Introduction and sawhorses

Hi everyone,

I've been a lurker almost daily for the past year or so, and formed an account way back when, but I think that this is my first post. My name is John McGillivray and I live on Denman Island, BC. I've been building a workshop for the past 4.5 months and hope to start building a Cape Ann Storm by One Ocean Kayaks on Christmas day.

Thanks to all the builders out there that contributed so much ~ I've followed a lot of links and came across some great websites detailing their builds and of course the eye candy shots. I also want to build a canoe in the new year and after that, who knows ;-)

I've been taking pictures of the workshop from the foundation up and started keeping a blog of the workshop and life here on Denman Island. Please feel free to check it out (link below)

I bought the 3/4" plywood for the strongback and have 5/8" particle board for the stations. Now comes my question - what sawhorses work for you? I have a set of building sawhorses that are too big, so I need to make another pair. I really liked John Calderia's http://www.outdoorplace.org/paddling/ design. If you look around his builds, you'll see them. Basically what are some design features that I should be looking for? Please feel free to post pictures as I would love to see them.

I'm looking forward to finally being able to contribute to this forum and will blog my first cedar strip kayak.

Thanks again
John

http://denmankayaks.wordpress.com/

Welcome to the Creek.....Nice shop you've got going there.

http://shoppingmatchmaker.com/sawhorse.html

Those are the saw horses i currently use. They were incredibly simple to make and I was able to make them from spare lumber in the garage. The best part being the tops are fairly disposable so when I accidentally cut thru the tops its okay and easy to replace (come close already with circ saw and jig saw).

I've just started working on my first strip built kayak so I can't say how well they work for kayak building quite yet, but I can't imagine how much of an improvement you can make on a saw horse.

I forgot to say that I've added some notches with extra 2x4 pieces to hold the strong back and later I'll add another support to hold the boat while glassing.

Here are some pics of the sawhorses that I made for my Cape Ann Kayak that I built in 2006. The strongback fit into the notches and I screwed the feet to the floor. The pool noodle pad was put on to hold the boat for varnishing.
I plan to start a Storm SLT for my daughter in the spring (no heat in the shop). Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck with your build.

Gary

I got around to building some sawhorses a while back for the kayak and posted the build on my blog (more pictures) if anyone is interested with a cut list ... fairly basic but they are really stable and do the job! http://denmankayaks.wordpress.com/20.../kayak-stands/ I still have to make a plate that the strongback fits into and clamp it to the stands, but I will do that when I start levelling and lining up the stations and strongback.

Gary - those look like excellent stands and I really thought about them when I was building, but I wanted to be able to put the strips under the sawhorses and free up some floor space, so I decided to go the way I did. I'm looking forward to seeing how your next kayak will turn out. Any pictures of the Cape Ann you completed?

Here is a shot of one of them finished ...

http://denmankayaks.files.wordpress....2/dsc01780.jpg

John

John,
Here's a larger version of my avatar.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...1&d=1205374692

For some reason I 'm having trouble uploading others from my computer right now.

Hey Gary - nice kayak you built yourself. Did you blog the build process or have any other pictures that you can add? I just got the stations attached to the strongback and everything is aligned and ready for strips. I'm going to the hardware store tomorrow and will get another 20 clamps and will start stripping it. I didn't get as much work done on the kayak as I had hoped for in January, but February looks promising.

Please feel free to post pictures of your kayaks if you have any.

I updated my blog and it has pictures of to where I am right now. http://denmankayaks.wordpress.com/

Enjoy,
John

Looks like you have a great build going John. I'm building a canoe of different construction, and will be watching yours.

My sawbenches are a pair built to a design by Chris Schwarz of Woodworking magazine. They are exactly the right height and very strong. Not as simple to build as the 14 minute sawhorse, but I expect them to last my lifetime.

See mine here: http://www.bob-easton.com/blog/?p=173
Plans at: http://blog.lostartpress.com/2008/02...+Sawbench.aspx

It's been a while since I updated, so you can read about it on my blog with a lot of pictures, but here are a few to tide you over ... http://denmankayaks.wordpress.com/

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A few more pics to bring you up to date visually...
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