More Planking

It's been awhile since I've worked on the canoe with our kids and grandkids here and then being away for a prayer retreat. But, I'm back at it. The planking is up to the top of the stems and I'm finding many creative ways of stapleless methods to keep them in place. The wooden blocks recommending in Canoecraft work really well so I cut enough of them. Below are some of the methods I'm using.

This is the standard method of the wooden jig, C clamp and shim to hold things in place. It works really well. As you can see above I've also used alot of squeese clamps which go down even easier.

When there isn't enough room for a clamp anymore a little piece of wood screwed to the station also works well. Again, the shim keeps the strip in place and tight.

At the stems you have to get a little more creative. I've actually used staples to hold some of the ends to the inner stem. In addition I'm using straps to cinch down on a woodblock and hold the strip tight to the glue on the stem.

Now that I'm at the top of the stem I will continue by just stipping out one side untile every strip on this side is past the centerline. Then I will stretch a stringline down the center of the hull and make a straight mark and cut. The second side will be stripped with each piece mitered to fit.

Stay tuned.