Scarf joints

I'd originally planned to use a router to make stepped joints because historically planes and me have not been friends, and I wasnt sure how to achieve a 1:8 slope. But when I tried it on a test piece, setting up for 5 cuts on each piece was going to take ages and had a high risk of inaccuracy because each cut is so close to the previous.


Then I realised that using a piece of 6mm ply set back 48mm from the top of the joint would generate a 1:8 slope when using a plane. So in the picture, the bottom piece is one part of the wood to be joined, the middle piece is the other part to be joined, and the top piece is my guide.



By planing forward from the guide, the joint is formed. You know it's ready because you see each of the 5 plies in the wood, they are all the same width and the lines are reasonably straight, and the top of the slope is at the marked point in the wood.


The chips in the guide piece are where I pulled the plane too far back and graunched the edge of the guide. When the nose of the plane is at the end of the wood, and the heel of it is resting on the guide, I now have a 1:8 slope.

Just 10 minutes work with a half decent plane.

Planes

My bad experiences with the Wickes plane that wouldn't plane properly due to the upside down blade, and with my electric plane randomly tearing chunks out the wood, and school woodwork lessons where it was impossible to get square and straight edges, has left me with a fear of planes.

But lots of the advice I got for making this boat said to "just plane it down." I read up on what planes do, and how, and bought these two puppies cheaply. One is a smoothing plane the other a block plane.

What a revelation! After honing in the 30 degree edge, these are beauties. All the pieces of my boat are now "faired to the line" and all the curves look really good. I was able quite simply to get a clean accurate edge.

I now love planes.

Clamps

The received wisdom is that you need a lot of clamps. I have four G clamps already, four screw clamps, and I bought this packet of ten from axminster.co.uk.

They are not wrong about clamps. I used 12 at one point over the weekend.

These spring clamps are extremely handy because they are so quick to use.

The first cut!

The project is officially underway, with the cutting and marking of the plywood.

The sides of the boat at less than 2ft high, so I cut the boards in half length ways to make it easier.

By clamping two pieces together, I could make all the side pieces identical.

Thicknessing Jig

Before I could start, I needed to thin my mahogany thwart piece by 3mm. I made this handy thicknessing jig for my router to do the job. Clamp the piece in the tray, set the height of the bit, then carefully slide the router back and forth whilst moving it along.

If I ever make one again, I'd make it longer though..the router can only move across about 10" of the piece being thinned.

My router book said to use a dish carving bit, but I haven't got one, so I just used a worktop bit. Its OK, but at 12mm diameter you need to do a lot of ack and forth passes.

6mm marine ply -- it ain't heavy

So my four sheets of marine ply at 6mm definitely felt lighter than the WBP construction ply I put down on my bathroom floor.

Me and the driver could quite easily move the four sheets, whereas 12mm WBP is heavy enough to handle a sheet at a time for me and my grown up son.

The omens bode well.

Jewson's - Now that's what I call service

Jewson's always manages to impress me. Ordered the ply yesterday by phone, delivered this morning from Oxford.

Had a nice chat with the driver too - he was interested because he doesn't deliver much marine ply to residential addresses. Had a nice chat about how you make canoes from plywood.

Plywood Ordered

I made my head spin trying to find a supplier of okume plywood, and by trying to decide how similar okume and gaboon were, and where BS1088 fitted in. Of the half dozen wood suppliers and boat chandlers nearby whom I called, none knew what okume was or what standard their ply was built to. Found some prices on the net that were extortionate at over £60 a sheet and miles away.

Although I prefer to use quality materials, 3x the price was a quality too far, so I decided to take my chances with Jewsons. Paul at the Wheatley branch was most helpful, and confirmed that their 6mm marine ply is stamped BS1088 and is made of 5 layers. I think this is the best I can do and I hope the product will be good enough.

Scrapers

Very handy article on the West System website here about how to use scrapers, that you can make yourself easily, to remove drips and other imperfections from epoxied surfaces.

Paddles

Searching the net all evening gives me a headache.

Found this interesting blog on how to make paddles.

I liked the ideas so much, that I've ordered the book so I can read at leisure, without my face in the computer, and figure out what I am doing before I start.

Plywood

Nosing around Wickes the other day, their plywood was ~£25 a sheet, and it is WBP not Marine. They don't seem to stock full sheets of 4mm either, though they did have 6mm.

A quick call to the young girl at Beaumont Forest Products in Wycombe gave a result. She can order me in 4mm marine ply at about £17.50 +vat for a full sheet. So better quality and cheaper price.

Once the plans arrive, I'll decide on 4 vs 6.

Read an interesting article on plywood from the West System website here.

Paddles

OMG, this is addictive. I want to make my own paddles too and have started thinking how.

Helpful people

Paul at Fyne Boat Kits was once again fyne Paul, and filled me in on the epoxy system that his company offers. Even so, I think that the West system is the way to go, mainly because I can pop out and get more if I mess up.

I got a couple of responses on the song of the paddle website about the G4 PU varnish and polyester resin system of bonding to plywood. People have successfully used it to make boats. Mirror dinghies were apparently done that way. I'll mull on it some more, but I am leaning towards epoxy.

Starting to create a shopping list in an Excel spreadsheet.

Been worrying about hatches of all things. Luckily if you Google for "yacht inspection hatch" you turn up with plenty that look like this:




At considerably less than a tenner each they will go great in the end bulkheads.

Decision Made

SO after a week of deliberation, I decided that my first boat building project since I was 17 would be an open canoe. Although I think the plan is a bit pricy, I settled on the Wastwater 16 from Fyne Boat Kits because I like her angular lines and dory styling.

Deliberating whether to use polyester or epoxy resin. Polyester is a ton cheaper, but epoxy is what everyone uses today despite it being 3x the price.

Read the excellent guide for the West System marine epoxy that I found here. This particular epoxy system is widely established. There are a load of internet suppliers, and more crucially a number of retail outlets at boatyards close to where I live in case I need emergency supplies.

The picture gives an idea of what I hope to create: