Duck Floats!

Launch time and place: 3/20/10, 3:30P.M. Long Lake, Bridgton ME. Distance from building site to launch site 2700 miles.
There was no champagne, marching bands, or a big crowd, just Carol, Clay and the loons.

1. It floats!
2. No leaks!
3. She really tracks well!
   
4. Cuts right through the chop!

All said "well done my son"


To get a better view click on Picture.

The Duck is Heading North

Yes, it is finished and will travel with us to Maine! The last coat of varnish went on last week. There are 5 coats on the hull and 4 on the deck.
With a wet sanding using 400 grit paper between each coat.
Varnishing this large project was a real challenge to say the least. The experts say dust is the biggest concern. We cleaned the garage as best we could. Then we hung plastic to seal off part of the garage and only used that part for the varnishing. Sanding and other preps were done elsewhere.
Another challenge was to figure out the temperature and humidity; both determine the technique you use at any particular moment. Due to the size of the kayak those weather factors can and often do change before you get from bow to stern. It took this many tries before I was satisfied with the look and I was not willing to try to perfect it any more.
There are a few warts but as my new boat building friends keep reminding me "It ain't a coffee table, it's just a boat."
The last last thing I had to do was drill a hole through the bow so we could put on a grab handle. This took me back to the always helpful builders forum with many questions: What type line to use? What size? How big to drill the hole? And the most scary one, how do you drill the hole so both sides match up?
Someone recommended a forstner bit. So back to Harbor Freight for some bits. After many practice trials on scrap lumber I finally took the plunge. It came out pretty durn close. Then we settled on single braided 3/8" black line.
I have to really thank all the people via the CLC Builders Forum who answered my many cries for help during the building. I could not have done this with out their help.
Carol June, was the biggest help from the beginning of this project all the way to the finish line. In fact it was she who tied on the bow line (using an Albright Knot) which was the last piece of the puzzle.
Wishing y'all happy paddling.

Home Stretch

The last coat of epoxy is curing (72 hours) so I have some time to update the blog. This mandatory time off also gives me a time to shop for varnish. Varnishing will be the last big task that remains. Everything has to be sanded before I start with the 4-5 coats of varnish with sanding between each.
I am still hoping to have it ready to go East. If the varnishing is complete then I can finish the rest there.

Rehatched Hatch

It worked! If you are a new reader go to the post "Hatched an Egg" so you have the back ground for this one.
Carol's idea of getting something that would help fill in the space and be decorative and glue it all together with epoxy might be a solution. I said "we will see".



Carol had an idea we could find something to tie it together. She found what she was looking for at WoodCrafters. It is a product called processed veneers. Which comes 1/8 inch wide 30 inches long. The width was just right to fit the cover. We put the inlay in and put epoxy mixed with wood flour (a thick dark substance) around the bottom side into the groove. Similar to applying drywall tape. After that cured we used epoxy mixed with silica powder (less thick and almost clear) and using a syringe applied this mixture from the topside. This is the result after the fiber glass was applied.
This picture is a whole lot different than the one in my mind when I realized I had made the wrong cut. It not only looks great (click on the picture to see the detail) but more importantly is going to hold together. Another example of Carol June's great creativity.

A Coat of Glass

It's March Madness and our Jayhawk flag is flying high on the pole and KU is high in the polls. It is also great weather in San Antonio as you can see by our blooming pear tree. It's 70 degrees and 70 degrees means it's a good day for putting down fiber glass. And fiber glassing is just what we have been doing for the past week.
First we covered the hull with glass and poured about 2 cups of gooey epoxy right in the middle of the hull and started moving it around with a plastic squeegee being fast enough so that only a little bit runs down on your feet. (Isn't gravity great.) And of course you need to get all the glass saturated before it starts to set up. Or in the epoxy vernacular "kicks". In about 8 hours when it reaches the "green stage" you have to be ready to trim off the excess and remove any masking tape. Before any bad things can happen. Every 8-10 hours, depending on the temperature, you apply thin coats of more epoxy to "fill the weave". I hope this sound like I know what I'm doing. March Madness at it's best.


Once the hull was done we turned the kayak over and started the same process on the deck. We are now at the second coat stage. Doing this blog is how I'm spending my time before the next coat. We are getting there.
You may remember an earlier post about making a wrong cut for the hatch cover. ( See Hatching a Bad Egg) I said Carol may have a solution to the problem, well tomorrow we will find out. If it works we will let you know in the next posting.
You can always click on any photo for more detail.

