Bill Burruss
Well-known member
All,
Here is a little project you may be interested in. It’s a 10' Gatorboat’s Bullfrog, and is built from plywood, 2x, and cedar strips. I’ve never built anything from strips before, so this has been a learning process.
I already have a one-person Devlin Broadbill, which does a great job for where I use it, but it’s really a trailer carried boat. The reason I’m building the Bullfrog is to have something to drag into greentree reservoir and marsh type duck habitat. The boat needed to be easily thrown in the back of a truck, drug by hand (will build a 2 wheel dolly later to get it down the levee), and carry 2 guns, couple dozen deeks, and a thermos. People can wade. The boat’s real mission is safety- something to hold onto while wading in flooded timber/marshes and serve as emergency evacuation, if needed. I chose this boat over a pirogue as the pirogues seem too unstable, plus this little boat will take a small outboard or trolling motor. Heck, the boat may even double as a pond box.
Wanted to go inexpensive, so the bottom is 3/8 luan and the ribs are 2x pine. The cedar is red cedar (try finding white in Mississippi). Had to sort through a big pile of #2 to find stuff suitable to rip to 3/8 x 3/4 strips. The luan was about $20, the 2x6 about $8, and the cedar $45, so there is not too much in this thing, so far. I broke my saber saw and also had to buy an 18gauge pneumatic nailer (gotta love Harbor Freight - $20 on sale w/nails), 3/8 cove and bead router set, and a router table, so I have more in tools than in wood for this project so far.
Here are a few pictures laying out the ribs, jigs, and strongback. I tried to level a square everything before attaching the strongback. The plans were pretty good, except for getting the plane set for the strongback. This took a little adjusting to get right.
The hardest strips were the first 2, which I epoxied so I could fill any gaps with wood flour thickened epoxy. In general, the rest of the joints are glued with Elmer’s Ultimate High Performance Glue. I believe this is the same basic stuff as Gorilla glue. I ran out of the Elmer’s and switched to Gorilla, and found the Gorilla foams a whole lot more (which is ok in my opinion because it sands easy and helps fill any voids w/ a lightweight waterproof foam.
The air nailer got a good workout with this project.
Learned a lot about using a router putting a bead and cove on 12’ long 3/8” thick strips. The cove and bead really helps the fit on the curved parts of the hull.
-Bill
Here is a little project you may be interested in. It’s a 10' Gatorboat’s Bullfrog, and is built from plywood, 2x, and cedar strips. I’ve never built anything from strips before, so this has been a learning process.
I already have a one-person Devlin Broadbill, which does a great job for where I use it, but it’s really a trailer carried boat. The reason I’m building the Bullfrog is to have something to drag into greentree reservoir and marsh type duck habitat. The boat needed to be easily thrown in the back of a truck, drug by hand (will build a 2 wheel dolly later to get it down the levee), and carry 2 guns, couple dozen deeks, and a thermos. People can wade. The boat’s real mission is safety- something to hold onto while wading in flooded timber/marshes and serve as emergency evacuation, if needed. I chose this boat over a pirogue as the pirogues seem too unstable, plus this little boat will take a small outboard or trolling motor. Heck, the boat may even double as a pond box.
Wanted to go inexpensive, so the bottom is 3/8 luan and the ribs are 2x pine. The cedar is red cedar (try finding white in Mississippi). Had to sort through a big pile of #2 to find stuff suitable to rip to 3/8 x 3/4 strips. The luan was about $20, the 2x6 about $8, and the cedar $45, so there is not too much in this thing, so far. I broke my saber saw and also had to buy an 18gauge pneumatic nailer (gotta love Harbor Freight - $20 on sale w/nails), 3/8 cove and bead router set, and a router table, so I have more in tools than in wood for this project so far.
Here are a few pictures laying out the ribs, jigs, and strongback. I tried to level a square everything before attaching the strongback. The plans were pretty good, except for getting the plane set for the strongback. This took a little adjusting to get right.
The hardest strips were the first 2, which I epoxied so I could fill any gaps with wood flour thickened epoxy. In general, the rest of the joints are glued with Elmer’s Ultimate High Performance Glue. I believe this is the same basic stuff as Gorilla glue. I ran out of the Elmer’s and switched to Gorilla, and found the Gorilla foams a whole lot more (which is ok in my opinion because it sands easy and helps fill any voids w/ a lightweight waterproof foam.
The air nailer got a good workout with this project.
Learned a lot about using a router putting a bead and cove on 12’ long 3/8” thick strips. The cove and bead really helps the fit on the curved parts of the hull.
-Bill
