Huron Cruiser Project Log

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Grumple
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:38 am
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Grumple »

That's not a bad suggestion, Stephen. If I get desperate I'll look into the heat gun approach too. So far I got away without needing one through the worst of the bends, so I'm hoping I can get away with just clamping in place while I mark for cuts, etc.

I've decided to hold off til the weekend for the next attempt. I think for the first one I'll do better starting fresh in the morning with lots of time, vs trying to squeeze it into the late evening after work.

My block plane was not working well either, so I need to take that apart, sharpen, adjust, etc.
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Cruiser
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:21 am
Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Cruiser »

I experimented with a heat gun, just to see how it works. I tried it on walnut cherry and cedar .... the hardwoods seem to work best, but you have to get it near scorching before you can get even a little give. The cedar just doesn't seem to work very well without actually marking it up with scorches. If you soaked the wood it may buy you some extra margin with the gun, but cedar is so light it can't handle the heat from a gun (IMO).

If you decide to try this, I would recommend you do some test pieces with whatever setup you intend to use, because I suspect it is a lot more "finicky" than posted.


Brian
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Grumple
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Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Grumple »

Ok thanks for the information, Brian. The heat gun/soaking would probably be a last resort for me, as it seems like it would add a large amount of time to an already slow process. Scorching is a big concern too!

With any luck at all my attempt tomorrow morning will work out and I'll have better results to report.
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Patricks Dad
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Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Patricks Dad »

I can't imagine needing to heat your strips for filling in the 2nd half of the football. The curves aren't that severe and there is no twisting involved. I just use a piece (or 2 or 3) of strapping tape to hold the strip in place when I'm dry fitting one end so I can mark the middle and other end. If you are building cove-up, put a 1/4" piece of dowel in the cove to protect the fragile edges. I use the same technique for the final gluing of the strip.
Randy Pfeifer
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Cruiser
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Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Cruiser »

Concur Randy, I dry fit, then use straps or whatever to hold the piece in place while I measure up the other end.

If you don't secure it somehow, the strips can really flop around and get damaged. It usually doesn't take much to secure in my experience.


Brian
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Grumple
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Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Grumple »

I finally got the other side of my football closed in this weekend!

It took some practice, but cutting strips to fit the second side does become easier after the first few. For the most part I ended up doing mine exactly as Randy suggested (ie CanoeCraft method). Thanks a lot for all the suggestions that helped me figure this part out!

When it came to the final few planks, I also used the CanoeCraft approach for the most part. I pre-glued the last two strips together following the shape of the football when I was about 8 strips from closing it, after shaving off the bead/cove shaved off the bottom/top strip respectively.

I did change things up a bit for the final stages, and thought it would be worth mentioning because it worked reasonably well:
  • On the 3rd from last strip (ie last one before the pre-made, football-closing double-strip), I have a big strip color change and I didn't want to change the alignment of the strip relative to the other side. So instead of just shaving off its cove to allow it to accept that last double plank, I glued a same-color scrap strip into its cove, then shaved that scrap strip down to the top of the cove edge on the real strip. This effectively just 'filled' the cove, giving me a flush mating surface, but without making the original strip more narrow.
  • It took a lot of physical force to get the 4rth from last strip into place, and I was worried about the 3rd from last strip actually snapping when it came time to glue it in. So I took a suggestion I saw elsewhere on this this forum and inserted my 3rd from last strip in two pieces, with a butt-joint. Not ideal, but I didn't have a spare strip of the right color if I had messed up, and this was much less stressful.
  • When it came to shaping that last 'double strip' to sit down into it's hole, I used chisel/plane to form the straight edge that would made at center line, but couldn't come up with a way to use my hand plan for the rounded side that would yield an accurate fit in reasonable time. Instead, I super-glued a heavy grit sand paper to a scrap piece of approx 6"x4" MDF, and used that to shape the edge of the final strip. I was able to place the sandpaper block beside me on the canoe football (ie grit facing up), and work right at the hole, test-fitting and sandingoff bits of the edge without ever stepping away from the canoe. I used a few benchmarks to shape one side, then did the other. This process was somewhat slow, but very relaxed and yielded pretty good results without much fear of taking too much off in a given pass.
Here are some pictures:
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Jim Dodd
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Location: Iowa

Re: Huron Cruiser Project Log

Post by Jim Dodd »

In my opinion, figuring out different ways of getting the same, or better results in building these things is the real fun !
I have modified my technics greatly since my early builds !
I'm sure you are enjoying figuring things out too !

Everything looks great ! Wait until you apply that first coat of resin ! The color change will amaze you !

Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
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