Cockpit Coaming

The coaming is the reinforcement around the cockpit and also gives you a place to attach a spray skirt. This comes in 5 different pieces that have to be glued together and then glued to the deck. Getting five slippery pieces all lined up just right and keeping them there with clamps is like herding cats.
Somewhere I read that it takes at least 15 clamps to build a kayak and 30 is better. Well I used 35 on this part of the project. Notice my home made ones form PVC pipe. They work well but you need two hands to put them on and you don't always have two hands available.
The 5 pieces are now one and will be attached to the deck later. You will have to check back to see how that goes.

Third Fitting

This is the third time I have stitched the deck to the hull. This time I also glued them together and removed the stitches. After the stitches were removed I had to get inside and put fiber glass tape soaked with epoxy along the seams of the hull and deck. Not an easy chore. I tried to cover up most of my body especially my arms and head, I had on a respirator , goggles and a head light. It would have made for a good picture. Carol helped by holding a flash light therefore everyone was too busy to get a picture. I finished with quite a sore back, epoxy on one ear and on one lens of my new glasses. After a week it is almost off the ear but the glasses part is there to stay. Ops. Are we having fun yet? . For better or worst this is the result.

Good Decision

Most everyone reading this knows I married up. Soon after Carol June started pursuing me she displayed her sewing skills by making me a wool car coat (popular style in the 60's) by making her own pattern. So now some 40 plus years later we once again call on her skill of pattern making.
The cockpit needs fiber glassing. Just cutting a rectangle will not work so Carol takes the Sunday paper and makes a pattern and cuts out what I need.
Another of life's lessons: It's mostly about making good decisions at the right time. I'm sure glad she hooked me with that first coat or I probably would never get this kayak finished.
We are looking at a fiber glassed cockpit.

Hatched a Bad Egg

Enlarge the picture and and you can see where I have cut a hole in the back part of the deck. This is the opening for the hatch (storage compartment). Well this is about the time I realized that I have made a serious mistake. I made my cut on the wrong side of the ring I was using for the pattern. I went inside and I was suppose to go around the outside. I figured this out when I could not get the reinforcements inside the opening. The ring is visible on top of the rear deck. Only only about a 2 inch mistake. What now?? One thing I can hang my hat on at this moment is every time someone gets on the builders forum with a goof up the experienced builders say "everything can be fixed". We will see.
My wonderful wife thinks she has a solution. We will see.
Anyway by now I have enlarged the opening and have gone ahead and put in the reinforcements and glued that in place. When we put the deck and hull together for the last time we will try Carol's fix.
After the epoxy cures the deck and hull are separated once again so I can apply fiberglass tape to all the seams.

First Fitting

Click on pictures for more detail Using copper wire you stitch the hull and the deck starting in the middle and working one stitch forward on the right then one forward on the left then go back to the right side and move one towards the back. Keep going back and forth until you get to the end. The process gets really tricky and challenging near the ends. You are not just wiring pieces together you are bending and shaping wood in directions that it resists. After you get it all together there are a lot of adjustments that have to be made by loosening and tightening the wires.
When you are satisfied you let it set for several days while the wood relaxes and gets into a "happy mood".
This is the first time we have stitched the deck and hull together. But not the last.
NEXT STEP: NOW COMES THE GLUE.
The wood has relaxed and hopefully will maintain its new form because we have to take asunder what we have most recently put together.
We remove the deck from the hull so we can spot weld all the seams.
This calls for an epoxy mixture the consistency of ketchup which is put into a syringe and applied along all seams trying to avoid getting it on the wires. If this ketchup is a little too runny it will run onto the wires. Epoxy on wires makes for difficult removal. If you attempt this make sure you have thick ketchup.





You are looking at the underside of the deck just before welding the seams. In the back ground you can see part of the hull. Both have been prepared with masking tape so we do not glue the two together in this fitting. As soon as we finish with the spot welds hull and deck go back together for the Second Fitting. This is done so both parts cure at the same time resulting in a good fit.



This is the second time we have stitched the deck to the hull but not the
last.

Corrections

At this point, frustrated and a bit discouraged after 20 plus hours mostly on the bow and stern this is what I got? BLEEP ,BLEEP! Deep breath and back to the drawing board. I call upon my new buddies on the CLC builders forum. After getting various suggestion (you never get a definite do it this way) and needed encouragement I started rewiring, making it tighter in places and looser in others. A rasp and sandpaper took care of the rest.
The pictures show the new nose job and a much better tail.
Click on pictures to them it bigger.







Below is the inside and outside view of the hull. Only one of the forms will remain. The remaining one will form the bulk head.

