Lots of work - just boring to look at!!

It seems like ages since I made an entry YET I've spent several hours each night on the boat. In my last post, I had just finished the first coat of epoxy on the glass. Since then I've double glassed the bottom, i.e., put another layer of cloth on the bottom of the hull starting just above the chines, and put on two more coats of epoxy. You can only put one coat of epoxy per day so that slows down the whole process.

Tonight I took a break from the outer hull and flipped the boat over to work on the inside. The order of the night was filleting the chines. The first thing I noticed when I flipped the boat is that it's a fair bit heavier with 1.5 coats of 6oz glass and 3 coats of epoxy. I've also added 3" wide 6oz fibreglass tape up the stem and stern. The hull is a helluva lot stiffer than when I just had the joins tacked with epoxy!!

Fillets near amidships.

How it's done - using a piece of plywood shaped to make nice neat fillets.

I still have the stations in place. I figured I'd leave them until the fillets set up although I'm pretty sure that once the outside of the hull was glassed/epoxied, I could've taken them out!!

I've left the third coat of  epoxy unsanded for now so it may look a little "off" in the images below. I've decided that there's lot of work left to do so why try to get the final finish on the hull. I still need to tie the deck in, so I'll leave the bottom of the hull for now. Still, it looks pretty decent right now . . .

Stern view from the top of the stairs

Looking fwd from the top of the stairs.

Bow shot

Aft looking fwd

Straight up the stern

Stern shot

The next major task is glassing the inside of the hull. One layer of 6 oz glass with two coats of epoxy should be fine. Strangely enough I am almost finished my first gallon of epoxy. I thought a gallon would have gone further but I guess not. My coats of epoxy are quite thin - still some weave showing on the third coat  - but I guess an 18 foot boat will require more materials! I'll pick up another gallon tomorrow in anticipation of doing the inside of the hull over the weekend.

My rubber hatches should be here any day now - which is good because, after the inside of the hull, the next big ticket item is the deck.  Not only do I need to determine hatch size/location but I need to determine what shape/size cockpit I want to go with. I may copy the cockpit of my wife's Prijon Seayak. It's a nice keyhole that is tight but not too hard to enter/re-enter.  I've also come up with an idea on how to fit my new Brunton compass that I got for Christmas. We shall see.

So, that's my update and as the title sez - lot's done but not exciting enough to post about!!

Filler, Fillets and fiberglass

Saturday was supposed to be the day I glass the hull. I say "supposed" because I took another look at my "bent stem" and realized that I was not happy with it. I'd be staring at it on every paddle and I could not see it happening!! I ended up having to saw down through the join I made the day before and resetting and reshaping the stem once again. Surprisingly, it went pretty smoothly. I found the hot glue gun invaluable for test tacking the join. After two hours of fooling, I managed to get a nice symmetrical bow!  I won't be doing this again!! I needed to use some fairing compound to take out a dip in the stem.  It wasn't pretty at first and took a long time to set but it worked out in the end (see last image in this entry).

While waiting for the filler to set, I decided to try a fillet. I mixed up some epoxy thickened with 406. I ran tape down each side of the keel join to keep things neat. As my stations are still in place, I stopped short of them to prevent unwanted adhesion!!

Just a shot to show the shape of the hull.

Finally on Sunday morning the filler had set and I sanded the bow. As to be expected much of the filler was sanded away leaving a nice fair stem.

The next step was glassing the hull. I am using 60" wide cloth so I simply draped it over the hull and cut off the excess - which is just the right size for covering the deck!

After three hours of squeegeeing and brushing she was done!!

From the bow

From the stern

Stern

Stem

The "filler" side of the stem

Yes, you can see the filler but this boat will be painted anyway! Also, as this is the first coat of epoxy, the weave of the cloth is supposed to be visible!

Took a bit longer than expected but I figured I might as well do this right!!

Setback, Remediation, Discovery and a Kludge!!

Tonight's work was supposed to quick and painless. Tack in the stations with glue, remove the copper sutures, double check the hull's fairness and do the final fill in of the seams with thickened epoxy! I figured two hours at the max.

