Day 38 - Gluing the combing on the deck

Finally got to use all those scraps of pipe I cut up. After a night of curing, I sanded down any rough edges on the combing and double checked them for a dry fit. Then it was time to mix up some resin. The new System 3, Silver Tip resin I am using is a fast setting resin, and I only have about a 10 to 15 minute pot life before it starts to set. I mixed just enough for the first cockpit to see how long it would take to clamp up. Went pretty fast. After applying a coat of resin to the deck and the combing, I set the pieces in place with the c-clamps and then followed with my pipe clamps.

After getting all the clamps set, I took some remaining amount of resin and added more wood flour to it to fill in a couple gaps where the joint had a small gap or two. Now it is time to let it sit overnight and then attack the top part of the combing - after some sanding.

Day 37 - cockpit combing prep

Didn't get a whole lot done during Thanksgiving. Now I am back at it. The cockpit combing is made up of two pieces. The lower, thicker part - which is about 3/4" thick. Then there is a 1/8" thick piece of plywood that makes up a lip where the spray skirt will go over. I first had to fit the lower pieces on the cockpit hull, mark off where I needed to trim them to length and them cut them so they butt together nicely. I then needed to paint on a layer of fiberglass resin onto the wood.

Here's the art shot of the day. The pieces are stacked for drying, with the boat hanging from the ceiling.

Day 36 - Making clamps

A quick day of work on the boat. As mentioned in yesterday's entry, I added the reinforcing strip between the deck and the hull. The hull is currently tipped on its side. I found it was easier to paint the resin on the wood, then lay the fiberglass tape on top. Then all I had to do was touch up those areas that were looking a bit dry. This was preceded by a little light sanding to take down any rough spots from the fillet work, and to vacuum out the inside of the hull. Today's work on the boat took a whopping 20 minutes.

With all that time available, figured I would create a number of disposable clamps to hold the cockpit combing in place with. I had picked up a 10 foot stick of 4" diameter schedule 40 pipe to create the clamps. I threw a couple on the cockpit opening to provide some idea of what I'm talking about.

To make the clamps, I used my 12" sliding compound miter saw. It was just big enough to fit the pipe in and cut it. I did have to tape the guard back - and be very careful not to get my hand or arm in the way. That would be bad. From the cutting operation, a significant amount of black sawdust was left over. The shop vac made quick work of that. I figure I made around 75 of the temporary clamps.

I mentioned the other day that I used a long handled syringe. Well, here's what it looks like. Found I needed to add some nails to help guide the dowel. On the first attempt, the dowel was flexing. Next time, I would use a bit larger diameter dowel for the plunger.

Day 35 - Fillet on the port side

Pretty much done on the outside. Now the attention turns to the inside. Using my 3 foot long syringe extender tool, I ran a bead of thickened epoxy from the bow and the stern. I made it somewhat runny - about the consistency of some good solid phlegm. The head lamp I picked up made the work much easier, but it was still difficult to see what was going on. Luckily, there will be no style points given on the inside of the hull. The white stuff in the picture is dust from the sanding.

To give me a little assistance on getting the goop into the groove, I tipped the boat on edge. Special thanks to Sheryl for holding the boat on its side while I adjusted the angled brackets and then tied the boat to the sawhorses. It's pretty stable. The picture is taken from the stern. Tomorrow, I'll sand down some of the rough spots and run some fiberglass cloth over the top of the fillet, then flip the bad boy over.

Day 33 & 34 - Fill Coats

Over the weekend, applied two coats of resin over the fiberglass cloth. The boat looks the same. Did run out of resin and had to run to 'Fiberglass Mart'. There is such a place. Will start working on the reinforcement of the hull to the deck on the inside tonight (maybe).

Day 32 - Glassing the deck

It's Friday night - time to glass the deck. Started off by running tape about 1 inch down from the deck seam, then draping the white cloth over the top of the deck. After a few tugs and prods, it was in place. I trimmed it so that the cloth was roughly mid way through the blue tape.



Next came the resin. Getting low on my supply of resin. May have go out and buy a small bottle or two. We'll see. So, got the hull all "wetted out". Looks good. Ran the plastic squeegee over the top to take out the air bubbles. When It is done drying I'll cut out the holes for the cockpit.


This is the stern of the boat - showing the cloth overlap and the hull identification number.






The resin is curing and the timer is set for 2 hours. After a couple of hours, I'll need to go through and trim the fiberglass with a knife at the tape line while it is still in a plastic state.

Day 31 - Done Sanding! for now

There are NO picture of me sanding today. Though I was sanding, I was tired of it. I got all t he drip marks off. After using the 100 grit, I then did a couple passes with some 150 and 220 grit. That went very fast. After using the compressor to clean out the brunt of the dust from the garage and from the car, it was time for a rub down. Gave the boat a quick rub with some towels to remove any latent dust, then had a beer. While working on the beer, I installed the hull identification number on the stern.

