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The panels arrived on New Year's Eve'02/03
The milling was excellent, packaged very well.
The hull is 4 sections, each having 3 pieces.
I also received a well produced assembly manual.
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The parts are milled on a CNC router at Newfound Woodworks.
The butt joints are "keyed" in a jigsaw puzzle fashion. Very accurate,
tight fitting. The joints required just a tap to assemble. One drawback
of the joint is, in my opinion too mechanical looking, but I'm painting
it! |
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The hull panels ready to join with epoxy.
I
used bias strips of 5oz glass left over from the Guillemot. I only
glassed the inside surface of the joint. This will keep the panel able
to curve. The outside gets glass later. |
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After glue up, I covered the joints with plastic and weighted them to ensure a smooth joint. |
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All mating edges were beveled to get a tight fit. I used a block plane followed by a sanding block with 80 grit paper.
Parrallel glue lines in the bevel indicate a smooth taper. |
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Holes
for stitching were milled 6" on center along the mating edges, again,
with a CNC setup. The panels were loosely wired together with the
insides together, then opened like a book. |
| I wired the bulkheads in
place to keep the panels in position. Then, I wired the sheer panels
on. I made support cradles. I traced the bulkheads on a piece of
plywood, added 1/2" to allow for padding to protect the finish later. |
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Once the hull was loosely assembled, I checked for a straight boat using winding sticks (levels).
Constructing a level bench helped a lot. Once sure that everything was right, I carefully tightened the "stitches". |
| I tacked the hull panels
together, skipping over the wires. This would allow easy removal of the
stitches once the epoxy cures. A mix of wood dust and fumed silica
(50/50) was added to the epoxy to make the fillets. I temporarily
placed the deck forms to hold the hull in shape during the glue up. |
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Inside the Hull
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I
decided to use pieces left over from the Guillemot to glass the inside
of the hull. I laid out the seams to fall under the bulkheads, where
any flaw in the seam will be less noticable.
I used Raka 5oz glass and Raka 350/127 no blush system. |
| I made a lot of kindling
wood for my wife, (she likes a wood fire), to get to this point. My
hand planing skills are very rusty! I cut the center and bottom strips
as discribed in Nick's book. It took a while to catch on, but I think the results will be worth it! |
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Wet out under way. I used binder clips to keep the cloth under control. An idea I picked up from The Kayak Forum. |
| Because I wanted to
glass the inside of the hull, I did the sheer clamp in place on the
boat, rather than on the panels before hull assembly. Each side is in 3
pieces, scarfed together, glued with thickened epoxy. 102 clamps by the
way!! |
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I marked the sheer clamp
sections with a registration mark so that I could get the sections
glued where I fit them up. I placed sticks in the hull to keep things
lined up as the epoxy cures. |
| On the Guillemot, I
overdid the end pours. To control my tendancy to over do it, I made
small dams to contain 3 or 4 ounces of epoxy with wood dust and
microballoons. Just enough to reinforce the toggle loops. |
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The builder's manual showed this jig to line up the deck forms to the sheer line, |
Shot of the deck forms in place. I glued them to the hull with hot glue.
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As done on the previous
kayak, "I cast in place" a hole for the toggle loop. This was done with
the end pour. I added a fill block to provide more support for the
strips at the ends. The block sits in the epoxy of the end fill. The
mold is 3/8" i.d.vinyl tubing, held straight with a bolt. When the
epoxy is green, the tube pulls out easily. |
Beveling the sheer clamps is next!!
| After beveling the sheer clamp I covered the edges of the forms to prevent gluing the strips to the forms. |
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First strips down the center of the deck. The dark strips are starter strips till I can glue on the sheer strips.
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A close-up view of the
"starter strips", actually, scrap pieces of strip, tacked in place
where the permanent sheer strip will go. After the first full strip is
glued to the forms with hot glue, the starters were removed and the
sheer strips then glued to them. I got this idea from Bobby Curtis. |
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Shots of the sheer strip
glue-up. A lot of clamps are needed.
I had a hot glue failure on the
end of one strip, a little panic, some more hot glue...ok now!!
The deck well under way. Progress to this point took thirty hours, deck and hull.
Two of my favorite
"clamps", Fiber packing tape, the binder clip keeps the tape from
slipping.
Also a great clamp too! 1/4" ply with a slot cut in it, holds
a strip flat with a spring clamp holding it. Dowels keep the cove from
crushing,
As the gap gets smaller, I use wedges to hold the joint until the glue is set.
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Two more gaps to fill!!
I glued 2 strips together, because the gaps are a little wider than a
single strip. The plan is to fit up the wider strip, rather than fit a
full strip with a "sliver" after that. |
Text and Images Copyright 2004-2008, Steve Frederick, All rights reserved.
No content from this site may be used for commercial purposes without permission.
Page created Sept 10, 2004
Last update, Jan 03, 2008
