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fiberglass a Wooden
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Dr. Joe
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The idea began with a book I never read called The Six Hour Canoe. The idea
of building a canoe in a short period of time seemed to open up the possibility
of building the boat in a foreign country with local materials and leaving the Tags: Canoe Stitch and Glue Chile
boat when the vacation was over. I needed advice and went online to find a
country, a boat to build and the skills and tools to create this project. I was
overwhelmed by the information and support.
Related
There were some skeptics, my friend Pete said, Obtaining materials in a
foreign land on a set time..I would suggest not bringing a watch but, instead, a canoe paddle clock
calendar. by asmrz
Matt from Jem Watercraft suggested I build a prototype and, beat the hell out
of it, to see if it would be up to my expectations. Then he offered to draft any
designs I wanted for this crazy idea. I accepted his offer and had the plans Simple canoe
by titchtheclown
drafted in both metric and inches. I thought since I might be building this
outside of the U.S.A. I might as well use metric. I loved it try dividing 14' 7
19/32" by 11 in your head. (Stubborn Americans is all I can say.)
Building A Cedar Strip
Canoe
by jimmar57
fiberglass a
Canoe paddle clock
Wooden Deck by bgeckman
fiberglasssite.com
How to fiberglass A plywood deck
Driftwood Canoe
Free link to a Step by Step Video ! Paddle Connect With
the Past.
New Handyman by Dr. Joe
Note the self stick drywall tape. When it would not stay put I used a strip of
plastic. The plastic would stick to the epoxy and usually had enough adhesion
to hold the errant tape down. Detail of capping the raw edges of the plywood.
This shows how the bow seat was latched. Note foam rubber and bolts that go
inside the holes to attach the rear of the seat. Wide shot of the bow seat
Step 9:
I used cable ties instead of wire. They were much easier to remove.
This `was a better way to use the duct tape, to prevent putty leaks when
turned over. I brought all the hand tools to build this boat in a small
briefcase. When talking to Billy from Chile I did not know what to expect
when he offered the use of his boat building shed. I was shocked at his
generosity in the use of his precious power tools. In the background look at
one of the boats he built.
The plan was day one to cut the plywood panels, coat them with epoxy then
build the seats. Day two the panels would be butt spliced with drywall tape and
then epoxy resin and wood flour was mixed to make putty. Scarf joints would
be made for the long boards on the gunwale and glued with putty. Day three
the fore bulkhead and seats would be used as construction frames as the
panels were attached with temporary screws and shaped with cable ties and
copper wires. The outside seams would be covered with duct tape epoxy putty
would be spread inside the hull between the cable ties. Day four ties and
screws would be removed and the uneven hull seams shaped on the outside.
Drywall tape would be applied to both the inside and outside of all seams and
a coat of epoxy would be brushed on the tape and very dry epoxy putty would
be squeegeed into the tape on both the inside and outside of the hull. Day five
touch up the holes and coat the hull with one more coat of epoxy. That was
the plan which went quite well except for a few problems.
One disaster occurred while using epoxy that was mixed by weight. I had read
you could spread a nice even bead of putty by putting it in a Ziplock bag then
cutting off the corner to squeeze out a bead like a pastry chef. The epoxy was
curing too fast so, I figured a little less hardener would give me a little more
time to get it spread into the proper place. I had built a scale to measure the 2
to 1 weight ratio. My crude scale was a board balanced on a sharpened piece
of wood with the resin twice as far as the hardener from the fulcrum. This was
working fine until I decided I needed more time and changed the ratio but
instead of putting the hardener closer to the fulcrum I adjusted the resin. The
putty looked good as I mixed the wood flour into peanut butter consistency then
filled my baggie with goop. As I began to squeeze the baggie the putty began
to get warm in my hand this quickly escalated to very warm then to hot. When I
could not stand the heat I threw the baggie away and smoke began to billow
out of the trash can while I worried about setting the rags sawdust and shop on
fire.
I tested the online advice about glues, tools fillers joints and fasteners on my
prototype. I tried 4 different brands of epoxy resin. I tested wood flour, fumed
silica, white all purpose flour and sawdust for fillers. I tried fiberglass, and
drywall tape for joint strength. I experimented with copper wires cable ties and
dry wall screws for positioning the panels. I tried various tools and ultimately
took a minimum of tools: my smallest surform two card scrapers (used instead
of sandpaper on green epoxy) my contour gage, a pull saw and metric tape
measure. I also packed a handful of screws and some ringed bronze boat
nails.
Thank you for the tips. I have learned the lesson from the
school of hard knocks. Wish I had talked to you first. I like the
idea of putting it in the freezer. How do you cover it to keep
from contaminating the food? How do you warm it up to use it?
wow!! bold and beautiful, well done, where are the plans?
I love the hand tools. You don't have to wear the protective
gear and it really does not take that much longer and some
projects.
Putting a transom would be super easy. Just chop off the pointy
end and put a board.
Thanks for posting this, enjoyed your project. I've built some simple
plywood boats. May I ask a few beginner questions?
When do you remove the cable ties?
Is the drywall mesh tape a substitute for fiberglass cloth, and do you
remove it at some point?
Epoxy putty, is this the thicker version of the fiberglass epoxy or is this
a certain brand-type of epoxy?
thanks for you time! eric.
Thank you for looking at my story. I remove the cable ties the
next day, The key is when the glue holds the panels together. If
you used 5 minute epoxy you could do it much sooner.
The drywall tape was a substitute for the fiberglass cloth. It is a
looser weave but you can always put more layers. It is not
removed. If you use duct tape clear packing tape or masking
tape to keep the putty from leaking you need to remove it much
sooner. Before the resin has bound too well to the tape and
does not drip. That can be as soon as 30 minutes.
Epoxy putty is home made by adding a filler. You can purchase
microballons or wood flower or you can use fine sawdust or
even baking flour. You mix this into the epoxy until it is the
consistency of peanut butter.
Build something awsome!
Regarding metric: Yeah - I'm still waiting for the US to join the 19th
century.
victorvector 4 hours ago Reply
This is Excellent!!
Very clever work with the duct tape, plastic ties, epoxy and all.
Altogether a very nice looking job as well. John Montague and Richard
Butz of BMC, Buffalo wrote "the book" and we have several of these
types of boats being built by after school programs. I have not met him
but someone at the center states there is a fellow who makes his own
plywood for these. Absolutely correct about ratio on epoxy and
temperature, turning up the heat in the center can cause bubbling.
Hi Dr Joe,
great story, only 4mm, ok, now i understand you are able to
bend it like that.
Love it! When you come to NC - you think you could be talked into
gilding me through the steps?
This is awesome. Using drywall tape was a very smart move, as well
as the move to wire ties. I just got back from Belize, and think this is so
inspiring, I wish I had read it before I left.
I also really like your hull form. I am a naval architect and love to build
things, someday, one of those things needs to be a watercraft.
I really like this. Particularly the testing different methods, and learning
from mistakes.
I also like your shift from imperial to metric, and your positive review of
it. Generally though metric uses mm as standard not cm (divide by 10).
I like your lessons learned, good engineering practice.
this is a fantastic ibble, like you just lived a diy adventure dream.
Great plans! Hoping to build a small rowboat that is kind of like this but
with a small hit n miss engine to power a propeller. One again, GREAT
work!
Very nice! I like how you improved the design over the process.
How much money does such a boat costs (rough estimate is enough)
Thank you for looking at my post. This cost about $200. The
most expensive component is the epoxy resin. It takes about a
gallon. You could reduce the cost using polyester resin but it
would not be as strong.