Fairing board for strip canoe. Advice needed.

[alteran]

I had not thought about using a fairing board. I have been just using an orbital sander after hitting the high spots with a block plane. This canoe might end up being a home decor item rather than a floater so I want a very fair hull. If I hang it it will have a lot of light reflected off it so the imperfections will be quite apparent.
Any one willing to write a short tutorial on using a fairing board? Or know where I might find the info on line?

Thanks a million, Al.

[Steve Lansdowne]

I made mine of thin plastic I had lying about to which I attached sandpaper cut from a sanding belt. About 15" long and 3" wide. Countersunk some screws through the bottom into some handles on the other side and went for it. Screws through the handles held the sandpaper that was wrapped around the ends onto the plastic. Thin plywood works good too -- my plastic broke and had to be replaced as I flexed it too much. Some folks use spray adhesive to adhere the sandpaper to the wood backing. Long strokes help ensure the hull will be fair, though if you've got hollows now it will take a lot of time and dust off before they are gone.

[alteran]

Did you use an orbital sander first? Plane? Or all by hand? Long strokes meaning the full length of the hull, one end to the other? O diagonally across the hull.

Thanks, for the info, much appreciated.

[alteran]

Thank you too Ironmule. That is excellent advice, something that with all manner of powertools one tends to lose sight of.

Al.

[Paul Scheuer]

The really big time auto finishing guys do the final smoothing by painting with gloss black to make every imperfection stand out. May not be an option if you plan to varnish. You could also use movable lights to cast shadows in all directions to find the flaws.

My caution would be to resist the urge to go to too fine a grit until you have a fair surface. You'll end up with smooth valleys instead of a fair, even finish. Also - don't do anything that will remove more from the softer parts of the grain.

[ 02-06-2004, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: Paul Scheuer ]

[JimConlin]

I've got a couple of boards that are 2-3/4" x 17-1/2", made of 1/4" and 3/8" lexan . They have wooden knobs screwed to 'em. I use #36 or #40 green psa paper. It's good exercise.

[ 02-06-2004, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: JimConlin ]

[alteran]

I have some 1/8" high density poly on hand. Sort of a medium hard but flexible plastic. Softer by quite a bit than lexan. Think of the plastic an ice cream tub is made of. Do you think this will work? Or does it need to be hard enough to bear down hard on the bumps and not contact at all the hollows?

Hope this makes sense and thanks again all for the help. Al.

[Steve Lansdowne]

I used a plane for the high spots and then the fairing board -- long horizontal strokes FOR A FOOT OR TWO IN THE bow to stern DIRECTION and back again as you're standing in one spot.

Try the poly piece you already have and see what happens. The longer the board the better, up to a point. I fashioned some wood handles for mine. One picture shows the whole thing, while the other shows one end piece taken off so you get an idea how the end of the sandpaper is fastened to the wood piece. The handles and wood blocks on the end are screwed to the plastic from the other side using flat head wood screws. (I used plane handles as a model for the dimensions of my handles.) If your plastic is too thin this is hard to do.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid102/p6e30d57410a97265072f6936c30c101a/f9b49757.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid102/pe7a04de96c741d60c9803b99a02f28f9/f9b494f3.jpg

[ 02-06-2004, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Steve Lansdowne ]

[alteran]

"long horizontal strokes bow to stern and back again as you're standing in one spot."

How the hell can I do that? My arms aren't long enough. smile.gif

Very very nice, and I really appreciate you going to the trouble to take the photos. I'll go back to the shop yet tonight and see what I can put together.

Thanks again Al.

[LongJohn]

Al -

I made mine with 5 or 6 scrap strips about 18" long. Glued them edge to edge - just like on the canoe, but flat - to end up with a 3"x18"x1/4" cedar "plank". I then planed, scraped and sanded it smooth, and glued and screwed a 3" piece of 2x2 across each end for handles. It will bend to a shallow radius, but is pretty stiff. A little more bendy would probably be good. Then I used spray-on contact adhesive to stick on a 3"x18" piece of sanding belt. 40 grit to start, 80 grit once the hull was close to fair.

To use it, I set the fairing board at angle of about 45 deg. to the keel line, started near the base of one stem, and push/pulled it with a rocking motion back and forth over a longitudinal patch maybe 6" or 8" wide from stem to stern. With each stroke, I'd move an inch or so towards the other end of the boat. Easy to do, hard to explain. Reaching the other stem, I'd reverse the angle and re-cover the same territory. Then do the same part of the other side. Basically, I followed a group of 6 or 8 strips from stem to stern, then shifted down and worked the next several strips - but always overlapping some of the same strips on each consecutive pass. I continued this process from keel-line to sheer, covering the entire boat 3 or 4 times with the coarse grit (each pass with a lighter touch). Then I filled some spaces between strips and made another 2 or 3 passes with the finer grit. Only then did I get out the sander to smooth the now-fair hull. The 40 grit really moved a lot of cedar - the flats of the strips were basically gone after the first pass and much of the work of subsequent passes was in removing gouges from being too aggressive. :rolleyes:

Fairing the inside isn't nearly as easy.... Haven't been able to figure out an effective convex fairing board.

So what canoe are you making?

- John

[alteran]

Thanks for the good description John. After thinking about it a bit I'm pretty sure I know what you meen.

Building two, a chestnut prospector and a solo "leaf".

What did you build? Are you finished? If I could I'd like to see it and maybe compare notes. I expect I'll be building 1 more at least. Next year.

If that would be ok contact me by private email if you wish. Alteran2003@yahoo.com.

Thanks, Al.

[LongJohn]

Al -

I'm making a "Dwarf Prospector" - essentially a 5/6 scale Prospector that I tweaked a bit. ~13.5'x30" I'm hoping it will be a good solo river-runner. It's all 'glassed and hanging in the rafters of the garage/boatshop awaiting warmer weather. Hope to be able to finish it off in April.

Made a regular Ted Moores Prospector about 10 years ago in redwood. Great canoe.

I'm not familiar with the "Leaf" design. Tell me about it.

Send me an message if you're planning to be near Stevens Point some time after it warms up a bit.

- John