How to make a Wanigan for canoe and camp trips

You'll know from our earlier blogs that we spend a lot of time camping in Scotland, Sweden and further afield. After many years of canoe camping involving spilled pasta and muddy spoons I have at last got round to making a wanigan, a simple camp kitchen. 

Jura was intent on helping but lacked essential skills and had a very short attention span!

Obviously the first stage (once Jura had been otherwise entertained) was to measure and cut the main pieces. I decided to use 6mm marine plywood to keep the box nice and light but tough enough to survive. I designed the box so that it would fit perfectly between the yoke and the kneeling thwart in my canoe.

All the pieces were cut really fast and gave the impession this would be a short job, finished by dinner!

Once cut I gave them notched edges to lock together, keeping weight down but making it a lot stronger.

As each bit side was notched it had to be checked against its partner to make sure it fit. This was easy enough for the first joint but got gradually more complicated as the project went on.

With the internal wall and shelf in place the box gained a lot of rigidity and seemed like a real object for the first time.

The shelf and wall were supported with the same notch idea as the rest of the joins, just with a lot less of them. Lining them up proved to be one of the hardest parts of the build.

With everything in place it just needs a roof on top!

With it upside down I could start nailing it together and stop everything from spontaneously exploding as it liked to do!

Lid on and everything nailed down it was time to sand the joints flat, a quick and painless joy of a task.

After two days of sanding Jura was starting to wonder where all this amazing wood powder was coming from!

After the madness of sanding came the tranquility of layer upon layer of varnishing! Jura attempting to get high on varnish was a real and ever-present danger that was for the most part avoided though she still has quite a shiny nose!

The shortest screws we could find were 12mm long so 'decorative touches' were needed to stop sharp pointy things poking through.

I wanted to have somewhere for utensils and cutlery so turned a draw tidy (and a lot of imagination) into door mounted racks.

And for the finished article...

Fully closed...

Doors open to show the maddening amount of stuff needed to cook for a group. Notice utensils holders on both doors courtesy of one draw tidy.

 And ready to use with counter top wings out.

And in use a day later next to a roaring fire ready to cook!