What tool did you wait way too long to buy? Let me know if you’d like the "Tool Tuesday" concept and I’ll make more....
Category: From Instagram
Timelapse: More progress on the pedal drive canoe
More progress on the pedal drive canoe. This nonsense is just an over engineered plug for the box to see if I notice a difference in drag while sailing with the pedal drive removed and the hole in the bottom plugged versus non-plugged. It would have to be a pretty noticeable difference to add...
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Greenland paddles and pack canoes
I generally discourage using Greenland paddles with pack canoes because they tend to get a bit heavy at the lengths which work well in a canoe and the drips down the blades tend to give your lap a veritable soaking. Weirdly, however, I do get people who build them for this purpose and are...
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Video: a handy jig for drilling straight holes
It’s tempting to be proud of this handy little jig, but in reality, the fact that it took me 25 years to think of it is a sad testimony to my flickering intelligence… When I build this I start with a 12 inch long block of wood that’s 2 1/2 in square, cut the...
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Rory’s yellow cedar tandem canoe
The unique thing about our Skin on Frame Canoe Building System is that uses a mathematical formula rather than a strongback and mold to determine the sizing and shaping of the canoe. So rather than being a plan for a single canoe, it’s a plan for hundreds of different canoes just depending on how...
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Finally a bit more progress on the pedal power canoe
Finally a bit more progress on the pedal power canoe. I spent the last week measuring and testing the seating geometry of every pedal drive kayak I could get my hands on. Next I made a final decision on drive location, which was pretty brutal and amounts to nothing more than a coin toss,...
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Chewing on seat geometry
Been away from the shop for a couple days, but I’m back on the pedal powered canoe project and chewing pretty hard on the seating geometry. My starting point for this is the standard seating geometry from a Hobie mirage because they absolutely nailed the comfort in that boat which is much harder to...
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Something a little bit different today
For something a little bit different today I want to share my blackberry-apple pie recipe. I’ve been making pies for 35 years and I do things quite a bit differently than most people, because in my opinion the standard American apple pie was designed at a time when most apples were a lot more...
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Video: a scrap wood prototype of the pedal drive box
Today I built a scrap wood prototype of the drive box to adapt the Hobie Mirage Drive to my skin on frame canoes. The first drive is a knock off of Hobie’s first generation Mirage drive called a Freedom Drive which retails for $325 and the second is Hobie’s current Mirage Drive 180 for...
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Testing boats and checking symmetry for the pedal drive adaptation
Today was a little bit of on the water testing, and a lot of frowning while chewing on details. Because I’m using the Mirage drive it made sense to actually try one before I install it, so I met a friend down at the dock to take a spin in his Hobie for a...
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Progress on the canoe build
Today I finished taking measurements for the plan worksheets and then I rounded off the rest of the stringers with the slick plane. (the quality of these has really gone downhill over the last few years, can anyone recommend a better radius plane for breaking edges?) After that, I made a stem template out...
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Video: Cutting and mortising the canoe gunwales
Started the day by slicing the laminated gunwales on the table saw. Just barely had enough Titebond 3 in the joint and there was a few gaps, so next time, I will definitely be putting the glue on both surfaces of the thirsty cedar before laminating. Next, I tried an experiment of using a...
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Switching focus to canoes
With Liz working on the plans for the recent kayak design updates, I’m switching gears to focus on canoes. Every year I try to update one of my building courses with the latest modifications and building techniques. This year it’s time for the Skin-on-Frame Canoe Building Course to get some fresh updates. My original...
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Video: Making steam-bending oak for our kayak cockpit coamings
Making steam-bending oak for our kayak cockpit coamings. Normally I just buy this stuff but all of my suppliers were running low so we fired up the chainsaw mill to tackle this log a friend generously donated (thanks again Don!). Coamings are a challenge because the wood has to be perfectly straight grained and...
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Video: A quick peek at the new 225 lb size LPB
Not great filming but here’s a quick peek at the new 225 pound size LPB kayak on the water with a 225lb person (thanks Jim). This kayak is 17 feet long and 23 inches wide and weighs 36lbs fully rigged. Jim was a bit wobbly due to not being on the water for a...
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