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Planking

03.04.01

Turnover!!

Finally the right way up!! It was a pleasuring sight to see the canoe the way it is supposed to be. Odd Harry and Erik got up early, lifted the canoe and turned it over and made a new support for her. (We should call the project for "her" from now on) During their lunch the filled the last gaps with thickened epoxy, and when th evening arrived we were ready to sheet the inside.

 

We had to sand over the hull on the inside too, and that was not very fun. Not at all fun. The dust in the mouth and everywere else bothered us a bit. We had to put on a softpad on the random orbiter to get into the concave hull. And that lead to problems with the dustcollector. And the it was time to lay the cloth on the inside. We knew that would be a bit of a problem, and we were right. It was particularly hard at the stems, but we made it in a way. The result could have been better looking, but it was ok. And it will surely be waterthight. We didn't make a second coat this evening, so the epoxy will have to cure now before we can apply another coat. The easter is just around the corner now, and our families require some time also so we will have to let the project rest for a week or so. And then it is time to mount the rest of the gear on the canoe. Maybe we will have it ready before the ice breaks on the lakes in the area. We hope so.

09.05.01

Out in open air!

Out in open air for the first time. 20 degrees C. outside made it impossible to work inside, so we carried the ship outside in the shadow. We cut down approximately the rail, which will be adjusted when the gunwhales are mounted. The curve of the canoe looked pleasing againts the stems. We cut one side first, and then transferred the measurements to the other side for cutting. It is somewhat terrifying to cut into the boat like this, but it must be doen at some level, so off we went. The canoe looked a lot more like a canoe afterwards. After we applied epoxy on the inside, a lot of air was trapped underneath the fibrecloth. We had to cut these bubbles out and fill them with epoxy again. A lot of extra work, so be aware of the problem. Outside it is not a problem since the air can go through the hull and escape tehre. When sheating the inside, the air is trapped and will show under the soaked cloth. You must stand there and remove these bubbles as they appear. WERY IMPORTANT!! A needle would be the right tool for this job. Now all we have to do is to snad the hull and mount the details, but the summer is catching up on us. By experience we know that the summer is not very efficient so be patient we will be back.

21.09.01

Restart!

OK, the summer has been longer than expected, but now it is time to go on. We are looking for oak for the gunwhales, and have found suitable timber in the heart of Oslo. Not easy to locate such timber at the local mill. We will cut the gunwhales out of solid wood in the dimesions of 3/4" x 1" 5 meters long.

26.09.01

Oak gunwhales!

At last we are back on the track. We cut the guwhales last night, but they were not long enough so we had to extend them a bit. We cut the gunwhales at an angle of 75 degrees, og and glued them together with epoxy. We also tried to put together the seats yestarday, but got some trouble. The screws we had bought was of poor quality, so it didn't work. Always buy 1. grade equipment, and screws must be stainless steel (A4) or sicilcone bronze. The decks were glued though, and we believe that they will look nice when mounted. The cherry wood between the light birch looks great.

02.10.01

More oak!

Now it was time to make a yacht out of the boat. We would try to make small spaces in the inner gunwhale by drilling and cutting out some of the gunwhale at regular spaces. We first clamped the two inner gunwhales and drilled 13 mm holes. Then we used the router to remove the wood between the holes. And again the router to round the edges of the gunwhales. The work went on smoothely, but suddenly the wood split and made a large error. What happened was that we didn't give enough attention to the way of the grain of the wood. When the grain goes out of the wood, there is no problem with the router. But when the grain goes into the wood, and extend across the gunwhale, the router will break up the wood, and crash it. If you do not see what I mean, try a lot of tests on scrap wood to see what happens, or use a bandsaw or chisel to remove the wood. We must use some more glue to get the problem straight. Will come back to that.

We also managed to assemble one of the seats. We tried the strength of it by hanging Odd Harry underneath it, while Erik and Per-Ola lifted him up. It seems strong enough. We will use seatbelts from a car as covering of the seats. Cheap and strong, but maybe not very yachtlike.The decks are glued too, and they are ready to be mounted. The last thing we should do was to adjust the outer gunwhales, and that was when the Gremlins got to us. We pushed the gunwhales through the machine for the last bit of adjustment. Odd harry were inspecting the work as the feeding went on and in the split of a second the gunwhale touched a plate that was standing in the back of the workshop. It snapped off like a toohtstick and we were all depressed. Now we must glue in a new pice of wood, and that will slow us down a bit. Shit happens!

30.10.01

Mounting!

