JEM Watercraft

This should be a pretty long thread. I plan on posting all aspects of this build, all the way from station construction to varnishing and also the running cost of the build. So far I have ordered the cove and bead router bits which were $30.00. I called and got the price for 1x6x16 western red cedar which is $87.00 for seven boards which should provide enough strips for the build. I plan on cutting the stations hopefully today and will start posting pics as soon as something actually happens.

Just curious.....With the cove and bead bits, will the strips be interlocking? And, is 1" thickness what is needed? I don't know too much about stripping and this may be the opportunity to learn. thanks

They do interlock like this:



That's just an example. Actual strips will look different.

Strips are usually 3/4" - 1" wide. 3/16"-1/4" thick.

Here is a photo of a cross section of the strips glued and fiberglassed. It is kayak hatch cut out from the deck after fiberglassing the boat inside ands out. These strips were cut from pine 1x6s and cedar 1x6s. Usually 3/4 inch strips are used, but on a tight curve, I have used narrower 1/2 inch strips to better conform to the curve of the station forms. Then, switched back to the 3/4 inch strips to speed the process up (speed is very relative when building a strip built boat).

G'day Darrells,

Looking forward to this one very much!

Please post as much information as you think appropriate. I , for one, will be asking lots of questions.

hairymick said "I , for one, will be asking lots of questions"

Me Too

Darrels,
When my buddys health gts back on trackwe are going to build a strip canoe just to be doing it. We have two cedar logs cut up into three inch boards. We will put these on the tablesaw and cut them down into a tad over 1/4 inch by 3/4 inch strips. You want your strips a little over 1/4 inch so that when you cut the cove into the strips the edge will not be so fragile. The little extra thickness will be taken care of when sanding. Sure hope you like to sand.
Bob

Wear a mask when sanding cedar or red wood , the oil in them can be toxic at the worse , at the best you would end up with a SPLITTING HEADACHE. Either way , neither is a lot of fun.

Chuck.
PS. Been there .... did it and did not get the "T" Shirt.

I got started today by buying a sheet of 3/4 MDF to build the stations out of. Before I started this Matt recommended some books to read. One of them is a book by vaclav Stejskal who owns One Ocean Kayak. In it he recommends to build your stations from MDF rather than plywood because MDF is less prone to warpping. Instead of cutting the idividual pattern from the plan I spray glued the entire sheet to the MDF.


Once the glue dried I took the jigsaw to it and cut in patterns out, leaving plenty around the lines to be brought into shape on the disk sander.





After a little careful sanding I have most of the patterns ready. I will cut the remaining tomorrow.



This is what your work bench looks like after sanding with no vacuum system.

Another way to cut the cove into the edges of the strips is to adjust the cutting depth so that the blade doesn't cut as deep into the edge as it was designed. This will leave the edges of the cove a little thicker as well. Then you can cut your strips to exactly a 1/4 inch or as thin as 3/16. I wouldn't go thinner than that (3/16) because you will remove a lot of wood when fairing the hull. However, there will be less sanding and using the spokeshave if you keep the strips no thicker than 1/4 of an inch. I am currently building an 18 1/2 foot canoe that I cut forms for about 6 years ago. I figured its winter so I can take my time and have it ready for fiberglass by April. All my strips are slightly less than 1/4 of an inch.