catsittingstill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catsittingstill) wrote2010-11-10 08:39 pm
catsittingstill) wrote2010-11-10 08:39 pm
Achieving Rackage
So, canoe storage. Canoe storage is going to become a problem now that I have two canoes and only one back porch. I need to deal with this problem so I can have my boatshop empty again so I can fill it up with another canoe.
Now canoes are picky about their storage. You can leave a canoe on the ground for a *little* while (a few days) without harm. But if you leave it upside down on the ground long term, bad things start happening. Moisture from the wet ground can degrade the wood of the canoe. Mice may nest in it (and can be destructive little devils.) The canoe can deform under its own, unevenly supported, weight.
If you leave the canoe right side up, rain can fall in it. A canoe can hold quite a bit of weight--when it's surrounded, every part of its hull evenly buoyed, by soft, yeilding water. On flat or lumpy ground, it doesn't take many inches of rain to seriously exceed its design parameters.
I now have a canoe rack.
Ice and snow can be a problem, but not in Tennessee so much, of course.
So the aim for storing a canoe is two fold. 1) evenly supported, with no extra weight involved 2) dry.
I've been storing Patience on the back porch (so mostly covered, which took care of "dry" to a first approximation) in her canoe crades (which took care of "evenly supported." However there isn't room for me to store Constance there the same way. So I had to take steps.
You will recall in our last episode, Steve and I cut notches in the 4 x 4 pieces that will become the uprights. 3 notches each for canoe supports, 1 notch each for crosspiece laps. Then I cut 6 end notches, but had 2 to go.
First I cut the last two end notches, on the 8 foot timber below.
The notches for the 4 x 4 to 4 x 4 full laps were just ever so slightly too small, because it turns out a 4 x 4 is ever so slightly wider than the "4" part of a 2 x 4, which is what we used to check the notches. Where "ever so slightly" amounts to two palmfulls of shavings off each side of the 4 x 4 using the low angle block plane with the adjustable throat Martin told me to get. (Martin is wise. That plane gets a lot of use. I am happy to have that plane. I must sharpen that plane soon so it will know I love it.)
I fitted all the laps. In the distance on the left you can see the right angle created by two end laps meeting. It will become obvious where this goes.
Then I built up the shelf-ish parts on each side (not shelves, but you could lay boards over them and make shelves if you wanted--think shelf supports.) The dark wood that makes the stunted h's is all 4 x 4. The light wood is 2 x 4.
I used deck screws (with a star drive, but the bit comes in the box so that was no problem) to hold everything together. I actually intended to use carriage bolts for the heaviest duty laps, but didn't have a drill bit that could go all the way through a 4 x 4, and rather than go buy a new tool I just used the deck screws for everything.
Here are the sides all braced. After this it got too dark for my pictures to come out, but tomorrow I will get a picture of the finished rack with canoes on it.
Briefly, I turned the uprights to lie on their backs, fitted the cross-piece into the notches thus exposed, secured it with a couple of deck screws, and gave each end its own triangular brace.
It went pretty smoothly but took longer than I expected. Toward the end I was hurrying to finish before dark. But I got everything done and squared up as best I could using the framing square and braced with scraps of 2 x 4 (thank goodness I bought an extra 2 x 4) and when I had driven the last screw Kip came home and was available to help me turn it right side up.
Then we loaded it up with boats. There is an extra space at the top. That is on purpose. I bet you can guess what it is for.
And it fits (I could have made it narrower, actually, but I didn't quite trust myself to set the canoes on supports that were only barely wide enough, and I thought a wide bottom "shelf" would make the center of gravity comfortably over the center of support pretty much no matter what I did with the canoes.) Plus at the moment I can still see out the kitchen window (which won't be the case when the top supports are in use, but never mind; canoe sheds are expensive.)
I did almost nothing else today. I went for my walk, but skipped the strength training because important muscles are still sore from paddling yesterday. Then I spent the whole day bending and stooping and carrying heavy 4 x 4s around so maybe that was my strength training after all.
