Thursday, January 31, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 7

Late yesterday I tried to lay the first strip of Redwood down on the forms. I didn't have long enough staples to keep the strips in place, especially at the bow and stern. Last night I bought longer staples (9/16") so I could start this morning to give it another shot. If you remember from the last post, I had to splice two 10' strips together to make a strip long enough to span the kayak. I thought I could glue the splice together while laying the strips down on the forms. My attempt at this technique caused me and the splice a lot of stress!

I decided that I should glue and clamp the splice, then let it dry for sever hours, before attempting to lay it on the forms. This worked out much better, in fact I was able to get the first and second strip laid down on both side before calling it quites for the night.








The ends on the bow & stern are coming together good too. After the strips are down and the glue is dry, I will need to grind and sand the ends down to a nice smooth bevel..



Project Elapsed Time : 26.0 Hrs

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 6



My cove & bead bits arrived on Tuesday, so I began running the strips through the router. The strips are very narrow (1/4" x 3/4") which means I have to be very precise on the router setup.





I also decided that I will start with Redwood down the sheer line on my first strip. This will make a nice deep red line where the hull and the deck meet. I spent another hour selecting and cutting strips and redwood. I only had 10 foot boards of Redwood. I will have to splice two strips together to get enough length to cover the length of the boat (17ft).






Project Elapsed Time : 22.5 Hrs



Sunday, January 27, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 4 & 5


I spent the weekend get the forms lined up. This wasn't too exciting but vary necessary to get right. I wasted some time figuring out the best technique until I read about a way to use string as a guide. I had confidence that short of a laser beam, this would be the best way to help sight down the forms.
Since I knew there wasn't going to be any loud noises or dust made today, I thought it would be a fun idea for Caleb to come over and watch. This lasted for about 2 hours. Caleb was watching my every move and so desperatly wanted to get down on the ground and hold the strings for me.

After several hours, I got the forms in the right position. It was time to flip the structure aound to take a look at the bottom of the kayak. I used black electrical tape to protect each form from glue. I don't want the strips to get stuck to the forms.

Project Elapsed Time: 19.0 hrs

Friday, January 25, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 3




Today I worked on cutting the center sections out of each form station. The bow and stern end sections took a little more work because I opted to use a separate piece of wood (southern yellow pine) for the beveled section. You can see it is attached to the forms with hot glue. Hopefully I will be able to break it off and have it become a permanent internal support of the finished kayak.





I decided to take some time out to build pair of boat stands. It looks simple enough and I had some white pine 2x4's in stock. Not only will it be a great strongback support, but after the boat is finished, it can be converted to a soft storage rack. This was a nice idea from the book.










This is what I have to show for my work today. There was a little more work involved than just threading the 2x4 through the form stations. For one, there is a straight line marked down the center and side of the 2x4 strongback. This is to aide in the alignment of each form. I am still struggling to figure out the best way to verify the alignments. There seems to be a variety of methods, including trusting your eye to sight down the lines. There are many websites, including a forum discussing the pros and cons of these methods. I'll be researching this tonight.








Project Elapsed time: 16 Hrs.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 2


I finished my reading for the next step this morning and began preparing the forms. A few months ago I purchased the full size prints from the kayak designer, Nick Schade, who also authored the instructional book I am using. I will be using the prints as templets for the patterns.
I rough cut each of the 22 patterns from the prints and glued them to a 1/2" thick piece of A/C plywood. After a quick rough cut with the saber saw, I carefully cut the patterns on the band saw and cleaned up the edges with the palm sander. They all look pretty good, but I still need to cut the center holes that the 12 foot 2x4 will run through. I'll save that for tomorrow.















I have to do some more reading to get ready for the assembly of the patterns. Just a note, in the "elapsed time" below, I am not accounting for casual reading of the manual that I often do in the evening. However, I do account for any necessary reading time while at the woodshop.


Project Elapsed Time: 10.5 hrs



Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Cedar Kayak - Day 1

I started a new project today; a 17' single person kayak called the Guillemot. I spent the first part of the morning reviewing the section of the book that deals with selecting the wood. I thought we had enough Western Red Cedar to build 500 boats, but I found that it's best to start with "flat grain" lumber.

So, that means I had to spend an hour looking through the stacks for the right cuts of lumber. It was an important to do this because after ripping "flat grain" lumber on the the table saw, it becomes "vertical grain" (also known as "quarter-sawn") in its usable format. Now I can bend the strips along the grain and not against it, which means more strength and easier sanding.


Each strip is 1/4" x 3/4" and 8ft to 16ft long. I started with 5/4 x 4" Western Red Cedar, kiln dried and clear of knots. I planed the wood down to a little over 3/4" thick then ran it through the wide belt sander for a nice finish.


I estimated that I have over 25% more than the recommended amount of length needed for this boat; roughly 1,250 feet. I still have to run the material through the Cove & Bead shaper to make easier to lay the strips over the curved patterns. So far it's a good start and I have some more reading to do.


Project Elapsed Time: 5.5 hrs