The Canoe Stand

A friend got a canoe from his father-in-law and needed a way to store it off of the ground and high enough so that it wouldn't become a home for rodents. This is what I came up with.




There are a few things that I did -not normal - on this project. The first was that the only tool that I used that required electricity was the cordless drill. Everything else was done by hand. Because this is only going to be used to hold a canoe - and will be outdoors - none of the wood was squared. Just standard pressure treated 2x4's with a 2x6 for the base.

All of the wood was cut by hand by my wonderful daughter. Since she always wants to help me, I figured this was a safe project for her to help with.


The through tenons were cut by hand - Adrienne cut them, and did the rough shaping with a chisel. I finished the shaping and cut the mortises with the drill and a Forstner bit. The tenons are screwed in from the underside with a 2" deck screw.


For the legs, I cut small mortises for them to sit in as well. They are bolted from underneath with a couple of 1/4 lag screws. On the stretchers, this was the one place that I lacked the creativity to hide the fastener.





My son, Matt went with me to set it up. We delivered it in 4 pieces and set it up on site. The two end frames and the two stretchers so it was just a matter of bolting the stretchers back onto the frames. This was the only way that it was fitting in the mini-van. The unit when put together was just short of 7 feet wide and 4 feet deep. The canoe sits 18 inches off the ground.