The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

try this. Put two saw blades in your table saw, with a spacer the thickness of your strips separating the two blades. Place an auxilliary fence on your saw with the inside blade (imbedded in the fence like you would with a dado blade) with the inside edge just extending out of the fence. Then when y...

I look at it another way. 1200 linear feet of strips should do it. This should be extra, but you always have strips that cannot be used for some reason (knot, blemish, etc.) Save all small pieces and use them while closing the football. Also, always keep your left over strips for each canoe that you...

You should take out your homeowners policy and read the specific language with regard to coverage on boats, both for liability and property insurance. For example, I have Allstate Insurance and my policy provides coverage for any watercraft under 16' and less than 25 hp motor up to the limits of lia...

MBMike,

What did you pay per board foot for the 20ft cedar from the cedar man.


Tom

I used white pine to build a 14' puddle duck out of Gilpatricks book. It worked great. One problem I noticed is that we moved the canoe outdoors for sanding, and some of the glue joints popped and separated. I know in other woodworking applications, the oils in pine cand prevent the glue from making...

I recently saw a picture of a fishing guide in his canoe and the canoe had oars. I was hit with an an idea that I should do the same, making fishing with my kids in my canoe a lot easier. Also appears to allow better boat control while flyfishing and drifting some local MN rivers. Anybody have any e...

Maybe you could build her something, so the two of you could go paddling together. Since you have a Wee Lassie II, perhaps a Wee Lassie for the little lady. How can she possibly argue with you spending time and money when you are doing it for her. I built a Wee Lassie and my wife really likes it, so...

Sedges, What do you use for infeed and outfeed for ripping with bandsaw? I have a 14" Delta saw and never thought of using it to rip strips, but I am intrigued. Can you stack boards and gang rip? Do you build with bead and cove or flat edged strips? Have you encountered any problems putting a B...

I have built the 11.5 ft Wee Lassie that Mac McCarthy sells plans for. It is a "double paddle canoe" but some would call it a kayak. It weighs 35 lbs, is very stable and has a fair amount of capacity. I weigh 200 lbs and it handles my weight easily. It is a very nice canoe to paddle. Howev...

Any dimension will work, from 1/2 inch to 13/16 inch wide. Strip thickness from 3/16 to 1/4 will work as well. The key is everything being consistent. the problem with ripping with a bandsaw is consistent thickness. You get a lot of blade deflection with a bandsaw so the wood can vary in thickness. ...

Jim, Whatever the customer wants. I am fortunate that my shop is in the basement of my house, and I have a tuck under garage adjacent to it. Therefore, if I open my shop door into the garage, I have about 60 ft of indoor space to feed strips, plenty long for even the longest strips and still have ev...

Jim, Take away the friend on the back side and you need another featherboard to keep the strip tight to the fence once it clears the featherboard in front of the second cutter, and one to keep it down tight to the work surface. The featherboards in front of the second cutter do not help much once th...

If you are only going to make strips for one canoe, you will have your strips done in two passes by the time it take you to set up and dial in two routers. I have made over 20,000 ft of canoe strips and I do it using two shapers. the reason I use two shapers is that shapers are reversible, so I can ...

you are not alone, brother. I think the most difficult part of building a canoe is inside fiberglass layup. If your shop is cool, it is likley the epoxy was too thick to spread thin enough to where it did not sag under its own weight. Use the scraper that Glen recommends with rounded corners and try...

Ontarioguy, I would rough saw your boards to 1". Air dry them (depending on starting moisture, it usually takes one year per inch of lumber to air dry it). Then once it shrinks you can plane it to 3/4" final thickness and this should be sufficient for gunnels. They could be as thin as 5/8&...