Wednesday, December 21, 2011

More progress

Couple of projects going on and should be wrapping them up before the end of the week. First is one side of the book case project that will be placed on either side of the fireplace and a dresser module for the b-man's built in bed system.
I used a pocket hole jig for the face frames and was very impressed with the results.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Next Project?

could this be the next project? not according to my spouse. but perhaps in early spring..

Thursday, September 22, 2011

where to start

I spent an hour between dinner and the next meeting I had to attend, starting to clean up the shop and get it ready for winter and the next round of projects. I tell you that I have abused everything and there is not a clear counter top or work bench anywhere. There is even some rust on the table saw and the band saw table.(shudder)

Monday, September 19, 2011

hello September

Wow, that was the quickest summer I can ever remember. I havent been in the shop much at all since the kayak was finished. The weather is cooling off and soon the ground will freeze and the snow will fly. I have a lot of projects lined up and ready to go, I just need a little time to get them started and let the sawdust roll....

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Canceled

After five months of preparation, countless hours in the shop, 175 miles of travel... the race was canceled due to unsafe water conditions.
i do need to make some modifications to the kayak, the foot braces are a little to short and i had to hot glue on a skeg to get it to track straight. a little fiberglass and a couple more coats of varnish should finalize it...
 next projects?

B-man needs help finishing up a gun cabinet he built in shop class for Mr. Wong.
I'm not sure what I'm going to work on... i have some small engine repair to do, but ill be back in the shop soon...

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Finished

ok is a project like this ever really finished? the weather has been terrible, low temps and high humidity. the spar urethane i was trying to use just wouldn't dry. i ended up putting on a couple of coats of polyurethane on top of the sticky spar urethane to cap it off.

there will be a few more pictures as i get it in the water, im waiting for the wind to drop down below the stupid level to launch..
if we ever get some 90 deg days, i will sand off the drips and sags and put a nice hard coat of something on it... but for now, i need to get it on the water!

Monday, May 23, 2011

shhhhh.......

its done..... but the camera wont download...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Crunch Time

Between late last night and early this morning, I managed to get the inside seam fiberglassed and epoxied. We will see tonight, when I pull off the packing tape if I did a good enough job. I couldnt sleep for the nightmares of the sides going SPRONG!!! if that happens I'm gunna go buy a tupperware boat..

Monday, May 16, 2011

12 days to go...

I don't know what i did wrong. I put some spar varnish on the seat back on Thursday, just to check the final look, as of Monday morning it is still sticky. The SD kayak challenge is in 12 days, do I dare varnish the boat and pray that it is hard enough to transport and paddle? Perhaps i didn't mix it well enough and the humidity has been terrible and the weather cold....
meanwhile.....
The coaming lip is finished and fiberglassed, I just smoothed out the ends and fiberglassed them. in the future I can add fancy looking stem pieces (did I mention that the race is in 12 days?)
Next step is to put the two halves together and fiberglass the seams... time is running out, I don't want to use the word panic but.......

stuff to do:
glass seams, inside and out
do end pours
install toggles and coords
get boat checked out by Game Fish and Parks
purchase licence
figure out how im going to manage to haul the dam thing around
apply final finish
pray that it drys
did i miss anything?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Epoxy has arrived

so the epoxy finally showed up last night and i wasted no time in gluing up the coaming lip and fiber glassing on the foot brace supports. late last night i got to thinking, what if my plastic clamps become stuck in the epoxy permanently? so i had to run out to the shop to make sure i avoided that catastrophe..
next step is to attach the cheek plates permanently and glue down the little dammits that hold down the deck shock cord.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Seems to quiet

yes, things were going really fast there for awhile, then i ran out of epoxy. with a 10 day shipping speed i wont be able to put the last of the fiberglass on until Tuesday. my goal is to get the boat in the water by next weekend. that will give me a good two weeks to tweak it before the big race on the 28th. today i finished up the woodwork for fitting, cut strips for a lip on the coaming. i had to soak them in water to get them to bend around the curves. i finished up the day with yard work, always a crises this time of year.... but it was still a good day.

Monday, May 02, 2011

Fiberglassing

The last of the major fiberglassing has been completed! And I ran out of epoxy. I still have lots to do, the next step is to install the footbraces inside the hull and finish the coaming lip. Here is a sneak peak at what the final boat will look like when finished.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Inside glass

i got the inside of the hull glassed last night. now to do the inside of the deck.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter weekend update

On Saturday I managed to sand out the inside of the hull, put on a seal coat of epoxy and a fill coat of epoxy on the outside of the deck. On Sunday I spent the entire day with the wife, kid and family... They were starting to wonder who I was and why I keep coming in the house for sandwiches...

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cockpit

Ok, I chopped a hole in the deck last night. It was surprisingly easy to do.  I am gluing on about 100 - 2" long walnut strips around the hole to build up the coaming. that is another task that is surprisingly fast and easy. The next step is to smooth out the insides enough to get the fiberglass to lay flat. I'm pretty sure that is going to take a couple of days. When I pulled the hull off the forms, I was amazed how light it is, cant wait to put it together.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Glass on hull

The weekend went rather well, I was able to put on a seal coat of epoxy on the hull Saturday morning and it was dry enough by Sunday morning to put on the fiberglass. The roll of fiberglass that I ordered isnt wide enough to cover the entire bottom at once so I put on two pieces to cover, it should add some extra strength anyway. I think if I was to do it again, I would wet out just one layer of glass at a time, as doing two was a real pain. I dont know if I got the glass pressed down against the hull tight enough and it took about two hours to do. Good thing it was only 65 degrees in the shop, it gave me extra time to work with the epoxy before it set up.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Ramblings

I now understand why boats have female names...

