New Pirouge Build

[beekeeper]

I would not worry about the strips not being long enough. When I built my strip pirogue I used butt joints to connect the short pieces. The strips were coved and beaded, and I built on a strong back with stations. I belive other builders have used butt joints when making panels for S@G construction and have had no problems. The fiberglass on both sides of the panels will make the splices strong enough.
The only issue I had was cosmetic (a dark glue line at the joint), because I used Titebond III glue. It drys dark. Next time I will use a regular wood glue, and cut the ends square, but with the blade set on 45 deg., sort of a scarf/butt joint.

beekeeper

 

[tx river rat]

I use a 45% cut on my strips with no problem, but I dont use the cove and bead.
I have seen boats built both ways and they both work.
Ron

 

[mike]

Very nice! Look how much money you've saved. That can go toward accessories, like beer. :wink:

Mike

 

[Kayak Jack]

Look how much money you've saved. That can go toward accessories, like beer. :wink:

Mikey's got his priorities straight

 

[Nac]

When attaching (glueing) strips together end to end, what angle do you cut the ends to? I have cut mine to 45 deg on the miter saw, but that doesn't seem enough of an angle...

 

[johnp]

nac, find someone in ur town that has a table saw and i'll bet they will cut ur lumber at a reasonable rate mabey even free..johnp

 

[bcwetcoast]

Bought some cypress lumber this morning. Sanded it down and ripped 2 1/4 inch strips. They did not turn out very well. They were wavy and are differnet thicknesses throughout. My blade is almost new, a finishing blade on my table saw. Any tips?

You can introduce wave into the cut if you force the feed too fast and cause the blade to slow down. It then tends to vibrate and give a wavy cut. Also if the blade is significantly higher than the wood is thick, you will get some wave.

So, I would recommend, use a featherboard, slow the feed down to keep rpms up, and lower the saw so it just comes through the surface of the board by 1/4" or so.

 

[Kayak Jack]

You can introduce wave into the cut if <SNIP> the blade is significantly higher than the wood is thick, you will get some wave. So, I would recommend <SNIP> lower the saw so it just comes through the surface of the board by 1/4" or so.

Now THERE'S a new on for me. Didn't realize that part. Thanks.

 

[Nac]

Failure:

Ok, so when I bought my lumber, I had no idea about it needing to be planed before I ripped the strips. I ripped the strips and thought all was ok. However, when I tried to start glueing the strips together to form the panels, I quickly learned that the boards needed to be planed first. My solution to this was to take them to a mill this morning to have the strips planed. However, the strips are too tall and narrow to be sucessfully planed, even with several feeding jigs that we tried. They kept falling over and the feeding rollers mangled the soft, narrow wood. I have one last attempt left...ie to take 2 boards already planed and sandwich my strips in between them, then sanding down to uniform height. If this does not work next weekend, I have to trash $70 in lumber. Any more suggestions?

 

[mike]

I assume this is rough cut lumber and the edges of the strips are too rough to get a good joint. If this is the case, perhaps you could stack the strips on edge, clamp them and use a belt sander to smooth the edges.

Another thought would be to build a jig to hold them upright when you run the single strips through a planer. That should be fairly simple to do, probably easier than my first thought.

Mike

 

[Kayak Jack]

<SNIP>Any more suggestions?

May be a word you don't want to hear, but "plywood". Let the other guy do the work, and you have a stronger wood hull.

 

[beekeeper]

Failure:

... have one last attempt left...ie to take 2 boards already planed and sandwich my strips in between them, then sanding down to uniform height. If this does not work next weekend, I have to trash $70 in lumber. Any more suggestions?

A sharp trim hand plane passed over each strip's edges, will work, or sandwich 3 or 4 together and use a block plane.

beekeeper

 

[bcwetcoast]

Use a jointer to straighten one edge, then stack them so the jointed edge is flush on the stack, nail the stack together with brads and then plane them as a group.

Or you could joint one edge, run them through the table saw with a fine tooth blade to get them parallel and then a very thin pass though the jointer to clean up the edge.