Since my wife was sleeping, I was able to bang out the saturation coat on the top deck, and a think coat of resin on the bottom gunwales where I had sanded. As you can see, the grain really popped. Yes - it looks better in person. There are some shiny areas. Those are where I had some resin residue on the hull. Once I get another coat on, they'll disappear. The picture is of the stern.






This is a picture from the bow.











This is the starboard side of the boat. Time to cure overnight. If I feel energetic, I'll glass the top deck tomorrow.

Day 30 - Say hello to my little friend

So here's my little friend. The random orbital sander. It got quite the workout over the past couple of days. Still not done though. I got the entire top deck sanded and most of the gunwale where I had some drips. The sander works 2 to 3 times faster than the old square palm sander. Plus, it doesn't clog with the fiberglass dust as easily. The dust collection is great. I took it off and it shoots out a tornado of dust (right onto our Honda).



This is a shot of the bow deck. You can see the fillet of resin between the deck panels. As I didn't bevel each of the joints, there was a bit of a small gap that remained. Looks like a teak deck now.





With Tyler's help, we removed the work table the other day. This allows me to get closer to the boat for sanding. Tonight, I put two pair of posts and used some 2" nylon strapping to create a sling to hold the kayak for sanding and finishing. Much easier to hold it on its side now. I'm using screws at various points on the post to allow me to adjust the height of the straps.

Day 29 - Sanding

Not a lot of progress today. Only sanded for about an hour. The random orbital sander is doing a great job of taking off the drip marks that resulted from me joining the deck and the hull together. The bow now looks similar in finish to the stern. No pictures today. Maybe some more sanding this evening.

Day 28 - Joining the deck to the hull

The hull and deck are now one.
I set the deck on the hull late last night and ran a bead of resin in the joint. Held the two pieces in place with about 50 pieces of strapping tape.
This morning, I removed the tape, and added a second bead of resin to fill in any gaps. After that setup for a few hours, I began sanding the top deck. Due to the amount of resin I squirted all over the boat, there was some limitations on where I could sand. I did get the stern almost sanded and ready for it's top coat of resin. The joint of the deck panels looks pretty good. I did have to put a glob of thickened resin at the very end of the stern and the bow. I'll sand this off tomorrow. I wanted to make sure it was nice and rounded.

With some of the thickened resin that was left over, I put on my LED headset so I could see what I was doing, and ran a fillet of thickened resin between the top deck and the hull. It shows up on the left side of the picture. The white area doesn't yet have any resin. That'll come tomorrow.



I took a picture down the length of the inside to show what it looks like now. Still a bit of work to do to get the inside complete. Tomorrow.

Day 27 - 3rd layer of hull reinforcing

Yesterday, put down the 3rd layer of fiberglass fabric on the inside of the hull. Getting much better at putting this stuff in place with no bubbles. The flash shows the the edges of the fabric pretty well. With just ambient light, you can barely tell where the edges are. The surface has the texture of the fabric. I will probably leave it to provide more traction when climbing in and out of the kayak.

Also did an end pour at the bow. This will provide me some meat to drill through and attach a carrying handle when I get done. Nearly ready for the top deck to join the hull. Need to figure out how to attach the foot braces.

I am taking a few days off the kayak. I've been running a cold and I don't think the fiberglass fumes are helping at all. Have been wearing a respirator with most of the work.

Day 26 - Reinforce the hull

A quick day on the boat. Spent about a total of 1 hour. I spread out the remaining fabric to ensure I had enough to cover the top deck, cut that off and set it aside. According to the directions, I was supposed to have a 10 foot piece left over. I only had 6 feet. So, I had to do a little patchwork. As you can see in the photo, I had to splice a few pieces together to make up the reinforcement. I also trimmed the fiberglass from yesterday's operation. Looks like I will need to pick up a 10 foot section to finish the final layer of reinforcement.

Day26 - Glassing the inside

After a night of curing, I finished sanding the inside of the hull. Knuckles are a bit scraped up from getting into the bow and stern area. Tried a number of different sanding tools to get in there. In the end, it is pretty good, but nobody will ever see it. You can see that I did hang the deck above to keep it out of the way.




At the stern, I put a fillet of resin to hold a rudder if I ever add one. This picture was taken just after I did a saturation coat on the inside of the kayak hull.






After I did the saturation coat, took about a 4 hour break to let the resin cure. Now have laid out a length of fiberglass woven fabric to put in the hull.





The resin on the inside of the hull was still just a bit on the tacky side. Worked great for holding the cloth in place. Getting the cloth to fit in the bow and stern was interesting. The bow was easier than the stern, due to the steeper angle of the stern. I wound up cutting the fabric and doing a bit of an overlap to make it fit. In the picture, I'm about 38% done with the wetting down of the fabric.

All done for the night. The hull is saturated, I've gone through with the squeegee and taken out all the air bubbles and now it's time to hit the showers. Had to scrub the dabs of resin that found their way onto my arms. Good thing I'm using an old t-shirt.

Day 25 - Sanding and Filleting

After taking Friday off, I got to work Saturday morning on finishing up on placing a fillet of resin on the front half of the boat. Also cleaned up some of the resin at the stern.