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Glass on deck

the glassing process is really simple, and its kind of fun. i thought the deck looked good with just a sealer coat of epoxy on it, but wow, the clear glass adds depth. i spent about an hour last night doing a final sanding, cleaning a little and fitting the glass to the deck then putting on the epoxy.




only 44 days until the SD Kayak Challenge!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Sealer Coat

now the true beauty of the wood shines through. after another day of sanding and preparing, i have put on a sealer coat of epoxy on the deck. with the temperatures and humidity in my shop, i expect it to take days to dry enough to put on the fiberglass.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Saturday Update

things are moving faster now, the final sanding is about complete, the hull is ready for fiberglass and i should get that on today. the shop is at about 65 degrees and the suggested temp for epoxy is at least 75.... but the race is getting closer and i cant wait for warmer weather....no fear, just get it done!

Thursday, April 07, 2011

thursday's note

just a quick note that the fairing is complete, next step is to fill in  a couple of blemishes and do the final sanding. i might even get to some fiberglass this weekend... woohoo!

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Quick update

yesterday i bought a random orbital sander and started using it on the kayak.... why did i not buy one of these years ago....

Monday, April 04, 2011

all righty then..

So the fairing is nearly complete. I spent about 12 hours doing nothing but sanding, planing, shaping... and I'm still not happy with it. I'm thinking that i need to start on the final sanding and touch up any other spots i missed or messed up. I also glued up some panels for the cheek plates and the seat back. If anyone wants advise about this process I suggest that you walk away from it every once in a while and come back fresh... that helps a lot.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sanding

The instruction book suggests that I start the fairing process with a scraper to knock down edges and remove the glue squeeze out, then spend lots of quality time with a hand plane to create the nice fair curves... I started with the belt sander and the high speed air sander, this is going to take some serious grinding..

Monday, March 28, 2011

More progress

Talk about awesome weekend take 2! The deck has been stripped, after 20 hours of painstaking cutting, fitting, planing, trimming, fitting, swearing, fitting again. I think I have it done. This is not a perfect, museum quality piece.... This is a boat that I will paddle, drop, scrape, bang around in all summer, and its looking pretty dam good too!


still lots to do, next step is the sanding and fairing....... woohoo!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Progress

what a great weekend, it all started Friday night when i replaced the starter on the old motorcycle....... and it worked! after that i spent about 16 hrs working on the deck of the kayak. as you can see there is a bit of a wiggle on the center line, I'm still thinking of a way to fix it without tearing it all apart. but I'm happy with what i have done so far. only 67 days till the SD kayak challenge!

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

a better day

I did get some quality time in the shop yesterday. I finaly managed to finish up a couple of wood boxes that have been sitting on the bench for awhile. Thanks to the equilizing factor of a great air sander, smooths out all of the mistakes. And now that there is only 85 days to the SD kayak challange, im getting antsy about finishing the boat. I made more cedar strips for the deck and prepaired some more walnut. I still dont know what the final look is going to be, but I feel a design growing somewhere in the back of my head. I think the hardest task I have done yet is fitting the shear strips for the deck. Getting the bevels right and maintaing the twist is a little tough. Once these strips are inplace and solid, the remaining should go pretty quick.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Frustrating

ok some days you just shouldnt go out to the shop. i was attempting to use my plunge router with my dovetail jig and was just making a mess. i should have used the other router with the fixed base, the plunge kept slipping even when locked tight. then to add to the fun, the straight bit decided to slip down making the cut even deeper. the moral of the story is.... use the right tool, and replace that collet when it starts to slip...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

To Cold

Its way to cold to be working in the shop today. I dont want to waste the propane to heat it up. So im working on some plans and specs in the house where its nice and warm.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Stripped hull

The hull is stripped, now to move on to the deck. i did the final closure strips with walnut, im thinking it looks pretty cool if you ask me. next step is to flip it over, release the forms and then start on the deck. im still thinking about a pattern for the forward end, but i have to see the shape of the deck first.


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Wisdom?

I do believe that a boat takes on some characteristics of its builder during construction…. mine is just a little twisted…..

Monday, January 17, 2011

Still working on it

Another eight hours spent in the workshop, planing, shaping, gluing, clamping and tapering. I now have the deepest respect for those people who build a lot of kayaks. As this is my first build, each piece, each joint is a new skill i don't yet have. work progresses in spurts, sometimes slow, sometimes quickly, but never quick enough.
I have run out of ceder strips again and will have to pick up another board this week.  I am going to fill the final closures on the bottom with walnut, should look cool. I'm not sure what the deck is going to look like, pattern wise. I still have a lot of walnut that I can make smaller strips work with ceder fillers but we will just have to see.

A kayak can truly start you on a journey, even before it gets wet.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

134 days till race day

Its tough to get time to warm the shop up to do more work on the kayak. When the temp is down in the stupid range, it takes a lot of propane to keep my fingers working. Anyway im still working on the keel strips, I have the first one almost ready to install, I just need to steam in a little twist for the bow end to get the point right. I figured out that if I cut out the straightest parts of the warped walnut strips and nail them together, I can run them through the plainer and straighten them out, then I can scarf them together to make the length i need. Its working but slow going...

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Keel Strips

I'm working on the Keel strips now, I'm thinking these will be pretty important to keep straight and fitted tightly.

oh yea 140 days till the SD kayak Challenge

Monday, January 03, 2011

Sunday's Update

Ok, so this is not going as fast as i thought it would. 143 days till the SD Kayak challenge and my boat still leaks, big time. slow and steady wins the race right? I have installed the strips up to the chine and am now ready to do the bottom....
i know, i know, im going to take my time and do a good job....