Faber canoe

There are 2 brands of canoes which are my least favorite to do restoration and repair to. Faber and Tremblay, no fault of the canoe or design both very well built canoes. The 2 companies used Verolite as the material to cover the canoes with. It is a vinyl impregnated canvas, and this is where the trouble begins.

The Verolite doesnt let the canoe breath like regular canvas does, it makes a perfect enviroment for mold and rot to begin. When I lived on Vancouver Island , it being a wet climate to begin with made this a nightmare. Allot of the times the ribs actually rotted so badly they turned to dust. The varnish was the only thing keeping the dust in the shape of a rib.

Below is a picture of a piece of Verolite from this Faber canoe. The canvas itself is gone and all thats left is the vinyl material.









In most cases the Verolite canvas will cause the top row of planking as well as the rib tops to rott badly. However in this case the rib tops were just a little soft so epoxy saturating them was needed.  Anywhere the rib was damaged badly a mixture of epoxy and saw dust was used to build the top back up.

This canoe also had a few cracked ribs, but were not causing any stress on the planking. So to try and keep the ribs the same, repairs were done to the back side of them.

 

Allot of planking was replaced in the bottom, new outer gunwales,sanding and new varnish brought this Faber canoe back to life.

 

 

 

Steam Box

Well nothing lasts for ever, let alone a steam box.  The  first steam box I made lasted 20 years. It was starting to show its age, so it was time for a new one.  I have different sizes of steam boxes for steaming small pieces or cant ribs. The main one is mostly for steaming ribs.

This steam box measures 8" by 14" and 6ft long, constructed from plywood.

It has a manifold in it made from copper pipe with 1/8" holes drilled every inch to help distribute the steam evenly. Also with wooden dowels as crossers to support the ribs.

Like all things in my shop I like my stuff to be mobile ad easy to move, so it has its own base with wheels and the box is at a comfortable working height as well. The door is hinged and sealed with a felt gasket.

I had a kettle made 20 years ago, went and bought a piece of pipe off cut, had a top and bottom welded on it as well as a spot to fill it and a 1/2 tube to attach hose to. Heater core hose is used perfect for high temps.

The kettle holds about 3 gallons of water its fired by a 65,000 btu burner, and produces lots of steam.