Twisted strongback

[cgturner7]

Morning all. Newbie here in frozen TX!

I teach middle school shop- not a trained professional, just a handy-man that can do a few things pretty well. I inherited a shop that has been neglected and pretty much abused. The first project my students did was to clean, organize and throw away junk. Then we set off priming and painting, resurfacing work stations, installing new sinks and sprucing up the shop. My students are really buying into "their" shop and taking some pride in what they've done to improve it. We did the typical bird house project and even built bat boxes.

Now we are into Shop II. I've decided that building a wooden strip canoe will be the major Shop II project. I'd like it to be the project that everyone is fired up to do and everyone looks forward to. I'll take the classes on a field trip to test out the canoe when we are finished. We will probably sell or raffle the canoe to help raise money for the shop.

We've drawn up plans and are cutting the molds for a Wee Lassie. We've built our strongback, which brings me to my question. I tried to pick out the straightest lumber I could find but my 2x6x12 strongback has a twist. Any ideas on how to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm sure I will be writing in often asking for advice.

 

[bill w]

Look under Search. Type in strongback. That should give you some ideas. I strugled with trying to find the staightist 2by and making that work with fair results. I now have made a box beam, easy to make and strong and strait and no twist Hope that helps. Bill

 

[pklonowski]

The strongback doesn't have to be prefectly straight. When you set the station forms on it, you'll be able to shim them into position. But be meticulous about this step -- you should plan to spend more time on it than ctually stripping the canoe.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

I need to jump in and say what a great class project it is to build a canoe-- some others here have been involved in that-- and many have built or restored canoes with family members. So cool to build something you can enjoy on the water... and when your canoe sells in the raffle, what a great gift back to the shop-- and so, a tradition begins!

Kathy

 

[cgturner7]

Thanks for the input. I hope that this little project will become a tradition. I am fortunate enough to live in a small town in the TX Hillcountry where people still value hard work, actually making things, and allow me to teach their children a few things in the shop.

I've decided to take apart my old strongback and make a plywood box. So far, it's coming out much staighter. It was a good lesson for my students that sometimes things don't work out. We start over and modify our original plans.