Deck attached, clean up before glassing

Well Tuesday removed the straps and plastic wrap, then began smoothing the deck with planes, japanese rasp, surform tool , cabinet scrapers, and hand held sandpaper. Seems like the planes, cabinet scrapers, and sandpaper produced the best results. Then began to trim the overhang around the perimeter of the hull so that the deck would become one with the complete boat.

Permanently Attaching Deck to Hull

After mixing up some very thick epoxy with cab-o-sil, the deck was permanently attached to the hull using rachet clamps and plastic wrap to fill in the gaps.

2nd Coat of Epoxy on Underside of Deck

Sunday, finished 2nd coat of epoxy over the fiberglass on the underside of the deck which is really bringing through the deep colors. This time I used a 3" foam mini roller to equalize the epoxy after application with brush and squeegee. Should have used this technique on the hull as I think it would alleviated a lot of the runs and sags that developed after the epoxy set for a couple of hours

Smoothing and Fiberglassing of Underside of Deck

Well they say when you fall of your horse, you get back on it so after the nasty spill I took last night after tripping over some electrical cords and shop vac, taking some heat from my co-workers about how the other guy fared or that I fell of my skate board, I decided to continue with progress of the kayak. Cleaned up the underside of the deck mostly using an assortment of cabinet scrapers in different shapes. This seemed to work the best, then took a litre water bottle and wrapped sandpaper around it to smooth up the surface. From there I attempted to lay on the fiberglass cloth without snagging it by laying old sheets on the deck first. This worked alright and I tried to trim the cloth so that I'll have enough for the topside of deck when it comes time for that. I'm afraid that I'll have to obtain more cloth to finish up since in the beginning, I wasn't to concerned with not having enough. After applying the epoxy to the fiberglass and trying to fill the weave as even as possible, I stood back and admired the deep colors of the natural wood evolving through the finish. This is a good indication of what the topside of the deck will appear like. Still have to apply two more coats of epoxy to the current underside of the deck, hopefully tomorrow.

Began Finishing Inside of the Deck

Began scraping the glue drips and sanding smooth the underside of the deck on preparation for the fiber glassing and epoxying step. First major faux pas, tripped over the shop vac and numerous cords laying on the floor and did the best face plant ever on the concrete floor of my garage. My own fault though,, instead of rushing through and trying to get more accomplished, I should have done a little housekeeping to clean up and keep things nice and organized. My face hurts, I bet its killing you!

Removed Stripped Deck

On Thursday, I removed the deck first by removing all the staples and gently lifting up all along the edges till the whole top was loose. I'm glad that the duct tape was applied to the tops of the temporary forms to facilitate the ease of removing the deck as the deck released easily since the glue didn't stick to the duct tape. Then I knocked out all of the temporary forms and set the deck back on to visualize the almost finished project without the deck forms in the way.

Deck Is Stripped -- Finally

Finished stripping the deck today. The last 6 strips along the side of the cockpit has taken me 3 days to complete. But now its done and I can move on to the next step which consists of removing the top from the forms, flipping it over and fiberglassing the underside of the deck( after smoothing and sanding of course).

Almost Done Stripping

Today was spent continuing to fit the last few remaining strips all the way down to the sheer line. Will continue tomorrow with the last couple of strips which will probably take some time to fit properly

More Strips Added

Took a break Thursday but was able to get quite a few more strips added on Friday. Rubbed some denatured alcohol onto the wood strips in an attempt to capture the beauty of the wood when it will be in its finished stage after the epoxy as been applied.

Comin Along on the Deck

The last two days were spent continuing to fit the pieces into the deck and working the different shades of cedar into some kind of subtle transitional blend from dark to light




.

Making a Little Headway On Deck

Today was pretty productive after first couple of strips next to the centerplank were installed, I began to figure out the best steps for ways to make the end joints fit tight. With the help of my first mate as seen in the 2nd picture, a considerable amount of time was spent deciding which strips would be laid next to each other as I moved down from the centerline both forward of the cockpit and behind it in order to come up with the most uniform and visually appealing design.

Contrast Strips part 2

Few more pics of the contrast strips fitted today. This is a slow process and progress is not as gratifying as with the previous steps of constructing the hull.

Contrast Strips Completed

Spent all day fitting the dark cedar strips next to the white cedar around perimeter and down the center. Averaged about an hour per strip fitting 8 strips total for the day.

More of 2nd Perimeter

More pics of second run of perimeter strips and center strips. I don't like the idea of having all the staple holes but, oh well. The next set of strips will be of the darkest that I have to contrast with the light color. Then who knows from there.

Second Perimeter Strip and Kingplank

Spent all day fitting the second round of perimeter strips and fitting the kingplanks down the centerline. Had to take a break to run down to Home Depot and pick up a new hand stapler, this made a big difference. My old one just didn't want to work right and I was really getting frustrated with it.

More Preps and First Strip

Added some protection to inside and tops of bulkheads to avoid glue sticking and stapled on first perimeter strip of the lightest color that came in the kit.

