previous strips and clamped them to the stations. Typically, we would install 2 strips early in the morning before work and then again early evening do another round. As you can imagine, I bought a lot of new clamps. I think we were using 54 clamps to do one side.

I incorporated several clamping strategies. I used a standard “C” clamp with a wooden “L” shaped block that was clamped to the station in order to hold downward pressure as well as sideways pressure. One of the ideas that really helped me was the use of a clamping ledge attached to each station. When I cut out the stations (from ¾” plywood) there was a perfect profile of the station’s edge remaining in the scrap plywood. I cut this profile about 1” wide and glued it to the edge of the station. This gave me a ¾” ledge for attaching the clamps. It worked quite well. Between stations, I used small “C” clamps to keep the strips aligned properly. Here, I used a 1”x 1” x1/4” clamping block with waxed paper to prevent the clamps from marring or sticking to the strips. I also used a 24” clamp to compress all of the strips in a vertical plane. So, in total, I had a clamp at every station holding the strips down and tight to the station, I had a clamp between station holding the strips in horizontal alignment and a vertical clamp between stations holding the strips in vertical compression. WHEW !
We washed all glue off the strips as we went along.

After completing the strips, it was time for finishing the outer hull. I started with a small finger plane and worked all of the joints as smooth as possible. Then it was sanding time. I spent a lot of time sanding with a random orbital sander, as well as hand sanding. I went from 80 grit to 100. After finishing, I wet the hull lightly to raise the grain and then hand sanded again with 120 grit. After this final sanding, I pre-coated the hull with a light coat of epoxy. After the precoat dried, we used sawdust mixed with colored epoxy to fill any small gaps or voids between the strips. I used West System 105/207 for the entire project

We used a complete layer of 6 oz. Fiberglass cloth and a football shaped 4 oz. piece for the outside. We put both pieces on at the same time and applied the epoxy. Things went smoothly with 3 people. Two of us spread epoxy while the third person mixed the epoxy, kept track of the time for squeegeeing and generally kept things in order. After the initial coat, we waited for about 6 hours and applied the next coat. I let the second coat dry for 24 hours and then sanded it lightly and applied the third and final coat. The hull looked great.

We took the hull off of the strongback and started finishing the interior of the hull. This part of the project was NOT FUN!!. Sanding the interior, concave hull was a real job. For sanders, we used plastic bottles filled with sand and glued sandpaper to the outside-they worked pretty well. We also used just plain elbow grease-that took a lot of time, but it worked. After the inside was sanded smooth, we pre-coated it with epoxy. Once it was dry, we filled gaps. We used a single layer of 4 oz. Fiberglass and 2 coats of epoxy for the interior. We wanted it to have a non-slip texture. We made the inwales and outwales from solid ash and epoxied them in place. I made the deck plates from African Mahogany. We incorporated the carrying handles into the deck plates and in/outwale system.

Now that the hull was finished inside and out, it was time for varnish. I brushed 3 coats of Z Spar #1015 Captain’s Varnish, with steel wool between coats. While it was drying, I made the seat frames, seat hangers and thwart from ash. We wanted to make 3 seats so that we could paddle the boat either tandem or solo. The seats were woven with 1” and 2” polyester webbing in a burgundy and tan color. I put three coats of epoxy and 3 coats of varnish on each piece before installing them. I used bronze carriage bolts for the seat and thwart installation—that is the only hardware in the entire boat as everything else is totally held together by epoxy.

We have been paddling together for 27 years and have a lot of canoes. This one is very special because WE made it. It will be our prized canoe for a long time---at least until we make the next one!!

Here is the website with all of the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/cboaternc/F ... StripCanoe#


Vann and Laura Evans
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Glen Smith
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Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Post by Glen Smith »

That is very nice, you did a great job!
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Juneaudave
Posts: 522
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 12:42 pm
Location: Juneau, Alaska
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Post by Juneaudave »

Beautiful canoe and great craftmanship. I'm sure this will be an heirloom for your family! :applause
KenC
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:42 pm
Location: Oakville, ON

Post by KenC »

Nice work, well done.
Congratulations on the launch.
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mtpocket
Posts: 562
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:48 pm
Location: Indiana

Post by mtpocket »

Very nice, Love those seat hangers.
Big Woody
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:18 pm

Post by Big Woody »

congratulations on a beautiful canoe and a really informative post.
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