Stitching the Duck

After the epoxy sets up there are four long panels that make up the hull. ( The other two called the sheer panels are part of what will become the deck.) They all require beveling of the edges. Skills and tools involved are planes, scrapers and sand paper. This was a four hour job and I hoped I was doing it right. There are lots of opinions on just what is the right angle or if you need to do it at all. I obviously decided it needed to be done and took a middle of the road approach on the severity of the angle. After they are beveled you match the bottom panels up like a book and start stitching them together with copper wire. Then you add the sides and the temporary forms. The forms are just that. They are what you bend the wood around to form it into the shape of a kayak. You start stitching it together in the middle and working in both directions leaving the ends for last. There is a lot of wiring, tightening, rewiring, tightening. Most of the holes are pre-drilled, however, as you approach the ends more are needed along with shrink wrap and anything else you think will help pull it together. Spraying the wood with water helped with bending to the right curve. The stern of a Wood Duck has a transom and that adds a challenge that other models do not have.
I was not very happy with the looks of either end after the first wiring. The bow is all out of alignment, the side panels and bottom panels do not match up. The tail is all out of joint. This is what I get after 20 plus hours of work?

This needs a nose job! The tail's too high!

Getting Ready

Once I bit the bullet and ordered the kit from Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC), I set out gathering tools and equipment I would need. In that process I found several businesses that I never knew were in San Antonio. One of those places is Harbor Freight. (great prices on tool, gloves, clamps, sandpaper, etc.) I should have signed up for their frequent shopper card. Another neat store is Woodcraft, a specialty shop for wood workers. They have all sorts of neat things to buy, and they gave me 3 bags of wood flour (that's a fancy name for fine sawdust). One of my most favorite new finds is Schnabel's True Value. There you can buy copper wire. But more importantly one washer, if one is all you need. What a concept! I have also picked up lot's of scrap lumber and other materials that have been useful at the Habitat for Humanity store.
Before the crate arrived I ordered books on boat building and books about epoxy. I read everything I could find about both subjects on the internet. I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting into, but when the crate arrived and we opened it on the garage floor and took out the check off sheet I was overwhelmed. My mind is saying "maybe I should just send it back." I had no idea what was what. The manual is okay, but it assumes that you know more than I did or still do. I was able to figure what parts would eventually become the deck and which were for the hull.
The first thing you have to do is glue the boards together that will make up the bottom, sides and sheer panels. So you figure out what goes with what (nothing is marked) making sure that that the matching panels are laid out as mirror images to make right and left sides of the kayak. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The puzzle joints are then epoxied together.
Now about epoxy. This is a new language for me. Resin, hardener (fast,slow or moderate) thickener? Consistency of mustard or ketchup or peanut butter? Green stage, wet out, fill the weave? Remembering the ratios for mixing it all just right, and getting it all done at just the right temperature somewhere between 60 and 90 degrees. And get it all done before it sets up in your cup making a good hockey puck. (How many do you want me to send you?) Like lot's of things a little knowledge can get you in big trouble and even when the chemistry is right timing is critical.

Again the directions are somewhat vague. For example for this first job it called for mixing a small batch of epoxy. Small batch? Not so many ounces or cups but a small batch. Thanks to a very helpful builders forum on CLC web site I got a quick answer. I think that was my first question but there have been many more since.
On December 23, 2009 I glued the first of the puzzle pieces together.

Wood Duck

I like the looks of a wooden boat, regardless of the type. Everyone always says "yes, me too, but they take a lot of work keeping them looking nice." But you know if that boat is encased with epoxy then it would not be so hard to keep looking nice.
How about a wooden kayak? The knock you hear is "if it is strong enough it will be too heavy." However, if you could get some very hard, very thin, very light plywood and encase it in just the right amount of epoxy...

There you have the inspiration and the out line of my winter of 2010 project.
Building a wooden kayak.
This is the first of any such endeavor by me. I did not build model airplanes or boats or anything as a kid. One reason was a total lack of confidence. Another, I could never set it aside and then come back to it. And there were other things I'd rather do. So I think most of my family and friends who have heard of this project are somewhat surprised.
I started out doing lots of reading and looking at my options. Building from scratch or from a kit. I have very little wood working equipment so the kit look like the best option. I surveyed the Internet for kayak kits and selected a company which had several types and even several different building techniques to choose from.
I am building a Wood Duck 10 using the stitch and glue technique.
That means a kayak with a funny tail. You first glue some short pieces together so you get a kayak that is 10 feet long. Then you stitch all the parts together using copper wire and bending it into the shape of a kayak.
The finished product will be encased in fiberglass and epoxy. None of this have I ever attempted or even witnessed being done. But here goes.
Stay tuned for pictures and progress!