Thursday, March 27, 2014

Paint

Because I used a painters tarp that I picked up pretty cheep. I only need a few coats of paint to finish it off.
 I did use a primer for the fist coat, just to fill the weave. next I put on a couple of coats of purple. I have some rust-o-lem enamel on hand for that. The pink is an external latex paint. but pretty much any paint will do.
I want to install a rub rail to cover the staples on the chine, it will be a cedar strip. then i will do the final coats of paint.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Skinning the Yack

Now that the frame is complete, it is time to put some sort of skin on the kayak. The choices are numerous and the methods varry but staying with the philosophy of Roger's Woodworks "I can do this cheep" I found a good solution. I am using a painters canvas tarp 9x12 that I picked up from Menards for about 13 bucks. The process is pretty simple, cut out the cloth roughly to shape, then start in the middle and staple and stretch it to the frame. I did this in two pieces, hull and deck, and I will hide the overlap with a strip of cedar screwed to the gunnel. Next issue is to make it water proof. I used a primer paint to fill the weave of the cloth first. You could even use a waterproofing paint that is used in basements. The paint did raise a lot of threads, but a few minuets of sanding (lightly) takes the rough edge off. Next I will put t a couple of coats of the finish paint on, sanding between to build up a nice finish.

Monday, March 10, 2014

How to build a Kayak in a day

First you need a good plan. This skin on frame plan is 11 feet long and is sized to fit a paddler up to 100 pounds.
 

With some spray adhesive, glue down the  shapes then cut out the forms, next rip some 3/4" by 3/4" strips.

 
Start by glueing and screwing on the keel, gunnels and deck strips to the forms.
 

Next whip up the ends, any shape will do.

How many clamps does it take to glue a coaming together?
The correct answer is "All of them".



And we are done!