Building a stitched lapstrake canoe - Rabetting and drilling the edge

July 21, 2007
Rabetting and drilling the edges -- 1:00 hour


I set up my router with a rabbeting bit with the bearing for a 3/8" wide cut and tested cuts until I had a depth of about 1/16". Then I taped each pair of boards together at the ends so that the lower plank would act as a bearing surface for the guide bearing on the router. This setup would also allow me to just flip the pair of planks over to do the other side. I attached the router to my dust collector, but a lot of chips escaped nonetheless.

I made a series of short passes along each plank with it hanging over the edge of the 1/2" MDF on the floor. I needed the MDF to give height clearance for the bottom of the bearing on the router. I carefully aligned the edges of both boards each time and then placed my right foot on them both -- clamping them down, before making the cut. All the cuts came out perfectly!

It took me another half hour to drill holes along both sides of the #1 planks and the top edges of 2,3 and 4 planks. I used the simple jig suggested in the book to space the holes 1/2" from the edge and 6" apart. I also had previously labeled the pairs of planks with numbers and arrows indicating top to protect myself from dumb mistakes! The final step was to plane the ends of the rabbets down to a taper so the planks will meet nicely at the ends. I borrowed my neighbor, Charlie's venerable Record rabbet plane which accomplished the job in short order. It's great to have 3 experienced wood workers on my road, between us we have every tool one could dream of.

Here's a movie made from images taken every minute as I rabbeted the edges,
time invested today 0:30