greybeard canoes & kayaks

A quick word on mounting the station forms (and perhaps canoe-building in general) — double-check. And after you have double-checked, take a break and check again.

Turns out that although the forms all lined up at the top, form 6 (the one that holds the bow or stern form) was not perfectly aligned. My assumption was that the form’s centerline was square to the base of the form; as a result, all would be square and true. Wrong. What is it they say about assumptions? Something about making crooked canoes.

I made sure that the strongback was square and level, and then I went about checking all of the forms for trueness. Turns out that  form 6 was about 4 degrees out of true. Perhaps the template slipped when I traced the form. Perhaps my centerline was a little off. If I hadn’t caught it at this point, the bow (or stern) would have had a twist. The picture below shows the laser level against the form.

Finding this potential problem at this stage allowed me to fix it and check again that the forms lined up along the keel and — more importantly — were true along the horizontal and vertical axes.

Disaster averted. Now it’s time to make some sawdust.

Tagged: canoe building, forms, greybeard canoes, station forms