Building first pirogue - spud poles?

[teknickcull]

Hey everybody - I've been lurking around this forum ever since I ordered my UJ's kit a month or so ago. Well I've started building and I'm pretty pleased so far. This is my first boat build & it has been a lot of fun.

so here is my question: this pirogue will be mostly for duck hunting & I would really like to add spud poles. I figure I will have a little deck on the bow and stern and glass a piece of PVC straight through - deck to bottom. The pole will slide through there. Does this sound right?

what would I use as the poles? I really can't find any for sale commercially. My dad suggested rebar, but i feel like that might be overkill/unwieldy. i thought about metal conduit, but it may be too flexible or rust-prone (i duck hunt in saltwater). any ideas? I really need to decide on the poles so I can choose the correct size PVC for the channel and start working on that. Teal season is closing in fast!

here are some pics of the project so far: http://techlauve.com/pirogue

Thanks in advance for any help. This is a great resource

 

[a Bald Cypress]

The boat's looking good.

BUT, why did you have to shoot the dog ?. And you could at least remove the body . Shhheeeeseee.

 

[teknickcull]

Thanks for the kind words.

haha - that is the laziest dog i've ever seen. I've had her since she was about 6mos old and all she ever wants to do is lay down. i'm surprised she was standing upright in that other picture.

 

[Bellybuster]

I personally would consider making your tubes out of fibreglass instead of PVC. FG tubes can be easily made by wrapping around saran covered PVC.
I would just think you'd have a hard time getting anything to give you a good waterproof seal against the PVC pipe.
As far as the spud pole itself you can use closet rod dowel or even pvc with a dowel inside for strength. Google "home made stakeout pole"
Boat looks good BTW

 

[teknickcull]

awesome. thanks for the response - that is precisely the kind of thing i hadn't thought of. i just assumed that epoxy resin would stick to the pvc.

good ideas for the poles.

thanks!

btw: i've got the bottom on now, but haven't taken any pics. I'll post more this weekend.

 

[seedtick]

PVC pipe glued into the deck and bottom is what we do - i think it's 1 1/2" PVC

for spud poles we just make a paddle without a blade - just a handle and shaft to whatever length you want

make a pole out of anything you think will work, just so it's not too flexible and not hollow or it will fill up with mud and get heavier and harder to pull up

 

[WDfrmTN]

BUT, why did you have to shoot the dog ?

Tha' dog ain't dead...he's TARRED! Piro' buildin' is mighty big work for that li'l' feller!

 

[Kayak Jack]

I'm in training to take over the dog's job. Being exhausted is tiring work.

 

[oldsparkey]

The wood closet rods are some handy critters.... They can be made into a push pole , a spud pole , a mast and boom as a sailing rig for the boat , walking staffs or just about anything handy.
Give them a couple saturation coats of epoxy and forget about them as you use them.

Chuck.........

 

[a Bald Cypress]

BUT, why did you have to shoot the dog ?

Tha' dog ain't dead...he's TARRED! Piro' buildin' is mighty big work for that li'l' feller!

WHY BE YA LIEING ta me. Case you didn't know it, I gots me a ittybitty arrow thing on this computer. I pulled up that pic of the dead dog and poked it with that arrow and there was no movement at all.

The dog has passed beyond this life. EE"S dead


Now, get ta work and post more pics of the boat.

 

[teknickcull]

well thanks y'all - wooden closet rods it is.

seedtick: that is an awesome boat! just to be clear when you say you glue the pvc in do you use epoxy or some other type of glue? forgive me this is my first build. so far all I've used is waterproof wood glue, but i plan on glassing the entire boat.

 

[oldsparkey]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Yep , Ya be new on here and it is our fault for not being specific about what we call glue...... Glue is ...EPOXY. The other stuff folks call glue is just a temporary item till the epoxy gets on there.

I may be speaking out of turn but that is my feelings about the glue situation...... I have used the so called waterproof glue in some builds as a temp fix to hold strips together but have followed it up with epoxy to make sure it holds together. Then when the panels are together some more epoxy followed with fiberglass and epoxy.

The glue ( waterproof stuff ) could be called an pore mans "C" clamp when building the boat and attaching things like strips or small panels before the serious stuff ... Epoxy... is needed to finalize and secure it.

Chuck.....

 

[seedtick]

i think we used 3M 5200

some epoxies won't stick very well to slick PVC so be sure to rough up the PVC no matter what glue you use

 

[keith]

we also put a small nail in the breasthook to prevent you from turning the pipe after its in. later keith

 

[teknickcull]

great advice. thanks!

 

[gbinga]

An alternative to closet poles might be a tool handle or a broom handle - the long skinny handle that would fit a yard rake or a commercial grade push broom. Home Depot, Lowes. Look both in the garden tool section, and in the cleaning aisle where they have the brooms. Better wood than the closet pole. Ash or hickory on the tool handles, some sort of fine grain hardwood seems typical on the brooms.

George

 

[teknickcull]

Sorry it has been so long since I first posted, but work on the pirogue has been slow (but steady) since i'm getting ready to buy a house and move. i've only had a free night here and there to put in some pirogue time.

I already missed teal season so the new goal is big duck season in november. with the move + related house projects, its gonna be close

At this point it is almost completely glassed and is looking pretty darn good for my first boat & first experience with epoxy/glass. All I have left is to re-glass some bad spots and glass in the decks/pvc for the spud poles.

I am thinking about doing the graphite mix on the bottom like a lot of you guys seem to recommend. How much graphite powder do I need to order from raka to do a couple of coats on the bottom? the pirogue is just short of 16'.

Thanks for all the help! I'll have some updated pics soon.

 

[mosportsmen]

I have built spud holes with grey plastic? pipe. They have been solid for four or five years now. I just epoxied them in. I did rough them up a bit and gave them a little torch treatment that I found a recommendation for somewhere on the web. I used glass cloth over the union between plastic and wood also.

For poles I think there is nothing like nature. I went out in the woods and cut down a couple small hickory trees (maybe in your neck of the country you could find cyprus) It did not take me too long to find a couple that were the right size. Mine are about 6 ft long.

 

[teknickcull]

thanks. i found some nice wooden tool handles for the poles that are solid wood & hard as a rock. i plan on coating them with epoxy.

the plan for the spud pole holes is to epoxy them in and fillet around the seams.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Raka recommended to me 20% of graphite by volume to epoxy mix. That seems to work well on my boats. Others may have used different ratios.