White Water Canoe Plans

[Muskrat]

I think that should do the trick Mike. Especially if it's clad with something. Where did you get yours at? Do they sell it at the hardware store? If not I'll start calling the plumbing supply places.

 

[wgiles]

Armaflex should be very similar to K-flex and does hold up well to age and UV in the black. With most foams, it's a good idea to use a coat of cheap white latex paint as a UV barrier. Armaflex has one possible flaw, as it seems to have a memory when it is compressed and doesn't always return to its previous shape. Whether or not that would be a problem is difficult to say. A good source for foam rubber pipe insulation, but not necessarily the least cost source is:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-foam-rubber-insulation/=yq6qeb

 

[Guest]

I think that should do the trick Mike. Especially if it's clad with something. Where did you get yours at? Do they sell it at the hardware store? If not I'll start calling the plumbing supply places.

I think I get it as a leftover from a construction job I was working on. I have never seen it at a Home Depot, Lowes,Tru-Value, etc, so it is probably a plumbing supply specialty.

Armaflex should be very similar to K-flex and does hold up well to age and UV in the black. Armaflex has one possible flaw, as it seems to have a memory when it is compressed and doesn't always return to its previous shape.

K-flex likewise ages well (the piece I have is near 20 years old) and has that same memory. I have and continue to use it for a variety of temporary cushioning, and it has held up remarkably well.

If is more compressible than the standard gray split foam pipe insulation, and pushing your thumb into it will leave a dimple that only slowly springs back.

That might actually be an advantage if using pipe insulation around the frame pieces. The gray stuff is far less compressible under pressure and might tend to stretch a tubular --U-- outline protruding on the skin, while the K-flex or Armaflex would compress more fully to skin shape or chines.

The other possible advantage to using K-flex is that it is more flexible and wraps around ) curves much better than the gray stuff, which tends to open on the backside of any serious curvature. The gray stuff absolutely would not bend to accommodate a hard chine.

On a hard chined hull the sharp angles might be best be accomplished with something like the K-flex 90 or 45 degree bends, with two or three pieces angle cut and glued back together to form the desired angle. That cut and glue angle design would advantageous to use, especially if using the stiffer gray insulation, and with a bit of math and engineering (or a sheet of graph paper) you could DIY the exact chine angle needed. Probably not a lot of 90 degree bends in your hull design.

That angle cut design to use on sharp bends would not have occurred to me, at least not before I had made a half dozen failed attempts and glued my fingers together. If those little angle pieces where stupidly pricey they wouldn’t be hard to DIY.

More kudos to the DIY board. I have never needed to make 90 or 45 degree bends with split foam insulation, but if I ever do I’ll know where to look for the cut and glue design.

Muskrat, a plumbing supply store with a customer friendly counter staff might be a wealth of pro-tip information on foam type, sheathing options and etc possibilities.

I have a couple of construction-trade specialty supply stores that I visit for odd materials to repurpose in repairs and outfitting. On first approach some of them blew me off, my wee purchase of something I that wasn’t an electrical/plumbing/whatever part was not worth their time and attention.

But the good ones rose to the challenge and got into it. I get the feeling that they know me as an oddity customer, “The canoe guy, who doesn’t know exactly what he needs, and can only kinda describe how he wants to use it”

 

[Muskrat]

I used to live in the part of Kansas City that was the contractor capitol of the area and I work in the greenhouse biz so they are used to my strange requests. If they don't have it they should know where to get it.

The foam will only cover the long stingers, running the length of the canoe, like a normal skin on frame, so it shouldn't require extreme bends. Luckily, more resousces, my best friend is an electrician so he should be able to help me with all the complicated tube bending I require.

This talk of foam got me worried that it wouldn't hold up as long as the skin, so I've been thinking on how to make an easily removable skin in case I need to replace foam or a cracked frame. Hard to describe without a picture, and I don't have my computer right now, but I was thinking, run the skin over the tube gunwale, sew a long pocket in it that I can slip a fiberglass rod down, like a tent pole or one of those poles used to fish wiring with, to even out the pressure. Then, use nylon webbing and buckles for lack of a better word to cinch down the skin to another frame. If I have time I'll post a picture tomorrow when I'm at my computer. I do most of my CAD work at the office when the boss is gone. Haha.

Edit: I was able to throw together an illustration of what I was talking about in MS Paint of the midsection of the canoe. Hopefully it gets the point across. There would be a series of nylon straps the length of the canoe.