Craig Bjarnason built an 8‘ dinghy. It is a cold molded, cedar hull with mahogany keelson seats and transom. All the laminating was done with thickened WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. The hull was sheathed with 6 oz. fiberglass/epoxy on the outside and was epoxy coated on the inside. This boat is used as a tender for our 34‘ cold molded cutter on Lake of the Woods (Kenora, Ontario). It was also built using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy.
Take a look at some of the other awesome Readers’ Projects our fans sent in!
When I retired three years ago, I had plans to do a lot of camping. We have a small travel trailer that we love, yet there are times when camping alone that I prefer to keep things simple by leaving the trailer at home. Sleeping in the back of my small SUV works fine for me. There is even room to bring my canine pal along. Continue reading
A picture of an Equinox Snowcoach 685 inspired me to build a similar snow sled for my young kids. Growing up in Michigan, I learned to appreciate the outdoors. I remember snowmobiling with my family at a young age and those memories stayed with me as I got older. I still look forward to the few times each year I go up north to trail ride. I want my kids to appreciate snowmobiling as much as I do so, I decided to build an enclosed sled to pull behind my snowmobile. Continue reading
This cedar strip canoe (top) was laminated with WEST SYSTEM® 105 Resin®/207 Special Clear Hardener®. It is the work of Kurt Mangseth of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Continue reading
USA Bobsled/Skeleton’s Crew Chief, Richard Laubenstein, constantly works toward one main goal: to design and maintain the fastest, most aerodynamic bobsleds for Team USA’s athletes. Bobsleds are high-performance machines powered by people. Athletes push the sled in a sprinting start to gain speed, then jump in to continue down the icy track at speeds exceeding 95 mph. Continue reading
By Jordan Teddleton
I wanted to purchase a personal watercraft so I’d be able to join my friends at the local lake for some fun in the sin this summer. Like most people on a budget, I searched Craigslist for the best deal. I needed something low maintenance, so a WaveRunner™ felt like a good fit. After a week of looking, I found a 2004 Yamaha GP1300r that appeared to be in decent shape; however, a strangely placed sticker on the top port side turned out to be covering a painful past. Continue reading
Looking for an entry-level composite project? One that needs a minimum amount of materials and construction space, costs less than a boat, but still lets you travel on water? If you live in snow country, why not build a pair of composite snowshoes?
These snowshoes are made from a rigid foam core between two layers of carbon-fiber cloth, edged with 1″ Kevlar tape. A carbon-fiber wrapped wood spar runs across each snowshoe under the ball of your foot. This provides a solid mounting point for a couple of stainless steel eye-bolts to attach a simple toe-and-heel strap for a binding. Fiberglass tape reinforces the top and bottom edges, and the upper surface of the snowshoes where your winter boots contact them.
The Klondike Derby is an annual winter camping trip held in our district (and many others across the country) for Scouts to hone their scouting skills in a winter environment. During the weekend event, Scout patrols go from station to station around our local Scout Camp, facing challenges that require them to demonstrate their skills in making a fire, navigating with a map and compass, cooking, knot-tying, and applying first aid. The Scouts must bring all their gear with them as they trek from station to station, including ropes, stoves, kindling, and hiking staves. Hence, each patrol is required to have a sled for their gear which they, as a patrol, must haul. The sled must be strong and stiff to hold the patrol gear, yet lightweight because at the end of the weekend there is a race between patrols, and the fastest sled wins.
Cover Photo: Wooden Bicycle designed and built by Aaron Holmes
For the past ten years, I have enjoyed an increasing passion for cycling including wooden bicycles. Cycling is the perfect combination of effort and motion for me. I’m fascinated with the details and getting “hands-on” with bicycles, both designing and building them. All types of bikes have interested me: road bikes, cross bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, and more. I ride these bikes several thousand miles each year on all types of terrain. Continue reading
Big Jon (BJ) serves as a reel for retrieving and letting line attached to floating planer boards in and out from a boat while trolling. Planer boards are used to get fishing lures off to the side of the hull so the lures aren’t following directly behind the boat while trolling for walleye. The further the planer board is reeled out, the further the lures are from the side of the hull. BJ has served Tom and Lorraine Klinski well but recently developed some cracks in what appears to be a black nylon plastic. Continue reading