At last we have started to mount the pieces that shal finally become a canoe. We tested if the gunwhales would fit, and we found that this could be done. (luckily) We went to work with both the inner gunwhale and the decks, which we would mount in one operation. We thought that a tiny curve in the back of the decks would give a plasing effect, but what should we use to make that curve? We tried several things, a tire, a bucket but it didn't quite fit. Didn't look right. The we saw a shadow on the floor. It was made by a lawn mower. That Briggs and Stratton engine gave just the perfect shadow for our use, so we traced the shadow down to the decks and there it was. We took the jigsaw and cut the curve. Nice!

One little word about that cutting. There ar jigsaws and then there are jigsaws. Please do not buy a cheap model to save money, it will only tear up your work. Buy quality, but not nessesarily the top model. We used a jigsaw made by "Best Tools". It was not meant to cut anything other than paper! While Odd Harry and Erik tried to make the reult better, Per-Ola mixed a batch of epoxy which put a lot of pressure to the guys to finish in short time. We all hurried as fast as we could, and soon we were ready to mount it all. We clamped the inwhale, and fastened temporarily with screws from the outside. We found it important to measure the middle of the inwhale before we mounted it. Then we alligned the senter with the center of the canoe, and clamped it. Then we had to cut the inwhale in order to mount the decks. We premounted them and marked the gunwhale and cut it just a little longer than the marks. With a little preassure and fitting it went into place. this also put a little preassure on the inwhale, and will help to keep that in place. next will be mounting of the outer gunwhale, twart and seats, and thea sanding and varnish. Will we make it before the ice covers the lakes in our area?

21.11.01

Inwhale and outwhale done!

Finally. Now, that most of the mounting is done it is time to look at the result. The canoe is just like it is supposed to. Everything but the seats and the twart is in place, and now it is time to start finishing. Sanding and varnish is the next step. It was easier to mount the outer gunwhale than we feared. The oak went on smoothly and we clamped it into place. Then we predrilled and countersunk holes through both the outer and the inner gunwhale. Then we applied epoxy on the whale and finally screwed it all into place. Didn't get the time to take any pictures this time, but we will come back to that. The last thing we did was to move the canoe into Erik`s livingroom(!) The temperature in there was far better to cure the epoxy. What his wife said? Please don't ask. Ok, the rest of the story is that Erik and his wife has moved to another house, and this one is for sale, so we thought that it wouldn't harm to keep this furniture (the canoe) inside a livingroom.

27.11.01

Planing and sanding

With an orbital sander, the hull will be shaped... a famous writer once said. Hwo he was? Haven't got a clue! Just made it up, but it sounded nice.. Even so, we are now approaching the final stages in the building. We now believe that this project will be successful. It is still some way to go before we kan launch the canoe, but a night or two now and the hull will be ready for varnish. But then again, we have several times believed that we were almost done with one session but..... Things seem to take forever"

07.01.02

Adaption and mounting

It's been a while since the last update, we're sorry. We have now moved the canoe to my father's workshop. (where we cut and routed the planks) The location is not ideal, since the worshop is used by several others. On the other hand, the worshop is full of equipment just perfect for boatbuilding! The possibilities are unlimited here! The seats and twart is cut to shape. Made of American red oak, they are strong, but maybe a bit heavy. We have gone a bit down on the thickness to save weight, and we still believe they will be strong enough. Next step will be mounting and sanding of the parts.

14.01.02

More adaption

Here we go again! for the first time in long, all the builders were gathered at the same time. We rounded the edges on the seats with a router and sanded them. We also made spacers for the mounting of the seats. Finally we tapered the outwhales against the stem and stern to make it look right. Then we started to make a plate to cover the endwood on the small decks we made at the stem end stern. We made them so that they will lead any water from the decks and out of the canoe. It is made of birck. We now need bolts for mounting of the seats and twart. We have also started a discussion on who sahll have this first canoe. Both Erik and Odd Harry has said that they want it. Per-Ola however thinks it is better to build them that to use them!

06.02.02

Everything in place!

Two more evenings with mounting has passed without update in here. But we are still around! The canoe is now practically done, except sanding and varnish. (Ok, we know that sanding and varnish is a timeconsuming operation, but optimistic as always we neglect that little fact!) This was one of the most successful sessions we have done so far. Hardly any catastrophic errors or blunders was made. The bolts we used to fasten the twart was with rounded, rather large heads. That caused a small problem, since the inwhale isn't level. One side of the bolthead had to be countersunk to make it look right. With a chisel and some time, it now looks good.

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