So...after a few weeks, I am finally about ready to actually start building this thing. I am going to build it out in my garage. I thought about doing it at my Dad's shop, but Ill get more hours in at home. I spent about 2 weeks working in the garage to get it into proper "shop shape" Mostly, I installed some more/newer/better lighting and some insulation to keep the heat in better. I plan to start stripping the canoe over the weekend.
I had an idea a few months back about how to store the strips. I don't want them sitting on the floor, and yet didn't know how to keep them anywhere neatly. I had the long shelf already, and purchased the cheapest shelf brackets that I could find and screwed those on as you can see in the picture. It does the job...if I have extra people helping out, Ill use 2 ladders to have a pile of strips on the other side of the canoe so we can "fly"
My forms are old forms that have built MANY MANY canoes. They are nearing their end of useability, but they will work just fine for me. I am glad that I dont have to make too many major decisions about the shape of the canoe. I have spent many hours in canoes of this exact shape, and am very comfortable with it. I have the forms set up, plumb, level, straight, and correct in every other way that i can imagine.
You can see the string line down the middle. It lines up with a line drawn on the center of the stations and helps prove that they are all centered on the strong back. Then you just have to make sure they are plumb, and that the bow and stern are straight.
With this form, they do the inner steam different than you normally see. Instead of steaming hardwoods, you cut a "boomerang" out of plywood. The boomerang will stay in the canoe and will hardly ever be seen. I still plan to steam the outter steams on after i have the strips cut down. This way I can put it on once and leave it on instead of having to remove it to do the stripping.
