I can't resist - here is another post. This time of the finished product - waiting for spring, and in the water!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
I can't resist - here is another post. This time of the finished product - waiting for spring, and in the water!
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Finishing Touches
Finally down to the end. After a year and 4 months, I'm calling it done. There is one glaring omission - I did not re-finish the sponsons. They will have to wait for another effort.
The final bits were to re-finish the thwarts, re-furbish the front seat, and build a new back seat. In addition to building the seats, I also decided to brand the back seat with the OLD TOWN logo, OTCA 1945, and my signature. This was done using a logo downloaded from the net, and scanner, and a laser etcher! The etching came out quite nicely if I do say so myself. Then, gluing up the dowel joints, 4 coats of varnish, and weaving some 1" webbing, and voila personalized seats!
And Finally, install the seats and thwarts...
Some final pics...
Well, that about does it. Perhaps some outdoor pics in the spring when the weather is nicer!
The final bits were to re-finish the thwarts, re-furbish the front seat, and build a new back seat. In addition to building the seats, I also decided to brand the back seat with the OLD TOWN logo, OTCA 1945, and my signature. This was done using a logo downloaded from the net, and scanner, and a laser etcher! The etching came out quite nicely if I do say so myself. Then, gluing up the dowel joints, 4 coats of varnish, and weaving some 1" webbing, and voila personalized seats!
And Finally, install the seats and thwarts...
Some final pics...
Well, that about does it. Perhaps some outdoor pics in the spring when the weather is nicer!
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Well, we're getting to the end game now. I installed the stem bands. Major learning there is that the friction in new pre-drilled ash of a 3/4" long number 4 brass screw is about equal to the shear strength of the shaft. After shearing off a couple of screws installing the stem band, I went to the hardware store and got about 20 5/8" screws. These did not seem to shear off. Other than shearing off screws, the stem bands went on without a hitch.
Overall, the stem bands clean up the bow and stern quite nicely.
All that remains is to make a couple of seats, and re-finish the thwarts. All that is salvageable from the old bow seat is the two cross-pieces. I got a friend to cut a maple 1" board into 1.5" strips. The front seat cross pieces are about 7" and the back seat about 8" (the front seat dimensions are from the old cross-pieces, and the rear inferred from the spacing of the holes for the mounting bolts in the inner gunnel). Luckily, I the seat spacers were with the canoe, along with all but one of the diamond head bolts, so getting the seats installed at the right height should not be a problem.
The seat pieces are assembled using dowel joints, 2 dowels in the end of each cross-piece. The same friend loaned me a doweling jig and 3/8" piloted drill. Very cool piece of equipment that works like a charm - all the holes align and the seats assemble nicely. The maple is quite white, so I put a bit of the minwax early american stain to darken them a bit. Now some glue, varnish and webbing and the last bits should be done. I think I'll go with red webbing to match design #4.
I'm also in the process of stripping the thwarts so I can varnish all these last bits at the same time. Actually, I am using a scraper to remove the old varnish, and then rough sanding. Scrapers are cool.
I'll try to post some pics when the seats are complete and installed. Other than that, I think we are nearing the end of this blog. Tasks that remain, but may not be done are restoring the sponsons and paining yellow inside the blue up triangles in the sponson version of design #4. I am not a big fan of sponsons, so no sure if/when I'll get to those. I also like the red and blue version of design #4, so am not inclined to rush into that either.
Until next time...
Overall, the stem bands clean up the bow and stern quite nicely.
All that remains is to make a couple of seats, and re-finish the thwarts. All that is salvageable from the old bow seat is the two cross-pieces. I got a friend to cut a maple 1" board into 1.5" strips. The front seat cross pieces are about 7" and the back seat about 8" (the front seat dimensions are from the old cross-pieces, and the rear inferred from the spacing of the holes for the mounting bolts in the inner gunnel). Luckily, I the seat spacers were with the canoe, along with all but one of the diamond head bolts, so getting the seats installed at the right height should not be a problem.
The seat pieces are assembled using dowel joints, 2 dowels in the end of each cross-piece. The same friend loaned me a doweling jig and 3/8" piloted drill. Very cool piece of equipment that works like a charm - all the holes align and the seats assemble nicely. The maple is quite white, so I put a bit of the minwax early american stain to darken them a bit. Now some glue, varnish and webbing and the last bits should be done. I think I'll go with red webbing to match design #4.
I'm also in the process of stripping the thwarts so I can varnish all these last bits at the same time. Actually, I am using a scraper to remove the old varnish, and then rough sanding. Scrapers are cool.
