steel canoe plans

thanks for your help and enlightment.
Reading this makes me think that i should try directly to build something a little bit bigger .


thanks again for these valuable infos.

 

how thick steel sheets has to be ?
and if it is aluminium sheets?

 

It depends. Aluminum is about 1/3 weight, 1/3 stiffness and last time I looked 3x price of steel. Your average Ally alloy has about 1/3 strength of steel,. However, for equal weight and strength sheet Ally is stiffer than steel so if the stresses in an application do not approach the yield point an Ally object can be made lighter and of equal stiffness. The actual gauge you would need would obviously depend on the size of boat and application, i.e., racing around the cape in a screaming gale vs mooching around a small lake in a gentle breeze.

We need the experts to come out of hiding again. The risk is less in a smaller boat.

 

This thread reminds me a of seeing children paddling old refrigerators around the garbage ponds in Tuvalu.

I actually did think at one point of building a small boat out of steel. I was going to take some basic plywood stitch and glue plans from Hannu Vartiala, select a suitable plate thickness and just weld away. I never got around to buying a welder, so the plans never materialized. And then I got into proper wooden boats.

Say, what kind of canoes do the locals use in Thailand? In the South Pacific the traditional pirogue is a dugout with an outrigger, but hollowing out a log is certainly not a day's work!

 

for something this small and light what about gluing instead of welding? There's some used in auto body repair that when tensiled will tear the steel first, and auto makers are using adheasive to replace spot welds more and more.

 

My own 2 cents on this iron canoe question. Sheet ordinary steel IMO is a perfectly rational choice if you are prepared to do regular maintenance. Steel is stronger than aluminum and can be welded (better than rivets) in thinner gauges (in other words the craft can be made nearly as light as with aluminum). I have mig welded samples of gauge 26 sheet steel, it can be done. Now the real question is building technique. You may want to design a chined hull and build first a spaceframe out of light tubes (no more than gauge 16) and then "skin" the carcasse with light sheet steel.

Haybayian

 

I was thinking of taking a stitch and glue canoe and build it like a steel origami boat. But I'm not sure how easy it is to weld thin sheets with the origami technique, so your suggestion makes sense.

As I'm not a welder myself (tried both MIG and TIG, even aluminium once) I can't say for sure, but is a framed design really worth the trouble? If it is, go with an already framed design, but make sure you don't put in just too much weight with the frames. As haybayian said, using tube frames and chine logs will make it easier to fair. Spira International has plenty of small framed boat designs.

 

Hi
Found that plan and it fits to my requirements (fly fishing, no boating ramps, paddling, poling, no motor zones, marsh).

http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/SC16_study.htm?prod=SC16

Now i dont know where is going to be the floatation line.
On the studyplan that boat requires six sheets of plywood, epoxy 18 liters and fiberglass and it saids the hull weights 80kg.

if i use six sheet of steel less than a millimeter
A sheet (nb 22 )weights 16,5 kg x 6 = 99 kg already.

How can i have an idea of the maximum load, floatation line before buying the plans:?:

 

Please take a look at this related link as well :
http://www.jgfitzpatrick.com/Opah.html

 

Hi, I've built several corrugated iron sailing canoes in the last ten years. Unlike the "long ago / when I was a kid" material, the new iron is high tensile. It will break if 'folded', it won't beat conveniently into shape to give it more fullness or bilge. However it is very strong, and with minimal framing will make a viable boat. Check my lastest craft, "Schapelle" in action at http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj-S-zAf0jI

The hull of this boat was built for about $125 using stuff that's readily available - even in rural Thailand.

Suggestions that rocker can be achieved by cutting darts in the ends and riveting them together probably come from someone who hasn't tried to do that in high tensile roofing iron. A sheet of iron bent into a canoe will have negative rocker - "hog" - in it'e keel line. It will be difficult to steer and highly unstable. The craft seen in the clip is constructed by cutting the sheet of iron in half lengthways and bolting the iron to a wooden center plank, which is shaped. The shape of this plank will determine the type of boat you end up with. Mine has rocker forward, a flat run aft and a transom to make it sail quick, but a pulling boat or a paddling double-ender are possible. The iron is cut in a sqiggle to fit fair and screw onto a flat-sided wooden stem. Minimal sealant required. The boats are a bit heavy. Modern iron is very durable and the boats show little sign of corrosion despite being used in salt water for several years.

Build some models first to get the shape you want.

Corrugated iron boat-building is an honourable persuit and you won't be alone in it.

Good Luck

 

Slug, cant visualise, can you post some pics?

 

Sure - in a week or so, when I get back to the 'office'

 

corrugated iron boat pics

Hi boaties,

I'm attempting to upload some pics of corrugated iron sailing canoes. I'm better at angle grinder than computer - hope this works.

Slug

 

Pretty to watch!

 

Outstanding! A little imagination in the rig as well, I see.