Outer Stems and Sanding

So it has been about a week since my last update, and I have been told by a few people that they need more pictures!  Anyway....I have spent the last week sanding the hull with the belt sander and shaping the bow and stern to receive that hardwood stems.

Hardwood Stems:

I then went to steam the walnut stems for the bow and stern.  I used the basic ideas that I had seen online from other canoe builders to build my steamer.  The idea was to steam one set of strips, and then clamp them to a piece of plywood that was my template for the inner stems of the canoe.  I would leave it clamped for approx. 24 hours and then glue/screw/ratchet strap it to the canoe.   Then I would steams the other set of strips, let it sit over night, and repeat the process for the other end.  I made slight modifications to the steamer the second night, and although I can not say the results were perfect, I was able to bend them enough to do what I needed them to do.  Here is a picture of my steamer, and the strips clamped in shape ready to sit over night.

So...the next night I got my dad to come over and we rigged up a way to use ratchet straps to help hold the strips in place over night as the glue set up.  After we get the one set secured, we steamed the second set up and got them in the clamps.  All in all, everything went pretty well.

The walnut looks pretty blocky on the canoe before it is shaped.

The other side is already shapped.  I used the belt sander to get it to its primary shape, and then the random-orbital sander to fine tune it.  I really like the way these are going to look when fiberglassed!

 Rest of the week will be spent sanding.  I have some more sanding to be done with the belt sander, and then  lots of sanding to be done with the random-orbital sander.  I am using 120 grit sand paper on that.  With that, I can make it as smooth as necessary.  In my opinion...it is only about making it "look smooth".  You wont be able to actually touch the wood with all of the fiberglass and resin on it anyway!

The fiberglass materials should arrive late this week, so I hope to fiberglass the outside next weekend.