Monday, December 5, 2011

The six hour canoe

So the pics in the last post about this canoe looked like it was about finished eh?...

That’s what I thought too.

But then I still had the front and rear bulkheads to make, fit a deck front and rear to keep the water out and make room for storage and floatation, then add strengthening strips to keep me on the inside and the water on the outside when I stood up or hit a rock. (Remember this entire boat is made just 6mm or ¼ inch thick)

Again this called for lots of wood glue, screws and a liberal sprinkling of Silicon bronze ring nails. (don’t ask)


*With the bulkheads in, the reinforcing done and the joins all epoxy resin coated and rubbed back.

By the way, the glue dried on my hands in minutes and felt like a second skin which had to be picked off bit by bit for days each time I got even a speck on me, bad enough? Not a bit of it, it also had the strange effect of staining my skin black, this black hands thing lasted pretty much the entire time I was making the canoe. (a harmless enzyme reaction to moist skin) I know what you're thinking…gloves? The glue is so tacky that the gloves fingers stick together within seconds of touching the glue and tear rather than separate…I was like a seal spreading the glue with flippers..


*The first coat of resin inside the boat all done, now to let it dry, rub it back and do it again!

I had something of a crisis of doubts here as it dawned on me that I had to coat the entire boat with the same resin and sand it back three times to encapsulate it.

I stopped work and went back to the web for information, on a forum I found an American who specializes in making these boats, he gave me the information I needed BEFORE I started.

He starts by coating the original plywood sheets with the resin before cutting them up thereby saving himself the huge job of coating and rubbing the boat. It’s much easier to paint and rub a flat sheet and you can use power sanders if you do it on the flat.





*Second coat done...now just one more coat (after rubbing it back)

Three coats of Epoxy Resin were required with a complete overall sanding of every millimeter between every coat because the epoxy dries glossy and the next coat wont stick unless the previous one is sanded… all while wearing a chemical respirator to avoid the poisonous fumes and dust. In fact nearly everything required a respirator, the wood dust while cutting or sanding is dangerous, the Epoxy and the paints are dangerous and anything to do with Fiberglass is dangerous… it was like ‘Darth Vader builds a boat!’



*Three coats of epoxy, holes filled and sanded, hollows filled and sanded and three coats of white 2pack marine primer. Now all I have to do is put the decks on and prime them before the actual painting starts. (enter huge list of doubts here)

Note: I haven't even started the outside of the canoe yet...still raw wood!




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16 comments:

KaLynn ("MiMi") said...

Looks purty good from here!

Magsx2 said...

Hi Tempo,
Wow, it really is looking great, may be a lot of work, but the satisfaction when it is all finished will be well and truly worth it, Great Job.

Belle said...

Amazing amount of work, but it sure looks great. I hope you get years of enjoyment out of it.

Windsmoke. said...

Its coming along nicely, but i have my doubts about coating the plywood with resin first then gluing the whole lot together as it goes against what i learnt at high school :-).

Tempo said...

Hi KaLynn, It sure does, thanks for the vote of confidence.
Hi Mags, Theres a sting in the tail..but I'm getting ahead of myself already..
Hi Belle, It was an unbelievable amount of work...if I ever lose my head and do another one I'd leave it wood grain and make it shiny and glossy finished.. a bit more work but they look fantastic like that.
Hi Windsmoke, Ah.. like me you're old school... these days the resins are much improved. I added a special retarder to the first coats and they soaked right into the wood leaving hardly any resin on the outside. This way the next coats are bonding to the resin/wood composite rather than just sitting on the outside of the wood like paint. I coated some scrap bits of wood and cut it up after drying and found the resin soaked about 1/3 way through the wood, since it was coated both sides the resin will be about 2/3 through the wood making it a composite material like Fiberglass. After the resin coating the edges and joins were Fiber-glassed and re-resined. This doesn't show in the pics because I sanded the edges smooth and filled the marks for a smooth finish.

Joe Pereira said...

looking really good Tempo. I want to build a canoe also and will ask your advice nearer the time.

Sarah said...

I think I'm getting almost as excited as you are to see the thing done!

Tempo said...

Hi Joe, It's really not that hard, I think almost anyone could make a basic canoe. I'm terrible with wood and I managed it...
Hi Sarah, Thanks for the vote of confidence, still a ways to go though! At this stage I was tempted to slip it into the water just to see it floating...

River said...

It's looking good, are you going fishing when it's done?

Tempo said...

Hi River, Yep, I built it to fish from it...never mind that at 4.8 meters its smaller than some sharks around here...

Pearl said...

I so admire this sort of thing, and having done a few projects, isn't it amazing how quickly you think you're almost done and just how very wrong that thought is?!

Pearl

Tempo said...

Yes Pearl, Yes, yes, yes! It looked nearly done at the first pics but went on for months after that.

Sandra said...

I think you're my husband's soul sister...brother..whatever. Everytime I read you, I see and read something that I know my husband would do or want to do. He's looking for someone to help him renovate the bathroom, in case you're free this weekend.

Tempo said...

Hey Sandra, A bloke can always use a good mate and if you say he's my kind of people I'll take your word for it...sadly you live almost half a world away from southern South Australia

Spiral said...

Can't wait to hear more - better than television!

Tempo said...

...and just like TV it gets sad at the end Spiral