New Stand for canoe work

[Jim Dodd]

I've been meaning to to build this for a couple of years, and beings I had two canoes in need of gunnel finishing, I slapped this together.
The problem I've always encountered was, while saturating the gunnels with Watco, I would slather the shiny new hull also.
Solution ? tip the canoe upside down, and let gravity be your friend ! Trouble was ! I didn't have a way to raise the canoe high enough, that I could work on it ,Standing up !
Picture first then the specs.






Cut 4- 2" x 2" x 6' 8" long. make the bottom supports at least 28" long (I made mine shorter, they work, as long as I'm careful) I drilled the 1/4" pivot pin hole, 19" down from the top.
Pad the tops, to avoid scratching the inside of the newly varnished hull.
I also beveled the bottom of the 2 x 2s to clear the floor, I even mortised the 2 x 2s for the bottom supports.

Tighten the 1/4" bolt to keep the legs from spreading !

These stands fold up, taking very little space, and will be handy, as I have other canoes in need of gunnel refinishing.

The more I look at these stands, they might even work for storing TWO canoes !! Hmmm ? .

I hope others can benefit from these simple stands !

Jim

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Great idea! I need to throw that together for my gun'l work. I think I will top it with mini-cell and use para-cord between the ends to limit the spread.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I do have some blue closed cell foam under the fake leather from an old couch.

Jim

 

[Guest]

I like it. Simple, effective, easy to store. If I had more than a single wood gunwale canoe I would build a set.

I brought one set of the uber-sawhorses into the shop yesterday. I need to do some work on the underside of a couple deck plates.

The top crossbars on those horses are 40” high (I have a taller set as well). For working inside an inverted decked canoe or even, as in this case, simply on the underside of an open boat deck plate, those overheight sawhorses ideal.

I am not awkwardly crouched halfway to the floor to squeeze under. I can comfortable face my work, and often slide in and out from under the hull and back over to the bench while seated in a wheeled chair. With a blown disk and bad knees that is a huge boatwork advantage.

Both sets of overheight sawhorses have 6’ long top crossbars, and a lower crossbar, 50” long between the leg braces, positioned 16” off the ground. If I need extra rack storage space I can fit two canoes on the top bar and one slid between the legs on the lower bar.

When the boats stored inside get evicted to create party-central I have temporary rack space for 6 boats, and the wide leg spacing is impervious to toppling in the wind with the boats tied down to the crossbars.

 

[dougd]

I really like that design Jim. With the limited space I have in the new shop a set of those would come in handy! Thanks for posting!

dougd