Automating Mistakes with the CNC - Making a Kayak - microBootlegger Sport - E5
Cutting forms and making mistakes with the ShopBot. CNC router bit discussion.
Strip building involves bending thin (1/4-inch [6-mm] or less) pieces of wood around temporary forms, edge-gluing them together, and then fiberglassing inside and out. It is a great method for making beautiful, lightweight, small boats. Also called "Cedar Strip", "Wood Strip", "Strip Planked" etc.
Cutting forms and making mistakes with the ShopBot. CNC router bit discussion.
In this episode after messing up some strips in the previous episode, I redo milling the strips for the body of the kayak. I cut down a 2x12 into 3/4" blanks and then rip those blanks into 3/16" strips. In the middle I take a break and talk about my table saw setup.
In this episode I start breaking down the blanks into 3/16" thick strips. This was going fine until I lost concentration.
In this episode I take the wood I purchased in the last episode, and starting breaking it down in to strips. I have a 2x8 that I am ripping into 3/4" wide blanks, and a 1x12 that I am ripping directly into strips. I talk about how I get vertical grain strips out of vertical grained boards.
Over the winter of 2018 I built a cedar strip microBootlegger Sport for a customer. I took video of the whole project and documented it on YouTube through an almost daily vlog. The project ended up comprising about 70 videos. You will find them all here.
For years, the state of the art in making strip-built boats has been cove-and-bead strips. Since most boats have rounded sectional shapes, i.e. the forms have a curved shape from the sheer line to the keel line, it is inevitable that each adjacent strip is oriented at a slightly different angle relative to its neighbor. If the edge of each strip is left square, this results in slight gaps in the seam between adjacent strips.
Watch the progression from a bundle of wood strips to a completed kayak in 7 minutes. In this week long class students made a beautiful fine strip planked kayak.
Here is the schedule for the week shown in this video:
Last fall a 10 person camera crew spent all day here at my shop filming a segment for the A&E Network. I had wondered for a while what happened with all that effort. Recently someone on FaceBook messaged me saying he had seen something about me. Well, the above 30 second sequence is the result of 10 to 12 peoples working all day, plus how ever long it took them to prepare before and then edit afterwards.
An overview showing the process of building a cedar strip wooden kayak from start to finish.