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Sure you don't want to rethink this whole thing?
By:Paul G. Jacobson
Date: 4/12/2001, 10:44 pm
In Response To: 3/8 radius router bits (Pete)

Rather than shop for a different radius on the bead and cove, why not rethink the whole process for a second.

First, you are making shelves and canoes. Since the shelves are only going to be half a canoe, I'll assume: 1) you don't expect them to float, and 2) that you will just finish them with varnish or urethane, and not the expensive fiberglass and epoxy resin. I'll also assume you will keep things simple and work from the same set of plans for all of htese things, keeping all the forms the same and the dimensions the same.

If these assumptions are close to the mark then you may be better off with square edged strips which are beveled, rather than cove and bead. Or, you might go for half-lap joints, which would have more surface area for the glue bond than plain butted-edge joints, and thus be stronger.

Also, since you are building several similar "craft" and probably want to do them in a reasonably short period of time, you can take advantage of some "mass production" ideas, like cutting several identical copies of each part.

First, for the shelves in your cases. Assume they are at the same spacing as your building forms, and cut them ahead of time by tracing the curves of the building forms onto the wood you plan to use for the shelves. It is a lot faster to do this in the beginning than to later try and copy the interior of the hull for each shelf. (If you hold these shelves to your building frames for a short while, you can screw every third or fourth strip to them, and your shelves will be in place when the stripping is done! After two screws are in they'll stay in place by the forms, and you can continue stripping around them.)

David Hazen's book shows stripping the bottom of the boat first with a bunch of full width strips running parallel to the keel. There is no slow, individual fittig of strips here. he starts with long strips in the center, along the keel, and works to shorter ones amidships. this areas is relatively flat, so square edged strips work well. Or, if you wanted you might bevel all of them an even degree or two along their full length. You can do this on a saw or a jointer.

After the glue on these dries he uses a curved strip around the perimeter of this area to trace 2 lines from bow to stern. One on the left side and one on the right side. The shape these lines make looks like a football. He then trims the bottom along those lines, giving him a single piece, football shaped, bottom. Then, starting at the gunwales the strips are applied parallel to the water line until they come to the "football". A few "cheater strips" fill in the ends.

Stripping in this manner you can make the full bottom for a canoe, remove it from the forms and make two, three, or more, half-length bottoms for your book cases. It is simple enough to make one, then use it as a template to trace the lines for trimming the second and third bottom.

Now for a typical canoe you have a beam of about 36 inches, and to get around that you use about 45 to 50 strips in the middle of the boat. The "football" construction for the bottom takes up a lot of those strips -- which really don't need beveling. That leaves only the strips on the sides, from gunwale to bilge, which would need beveling.

With a typical side height of 12 inches you would have about 16 to 20 strips on each side. Not all of them would need to be beveled. Start on one side, attaching the sheer strip (at the gunwale) and then measure and cut a strip to match it.

Before gluing that strip in place, use it as a template to make three additional pieces, which you can test fit against your sheer strip. Number these strips and set them aside.

Do the same for each addtional strip. When you get the last side strip in place, you'll have a stack of numbered strips. Like interchangeable parts, you'll have strips that should all go together and fit perfectly for the next two boats (or book cases). If you measure the bevels you cut when you make the pieces for the left side of the boat, you can use the mirror image of those specs to work on the right side of the boat.

Not all the strips wil need to be beveled. This is something like making the parts for a multichined stitch and glue kayak, but you'll have about 30 pieces instead of 10. Yes, it is more complicated, but the process is simply repetitive, not difficult.

Hope this helps -- or that at least it doesn't confuse you too much. :)

PGJ

Messages In This Thread

3/8 radius router bits
Pete -- 4/10/2001, 4:35 am
Sure you don't want to rethink this whole thing?
Paul G. Jacobson -- 4/12/2001, 10:44 pm
Rethought
Pete -- 4/14/2001, 9:21 am
Re: Rethought
Paul G. Jacobson -- 4/15/2001, 7:05 pm
Re: Rethought
Pete -- 4/16/2001, 7:13 am
Re: Hey another option!
Geo. Cushing -- 4/13/2001, 3:03 pm
Enough Already
Pete -- 4/14/2001, 8:39 am
Re: Enough Already
Geo. Cushing -- 4/17/2001, 3:13 pm
Re: Hey another option!
Ben Staley -- 4/13/2001, 3:08 pm
Try Grizzly *Pic*
Paul G. Jacobson -- 4/11/2001, 12:40 am
Re: 3/8 radius router bits
Geo. Cushing -- 4/10/2001, 10:59 am
Re: 3/8 radius router bits
Pete -- 4/10/2001, 1:46 pm
more on radiuses *Pic*
Paul G. Jacobson -- 4/11/2001, 12:17 am
Re: more on radiuses
daren neufeld -- 4/11/2001, 12:24 am
radius question
Paul G. Jacobson -- 4/11/2001, 12:04 am
Re: 3/8 radius router bits
daren neufeld -- 4/10/2001, 10:59 pm
Radius vs Diameter
Pete -- 4/11/2001, 7:09 am
Re: Radius vs Diameter
daren neufeld -- 4/11/2001, 8:54 am
Re: 3/8 radius router bits
Rehd -- 4/10/2001, 1:53 pm
Re: More Info
Geo. Cushing -- 4/10/2001, 12:59 pm
Re: 3/8 radius router bits
John Monfoe -- 4/10/2001, 5:19 am