Northwest Cruiser 17 feet build

[DeniseO30]

I would suggest, if you want to use narrow cloth to determine a "waterline or sheerline" even if it is hypothetical. measured at let's say 6" below the rail. When the first layer of cloth is on the bottom and almost cured but still soft, razor blade along that line and remove the waste. As the epoxy cures at the edge, use a squeegee and keep working it until the fiberglass edge is flat. Then it is a simple matter to add a 6 or 8 in wide strip above the newly determined line with just a slight overlap. It will be almost invisible visually because the lap will be downward. We stopped using brushes and rollers and only used plastic squeegees to work epoxy,. It's real hard to get one's mind away from thinking epoxy is paint, it is NOT paint.

As mentioned, it is also okay to do a seam down the middle of the bottom.

 

[hautamak]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try with seam little off from center and i think something like 20-30 cm is enough for overlap. should I do both sides at one session or epoxy the other side, then sand and add the other side of FG?

Update: today I tried the router bits and they were working just fine. though I didn't adjust the height properly, so the bead and cove is little off.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Yes, take the time to center the strips and bit ! Big dividends when sanding !

Jim

 

[Cruiser]

Tip for getting the height adjustment dialed in ... blacken the edge of the strip ...then do a trial. Really makes it easy to see the edges.

Brian

 

[hautamak]

Well, yeah I bet so, must build something like in Cruisers photo, I mean those things which keeps the wood in place.
Didn't think that marker idea. Good tip, thanks!

 

[Jim Dodd]

Here's a pic of my set up.
If you planed your planks, Before cutting strips, that is fine, but not needed !

I set my router so the strip runs BETWEEN the Fence and the bit, as shown in the pic. This will uniform your strips, so they are all the same width, 5/8"- 3/4", or what ever you set the gap at !

 

[Jim Dodd]

Another pic.

 

[hautamak]

I was wondering that, I mean if you don't plan the planks at all, and then cut the strips, will some strips turn out not rectangle ? or if I joint one side is it enough? I was planing to do just like that, between the bit and fence. Thanks for pictures really gives me ideas!

 

[Jim Dodd]

I should have posted this pic first. If you look closely, you can see a strip going through the router. Do the bead first ! This first pass uniforms the strips.

My strips come from, 1" planks that are #3 and better boards. About the lowest quality you will find.
These planks are surfaced on three sides. One flat side, is always.rough. Leaving my strips with, one edge (1/4") rougher than the other surfaces of the strip.
This rough edge,goes through the router first, and beaded..

 

[hautamak]

And the project goes on.. A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[hautamak]

Is birch hard enough for gunnels?

 

[Sven]

Looking good. Great progress!

I see from your pictures that you have the same issue I did near the ends where the second forms from the stems are not "fair" and kind of created a bit of "swoop in" effect
over those two forms. No big deal though, it doesn't seem to affect the performance.

I think you can use whatever is convenient for gunwales. Birch should be sufficient, especially if you do like I did and put a wear layer of glass over the top. I used cedar for my inwales on the cruiser that I built last year and the glass over the top makes it as dent resistant or more so than the hardest of hardwoods available.

 

[Canotrouge]

Is birch hard enough for gunnels?

Yes birch would be good for gunnels, Spruce as been use successfully or years. Douglass fir as well as even cedar!

 

[Mrindy]

I have only made 2 sets of wood gunwales, both out southern yellow pine for what its worth. Looking at the wood database, it looks like birch is plenty hard but perishable compared to other woods. If sealed or glassed maybe it wouldnt matter?

Progress looks great!

http://www.wood-database.com/yellow-birch/

 

[hautamak]

Need quick advice, my dad bought polyester resin instead of epoxy. I'm building another canoe anyway so, can I use it and what's the expected lifetime for my canoe with that resin?

 

[Sven]

I heard in the past that polyester does not bond that well to wood...

 

[Jim Dodd]

I heard in the past that polyester does not bond that well to wood...

Correct !

Hautamrk

I started with my first canoe, using Polyester. It was common back prior to 1990. Delamination is the biggest problem.
A million canoes have been built using Poly. I would bet they all showed delamination within 3 to 5 yrs.

Expected Life ? Depends on how it is stored, and used !
If you don't mind investing a lot of time, and material, in a hull, and using a lesser quality resin, then go for it !

Me? My time is too valuable to me anyway, to use Polyester !

Jim

 

[stripperguy]

I have built 3 canoes using polyester (or vinylester)resin in years past. All of those boats suffered from delamination, although one survived, barely, for 20 years.
I would strongly recommend against using anything other than epoxy resin.

 

[hautamak]

Thanks for good advises. This particular text encourage me to go with polyester. Still, I now know what to except, A possible delamination.

"Red cedar is not a particularly good base for it, though. My sources say that there is a problem with resins in the wood interfering with the bond of the polyester to the wood. Apparently, this was well known years ago, and older wood strip canoes (not many people building kayaks then) were made from White Cedar. Pine is another good wood to build from if you are using polyester resin."

http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/B.../read/id/11936/sbj/polyester-resin-and-boats/

Well I'll take the risk and go with polyester.
Is it possible to laminate it later with new cloth and epoxy?

 

[Jim Dodd]

Well I'll take the risk and go with polyester.
Is it possible to laminate it later with new cloth and epoxy?

As stated earlier there were a lot of canoes built with Poly resin.

Later ? The poly will have to be removed, before reglassing with epoxy.

Post pics of your build please !

Jim