EM White Guide Canoe by Osmosis - Canoe Model Kits - 1/6

[Osmosis]

Well after a long absence and a very big bump in the road I am going to try a comeback. 2020 was a bad year for all of us and I hope we can put it behind us and get a fresh start.

 

In that vein I am starting with something that I think will be a lot of fun. It is a 36" E.M. White Guide Canoe. I really enjoyed the Midwest Peterboro canoe I did a while back so I thought I would give this a try. As the basic construction is the same as the smaller one I will not bore you all with the details of every plank and rib. But I will try to point out the differences and any problems or highlights.

 

I ordered two kits from the canoemodelkits.com back on Dec 17th. They were shipped on the same day as you can see in the picture below and they just arrived yesterday. I did not waste any time getting started.

 

 

 

The kit came well packed and it certainly is a box full of wood.

 

 

There are only 6 pages of instructions and a DVD with video instructions that are not really very helpful. But having done the Midwest kit which had excellent instructions and turned out pretty well I think we will get through this one ok.

 

 

The "strong back" is made of MDF and not really very strong. In fact the 1st step in the instructions tells you to screw the "strong back" to a larger, thicker piece of plywood.

 

 

Well since I own a table saw and dado head cutter I decided to start with the kit bashing. As luck would have it I just finished a small kitchen cabinet project for my daughter last week and had a nice supply of 3/4" sande ply scraps left over. After an hour or so I wound up with what I would call a proper Strong Back.

 

 

The small strips of 1/4" ply at the top of the picture will be used to cut some gussets for the forms. A side by side look with one of the forms for reference.

 

 

That's it for now. I am going to go make some more sawdust and hopefully get the forms all sorted out and installed.

 

It is really great being back and I hope to become more active around here again. Thanks for looking in.

 

Best Regards

 

 

[yvesvidal]

Interesting kit. Quite bigger than the Midwest model.

 

Yves

[Osmosis]

Hello and thank for all the likes.

 

Yes Yves it is quite massive.

 

The further I get into this kit the more the more disappointed I become. I am sure it will produce a fine model. However in my humble opinion the kit itself is not engineered or executed very well. With just a little more attention to detail and quality control this could be a fun project right out of the box. Unfortunately without those things much of the finishing and detail work is left up to the builder to just get the forms and base ready to begin. Granted I tend to over think and over build everything. But in my opinion there is a lot of work that should have been done by the manufacturer that instead was left up to the builder.

 

I spent last night and a good part of today getting the forms ready. As you can see from the pictures they are pretty crude for being cut on a "CNC" router. In the picture I have already rounded the edges on the "G" form where the planks will be in contact to minimize the amount accidental gluing.

 

 

I did the same to all the other forms as well as lots of deburring and general cleaning up.

 

 

The matching pairs of forms were hot glued together and then hot glued to the bottom of the box. I rounded over and cleaned up the forms as much as I could then cut my gussets.

 

When I woke up this morning I found out what happens when you cut a bunch of grooves in one side of a sheet of plywood. This was perfectly straight when I cut it yesterday. I am guessing that cutting the grooves relieved the tension on one side and allowed it to warp toward that side. Or maybe not what do I know?

 

 

No problem back to the table saw. Cut a couple of 1" strips from the left over piece. Mill a couple of grooves length wise in the opposite side and you have strong backs for the strong back.

 

 

Some glue and clamps and problem solved. I think.

 

 

I also carefully measured and marked center lines on all the forms. After much fussing and finagling I got a successful dry fit of the forms.

 

 

As you can see it does take up my entire rather modest work bench. That is enough for today time for some football.

 

Thanks for looking and best regards

 

 

[Osmosis]

Hello again and thanks for all the likes.

 

Not much to show so far but I have made a little progress. Below is a picture of the building form next to her little sister from Midwest.

 

 

The instructions are quite clear about how critical the placement of the shear plank is. As we all know this sets up the planking for the entire project. The method they would have me use is to nail the shear plank to each form using the bottom edge as a guide then repeating the process on the other side. Once both sides are done go back and check that the shape/curve of the shears on both sides match and moving and re-nailing as needed.

 

Well the plywood used for the forms is only 5mm thick and of such poor quality that I am not sure it would hold a nail much less moving and re-nailing without splitting. The curve of the bent plank will be putting a lot of stress on those little brads and thin forms.

 

Which brings us to the smaller Midwest designed forms. Each form has a shoulder to clamp the shear plank against to make sure it is in the proper place and is in the right shape without any nails, guess work or adjustments. What a great Idea!

 

So with some plywood scraps and my trusty razor saw and miter box I got to work.

 

 

It took the best part of the evening but well worth the effort I think. Each shoulder block is measured so that they are the same height on both sides of each form. Where as the forms are not exactly symmetrical so alignment should be much more precise this way.

 

With the blocks glued in place it is easier to see just how much bend is needed on the shear plank. I am not really sure about getting that much bend with dry wood but that is how the instructions recommend doing it. On the other hand I have always wanted to build a steam box!

 

All that is left is a coat or two of wipe on poly and the real work can begin.

 

I know it seems like a lot of time spent on the base and forms but I believe that a strong foundation is needed to build a proper structure. Also since the form is reusable I want it to last through a couple of builds.

 

That's it for tonight.

 

Best regards.

[Osmosis]

Not much to report but here goes.

 

I did manage to get a coat of wipe on poly on the building form and 2 coats on the areas that will come in contact with glue joints on the planking. I used this same method on the Peterboro build and the finished canoe slid off the form like you know what through a goose.

 

 

Also I tried dry bending the shear plank and you can see the result. Granted I went through the planks provided in the kit and this one was the worst of them but still.

 

So I have decided to build a steam box for this and a few other projects I have in mind. I will start a build thread in the appropriate section once I figure out what that is and I will post a link to the thread once I get it started. I already have everything I need so I don't think it will be much more than a weekend build but you never know with me.

 

Best Regards

 

 

[Osmosis]

It is not much to see but as promised here is a link to my steam box build. Steam Box Build

 

Regards

[Osmosis]

Well believe it or not I have not given up on this build. It is actually getting to the fun part for me.

 

After many different attempts at getting the shear plank right where I wanted it I have finally started making some progress. Unfortunately I was too wrapped up in the process to really document it. The real trick was getting the first planks on then getting them to stay in place with out any clamps in the way of gluing on the next one. I could have just drilled holes through the plank at every frame and inserting some brads and that was probably the next step even though I am not a huge fan of making holes that I know I will have to fill later on.

 

I had some brass belaying pins that came in an old kit I picked up at a garage sale that were just the right size so I drilled down into the shoulders that I added to the building frames. Then glued in a belaying pin at every other frame. Then used some of the tiny clothes pins I got at the dollar store as wedges against the plank to hold it in place.

 

 

Now it is just steaming, clamping, back beveling, gluing and reclamping and clamping and clamping. As my Hero Norm Abrams used to say you can never have too many clamps. Here is the second plank on one side all glued and clamped up I will let this one dry a little before doing the other side.

 

 

As you can see I already have the next one ready to go. I think the best I can hope for is two planks each evening after work except poker night and maybe a couple more on weekends so it is going to be a long haul.

 

That is it for now,thanks for looking in,

 

Stay Safe and Best Regards

Edited February 9, 2021 by Osmosis

[BobG]

On 1/25/2021 at 5:42 PM, Osmosis said:

Below is a picture of the building form next to her little sister from Midwest.

I just found your build and she's huge!! I'm looking forward to following along. I love canoe models. Any recent progress?