Now canoes are picky about their storage. You can leave a canoe on the ground for a *little* while (a few days) without harm. But if you leave it upside down on the ground long term, bad things start happening. Moisture from the wet ground can degrade the wood of the canoe. Mice may nest in it (and can be destructive little devils.) The canoe can deform under its own, unevenly supported, weight.
If you leave the canoe right side up, rain can fall in it. A canoe can hold quite a bit of weight--when it's surrounded, every part of its hull evenly buoyed, by soft, yeilding water. On flat or lumpy ground, it doesn't take many inches of rain to seriously exceed its design parameters.
I now have a canoe rack.
Ice and snow can be a problem, but not in Tennessee so much, of course.
So the aim for storing a canoe is two fold. 1) evenly supported, with no extra weight involved 2) dry.
I've been storing Patience on the back porch (so mostly covered, which took care of "dry" to a first approximation) in her canoe crades (which took care of "evenly supported." However there isn't room for me to store Constance there the same way. So I had to take steps.
You will recall in our last episode, Steve and I cut notches in the 4 x 4 pieces that will become the uprights. 3 notches each for canoe supports, 1 notch each for crosspiece laps. Then I cut 6 end notches, but had 2 to go.
First I cut the last two end notches, on the 8 foot timber below.
The notches for the 4 x 4 to 4 x 4 full laps were just ever so slightly too small, because it turns out a 4 x 4 is ever so slightly wider than the "4" part of a 2 x 4, which is what we used to check the notches. Where "ever so slightly" amounts to two palmfulls of shavings off each side of the 4 x 4 using the low angle block plane with the adjustable throat Martin told me to get. (Martin is wise. That plane gets a lot of use. I am happy to have that plane. I must sharpen that plane soon so it will know I love it.)
I fitted all the laps. In the distance on the left you can see the right angle created by two end laps meeting. It will become obvious where this goes.
Then I built up the shelf-ish parts on each side (not shelves, but you could lay boards over them and make shelves if you wanted--think shelf supports.) The dark wood that makes the stunted h's is all 4 x 4. The light wood is 2 x 4.
I used deck screws (with a star drive, but the bit comes in the box so that was no problem) to hold everything together. I actually intended to use carriage bolts for the heaviest duty laps, but didn't have a drill bit that could go all the way through a 4 x 4, and rather than go buy a new tool I just used the deck screws for everything.
Here are the sides all braced. After this it got too dark for my pictures to come out, but tomorrow I will get a picture of the finished rack with canoes on it.
Briefly, I turned the uprights to lie on their backs, fitted the cross-piece into the notches thus exposed, secured it with a couple of deck screws, and gave each end its own triangular brace.
It went pretty smoothly but took longer than I expected. Toward the end I was hurrying to finish before dark. But I got everything done and squared up as best I could using the framing square and braced with scraps of 2 x 4 (thank goodness I bought an extra 2 x 4) and when I had driven the last screw Kip came home and was available to help me turn it right side up.
Then we loaded it up with boats. There is an extra space at the top. That is on purpose. I bet you can guess what it is for.
And it fits (I could have made it narrower, actually, but I didn't quite trust myself to set the canoes on supports that were only barely wide enough, and I thought a wide bottom "shelf" would make the center of gravity comfortably over the center of support pretty much no matter what I did with the canoes.) Plus at the moment I can still see out the kitchen window (which won't be the case when the top supports are in use, but never mind; canoe sheds are expensive.)
I did almost nothing else today. I went for my walk, but skipped the strength training because important muscles are still sore from paddling yesterday. Then I spent the whole day bending and stooping and carrying heavy 4 x 4s around so maybe that was my strength training after all.
no subject
Ifno, why not?
no subject
They're also hundreds of dollars (I think 500 - 2,000) instead of 50, which is what I spent on the wood for the rack. (I was trying to bring the whole thing in under 50 but I think the screws were seven, and the wood was 48, so... no.) At some point I might be able to afford that kind of expenditure, but not right now.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2010-11-12 06:08 pm (UTC)(link):{)}
no subject
And who are you?