It’s been a long winter, but with the spring finally taking hold, I’m back at it. My apologies to you all, I have actually been slowly working on bits and pieces since the snow disappeared. My computer went down though, so I wasn’t able to post. I really don’t like using my tablet, cause the keyboard isn’t that user friendly, so I had to wait to get up and running again.
Anyways, the first thing I attacked was a rack for the canoe. I had some walnut and maple lying around, so I conscripted them into action. Walnut for a canoe rack??? What was I thinking? Hey, don’t judge…it’s what I had on hand. Besides, I couldn’t ask for a nicer material to rest the gunwales on when she isn’t in the water. The ropes that I used to suspend the canoe had to go.
Here’s a shot of one of the rack arms. Very simple, but I can hang on them. They are that strong.
This next part, has probably been the most fun I have hand with the woodworking aspect of the build. Very early into the build, I created a couple of inlays for the decks. I have been waiting for quite a while to be able to install them. I’ll walk you through the process, in case you ever have a hankering for eye popping details. Some may remember what the decks look like from previous shots…
Here is the inlay I installed. It’s a compass rose, made up of Koa (the darker material), and Sitka Spruce. I found a really nice image online when I started this, and printed it off at the size I wanted. I figured out the shape of each piece of veneer, and cut each one out with a sharp chisel. Then I drew 2 lines (intersecting each other at 90 deg.) on the sticky side of a white envelope address label. Now I laid each one on my lines, starting with the center pieces. Then filled in the rest after. The sticky side offers a way to keep these small pieces in place without the need for glue or other adhesives. Time consuming? YES, but I’m sure you will agree that the result is well worth it. This is my method. I am sure that there are a multitude of others.
Here is the assembly on the label.
Here, I have cut away the excess label.
Ok, so now comes the other tricky part…actually burying it into the deck. I started by using the “racing stripes” in the deck as my guide, and figured out the location that I thought would be the best. Mechanical pencil in hand, I traced the outline of the inlay onto the deck. Remember that if you are doing this, that the white, non-sticky side is up. Don’t worry, it will be sanded off later.
Carefully chisel out the material in between your lines, trying to keep the lines as sharp as possible. Your depth should almost match the veneer thickness. The corners were a little bit harder to remove the material, but an Exacto knife really excels here. Test fit, remove more, test fit, remove more…and so on.
This is what it looks like after all the material removal. I hope you can see it clearly enough.
Now with some titebond III, a simple block of wood, paper towel, and a few clamps. We wait…
The result with clamps removed, and a really quick sanding to get the label off. As you can see, there are some small gaps, but nothing a little epoxy and wood dust can’t fill.
I also applied a similar inlay to the yoke...
Enough of the fine stuff, the hull has to be sanded down, inside and out. I will be applying another coat of epoxy to both. I’m just too nervous about the previous errors I made with the epoxy ratio, that I wanted a bit more insurance. If you are just joining in to this thread, go back a few posts to see my biggest single error of this build. Not funny then, but I am past it now.
Just about finished sanding.
Next step…installing the seat supports to the inside of the hull. Should be interesting. Please come back to see
Momentum
