Rib Installation Illustrated: short clip

Progress Report as students leave for March Break

In the past few years, blog posts have gotten repetitive, as we make the same boats every year, but I though it now has been long enough that I might revisit an overview of the process.  These photos give a brief review of the steps we've covered since December,  For some of this, Covid kept the students online, and I did some fabrication of parts, but students were back in the shop in January, and we've made very good progress.

Preparation:  forms set up, with soaked gunwales laid on the
forms to dry.

In the meantime, stringers were cut and soaked, stems and
and knees were roughed out and breasthooks fabricated.

On their return to school, students installed
the breasthooks.

Wet stringers are temporarily tied onto the forms
with twine.

Cedar ribs are soaked and steamed to bend into
the cage created by the stringers.

From stringers temporarily tied to the forms, to 
rib-end glues to the gunwales.

Stringer ends are trimmed and lashed to the 
stem and knee.

Lashing all done, including 5 'half-ribs' amidships to help keep the 
bottom flat and improve initial stability.

As we head off for spring break, we clamped the soak inwales to the outside of the gunwales to dry, so they will easily conform to the correct shape when dry.  Upon our return, while studenets quarantine for a few days we will do some readings about boat perfomance, and then install the inwales and turn to fabrication and installation fo the thwarts.

Shop Action

Steaming and installing cedar ribs in the skin-on-frame canoes.