Last night's problem of having a front bow panel not cooperate reared it's ugly head again. It's probably a product more of my anal retentiviness. To make a long story short I was not happy with how I tackled the problem the evening before. I dismantled that work and set about finding a better solution. Fast forward two hours and some cutting and rehaping of the bow panels, sheer and stem profile - and I'm finally a semi-happy camper. I'd better be because I've since epoxied the panels together at the stem and they ain't coming apart. The modifications I've made may require some rejigging up the deck panels but nothing I can't overcome. Sorry no images of the procedure as I was too busy and too easily frustrated to be concerned about documenting what we used to call in the Naval Reserves - a clusterf#ck!!

In the plans, it calls for the tacking of the panels to the stations temporarily so that you can remove the fasteners (push pins, in my case) in preparation for glassing the outside hull. It is suggested that you tack with wood glue. I decided to try a glue gun. I figured it dries quick and you simply need to place dabs of glue in strategic places to hold the stations. It appears to be working like a charm. I could put a spot of glue right were I wanted it. It was thick enough to stay in glob form without wanting to run. Plus it set in minutes - thereby cutting down on the wait time. I had the stations tacked in a few minutes.I did a check and the glue can be lifted from the plywood by simply prying with a chisel.  Badda boom, badda bing.

The next step was to remove the copper sutures. What took a few hours to put in, came out in a matter of minutes. I am happy to say that all wires came out without a hitch and non were set in epoxy and, therefore, had to remain in the hull. I am also happy to say that the "porcupine boat" is no more although it did manage to give my fingers a few good pokes before it was over. I guess the blood stains will sand off!!

Once the sutures were out I finally managed to get a good look down the lines of the hull. I am very pleased and no tweaking was required. I mixed up some thickened epoxy and filled in the seams. All went well.

No pictures of the above steps as they are pretty much identical to those covered in previous blog entries.

Before packing it in for the night I did my routine scrutiny of the night's work - see above concerning anal retentiveness!!  A glance down the line of the stem showed a VERY slight waver. Not willing to let sleeping dogs lie, I figured that I could take some of the waver out - especially seeing that the epoxy had not set yet.

Wikipedia defines a kludge as a workaround, a quick-and-dirty solution, a clumsy or inelegant, yet effective, solution to a problem, typically using parts that are cobbled together.

Below we have a fine example of a kludge. A square is, by nature, straight but thin. BUT the clamps could not hold it horizontal. Let's add a 2x4 for support. BUT a 2x4 ain't going to hold itself up. I think we need another clamp. And so on. And so on.



I'm sure there's a much more elegant wave of doing this but it was 12:30 in the AM. I was five hours into a "two hour job". I guess I wasnit thinking "straight" - hahahah. Pun intended.  I'm curious to see how well it worked. We shall see when I take apart the kayak kludge later this evening!!

Who's the fairest in the land . . .?

Having roughly stitched the hull together, the next job is to make sure that everything is fair. This took a bit of fooling about. Most crucial is the keel line. Even if you  know nothing about boats, you'll understand that a straight keel is critical - unless, of course, you want to go around in circles!!  With a bent keel, not only will your never go straight, it will also look dumb when you view the boat while it's upsidedown!!  I was fortunate in that my keel was dead straight right from the get go. It was not so fair on the profile curve, i.e., the curve of the rocker, but  few minor adjustments and all was good.

I found that the "busy" background was making it hard to focus on the just the keel so I placed a large sheet of cardboard behind the hull and badda bomm, badda bing, no problems in picking out the lumps and dips.

Cardboard used to silence the noisy background

After fairing the keel, I moved onto the chines. Again, there was a little bit of tweaking but no big ordeals.  The problem with faring the chines is that the copper sutures break up the sight line making it hard to focus on the smooth curves.  At this point I was referring to the kayak as the "porcupine boat"  The wire sutures were hooking into my clothes and worse of all, they were getting dangerously close to my eyes as I leaned in close to sight down the chines!!

