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Happy National Eggnog Day! 🎄🥛😵
What's happening in your shop this winter?
- Thread starter Alan Gage
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Working on a Fiberglass MR Malicite,
plus a couple of MR Legends,
plus a couple of MR Legends,
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Hey Jim, I use Tru-oil gun stock finish, I hear good things about it... It was a test paddle with a test finish!
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I am very impressed with the work you folks are doing!
Right now my shop is, well, stuffed; I'm stuck in Clutter Corner. It seems I have to get down to my last square foot of clean workspace before I say STOP, and clean it up. I'm nearly there.
I'm working on a couple of canoe carts using carbon fibre hockey stick shafts. FWIW, damaged carbon fibre hockey shafts can be had at many rinks; generally a couple of feet are salvageable, and they're very useful for stiff/lightweight members in jigs and one-off tools.
Right now my shop is, well, stuffed; I'm stuck in Clutter Corner. It seems I have to get down to my last square foot of clean workspace before I say STOP, and clean it up. I'm nearly there.
I'm working on a couple of canoe carts using carbon fibre hockey stick shafts. FWIW, damaged carbon fibre hockey shafts can be had at many rinks; generally a couple of feet are salvageable, and they're very useful for stiff/lightweight members in jigs and one-off tools.
We must be soo much alike ! They tell me messy people, are more creative ! Beings I'm messy ! I'll go along with that ! Ha !
Jim
Not a thing. The Robertson still waits. we did get the hull clinched. but we are going to spend the rest of the winter taking canoe trips.
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wysedav, the CF hockey stick thwarts are straightforward-- just insert a "hardpoint" at each end of the shaft to take the bolt through the inwale (about 1" of a hardwood -- ash, mahogany, walnut, oak etc). Trim the shaft to fit its location under the inwale, rough up the inside of the ends of the shaft to take the inserts, seal the insert in epoxy and epoxy it in place. After it cures, drill it out and run an epoxy-dipped Q-Tip through the hole.
Here's a CF seat I made from hockey stick shafts.
Here's a CF seat I made from hockey stick shafts.
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Hmmmm...might have to take a trip to the rink. You think those hockey stick things would hold 230 pounds?
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As you know, CF hockey shafts vary in stiffness (which translates roughly to wall thickness), and in general, the stiffer shaft will withstand greater deflective loads. Therefore, for a canoe seat it's best to find sticks that are made for full-grown players, rather than sticks made for youth players. My seat is more than strong enough for me (180 LBS), yet it has some nice flex.
You could test the seat spars in advance: Example-- if your seat is 29" wide, suspend two CF shafts between supports-- each held at 29" and grasp their centres and hang from them. Or you could simply make some comparisons to a standard seat material like ash. The adult CF shafts are approximately .75 X 1.125", and as we know, the wall thickness varies.
There's a bit of eye-ball engineering using CF hockey shafts, but store-bought rectangular CF tubing is ridiculously expensive.
You could test the seat spars in advance: Example-- if your seat is 29" wide, suspend two CF shafts between supports-- each held at 29" and grasp their centres and hang from them. Or you could simply make some comparisons to a standard seat material like ash. The adult CF shafts are approximately .75 X 1.125", and as we know, the wall thickness varies.
There's a bit of eye-ball engineering using CF hockey shafts, but store-bought rectangular CF tubing is ridiculously expensive.
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Here's an interesting point on attaching nylon webbing to composite structures: See in the second photo above how the webbing is attached flat to the bottom of the seat rail? The rail surface is roughed up (60 grit sandpaper), the webbing is saturated with epoxy resin, and it is simply clamped to the rail to cure. The fact that epoxy won't stick to nylon is immaterial as the epoxy penetrates and encapsulates every fibre in the webbing.
Same for attaching 1" webbing to the inside of canoes for tie-downs.
Same for attaching 1" webbing to the inside of canoes for tie-downs.
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Are hockey sticks hollow or foam cored?
Sorry, us Iowans are ignorant of such things. I suppose I could ask some of my Minnesotan friends.
Alan
This MN boy can't help you much. Any one I have ever used and the 100 new ones my nephew is making in his paddle shop are solid 100% wood.
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The CF hockey stick are hollow as far as I can remember...
My nephew is currently playing hockey, we bought him a stick, think it was a couple of hundred bucks. He's going to practice tomorrow, I asked him to bring me home some broken sticks, so experimentation will begin.
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That will be fun. I cut the CF shafts by hand in a mitre box with a hack saw. It's tempting to use the chop saw, but carbon fibre is very hard and things can start to fly-- CAUTION.
The CF seat I made weighs 24 oz. An equivalent size ash seat weighs 32 oz. (the CF seat is 25% lighter). I didn't do destructive tests, so the numbers are subjective; while the CF seat is plenty strong and suitable to the minimalist, its ultimate strength compared to an ash seat was never explored.
While I like the feel of the carbon seat, I don't use it because I don't like the way it looks in a boat with wood gunwales-- perhaps if I'd infused some carbon fibre gunwales it would be more appropriate. Therefore I use ash-framed seats.
The CF seat I made weighs 24 oz. An equivalent size ash seat weighs 32 oz. (the CF seat is 25% lighter). I didn't do destructive tests, so the numbers are subjective; while the CF seat is plenty strong and suitable to the minimalist, its ultimate strength compared to an ash seat was never explored.
While I like the feel of the carbon seat, I don't use it because I don't like the way it looks in a boat with wood gunwales-- perhaps if I'd infused some carbon fibre gunwales it would be more appropriate. Therefore I use ash-framed seats.
For those of us in non-hockey land with no access to free broken sticks you could always wrap foam with carbon fiber sleeve. Then you can make them whatever dimension you'd like. Maybe $20 in material/seat?
Link to sleeves: http://www.sollercomposites.com/composites/carbon fiber sleeves.html
For starters I think I'd double layer the lightweight sleeves on the long cross pieces and single layer the short ones. If you want a really nice finish without worrying about fill coats use the heat shrink tube listed at the bottom of the page which, unfortunately, is even more expensive than the carbon sleeves.
Alan
Link to sleeves: http://www.sollercomposites.com/composites/carbon fiber sleeves.html
For starters I think I'd double layer the lightweight sleeves on the long cross pieces and single layer the short ones. If you want a really nice finish without worrying about fill coats use the heat shrink tube listed at the bottom of the page which, unfortunately, is even more expensive than the carbon sleeves.
Alan
Hey Peach, if you aren't going to use that seat, send it to Alan or Jim for their new builds, it would match perfectly.
Finished installing new inwales/gunnels today on the Mad River FG Malicite.
