: This is way off topic, but I was wondering if anyone on this board has built
: a tobaggan? And no, sledding down a snow covered hill in your kayak
: doesn't count.
I looked into it a few years ago. Take agood look at a commercial tobaggan and you'll see they are rather simple in construction. No glass, no epoxy needed. Just some short screws.

The commercial sleds seem ot be made from wider strips than we normally use, but that is not a big deal. You can rips strips from a 2x4 if you want wider strips. While some of the strips appear to be 1/4 inch thick, they alternate with thicker strips that appear to be about 3/8 th inch thick. Cross pieces are aaas long as the width you want the sled, and about 1 or 1 1/4 by 1/2 to 3/4 inches. The strips are screwed into these, with the screw heads on the underside of the sled. The thin and thick strips are flush on the top of the sled, but the thicker strips provide ridges about 1/8th inch high for improved tracking on the bottom of the sled.

A cross piece is attached at both ends, and additional crosspieces are ataached at about 18 inc to 30 inc intervals along the length of the sled, with the exception that the second crosspiece from the front of the sled sits directly under the first one, which of course is attached to the bent wood ends. Two short short pieces of chain, one on the left and one on the right, hold the first crosspiece to the second one, thus reinforcing the bent front end.

A simple jig for the radius of the bend for the front end should be simple to make from some plywood. Steam and bend the strips to get them close to size, and when you attach the crosspieces you should have them fall into alignment.

There are only about a dozen wide strips involved. A few more if you use thin ones. If you have the facilities for steaming, try it. Then you can build the cradle.

PGJ