I'll try to post some pics when the seats are complete and installed. Other than that, I think we are nearing the end of this blog. Tasks that remain, but may not be done are restoring the sponsons and paining yellow inside the blue up triangles in the sponson version of design #4. I am not a big fan of sponsons, so no sure if/when I'll get to those. I also like the red and blue version of design #4, so am not inclined to rush into that either.
Until next time...
Sunday, January 10, 2016
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are now into a happy new year! Quite a bit accomplished since the last report where we had the canvas on, filled and primed, and the outer gunnels installed. Since then, despite a few distractions over the holidays, we have come to the final stages. The keel is installed, the bottom painted, and Old Town Design #4 painted on. A few details if I can remember them...
When lining up the keel, and looking at the stem bands, I decided the stem band needed to end up flush with the bottom of the keel. I carved out the keel up to about where the inside stem ends, and rounded the ends to hopefully give a nice, flush seam when the stem band is installed. I left the ends of the tapered ends full thickness. (this pic after paint, It is not too good, but I forgot to take a picture before).
I pre-drilled for the keel screws, through the dacron for the existing ribs with existing holes for the keel screws, and through the rib, planking and dacron for the replaced ribs. I took some care with drilling through the dacron as it stretched to much if I tried to just drill through. So, I built up some blocks to flush with the bottom of the canoe (right side up) and then could easily drill through the dacron with no stretching or pulls. I then lined up the keel centered fore/aft, marked where all the keel screws would come through and pre-drilled on the keel centerline. I also tried pre-drilling the tapered ends of the keel - mistake - they are too thin, and I ended up not being able to pull them down flush anyway. (The current plan is to paint and then later try to pull the ends (more) flush when I install the stem bands. It will likely mean some caulking of these ends after installation (and paint).)
I did not like the cone washers Island Falls sent as they would require more counter-sinking of the ribs than I was comfortable with. So, I got some brass finish washers at the hardware store instead. They looked like they would not end up flush, but the size pretty well matched the marks in the ribs from the original keel installation.
(recall at this point there was a 50-50 diluted varnish coat on the concave, soon to be hidden side of the keel.) I put a bead of the fancy 3M 5200 caulking on the concave side of the keel and with the canoe upside down managed to get the fore and aft most screws into the pilot holes. Then, starting at the front (with the canoe still upside down, I got a few other screws started from the bottom. But, it was hard to get the screws in to the pilot holes. I turned the canoe back right side up, and started installing the screws fore to aft (but with a few started in the middle of the canoe as well). Overall, I got about half of the screws to align with the pilot holes, and had to re-drill the keel for the others. Before installing each screw, I dipped it in the caulking compound to hopefully get a good seal around the dacron in case any water gets under the keel. I note that very little caulking came out from under the keel, so I probably did not use quite enough and there may be some air gaps. But, the screws pulled up to the dacron quite nicely as I tightened the screws. And, the finish washers distorted as I tightened the screws making them quite more flush and smooth than I was expecting. The inside looks quite nice with the screws and finish washers snugged up and the slots aligned fore-aft.
Next, on to painting. The Interlux Hatteras off white is a bit yellower than I expected, but looks fine. The paint went on fine, I used 3 coats, and used a bit over 3/4 of the (quart?) can. I used a 2" brush with fore-aft strokes on all coats. The finish coat is quite nice although you can still see the planking irregularities through the dacron (as expected). Before painting, I put standard masking tape on the new gunnels. (This turned out to be sub-optimal as the white (especially, but also the blue and red) bled under it a bit, and made it hard to remove later on. Overall not too bad, and on the bottom, but it is probably worth using the better masking tape for this as well. However, this would have likely put me over the one roll of tape I bought.)
I'll also note at this point that if you sight down the keel, you can see a bulge where the 6 adjacent new ribs are installed forward of the center gunnel. My trick of using a false keel when setting the new ribs seems to have worked well in the stern section, but was not quite up to keeping the large number of adjacent ribs flush. I am not what I would try next time. Perhaps a longer, stiffer false keel where there are many adjacent ribs. (rather than moving the shorter one as I did)
And, on to Old Town Design #4. I measured the triangles on the old sponsons that I am trying to match (see earlier post). The down triangles are 3" tall. 3/4" between up and down triangles. A bit over 7" base at the gunnel. The total length is 208". To get red in the center, and at both ends at the tip, I chose to use 29 down triangles. I cut a 'standard' triangle out of heavy paper (a manila folder) that was 3" tall, and 7 3/16" base. Centering the first on on the center thwart, I marked 5 1/2 widths on the gunnel tape, and also marked 5 locations (7 3/16 apart) from the bow and stern. To make sure to put any mismatch in an un-noticeable spot, I marked the last 4 by measuring from the existing marks, bisecting and then re-bisecting the remaining gap. With the ends of the triangles marked on the gunnel tape, I just lined up the template triangle, and marked the tip of the large triangles with eraseable crayons (drawing a line up the top of each side of the triangle to the tip). I also used the template and the crayons to mark the large triangles around the bow and stern. There is no need to mark the small triangles as they are formed using the masking tape.
