Hi World Wide Web! It's good to see you! I was talking with friends last night at a party about this blog, well, actually they brought it up and said how much they liked it, which was great to hear! Thanks everyone! Ya know, it's funny, I was telling them, that there are readers in Russia, Germany, the UK and all over the world reading this blog according to my statistical data for the blog and I find that to be very interesting. The cynic in me thinks that I'm just getting hacked by outsiders, but my friends helped me realize that I might actually have an audience other than family, friends and acquaintances. So for everyone I have a boat load of posts today to make up for the last week in which I was pretty busy starting with volunteering for 3 gigs Friday, Sat, and Sunday with picking up some free lumber down round the Art Museum way on Saturday afternoon after helping pick up trash on Torresdale Ave. for an organization geared at revitalizing that area.
Below are some much needed pictures of the status of the canoe. We all worked together to get the port side inner gunwale in. I had some cleaning up to do so my dad started without me and here he is starting the fitting of the gunwale just like the previous time when we drew the centerline half way up the gunwale and drew it on the boat itself to use as a gauge of how much needs to be trimmed off the end of the gunwale so she a fits nice!
After my uncle and I showed up we all pitched in with the project. Below you see my Uncle Rich showing my dad the proper way to use a Japanese pull saw. We get along so well can't you just tell from the look on my dads' face? Ha ha ha. Good times!
After numerous times cutting and fitting, eventually the gunwale fits nice and snug and then is prepped for gluing in place with epoxy. Prepping involves sanding the surface of the canoe in which the gunwale is going to be glued to. You have to sand off all the high spots from drips and such so that the gunwale is tight against the surface. If you don't do this, you can get some gaps in which you may be able to see light shine through which can look crappy to the trained eye. Another remedy for that is to put sawdust in the epoxy when you mix it up which will block the light. You mix the epoxy, and paint it on both surfaces, the canoe and the gunwale and clamp in place! While clamping you are trying to adjust the gunwale up and down so that it has a flowing look to it called "fairing". If it is fair there won't be hills and valleys in it if you look down the length of it. You are also going to have lots of rags standing by to wipe up the drips because sanding them off later will suck eggz!
The guys are cleaning up while I double check if everything looks fair and true.
Here she is a few days after the epoxy has fully cured. You must wait a few days at least in 70 degree weather because sometimes if it isn't cured, all the pressure for the wood curving side to side and up and down my "pop" the gunwale out of place. At this point it's not screwed in yet, just glued.
I hope you had an enjoyable read and that your Earth Day was Wonderful. It is the one year anniversary of the official start of Wood Water Crafts!
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