Saturday, May 7, 2011

Canoe Clamping Contraptions Continued :-)

Ha Ha! I just love to f@#k with alliteration. It's easy and cheap while making me sound smart!
Here we are still clamping to the stems and am using spring clamps to hold the strip to the form and a screw in the form with a wedge pressing the strip to the previous strip. The screw system was a great idea that we used up until the very last strips before we started the next process of stripping only half of the hull at a time, which we are currently engaged in.

Further along the space gets more confined and had to eventually switch to the PVC clamps that I made from 4" PVC and two small wood screws with a few washers. Some of these holes from the screws will actually not be seen as they will be covered up by the top oak stem. The holes that you will see will actually be very small and hopefully will fill in OK, not sure yet on that one.

(Tips on making PVC Clamps: get an eight foot length of 4" PVC and cut a multitude of two different width rings, 1/2" and 1". The 1 inchers will provide a stronger clamping strength than the halfers and the halfers will fit into tighter spaces and provide good clamping strength. Now slice each ring on band saw to make a closed "C" then on the drill press clamp that closed "C" onto a spinning 1/4" or bigger bit. This notch that you put on the clamping surface will be extremely handy in holding that clamp onto your piece, whatever it may be. No one tells you this, I had to learn it on my own. Last but definitely NOT least, if you have a deburring tool for plastics, use it around the entire edge of the ring either before you notch it or after, but this will take a long long arduous time to do, but OMG it will save your hands from all kinds of cuts and sores using these clamps. I found it to be a great relief deburring them!)
Here is a combination of PVC clamps being used, one to push the strip down on the previous strip and the other to press the strip to the stem. Those screws that we used on the previous strips were left in place and provided a perfect place to clamp from!
Bow Stem Section.




Same thing here, different view. Bow stem section.








ON this canoe the bow and stern stems are not symmetrical so the clamping arrangements are different. This is the
STERN stem section and you can see difference in clamping. The taper at this spot is more gradual.

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