With all the triangles marked, it is on to the masking tape. First, I connected all the crosses parallel to the gunnel - this forms the base of the small triangles. Then I cut tape for the sides of the triangles. Note I cut the ends of the tape at an angle so that the tape would not over-hang into the adjacent triangle. But, the angle should not be less than half the angle between the triangles as you do not want a gap between the tape (an over-lap seems to work out fine. Once I got started, I started crimping the ends of the tape far from the gunnels to make it easier to remove at after paining. At the tip of the canoe, there is no room for the smaller triangle. At least one photo I have shows a diamond there instead. So, after taping, I cut out a triangle that matched one end of the diamond, then flipped it over the short end to mark the other half of the diamond, and taped that as well. This all took some time and patience, but really went rather smoothly. The tape is light green, so not very visible in the photo.
And on to painting. Red and blue. 3 coats each. What happened to black you ask? The photos I have show red and blue down triangles, and blue up triangles. Rather than introducing yet another color, I decided that yellow up triangles, boardered by blue would be close enough. And soon (after seeing the pictures) you may ask - what happened to the yellow. For now, I think red and blue down, and blue up may be more 'original' and will stick with that for now. I may add the yellow later by masking off the edge of each of the blue up triangles. Hopefully, the blue will be cured well enough to not get peeled off when removing the tape. But for now, I'm sticking with red and blue - very patriotic don't you think? Oh, and maybe add the 'star' design on the bow???
So, here is after painting, but before removing the tape:
while removing the tape:
So, now it is on to varnishing the gunnels (remember, I only did the insides before, the gunnels still need 3-4 coats of varnish... ugh. Then, install the stem bands. Then all that remains is to refinish the thwarts and do something about seats...
More supplies:
brass finish washers - 25@.45ea Katz Ace 11.25
marine sealant (3M 5200) Home Depot 18.58
foam paint brushes Katz Ace 1.29
3M fineline 218 tape (3/4" x 60 yd) NHBragg 12.75 + shipping 20.10
Paint 1/2 pint: red, blue, black, yellow 4x5.99 35.96
paint brushes 4 38.00
When lining up the keel, and looking at the stem bands, I decided the stem band needed to end up flush with the bottom of the keel. I carved out the keel up to about where the inside stem ends, and rounded the ends to hopefully give a nice, flush seam when the stem band is installed. I left the ends of the tapered ends full thickness. (this pic after paint, It is not too good, but I forgot to take a picture before).
I pre-drilled for the keel screws, through the dacron for the existing ribs with existing holes for the keel screws, and through the rib, planking and dacron for the replaced ribs. I took some care with drilling through the dacron as it stretched to much if I tried to just drill through. So, I built up some blocks to flush with the bottom of the canoe (right side up) and then could easily drill through the dacron with no stretching or pulls. I then lined up the keel centered fore/aft, marked where all the keel screws would come through and pre-drilled on the keel centerline. I also tried pre-drilling the tapered ends of the keel - mistake - they are too thin, and I ended up not being able to pull them down flush anyway. (The current plan is to paint and then later try to pull the ends (more) flush when I install the stem bands. It will likely mean some caulking of these ends after installation (and paint).)
I did not like the cone washers Island Falls sent as they would require more counter-sinking of the ribs than I was comfortable with. So, I got some brass finish washers at the hardware store instead. They looked like they would not end up flush, but the size pretty well matched the marks in the ribs from the original keel installation.
(recall at this point there was a 50-50 diluted varnish coat on the concave, soon to be hidden side of the keel.) I put a bead of the fancy 3M 5200 caulking on the concave side of the keel and with the canoe upside down managed to get the fore and aft most screws into the pilot holes. Then, starting at the front (with the canoe still upside down, I got a few other screws started from the bottom. But, it was hard to get the screws in to the pilot holes. I turned the canoe back right side up, and started installing the screws fore to aft (but with a few started in the middle of the canoe as well). Overall, I got about half of the screws to align with the pilot holes, and had to re-drill the keel for the others. Before installing each screw, I dipped it in the caulking compound to hopefully get a good seal around the dacron in case any water gets under the keel. I note that very little caulking came out from under the keel, so I probably did not use quite enough and there may be some air gaps. But, the screws pulled up to the dacron quite nicely as I tightened the screws. And, the finish washers distorted as I tightened the screws making them quite more flush and smooth than I was expecting. The inside looks quite nice with the screws and finish washers snugged up and the slots aligned fore-aft.
