I have started makeing a wood strip canoe. I have selected an English #20 design which I will shorten from 15'10" to 14'6" by omitting the centre frame and reducing the frame spacing to 11.75". I wish to build it as light as I dare to use as a solo canoe and the length is a comfortable fit in the gararge during construction. My intention is to use 3/16" strips and 200g/m^2 glass.
The strips are now cut with bead and cove. It has taken me 38hrs so far during which I had assistance for 7.5hrs. It went more than twice as fast with two of us. I had half a dozon sources of timber, of different thicknesses including some Obeche which has a white / straw colour and is cheeper and only slightly heavier than WRC. The strips were sawn on the cheepest circular saw I could find which I clamped to the underside of the table top (temporary top!). I purchased a "thin kerf" blade for the saw. When the strips were good, I was able to cut 6mm +-0.4mm strips. The feather boards were essential and when working well were great.
The one side of the strips went through a thicknesser (5.25mm+-0.15mm) and then past a $20 router bit from the USA via eBay to cut 5/32" radius bead and cove. Three featherboards were set up to try and eliminate snipe at the ends but without success.
So what have I learnt;
1. 30% of my timber ended up as chips on the compost heap!
2. I wasted many strips through poor timber quality, pushing past the router too fast and when cutting the strips the circular saw was intollerant to any imperfections in the timber (twists, missalignment of butt joints, glue ect) resulting in too thin strips. I thought, never mind the next cut will be good but found that the thinning only got worse on the next strip!
3. Butt jointing at 45 deg to get full length strips was a waist of time. The long lengths were difficult to handle and the joints failed. I will not butt joint the strips as I fit them using CN "mitre glue", the cheep stuf from Screwfix.
4. The lowest cost planner / thicknesser from Screwfix was good. Having seen how little time it took to thickness the strips I now wish I had planned both sides, 5.8mm then 5.25mm. The outside strip would still be variable in quality but would probably take less sanding.
5. The thin kerf blade worked well, 1.7mm claimed, .0 +-0.2 achieved.
6. A long time taken to set up the work table and 'run in' , 'run out' planks took time but was time well spent.
7. Bead and cove is not essential. I did some testing and square edge strips were OK, bead and cove was better in my tests. Comes down to personnal preferrence on the finish.
8. Good feather board and setting was essential to getting good strips. My first set split, not enough to show but just enough to give me a set of wavy thichnesses before I worked out what was wronge.
This is what I have done. It is not a recommendation. The power tools used clearly had the capacity to cause serious injury at any instant. The books all state that good strips are needed to produce a good canoe. The tollerances given are from spot checks that I made. I have no idea if they are adequate, just given as a guide as I could not find out what was intended as 'Good Strips'.
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