{"id":186,"date":"2014-06-14T20:28:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.mykos.org\/?p=186"},"modified":"2014-06-15T11:03:49","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:03:49","slug":"installing-the-molds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":"Installing the Molds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stem<\/a><\/p>\n

Now that my strongback is setup I got to install all the station molds. This was a pretty exciting and rewarding day, since you get to see the shape of your canoe in 3D for the first time. It took all day to get things set up since there is a lot of checking, clamping, adjusting, checking, and then screwing. Trying to get this many parts aligned to a centre line, plumb and square is fiddly business.<\/p>\n

Almost half the time was spent getting the two ends established. The stem molds need to be set up square to the #6 station mold and then the #7 station molds are actually two halves that go on either side of the stem mold. Because I used 1\/2″ birch plywood for all my molds it has some flexibilty to it. The stem molds ended up having a bit of curve to them which was troublesome to get out.<\/p>\n

I went with the birch ply because I really dislike working with MDF, but I think if I do another canoe I’d do all the molds with 3\/4″ MDF. The extra rigidity and stability would make setting up the molds go a lot quicker. I’d also want to have a good band saw for making them…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"alignment<\/a><\/p>\n

When I cut the dados in the riser blocks, I dropped the blade down to just about 5mm after the last pass. Then without adjusting the fence position I ran the blocks through on end from each side so that I’d have a reference mark down the block to exactly where the walls of the dado were. Since the edge of each station mold is supposed to be on the twelve inch intervals perpendicular to the centre line, this cut mark lets me line up each block with the mold in the right place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"alignment<\/a><\/p>\n

I also marked the centre of each riser block and carried the line all the way around. This allowed me to get the riser blocks aligned with the centre line on the strongback and the centre line of the molds aligned as well. I wasn’t sure how it would work out when I made up the blocks, but after doing it I have to say that it was very easy and straightforward. Having the blocks flat and square is essential though.<\/p>\n

\"centreline<\/a><\/p>\n

With the two ends set up finally, I clamped a string above the strongback to establish an upper centre line. The blocks clamped to the stem molds which the string is attached to are cut away by half the width of the plywood (0.230″ for this particular plywood). I used some neon green braided backing line from my fly rod for the reference string. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to do the same thing. It’s very visible and holds tension very well (as you’d expect it to do).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"complete<\/a><\/p>\n

With all the molds installed I’ve got a skeleton of a canoe !<\/p>\n

One snafu I did discover with the riser blocks was that the ones I had put in at the front of the stem molds stuck out too far and would interfere with the strips right at the top of the stem. Luckily I figured this out before I established the top string centre line and had put any of the station molds in. I had to remove the stem molds from their blocks (but not take the #6 and #7s off) and cut the front blocks down as you can see above. I also put the screws holding the riser block in from underneath the strongback on those ones and took out the ones that would be underneath the mold in the bottom of the dado.<\/p>\n

Now once I have some of the strips on from the shear line down to the curve of the bilge which will stabilize the stems I can take those end blocks out by removing the screws from the bottom and sliding them out the ends. Adding the last few short strips to make up the shear line below the initial strip should be free from impediment then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that my strongback is setup I got to install all the station molds. This was a pretty exciting and rewarding day, since you get to see the shape of your canoe in 3D for the first time. It took all day to get things set up since there is a lot of checking, clamping, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huron-cruiser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mykos.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}