Next, on to painting. The Interlux Hatteras off white is a bit yellower than I expected, but looks fine. The paint went on fine, I used 3 coats, and used a bit over 3/4 of the (quart?) can. I used a 2" brush with fore-aft strokes on all coats. The finish coat is quite nice although you can still see the planking irregularities through the dacron (as expected). Before painting, I put standard masking tape on the new gunnels. (This turned out to be sub-optimal as the white (especially, but also the blue and red) bled under it a bit, and made it hard to remove later on. Overall not too bad, and on the bottom, but it is probably worth using the better masking tape for this as well. However, this would have likely put me over the one roll of tape I bought.)
I'll also note at this point that if you sight down the keel, you can see a bulge where the 6 adjacent new ribs are installed forward of the center gunnel. My trick of using a false keel when setting the new ribs seems to have worked well in the stern section, but was not quite up to keeping the large number of adjacent ribs flush. I am not what I would try next time. Perhaps a longer, stiffer false keel where there are many adjacent ribs. (rather than moving the shorter one as I did)
And, on to Old Town Design #4. I measured the triangles on the old sponsons that I am trying to match (see earlier post). The down triangles are 3" tall. 3/4" between up and down triangles. A bit over 7" base at the gunnel. The total length is 208". To get red in the center, and at both ends at the tip, I chose to use 29 down triangles. I cut a 'standard' triangle out of heavy paper (a manila folder) that was 3" tall, and 7 3/16" base. Centering the first on on the center thwart, I marked 5 1/2 widths on the gunnel tape, and also marked 5 locations (7 3/16 apart) from the bow and stern. To make sure to put any mismatch in an un-noticeable spot, I marked the last 4 by measuring from the existing marks, bisecting and then re-bisecting the remaining gap. With the ends of the triangles marked on the gunnel tape, I just lined up the template triangle, and marked the tip of the large triangles with eraseable crayons (drawing a line up the top of each side of the triangle to the tip). I also used the template and the crayons to mark the large triangles around the bow and stern. There is no need to mark the small triangles as they are formed using the masking tape.
With all the triangles marked, it is on to the masking tape. First, I connected all the crosses parallel to the gunnel - this forms the base of the small triangles. Then I cut tape for the sides of the triangles. Note I cut the ends of the tape at an angle so that the tape would not over-hang into the adjacent triangle. But, the angle should not be less than half the angle between the triangles as you do not want a gap between the tape (an over-lap seems to work out fine. Once I got started, I started crimping the ends of the tape far from the gunnels to make it easier to remove at after paining. At the tip of the canoe, there is no room for the smaller triangle. At least one photo I have shows a diamond there instead. So, after taping, I cut out a triangle that matched one end of the diamond, then flipped it over the short end to mark the other half of the diamond, and taped that as well. This all took some time and patience, but really went rather smoothly. The tape is light green, so not very visible in the photo.
And on to painting. Red and blue. 3 coats each. What happened to black you ask? The photos I have show red and blue down triangles, and blue up triangles. Rather than introducing yet another color, I decided that yellow up triangles, boardered by blue would be close enough. And soon (after seeing the pictures) you may ask - what happened to the yellow. For now, I think red and blue down, and blue up may be more 'original' and will stick with that for now. I may add the yellow later by masking off the edge of each of the blue up triangles. Hopefully, the blue will be cured well enough to not get peeled off when removing the tape. But for now, I'm sticking with red and blue - very patriotic don't you think? Oh, and maybe add the 'star' design on the bow???
So, here is after painting, but before removing the tape:
while removing the tape:
And, drum roll please - ta da...
So, now it is on to varnishing the gunnels (remember, I only did the insides before, the gunnels still need 3-4 coats of varnish... ugh. Then, install the stem bands. Then all that remains is to refinish the thwarts and do something about seats...
More supplies:
brass finish washers - 25@.45ea Katz Ace 11.25
marine sealant (3M 5200) Home Depot 18.58
foam paint brushes Katz Ace 1.29
3M fineline 218 tape (3/4" x 60 yd) NHBragg 12.75 + shipping 20.10
Paint 1/2 pint: red, blue, black, yellow 4x5.99 35.96
paint brushes 4 38.00
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