Replies

1. 
   mike4244 | Dec 07, 2005 08:16pm | #1

   Why plane the strips? I have built a stripper, bandsawed the strips. The bead and flute is on the machined edge of the plank.If the thickness varies a little it won't matter. You can still mill the edges if the strips are a bit rough. Use the bits in a router, long tables,feather boards at edge and top.

   When making the strong back for the stations, make it so the entire frame pivots on each end. This way you can turn the strong back at different elevations on it's axis. Makes glue up and glassing easier. This way the coves will be more or less vertical all the time.Glue won't run out, working height is more comfortable. I built the strongback from 2x6's, the ends were bolted with a 3/4' bolt to plywood stands at each end. A C-clamp at each end held the strongback at each postion.

   mike

1. 
   WillGeorge | Dec 08, 2005 01:39am | #2

   Never made a 'slat' boat.. Well, sort of LONG ago.. I used a old plane mostly.. Well, I was young and wanted 'bigger' arms anyway....Any pictures of what you are talking about? Just curious.. My old brain not quite getting the picture...

1. 
   mike4244 | Dec 08, 2005 05:23pm | #4

   No pictures, I took the strongback apart and used the lumber for something else. If I made canoes for a living I would have kept it. I've made three canoes,sold the last two, for about half of what I should have gotten. The strongback itself is pretty straightforward,any canoe plans will show you how to set it up. The only difference in mine is the capability to turn it to different locations on it's axis. After the first canoe, I thought it would make the entire process easier if I could glue up the strips at the vertical postion, even at the bottom of the hull. Works well for glassing too.

   mike

2. 
   DaveNJ | Dec 08, 2005 03:43pm | #3

   I am planing strips because I tried just cutting on the table saw and I had too much variation.  Sure you can rout the cove and bead on a fresh cut strip, but the problem comes when you have to fair and sand the boat later.  A nightmare of filling, sanding, and fairing. 

   I want to reduce variability as much as I can.  Please understand.  I am coming off building one and I am going to try a method (cut strip oversize, then mill to final thickness, perfect cove & bead, tight joints, minimize gaps, minimize filling, etc.) suggested by a expert builder.

   Can anyone answer my original post about a planer stop, locking a planer head?

   thanks,

   Dave

    

2. 
   mike4244 | Dec 08, 2005 05:36pm | #5

   Dave,has the cutterhead moved on you in the past? If so were you planing narrow and thin strips as you will with the strips? Possibly the planer won't move on you, try thin scraps first. As far as locking the cutterhead,I do not know if it is possible. I imagine your table is fixed,and the cutterhead moves up and down on two or four posts and a pair of threaded rods. The only thing I can think of that might work would to temporaily fix support legs on the posts. This would keep the cutterhead from dropping, probably would not rise.

   mike

3. 
   AlanWS | Dec 08, 2005 07:09pm | #6

   If you are planing lots of long thin strips, you don't want to run them through the planer one at a time anyway. To avoid snipe, make sure the ends of one set are overlapped with the beginning of the next set. A cutterhead lock would be nice anyway, and you might be able to rig something up with an auxiliary table.

   Not everyone planes strips for a woodstrip canoe. (Is it a canoe, or a larger boat?) As the surface will be removed in fairing the hull, cutting the bead and flute smoothly is the only reason to do it. For that you need one flat surface for the router table, not both. Many have found the sawn surface good enough, but I suppose it doesn't take many ripple defects to make you wish you'd planed the strips.

   There is another possibility to consider if planing the strips is a pain. That is to bevel the strip edges with a handplane rather than cutting a bead and flute with a router table. It is a lot easier than many suppose.