A Raven from Scratch

I have a Taco with the 6 speed (2021) and love it, I had a new (2024) for 2 days ,,, they ruined it and I managed to get them to take it back ... so if you are thinking of the Taco manual, take a really good look and test drive first or get the last gen

Jim Dodd said:

The wood shop was started from the generosity of the guy who owns the building.
Not knowing what to do with it, he was talking to a friend, and the idea, of a community work shop, came up..
Starting with the building, and over $30,00, the idea came into reality.
A Retired shop teacher and about 5 members, including me, went to work.
We have 40+ members. At $300 a year, a member has 24hr use. Family is welcome, also, so long as member is present.
Heated in the Winter, and with dehumidifiers, stays cool all Summer long. we have a shop, with top notch tools, that we are upgading, all the time.
Since we are a non profit operation, we qualify for Grant money ( comes from Casinos)
Last year we upgrade one of our three tablesaws, to a Saw stop.

I have to say we are blessed.
One thing that helps, is the work we do with Scouts, boys and girls, Church groups, and 4H. We also have adult classes, all thanks to our retired Shop teacher.

I pinch myself, every time I walk into the shop.

We make and sell things, mostly at a Christmas Market, and the money goes to our Scholarship fund.
We also do repairs for free will donations, which are really good, because people like to see us keep going.

I'm pretty much the maintenance man, as well as the Janitor.
I also operate our CNC router.

It's my home away from home !

Lastly you never have to stand in line, to use the tools.

I haven't found anything to compare !

Anyone in the area, can contact me for a tour !

Jim

Click to expand...

That is awesome!


@Gamma1214 , I'm really enjoying this build thread. Can't wait to see how it does on the water!

@Steve in Idaho , I'm glad you're enjoying it. Lots of builders here to lend advice if you'd ever care to try one yourself (you really should IMO but, fair warning: it gets addictive and they tend to look better as you build more & learn from your mistakes)

Speaking of mistakes... I stopped at the shop to grab the seat parts and found that haste makes waste.

I also scraped the runs from under the seat support tabs and yanked the crap out of them trying to rip them off of the hull- better that they come off now than on day 5 of a 3 week trip, right?

I did not fare so well on the seat... I had skipped soaking the strips when I decided to remake the seat and, when removed from the jig, the rear (1 inch drop, 24 inches wide) seemed to be ok but the front (2 1/2 inch drop, 24 inches wide) had cracked the top Sassafras strip on one side.



Never one to learn from failure, I decided it must have been a fluke so I mixed up more epoxy, built & buttered another stack of strips & loaded them into the jig. I was tightening the clamps gradually & watching the strips to make sure I got squeeze-out from every layer and, just before the jig was completely tightened, I heard an audible "crack" so I'm sure that I broke one of the strips again.

I'm set back at least a week now as I'll have to soak strips 3-4 days, let them dry in the jig 4-5 days and then try again. If I'm going to all that trouble (and not being certain that the rear isn't compromised by my lack of patience), I'll remake both front & rear crossmembers. A 3 week solo in Wabakimi will be no place to find out that I weakened it just enough to fail when I sat down too hard the 4th time...

On the bright side, I've got testers to be sure that my cutting / fitting methods are sound before trimming the actual seat parts and I'm convinced that the 7 layer lamination is plenty strong. The broken front support is almost 4 feet long when removed from the jig. The top strip is visibly cracked so we're down to a max of 6 layers. Just out of curiosity, I placed one end on the base of the strongback & the other on the base of the shaper (notice that I planned on only falling 5-6 inches to the floor). I then placed my posterior upon the lamination and was pleasantly surprised when it held my full weight! (a little over 200 lbs).



Considering that there will be 2 (uncracked) supports bearing the weight in the final seat configuration, I think it will be plenty strong enough even though it DID crack on the second test when I attempted to show my buddy how tough it was. I got my big @$$ off of it before it broke in half though so I can still use it to test fit.

Tomorrow I'll have to stop over, cut some more strips and start them soaking. Unless I'm mistaken, I'm going to have to be able to spread the gunwales in order to get the seat in & out so I'll have to widen the inner gunwale a little at the thwart location and widen the thwart a little at either end so I can bolt it in place instead of gluing & screwing like I did the last one.

I gotta get this seat right or I'll be ordering more epoxy... I'm down under 2 gallons of resin & I've started my last gallon of hardener (for any non-builders, I'm being facetious. I can easily build another whole boat with what I've got left but still... I hate wasting time & materials)

You can skip the soaking step if you cut your strips at 1/8 inch. That's what I did for the last stems I built for the Raven, and the angle was much more severe than your seats. You could skip the epoxy for the seats too if you got some titebond 3. That's good stuff.

IMO the issue (I have the same with my seat design) is that turn is actually pretty tight. Going a little thinner would certainly help as Mem suggested ... also though, as you tighten, give some time to bend, don't tighten it too fast. You will note as you start to tighten and it bends, it likes to do so slowly.
The epoxy has a long open time at that point, so you aren't in a rush, letting that wood kind of stretch into the bend may help as well.

Thanks guys. I opted for "tried & true" and loaded more strips into the soaking tubes tonight. I'll bend them in the jigs on Saturday & glue them up sometime next week. (Just to be extra safe, I'm remaking front & rear crossmembers) In the meantime, I'll clean the shop, put the coves on the Pine & Cherry for the next build & try to get forms cut.

I guess there's nothing wrong with having 2 builds going at the same time, right? (warning to interested future builders: this can be addictive)

Realistically, I've gotta social-distance myself for 5 days at the end of the month... maybe I can have the next hull ready to glass by March 5th (my, hopefully, "cleared for normal life" date)

I'm actually planning something unique for the next one... you'll either love it or hate it but I'm itching to see how well it works.

The most builds I've had going at once was three, so you are catching up. There seems to be a move to maybe start using cedar strips for the Outers club again, going to try to find the money to build them a solo this year. Another Raven? maybe, or a cut down Pal.

Raven has been moved to the back burner (well, actually the off-loading table of the shaper) and I finished putting the coves on the White Pine & Cherry strips for the next build.



Seat strips should be ready to bend tomorrow & I'll do that in the afternoon. I'll probably let them dry at least a week, glue them together after that and they should be ready to install in the Raven shortly after I'm cleared for human contact.

During the social-distancing, I hope to be able to get the hull stripped on the next build and I picked up 2 sheets of 9/16(ish) OSB and had the local Lowe's rip them for me. I should only need 1 4x8 sheet for the new forms but I'll build a tandem soon so why not just get 2, right?

In another outstanding development, once the infeed table was cleaned off (and before being recovered by the Pine & Cherry), I found a clear Sassafras 1x8x12 (on the floor in the lower left above). It's now been replaced by a Pine board and I can use it for gunwales but it would also make some really nice paddles... decisions, decisions...

I'll start another thread for the 3rd build but I'm a little undecided about what to build. I have Merlin plans and an architect friend printed them for me but, looking at the specs, it appears to be very similar to my Freedom solo with a little more rocker (which is good) and a little less freeboard (which might not be)

If you want something different, you could always build a traditional type canoe. The Jack's Special (Chum) is really nice, just not sure where you would acquire plans now.

Well, I thought the Freedom worked well for lakes but I'd like more rocker & freeboard. The Raven takes care of both of those but I'm not sure I need that much hull volume (but it'll likely make the trip North this summer). I have no issues building the Merlin... Nothin' good on tv anyway.