Day 48 - Drilling holes in the kayak

After spending much time making the boat waterproof, I proceeded to drill 8 holes in the boat. Two 1/2" holes were drilled - one at the bow and one at the stern - to allow the handles and any ropes to be threaded through for docking and transporting. The 1/2" hole was just the right size for one of my router bits with a 1/4" round off to fit inside and provide a rounded edge to the hole. That should prevent any chafing of the lines. Sanded down those holes and moved on to the next series of holes.

I measured where the foot braces should go, and using some blue painters tape to do the layout (so I wasn't marking on the boat), I proceeded to drill 6 holes for each of the foot rests. Once these were in, I threaded the foot rests on with the screw on the inside of the boat and foot brace on the outside. Once I got it loosely fit, I lined up the foot brace so it appeared horizontal and used a smaller drill bit to feed through the mounting hole on the other end of the foot brace and act as a pilot hole. Reamed out all the holes to clean them when done and put the foot braces aside.

Mixed up a small batch of epoxy and used a small modeling paint brush to paint the cut edges of the 14 holes I just drilled. Now time to cure, and another run to Home Depot. Need to pick up some Velcro and contact cement.