Building a

Here's the router jig we used to round the cedar strip edges so they neatly interlock. A good cedar strip canoe can be built without this step, but I would recomend it as it keeps all the cedar strips aligned during construction.

Here's my router jig. It's built out of scraps of wood and whatever else I had around the shop. I first set the bit so it either cuts covex or concave, then just feed the 1/4" by 3/4" cedar strips into it. I used some spring steel clips to hold the strips to the left and down so they are held in alignment against the router bit. I used the same type of steel clips on the output side as well for additional support. I recommend cutting  the convex site of the strips first as the two very thin edges of the concave side don't give you much support for the springs to push against. The only place I don't recommend using routed cedar strips is on the bottom! The bottom of your canoe is relatively flat and you will have to fit the strips until the center is filled in. This is a much easier task with plain 1/4" by 3/4" strips.

Here's a diagram showing my jig from the side. The piece of wood to the left of the router bit is actually two pieces to allow the wood chips to escape to the left as pictured here. Although my diagram doesn't show it very well, there is also some extra clearance underneath and to the right of the bit so it doesn't make contact with any wood except the cedar strip we want to rout. It's adjusted by both the plunge router stops and the attached standard router fence. I didn't spend a lot of time designing and building my router jig as I only planned on building one canoe. My intention here, is to share with you what I did so that you may use my ideas and improve on them. I am sure the router jig you build will work as well as mine.

Take me Home