Sunday, February 17, 2008

A quick lesson in how to get rid of gaps in your canoe

This is really just helpful if the gap is near one of the ends of the boat.
So if you find a big gap which was not too hard on my canoe. You can get rid of it
 
Step 1 Find a big gap between your plywood strips.  This may be a chine. I have no idea what a chine is but I should probably learn what all of the boating terms mean and what they are. 
 
Step 2.  Take a picture of it.  Just kidding
 
Step 3. Cut the zipties from the gap to the end of the boat.  You will have to do this on both sides but if there is a gap it should be on both sides.
 
Step 4. Pull the plywood strip to the outside and let it hang free from the lower strip.  At this poin the gap should go away and there will be overlap at the end of the boat.
 
Step 5. Trace a line down the edge of the overlapping plywood.  Do this on both sides
 
Step 6.  Push the overlapping plywood to the inside of the boat and plane the strip down to the line. Do both sides
 
Step 7. Put the thing back together
 
Yeah you can tell I am amateur I did not take an after shot.  Just imagine it looks perfect.
 
One thing I did today was modify my saw horses so the boat could hang in a sling of rope and then I move the boat to the saw horses. It seems to help the boat stay in the proper shape better
 
This was the last gap I fixed and I started to spot epoxy the inside of the boat this afternoon.  Of course the second you start epoxying you see gaps everywhere that you missed.  Too bad they will get filled with thickened epoxy at this point. At least on my boat.  I eventually got plenty of spots tacked together so I can hopefully cut out the zip ties tomorrow.
 
I have no idea what I am supposed to do with the forms after I cut out the zip ties.  You can possibly fiberglass with them in place but If I remove them I am sure the boat will loose shape. I really don't know if this boat will end up the shape the forms hold it in when it is all said and done but as long as it does not leak I dont know if I really care.  All I really need is a point bucket that floats.

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