I ran into a problem with one of the bow panels. For some reason it wanted to curve/bow on it's own. To make it worse it was warping away from the intended curve and was throwing the whole shape of the bow out of whack. I tried to bring it back into straightness using steam, hot water, clamps and straight edges but to no avail. After much sweating, cursing and fretting, I came up with a solution that will work. Here's a shot of the bent panel but unfortunatley I have no picture of the "solution"  Once I flip the hull back over, I will capture an image and explain.  The main thing is that the crisis was averted and work resumed as per normal.

Warped panel on the right.

Once I had the hull lines all faired, the next step was to tack the joins. The tack only has to be strong enough to hold the panels in place while the glassing and such is done. I mixed up some West System epoxy along with 406 Colloidal Silica to form a paste that I could work into the joins. Using a tip I gleaned from Moores and Rossel's book Kayaks You Can Build: An illustrated guide to plywood construction, I ran masking tape along each side of the join to prevent excess epoxy from getting on the hull. I've seen other people slap the epoxy on only to find out it's a bastage to remove after its dried.!!! 

Tools of the trade

Stern View

Bow View

Tacking the joins took about two hours to complete and was relatively uneventful. I removed the masking tape right after I finished glueing and I used a stir stick to remove any excess expoy.

Blunt end - joins tacked

Pointy end - joins tacked

Attempted panoramic view of boat using in-camera procesing.
Hope this is not some kind of sign or foreshadowing?!?!??



All hands to stations

Last night, in my excitement of stitching the sides to bottom, I failed to realized that normally the stations are put in at this time. Damn! I found this out this AM when I re-read the instructions. Being the way I am, I fretted all day about whether the stations would fit after the fact and whether I prematurely cut the bottom panel.  Right after supper I took fifteen minutes to cut the stations but then had to take my son to b-ball practice. Fast forward to 9:30 when we got home. Normally I refrain from working in the attic at night as its right above the upstairs bedrooms but tonight I to make an exception. I'm certainly glad I did!!!

As is often the way, my first station was NOT working out. Something was askew and I could not get it to fit snugly. I conceded defeat and moved onto #2. It dropped in without a hitch - as did 3. #4 was really off. I rechecked my measurements and found a huge error. NOTE TO SELF - never trust measurements made after a few shots of whiskey!!  I found my mistake and simply re-marked and re-cut that station. It dropped in perfectly as did #5, the final one.

Which left one final problem - Station #1. With renewed optimism (after seeing all the others fit so well) I set myself to making this one fit. Out came the plane and rasp and, after careful assessment of the situation, #1 dropped in like a charm!!

Casting an eye down the sheer shows a beautiful curve with no dips. Hats off, again, to the designer, Duane Strosaker.

An interesting note. Plans call for using staples to hold the stations. I opted for push pins as they allowed me, thankfully, easy removal/retacking of the stations while I tried to get them fitted properly!!  With just one push pin per side of each station for a total of 10 pins, I was able to lift the boat by one end. Imagine what it will be like when sheathed in 6oz fg cloth and epoxy?

And now a fews shots from the night's hour of work. (Forgive the varying hues in the images below. I'm using my point and shoot and am having troubles getting good exposures!!)

Amidships station #3. Nice and snug!

From the stern

Starboard bow

Profile - the pointy end

Profile - the blunt end

AND HERE'S THE KICKER

You never know what will be awaiting you when you get home from work.  Below is a shot of 30 yds of 6 oz cloth @ 60" wide. Most recent cost was put at a 24 case of beer but, apparently, that's open to future negotiations!! 

It's great to have connections in the world of marine supplies!!

Tune in next time!!

SUDDENLY . . . . A boat!!!

I manged to get a good day's work in on the boat.

It started with lofting the lines for the side panels. Cutting them out and fairing them. It's pretty much exactly like what I did yesterday with the bottom panels. So no photos are needed!

The next step was to lace the bottoms together. They went together quite nicely. Below is a shot of the panels loosely stitched together. The side panels are lying flat to the left.

I'm using 20 gauge copper to stitch the panels although the plans say 18. I'm finding the smaller wire to be quite adequate for holding the panels and a little easier on the hands.  I simply make the short piece of wire loosely into staple shape, slip them through the holes in the panel and give them a few twists to tighten them up.

