Chipping away

I've been working on stripping a little each day and I finally got past the midpoint. It's going a little faster using the nasty stuff and with good weather I've been able to leave the garage door open while I work. I still need to go back and do a final clean-up and strip the inner gunwales.

 I moved the canoe to the other side of the garage so I can work in the shop more easily.  I don't think I'll be parking inside for a while. I cut pieces for the bow seat frame and set up the mortising attachment on the drill press (drill square holes!!). I'm keeping the original long pieces of the frame and making new side pieces so I can mortise the frame together rather than dowel it together, like it was done originally. The dowels didn't keep the frame pieces from rolling inward with the tension of the cane. 

More Tools

My father has moved into an apartment, so we moved most of his shop tools into my garage. It took a lot of work to clear out the accumulated junk to make room for everything. So now I have a bigger tablesaw, a bandsaw, lathe, spindle sander, thickness planer, drill press and innumerable hand tools.  Work on the canoe stopped for over a month, but it is worth it just to be better organized, not to mention the added tools.  Not in the picture is a rack with over 30 clamps.  I hear you can never have too many clamps.

I did a little more stripping tonight and tried the orange non-methyl chloride stripper.  It seems to work almost as well and is a lot less nasty to work with.  I think I'll still need the methyl chloride stuff to get the last layer off between the ribs.

Making the stem form

I used my laser level on a tripod to plot points on the wall to copy the contour of the stern stem. The bow stem is gone and I have to assume the contour is the same.  I set up the canoe parallel to the wall and level. I put the level on a small table with wheels, butted up against the big table under the canoe and used this arrangement to keep the laser beam perpendicular to the wall.

After I cut the curve in the cardboard, I checked the fit on the canoe.

I cut two pieces of 3/4" plywood to this contour, offset by an inch to allow for the thickness of the workpiece. I glued these together.

Then I cut holes to use to clamp the workpiece to the form.

Next up, a compression strap.

Canoe cradles

I made some adjustable cradles to hold the canoe while I work on it.  The slings double as straps to hang the canoe up out of the way when I'm not working on it.

I drilled a series of holes in the vertical boards, so I can put the bolt that holds the strap in any position to raise or lower the canoe.

I also took out the bow seat so I can start rebuilding it.  The aft seat I reassembled with dowels, but I'm going to mortise and tenon the frame together on this one. I'll use some more of the maple from the Schmidt farm to replace the two short side pieces.

More progress

The aft seat frame is sanded and almost ready for finish.  I needed to plane down one mismatched area where the new piece joined the old cross piece. The frame looks ok, but the new piece is lighter than the old pieces.  I need to look at bleaching the old parts to match.

I cut a circle of plywood to make a lid for the keg I'm using for a steam generator. I have a one inch hose that will connect to the steam box.  I'm still not sure what I will use for the steam box.

I bought a big propane burner to generate steam for steam bending.  This will end up as part of my home brewery.

Aft seat frame

I made the missing piece and glued up the aft seat frame.  The old pieces are a bit crooked, so it's not as straight as I'd like. I'll see how it looks after the glue is dry, but it might need a do-over.

Another warm day

I finished stripping the three aft seat frame pieces yesterday.  It's obvious that they spent their effort on the top side of each piece.  The bottom sides are rough sawn and the tops are sanded smooth.  Today I'm making a hardware store run to get plywood to build the stem bending form. I'm planning on using some of the plywood to make a lid for my brewing keg so I can use it as a steam generator.

Maple pieces from the farm

I found a few pieces of maple in Dad's basement to use as replacement parts on the canoe. This is maple from the big plank that was originally part of a stoneboat. The stoneboat was used to clear stones from the fields on the farm. A set of planks was milled with one end turned up about 30 degrees and attached together. A team of horses pulled this through the field, and stones were rolled onto the stoneboat to clear the field. 

I have one small piece that will be perfect for fixing the stern seat frame.  A second piece, about 2 x 3 x 30 turned out to be the perfect size to use for a replacement thwart. Only one of the thwarts (the cross pieces that tie the gunwales together) is original, and the other one is a rather crude softwood replacement. They were both originally maple, so this piece of wood will be perfect.

Officially started on the canoe.

This blog is about restoring a 1917 Kennebec canoe. This canoe came into our family in 1948, when my father bought it in Madison, Wisconsin. It was shipped up to the family farm outside of Shawano and it stayed in the barn until the '70s. Many moves later, going through Kansas, New Mexico, back to Kansas, and finally to Whidbey Island, it is beached in my garage and finally getting restored.

I started step one in restoring the canoe, stripping the finish so I can see what shape the wood is in.  The stripper needs to be used in a well-ventilated space, between 65 and 85F.  We had a 65F day yesterday (in December!) so I stripped about 4 ribs worth (out of 44) of the interior. This took about 3 hours.  There is a thick layer of gunk on the inside that takes a lot of work to remove.  I need to be more patient and let the stripper sit longer.

It won't be this warm again for months, so I took one of the seats out to rebuild during the winter. I stripped one of the 3 pieces of the frame (one is missing), and it looks like nice maple. I'll make a replacement for the missing piece from the maple plank off the farm in Shawano.