While that was curing, I began sanding the inside of the boat, and all the places where the resin had dried along the panel seams. It's much easier to sand on the outside of the boat. Have burned through about 6 sheets of sand paper - and that's after cutting each sheet into 4 sections. Lots of sanding.

I did put the hull identification number on the inside of the boat. This is a coast guard required number that has to be incorporated into the boat - like a vehicle identification number.

Sunday - more sanding. May do some work with the resin. My fingers are tired.

Day 24 - Down with the forms

Today - worked on the top and the bottom. Applied the second coat of resin to the underside of the top deck. After that, lowered the hull from the ceiling and then attempted to lift the deck. Found it was a bit "flexy", and I didn't really want to snap it in half. That would be bad. So, just used the ropes to hold it in place while I worked on the hull.



With the hull on the bench, I used a wood burner with a spade tip in to melt the glue off the temporary frames. I used a 1" putty knife to scrape up the freshly melted glue. After getting most of the glue off, I was able to snap out the frames. They did leave a little residue of wood and some of the glue. Sanding off the hot glue gun glue is a pain. It immediately clogs up the sand paper. Using a chisel just digs into the wood. I got most of it off, but may borrow Sheryl's razor to get the last bit. I don't think she'll mind.

Here's the hull all naked. No temporary bracing. Now time for some sanding. Tonight, I sanded all the seams in the stern, and around the butt joints - where you can see the two transverse stripes on the hull. Got them nice and smooth. I left some of the strapping tape in place. Will rip the rest of it off tomorrow.








Started at the stern with some really thick epoxy to fill up the back 3". This is supposed to allow the cloth to lay smoother in the hull, and also provide a place for me to attach a rudder at a later date. I squished in quite a bit of material there.




I added a strip of 3" wide fiberglass to the stern butt joint and a piece of 3" and 4" to the bow butt joint. This will reinforce the joints so the boat doesn't split in two while I'm paddling. I went with a bit more reinforcement than was called for (none was called for on the stern). What the heck. You can also see my last little effort for the evening. I spread out some thick epoxy in the keel seam to make it smooth for the cloth. Need to finish that up tomorrow - let it cure, then sand.

Day 23 - Wetting down the deck

Very unexciting day. After the Obama election, building a kayak just doesn't seem the same. I'm hearing rumors of a new kayak tax.

I did apply a coat of resin to the underside of the deck today. Took a whopping 20 minutes. Done. No pictures. Let it cure.

Day 22 - Reinforcing the Deck

Step one. Sand. Then sand some more. Was able to use the orbital sander to smooth out the under side of the deck and the ramps I created the other day out of the thick epoxy. The sander made pretty quick work out of the job. Took me about 45 minutes sanding to get the underside in shape for some reinforcement.

Here's a picture of me in my personal protective equipment. The respirator was well worth the money. Easy to breath in and it keeps me from inhaling all that dust. The glasses - they just look good.

My sander has a dust collection system on it. I was a bit skeptical about it actually working, but this pile of dust was from just 30 minutes of sanding the fiberglass.

I applied fiberglass tape over all the joints in the deck. Even with the ramps on the reinforcing deck pieces, the material tended to pull up a bit. I snipped the areas where there were big problems, and figure I'll go through and add another layer of tape in those areas to doubly reinforce it. After I got the whole thing glued up, I lowered the hull from the ceiling and set the deck on top. Most of it fit like a glove. Only some spot areas required a little coaxing to fit. The whole boat is now tucked away for a night of rest while the resin cures. I'm using strapping tape to hold the thing in shape.

Day 20 & 21 - Top Deck

Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of work on the kayak. I took off the support pieces that held the hull stable while I built it, and installed the frames for the upper deck. Next, I put on the two deck pieces and wired them loosely together. This was somewhat difficult with just one person. The pieces were pretty gangly. I used a piece of 1x2 board, and made an impromptu spreader bar. Worked pretty good, and was much easier than finding my son to help.

The next thing to do was to install the last of the deck pieces. These were wired together loosely first, then I had to go back and twist all the wires tight, keeping the deck panels aligned.

I used strapping tape to temporary secure and line up the hull with the deck. After a few adjustments to the boat, I glued it up. First with clear resin, then 40 minutes later with some thickened resin to fill the minor gaps in the panels. This picture shows the deck taped on, wires in place, and the resin just after it was applied. Just after this picture, I went through with a putty knife to scrape off as much excess dripping as I could. It'll save later on sanding.

Sunday morning. I removed the wires from the deck and popped the deck off the hull. There were a few areas where the resin dripped down and glued the two together. I needed to work on the bottom side of the deck, so I needed to get the hull out of the way. The pulley system worked pretty well.

The last thing I did on Sunday was to add some additional resin to all the joints, then fillet the reinforcing plates that I earlier put on the bottom side of the deck. This will help the cloth go over. The resin I mixed up was very thick. I've got the angled portion supported, so nothing sags. After this has a bit more cure on it, I'll probably set it on top of the hull to keep the alignment.