Preparation of Stripping Deck

Well today was spent mostly cleaning up and regrouping in preparations for stripping the deck. I had to remove the cove off of the strips that would be glued together to form the centerline and glue them together. This would leave a bead facing outwards toward the sides to match up with the upward facing cove on the first strips to be placed along the sheerline. In turn all of the in between strips would will have the same orientation as far as the bead and cove goes. The strips that will start the outside edge will run the full length of the kayak so I did have to epoxy them together using scarf joints. Tomorrow will be the big day for the start of actually attaching these aforementioned pieces which will form the framework for the fill strips. Before this can happen, I still need to line the inside of the hull with some kind of protective liner to catch any glue drips or debris from the stripping process.

Sorting Strips

First today I unbundled all of the cove and bead strips, layed them out in the sun (at the advice of someone who means a great deal to me) in order to sort and separate the strips according to their hue. The strips vary from a light,white pine to medium and dark cedar. Once sorted, they were stacked accordingly so as to simplify pulling from the supply as needed by color.

Setting Deck Forms

Flipped hull back over and began positioning the temporary deck forms. They are held in by hot glue once their position has been established. The the sheer clamp is beveled with a hand plane to match up with the angle of the deck forms. This will allow for the strips to lay evenly across the deck without a drastic transition in angles. Also set in the cockpit form.




Flipped hull back over and began positioning the temporary deck forms. They are held in by hot glue once their position has been established. The the sheer clamp is beveled with a hand plane to match up with the angle of the deck forms. This will allow for the strips to lay evenly across the deck without a drastic transition in angles. Also set in the cockpit form.

Sanding Down Bottom

Began sanding the bottom with 100 grit paper, followed with 150 grit, then finished with 220 grit. Sure feels nice when you run your hand over it however it is a dull finish now. Once the deck is finished and permanently attached to the hull, the whole thing will be lacquered and the beauty off the wood will once again shine.

After Three Coats of Epoxy

Trimmed the excess fiberglass cloth from the hull and continued epoxying the bottom of the hull. I did to a light sand in between coats to try and knock down some high spots and blimperfections. After a total of three coats it look pretty good and shiny.

Bottom Done

First coat of epoxy is applied to the Fiberglass overlayment of the hull. Will allow to dry overnight and finish up with at least two more coats of epoxy, sanding lightly in between. The excess fiberglass will be trimmed flush after the epoxy has set up.

Laying Bottom and Sealing with Epoxy

Draped the hull with fiberglass and doubled up the bottom panels,bow and stern. Used a dry paint brush to smooth out and even the fiberglass sheets, then began about a three hour job of spreading on the epoxy.

Smooth Bottom

Crafted some supports to secure the upside-down hull for sanding and glassing, then prepared the hull for fiberglassing. All the joint angles were softened by either planing or sanding a slight radius into them. I then used my random orbital sander with 220 grit paper to give a really smooth finish to the mahogany in preparation to laying on the fiberglass sheets.

Lookin Ahead

Before I flipped the hull over to begin fiberglassing the bottom, I positioned the temporary deck forms into place to get a glimpse of the final shape of the kayak. These of course would have to be removed in order to continue building the boat but it was fun to temporarily jump ahead to visualize the form of the boat.

Finished Interior Coating

Finished up epoxy coating of all hull interior surfaces today and had a little left over so I went back over some areas that looked like could use a thicker coat.

Glassed Cockpit Interior

It finally warmed up enough for me to feel comfortable about working with the epoxy so that it would set up properly. The epoxy was thickened and applied into the inside angles where the panels joined together to soften the transition between the panels. Fiberglass tape was embedded into the fillets and then a whole sheet of fiberglass cloth was cut to fit into the cockpit and laid in and up the sides. Unthickened epoxy was squeegeed and brushed onto the fiberglass cloth to saturate and fill the weave of the cloth The entire interior has now been sealed except for the bulkheads which will be done next after trimming the excess fiberglass cloth. The bulkheads will be sealed with epoxy as well as any other bare interior wood that may have been previously missed.

Cockpit Fillet Prep

I decided since the cockpit opening would be more visible and I couldn't epoxy today anyway that a little more time should be spent on preparation of this area. I used painters tape to outline the areas where the fillets will go and once I get these nice, neat, and evenly filled in with very thick epoxy, the painters tape will be removed. Then the fiberglass tape will be set in place and epoxied over. Perhaps tomorrow this will happen.

Took Break Today

Turned pretty cold last night and I don't think the epoxy will set up properly so I took a break from the all day, non-stop work on the boat to regroup. Went to the local HD and picked up some supplies and an 8' overhead shop light. Decided it was about time to do away with the flat work top so I removed it and placed some straps across the uprights to create a cradle. The straps are just some old leather belts and the cradle will allow the kayak to be turned over so the bottom can be worked on and fiberglassed while being held securely without being damaged.