Shopsmith Forums

Nice work on the canoe. I also built a 14 foot canoe with a Shopsmith in California. I had ash gunwales and hand woven seats. On the maiden voyage we took it up into the Sierra Nevada foothills. Stopping at a restaurant people gathered around the truck to admire the boat strapped to the roof. One man asked if we had put relief ports in the bow and stern. We had not. He said that he had spent a year building a canoe and took it in the mountains. As he got into the higher altitudes the bow and stern blew apart from the pressure. We stppoed the trip at that point and found a lake on the way back home.
I intend to build a couple more someday when I can find the time. You have a fine son...

bassist wrote:Nice work on the canoe. I also built a 14 foot canoe with a Shopsmith in California. I had ash gunwales and hand woven seats. On the maiden voyage we took it up into the Sierra Nevada foothills. Stopping at a restaurant people gathered around the truck to admire the boat strapped to the roof. One man asked if we had put relief ports in the bow and stern. We had not. He said that he had spent a year building a canoe and took it in the mountains. As he got into the higher altitudes the bow and stern blew apart from the pressure. We stppoed the trip at that point and found a lake on the way back home.
I intend to build a couple more someday when I can find the time. You have a fine son...

Bassist - hey we're both new here huh? I'm up to a rip snortin' 7 posts. (well - 8 now)

I would liked to have seen your 14 footer with the woven seats. The one I'm building now will very likely have woven seats too. We didn't build sealed chambers in the bow and stern. It's wood so it floats just fine.

In fact I spent an hour in the water with Chris and this canoe teaching him re-entry skills if he dumps it in the lake and no help is available. It floats just fine when it's swamped. If you are 2 days away from help in the Boundary Waters or the Quetico you have to be able to do a self rescue.

That's pretty extreme to hear of the bow and stern blowing apart like that but theoretically I suppose it's possible. I would think if you drilled a 1/16" pin hole at the top of the bulkhead where it meets the underside of your deck it would not be visible and it would equalize any pressure weirdness going on. Water could get in but only very slowly. And if water inside the canoe gets up that high - you've got other problems to take care of.

Did you make the woven seats? Any patterns you can share?

woodbender wrote:That's pretty extreme to hear of the bow and stern blowing apart like that but theoretically I suppose it's possible. I would think if you drilled a 1/16" pin hole at the top of the bulkhead where it meets the underside of your deck it would not be visible and it would equalize any pressure weirdness going on.

Tim, a 1/16" hole is all that would be needed to equalize pressure. On a similar note, I remember once about 30 years ago my wife and I were 4-wheeling and camping in the mountains of Colorado. We were on a 4x4 trail quite a ways above timberline and my wife decided to get a tube of hand cream out of her purse to put on her hands. She popped the cap and it sprayed all over the inside of our Scout II. It hadn't been opened since we left St. Louis (600ft elevation). She asked what caused that, and when explaining to her I got to thinking... Stopped the Scout and got in the back to look, I had a new can of Coleman fuel for my camp stove that was ALMOST ROUND at that point....

tom_k/mo wrote:(snip) She asked what caused that, and when explaining to her I got to thinking... Stopped the Scout and got in the back to look, I had a new can of Coleman fuel for my camp stove that was ALMOST ROUND at that point....

I think I would just about have an "O" ring seal failure right about then. (otherwise known as a sphincter blowout)

tom_k/mo wrote:...in the mountains of Colorado. We were on a 4x4 trail quite a ways above timberline and my wife decided to get a tube of hand cream out of her purse to put on her hands. She popped the cap and it sprayed all over the inside of our Scout II. It hadn't been opened since we left St. Louis (600ft elevation).

Sharpie pens will do it, too. I opened a sharpie to touch up some vu-graphs at a conference in Vail, CO, and the ink sprayed across the desk and boiled out of the tip. it had not been opened since I left my office (~30ft elevations since it was on the 2nd floor;) ). now a days I occasionally see pens advertised not to leak on airliners.

Another little story - My son and Grandson were going biking in the Sierras. They left their home in Ventura Co. CA, (elevation low) As they were ascending to their destination, a bag of potato chips in the vehicle exploded! Chips all over the place.

I can remember the days of fountain pens and the blue/black pockets of air travelers that carried the pens with them on a flight. Even in the old DC-6s. When ball point pens came on the scene. That was supposed to be the end of leaky pens. At the time, (1944) I was in the 6th grade and had an ink well on my school desk.

beeg wrote:And Chuck, with that ink well, did you dip your quill pen in it?

Or was it the girl sitting in front of you with the long pony tail that got inked???:D

charlese wrote:Another little story - My son and Grandson were going biking in the Sierras. They left their home in Ventura Co. CA, (elevation low) As they were ascending to their destination, a bag of potato chips in the vehicle exploded! Chips all over the place.

I can remember the days of fountain pens and the blue/black pockets of air travelers that carried the pens with them on a flight. Even in the old DC-6s. When ball point pens came on the scene. That was supposed to be the end of leaky pens. At the time, (1944) I was in the 6th grade and had an ink well on my school desk.

You should have been in the first semi-load of inflated chip bags to be transported over the Rockies!:rolleyes: