Weekend four of the Canoe Build:
Paul comes up to put the cove on the bead and cove strips. I have set up the router jig and after a few test strips, we are ready to go.
Paul puts the strips in order.
I have a shop vac and a cyclone lid for my dust collection system:
The dust collection system. The white barrel with the cyclone lid is my primary filter. The white barrel has a twenty foot hose on it. Long enough to reach every corner of the shop. The black rubber strap keeps the cyclone lid on the barrel even when the shop vac is not turned on. If I am going to use the shop vac as a shop vac, I will put the filter back in and use it as normal.
I have taken the filter out of the shop vac and piped the exhaust out of the garage using a dryer vent. This way I will get no dust in the shop from the vacuum system.
We turn on the shop vac and the router and begin to feed the strips in.
Coving the strips 1.
I need a better intake for the dust system with the router jig. Some still escapes.
Coving the strips 2.
Coving the strips 3.
Coving the strips 4.
As Paul puts the strips through, I pull on the strip when it passes the extension table. This way, Paul does not have to get his hands/fingers near the router bit.
Each strip takes 30 seconds or less to go from the stack, through the router jig and back to the pile. We have two bundles of 30 strips and are done is less than an hour.
Bundle of finished strips.
Each bundle is sorted as to colour and is for one side of the canoe. We hope to have the two sides evenly coloured/patterned.
To help keep the shop dust free, I have turned our old box fan into a dust remover:
Box fan dust remover front.
The fan sucks the air through the filter. To the left is a heat lamp to help keep the damp out of the garage.
Box fan dust remover back. I use a 20 by 20 furnace filter held in place by four shop made brackets.
Paul is still debating making two “accent” strips to embellish the canoe. I think that he should. After Christmas we will go down to Windsor and see if they have anything that will be suitable.
Merry paddling,
Mike