All of the stripping on the deck is done.
I left a section open at the ends to be filled with a laminated block.
I made blocks from
cedar, mahogony and ash, to blend in with the rest of the deck.
I was
trying to save work fitting the strips at the ends, but I seem to have
made MORE work.
Before planing...
After planing and Fairing
Another view of the nose of the boat .
The wood I used for the block was assembled to blend with the stripping pattern of the deck.
I hope that the wood takes the epoxy in a way that shows the pattern in good color. The cedar used was very highly figured. |
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After planing and sanding, I will make the cockpit recess. |
Once the deck was fair and sanded to 100 grit, I laid out the cockpit recess, and cut it out with a sabre saw.
|
I cleaned up the edge
with my old-faithfull 3/M rubber block sander. I recently figured out
that I could put paper on the curved side to clean up the inside
curves. I've had this sander for 20+ years and only now found this
trick. An old dog can learn new tricks!! |
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One more strip, then, I will fit the keel.
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I glued small strips of
cedar (from the same boards as the outer edges of the deck) around the
recess. Each piece was trimmed to fit with the block sander. The ends
of each strip had a compound bevel. I used C/A glue so that I sould
move quickly. Even so, I took 8 hours over 3 evenings to finish this
stage.
Those strips in the opening hold the small strips 'til I get the 'glass on. |
After sanding to 100 grit, I sealed the hull with epoxy. I used the Raka
127/350 system.
The product is thin, so it penetrated well into the
wood. The theory is that the next layer, with the glass, will bond well
and use less epoxy.
I scraped the hull lightly in the few spots where the epoxy was a little thicker.
There were no bubbles since I applied the epoxy in the evening and it cured while the shop was cooling.
I used Raka's 5oz.
cloth. It wet out well. The fabric really dissapeared well, with few
dry areas. When I did the first fill coat, I noticed that there were
ridges under the cloth.
I believe that this was due to not removing
enough excess from under the cloth. Further fill coats with carefull
scraping in beetween, removed the ridges well enough for sanding later.
The deck was sanded to
100 grit then sealed in the same way as the hull. I did a better job
masking the hull, as I really made a mess with excess epoxy running on
the unfinished deck.
I had to scrape and sand all over again to remove
the mess so that I would get an even color from the deck sealcoat.
Here's
the mandatory "at work" photo. The wet out of the deck was less
stressful.
I studied all the posts on the Kayak Building Bulliten Board
regarding the process, then said a prayer... And off we go!!
I spent more time masking the hull done earlier.
I
used binder clips to hold the glass in place at the ends. I also found
that I didn't get the ridges as I did on the hull. I think that it's
because I removed excess from center to shear...ridges from edges of
squeegie. When I went bow to stern..longer strokes.. No ridges. |
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The end result of a
couple hours of work. I tipped of the finish with a dry foam roller to
even out the surface.
It looks sort of velvet- like. We'll see how it
looks tommorrow when I start the fill coats.
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Here is a shot of the deck with a still wet third fill coat.
Between fill coats I scraped the surface very lightly to remove high spots and the occasional speck. |
While waiting beetween fill coats,I started to assemble panels to use for the bulkheads.
| I cut strips to length, then laid them with the cove up so that I could glue up easily. |
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I used clamps under and over the panel to avoid a cupped bulkhead.
The panel in the background is held flat to the workbench to limit warping until I can sand and glass it. |
I
had a few good sized gaps from fitting the football section. I used a
palm viening gouge to cut a square edge in the defective area.
I cut a
piece to fit the gouge area and glued it in place. I made a fairing
board to sand the hull.
| A panel ready to sand and glasscoat on both sides. |
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Text and Images Copyright 2004-2008, Steve Frederick, All rights reserved.
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Page created
Sept 12,2004, Last update, Jan 01, 2008
