Finishing up the planking

Well, I was sick last weekend and had commitments yesterday, but still managed to finish the planking today. I am pleased that I was able to get the boat fairly straight. I tacked the seams with some "stitches" of hot melt just to keep everything straight until the next time I hit it.

Today, I realized that there are simply going to be a few gaps here and there. Laying out 10 planks, 3 bulkheads and cutting them all out is bound to lead to a few errors and there are a a few spots with 2mm gaps. I started thinking that this would be simpler than doing a strip boat, but I'm not so sure. In engineering-speak, this is an over constrained problem with the shapes of the planks and the shapes of the bulkheads. One is bound to be wrong. I don't think this is a problem with simpler hulls (fewer planks) or with CNC cut planks and bulkheads. By the time I fillet everything (next step), I don't think most people will notice.....well, OK, I will!

I have vacation planned for the next two weekends so I won't be getting much done for awhile. Maybe I'll get some filleting in this week after work.

Cutting and reassembling

I wish I had a decent picture of them on the plywood, but imagine a 14 foot long snake that swallowed a good sized rodent...in other words, long and skinny gently widening in the middle. By varying the shape along the length, you change the eventual cross section of the canoe. The strips are cut out with a jigsaw just shy of the marked line. Then, I used a small plane for the last fraction of an inch. I should have tried to leave something like 1/8". I tried to go closer to the line and sometimes took off too much. I'll end up using a bit more filler or patch in a sliver of wood later. The spring clamps you see (about $1 each from Grizzly) are holding the two pieces of plywood together to minimize vibration and tear out.
This image shows the business end of the jig saw. I taped over the base plate to minimize any scratches on the face of the plywood. You can also see the lay out lines here.
Here you can see the boat with the first four planks out of 10 wired up. I made up a simple jig to drill 1/16" holes 6 inches apart and then match drilled the mating plank to match. You can't drill all the planks with holes 6 inch on center because the planks bend in different ways and you end up with the holes not quite matching from on end to the other.
Here is a picture showing the wire "stitches" holding the planks together and one of the bulkheads. The bulkheads are just there to hold the shape while building the will be removed. You can also see daylight between the left plank and the bulkhead. I needed to adjust the tension on the wire stitches as I added more. I also learned to always twist the wired to the outside. It is much easier especially near the ends.

For each set of holes you need a 4 inch piece of wire. If you do the math, I need to drill 500 1/16" holes (yes, buy extra drill bits) and 250 pieces of wire. I quickly figured out that I needed an easy way to cut the wire. I marked a 4" line at the end of the bench and nailed the wire package to the board....much easier.
Here is a picture of the stern with all the wires. Pretty straight so far. The other end needs a bit of work yet.