Once I stitched up the bottom panels, it was time to put on the sides. Kudos to he designer's very accurate lofting numbers as the whole thing went together without a hitch!!

Below, I have the stem stitched and ready to continue on with attaching the side and bottom panels.

Here's close up of the stem. In this picture are the great instructions provided by the designer Duane Strosaker, a kayaker from California,

I continued on with stitching the sides and had them done in a few hours. The hardest part was bending over!!

It's amazing how quickly a stitch and glue boat can take shape. And once the wood has been cut and small holes drilled, you simply need a pair of pliers and some copper wire.

The plans take into account the possibility that the sides and bottom may not mate perfectly. The bottom panels are deliberately made longer so that they can be trimmed as required. Thank gawd for that. I made a slight error when cutting the angle of my stern. I fretted for a few minutes until I realized how easily the bottom panels can be trimmed to size.

Here's the "Before"

And, after 10 minutes of trimming and re-stitching, here's the "After"

I figured that stitching the bottom to the sides and re-fitting the stern was a true milestone and gave up for the night. I'll finish this post with a few shots of the boat as it now looks! The sheer make look a little wavy right not but that's because there are no stations in place. These will be added temporarily to hold the hull in proper shape while glassing. They are then removed. But that will be another day and another blog entry.

Some progress

After site preparation and studying of the plans and various books/websites on stitch and glue kayaks, the marine ply finally arrived from TO. For those who don't know, my driveway is steep and in winter, quite treacherous!  The courier tried to deliver but balked!! I decided to pick the stuff up myself at the depot. No biggie because I have a rack on my car. Lot's of tie downs. Should be a piece of cake. BUT. Winds were whipping around 80-100 km on Friday!! I had a VERY stressful but uneventful trip home. Kudos to Noah's Marine in TO.  Those sheets were packed in cardboard that was thicker than the plywood itself. 388.00 all in for 4 sheets of 4mm Okoume plywood was fine by me!!

Friday night I had all rough panels cuts and the bottom panels joined. Not bad for 2.5 hours work. Pretty dusty though!! I bought a new plywood cuttin' blade for the circular and went mad. Very clean cuts. Not bad for an 8.00 Black and Decker blade from Wally Mart. The image below was taken just after cutting the panels. The air "looked" clear until I took this picture. The flash bounced off the dust in the air and I now have a greater appreciation of the dangers of wood working. Will it change my work habits - cough cough - probably not. Dumb ass!!

Having cut the 8' panels, they must be joined to make longer panels - d'uh!  Like most people, I have useless gym equipment, i.e., that which was bought with great intentions but never realized!!  I have (had) a workout station with all kinds of plastic coated weights just dieing to be used. So I used them . . .

to hold down butt joins and . . .

to hold down a batten.

Which brings me to very important point!!  The Point Bennett, as designed by Duane Strosaker, does not come with full size templates! NO. Duane provides you with a table of offsets from which you must construct the beautiful lines of this craft. I was measuring in units of 1/32s - which I have never done before. Once I plotted the points on your plywood, I used my 20' clear pine batten (see above) to fair in the lines. After finding one point that was out (I measured wrong) - the whole thing fell in place beautifully!!! Thank you Duane!!  Also note the gratuitous use of the weights!!

Many books will suggest that you use a jig saw to cut the panels. I hate using jig saws for close work so I opted for a hand saw  - like this:

 It took about 30 minutes per 16' cut but it was a very controlled cut. Not once did I feel like the saw was getting away from me - which can happen if you let your concentration lapse for just a second with a jig saw!!

Here's a shot of me working away (Notice the ravaged gym equipment behind me)

Here's another great little saw I bought a while back to make paddles.

One book I have says to space the wire stitches at 6" centres and 1/4" from the edge. To speed things up. I made a jig.

In the image below, you can see the bottom panels laid out in full. You can also see the "inside snow", a.k.a. dust, as well as the "outside snow" a.k.a. snow!!

As a side note, pudding cups make great "small shot" containers for epoxy!  

And on that note - I'm tired and off to bed. Hope to do the side panels tomorrow!!