# Canoe Seats



## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Everyone,
This is my first project that I feel is worthy of posting. My poor little canoe has been sitting in the sun for too long and the seats rotted away. According to the canoe manufacturer's web site, the middle seat sells for $125, and the front and back seats sell for $65 each. That's way more than I wanted to spend to replace them.
I live in the deep south, so I wanted to use cypress to make the frames. A friend works at a mill here in town, and I was able to buy what I needed for $6.50. And after a google search for webbing, found a site where I was able to buy 80 feet of 1 1/2 inch poly web for $14.
The pictures show how I went about duplicating the seats. This was also the first project for my homemade router table. I'll send pics of it in another post.
The only problem I had to overcome was when I removed all the old seats, the fiberglass canoe "relaxed" and I had to figure out how wide to make the seats. After another trip to the manufacturer's web site, I got the dimensions and had to build a jig to hold the canoe in position until I mounted the new seats.
All in all, I like the way it turned out. Hope you do too.
George


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Nice job George

Let's go fishing 

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Capt Splinter said:


> Hi Everyone,
> This is my first project that I feel is worthy of posting. My poor little canoe has been sitting in the sun for too long and the seats rotted away. According to the canoe manufacturer's web site, the middle seat sells for $125, and the front and back seats sell for $65 each. That's way more than I wanted to spend to replace them.
> I live in the deep south, so I wanted to use cypress to make the frames. A friend works at a mill here in town, and I was able to buy what I needed for $6.50. And after a google search for webbing, found a site where I was able to buy 80 feet of 1 1/2 inch poly web for $14.
> The pictures show how I went about duplicating the seats. This was also the first project for my homemade router table. I'll send pics of it in another post.
> ...


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Well done, George.


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## vikingcraftsman (Mar 31, 2006)

Ok George now you have to figure out how many hours it took you to do the seats. Then add the cost of tools used plus the cost of materials. Now add in what your wife thinks you are worth an hour. Sub track your fun costs per hour. Was it worth the effort. Of course it was , but some times I like to put a cost on my projects to see if I am kidding my self weather it was worth it.


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

John,
You are right about the time spent to do this project. But in my little brain, I have a different approach. I have a running cost of all the tools I have purchased. For every project I complete, I take what it would cost me to just buy whatever I am building, and subtract that amount from the cost of the tools I used for that job. The more projects I complete, the cheaper the tools. This "sweat equity" eventually reduces the cost of those tools to zero. Then from that point on, I have free tools to play with!!! LOL
It's definately not scientific, but it works for me!


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## Timberline (Oct 17, 2009)

Great Job! 
They look really comfortable


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

vikingcraftsman said:


> Ok George now you have to figure out how many hours it took you to do the seats. Then add the cost of tools used plus the cost of materials. Now add in what your wife thinks you are worth an hour. Sub track your fun costs per hour. Was it worth the effort. Of course it was , but some times I like to put a cost on my projects to see if I am kidding my self weather it was worth it.


I've tried that John... but when the fun costs are "priceless" it overwhelms the other numbers. Even the tool costs disappear in roundoff.


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