Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Preparation for End Pours continued - March 9, 2015

This is the bow dam filleted in place.  When it cures I can pour in epoxy thickened to a syrup like consistency. This will give me a place to drill a hole to install a rope loop caring handle when I finish the boat.

This is the stern dam glued in place.

Next time I'll actually do the end pour.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Preparation for End Pours - March 7, 2015

We have had quite a bit of Snow this year. Those swings that are completely covered by the snow are about 30 inches off the ground. All you can really see are the ropes holding the swings up. 

The end pour is a block of thickened epoxy that reinforces the bow and stern of the boat. The instruction manual says to make a dam of cardboard and then tape it in place and pour in the epoxy. Well I did that once and it made quite a mess in the boat and I wasted epoxy. So I do it like this now.

 I work with a piece of cardboard to get the shape I want for a dam and then cut my dams out of scrap okoume.

Here is the stern dam resting in place.

This is the bow dam resting in place.

Next time I'll glue them in place with epoxy fillets.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Fitting the Deck Beam and Beamlet - March 4, 2015

This is the port side reinforcement tape in the footbrace area with the edges sanded smooth.

This is the starboard side reinforcement tape with the edges sanded smooth.

To fit the deck beam and small deck beam (beamlet) near the bow I used this technique. I held a straight edge against the sheer clamp and made a mark on the deck beam and then cut the beam.

I set the cut edge against the sheer clamp and then marked the deck beam on the other side as in the photo below. Then with a lot of sanding, planing and sawing, not necessarily in that order I got the deck beam to fit without deflecting the sides at all.

The deck beam in place.

I did the same with the  beamlet. You can see both the deck beam and the beamlet just resting in place in this picture from the bow.

The beamlet will be epoxied in place and the deck beam will be epoxied and screwed in place.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Sanding the Interior of the Kayak and adding Fiberglass Tape to Reinforce the Footbrace Area of the Hull - March 1, 2015

As I said in a prior post the fiberglass tape usually cures with a rough edge that I like to sand smooth.

The edge of the cured tape looks white and is very rough and abrasive.

Here you can see the white edge of the cured fiberglass tape. I'll sand it flat and smooth.

Below the stern section with the fiberglass tape edges all sanded smooth.

The area where the footbraces go is supposed to be reinforced with a piece of fiberglass tape. This is a rough approximation of where the tape should go and also of the tape length.

I spread some unthickened epoxy on the desired area and then rolled out the fiberglass tape. The epoxy holds it up while I wet it all out and it turns clear.

The fiberglass tape has turned clear. See the not or blemish through the cloth? Remember I purposely but those marks on the inside so the outside would look the best under the varnish.

I did the same on the other side and when the epoxy and fiberglass cured I sanded the edges of the fiberglass tape smooth.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Fiberglass the cockpit section - February 21, 2015

The cockpit section of the kayak is supposed to have a full piece of fiberglass cloth in it all the way up to the under side of the sheer clamps from the forward bulkhead to the aft bulkhead. 

I should have taken a picture of this before I wet it out with the unthickened epoxy but I didn't. Here are two pictures one looking from bow to stern the other looking from the stern towards the bow.

looking from stern to bow.

looking from bow to stern

The instructions say to do this at the same time as the fillets and fiberglass tape but I don't like to do that. The edge of the fiberglass tape never lies flat or smooth so I like to let that cure and then sand it flat. After that I put in the large piece of fiberglass cloth. 

I cut a piece that was the distance between the bulk heads then I laid it in the boat and smoothed it all out. Then with a sharpie marker I marked the cloth and then cut it to size. 

If this is your first time working a large piece of cloth with epoxy I recommend you do from the keel or center up to the sheer clamp on one side and then do the same on the other side. Work with small batches of epoxy so it does not become unworkable. Let it cure for 24 hours.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Epoxy Fillets and Fiberglass Tape - February 16, 2015

Today I started to glue the boat together. It will hold it's shape once these steps are completed. I put clear backing tape along the bottom or keel joint and that wide space by the bow so that the epoxy fillets would not squeeze through.

The idea behind the fillets is to make a smooth radius where the panels meet. You want this smooth radius because the fiberglass tape will not lay easily in or over a sharp angle. To get thin fillet use masking tape about half an inch on either side of the joint where the panels meet. I actually used the edge of the wires as my guide.

The boat is now ready for me to  apply the fillets and the fiberglass tape. First I cut the tape to the lengths I need. I do this by simply rolling it out over the masking tape and cut it to length with my scissors.

Stern with cut strips of fiberglass tape.

Bow section with cut strips of fiberglass tape.

Cockpit section with strips of fiberglass tape.

Whole boat view from bow.

Detail in the bow section where the strips of fiberglass tape meet.

Detail in the stern where the three strips of  fiberglass tape come together.

I then took all the strips out of the boat and draped them over the sides so I would know which one went in which location.

Yes that is snow you can see out of the window on the right.

Time to mix up some epoxy with wood flour to a peanut butter like consistency and apply the fillets. I use a plastic bag with a corner cut off like a pastry bag to extrude the thickened epoxy between the masking tape.

Below the thickened epoxy transferred from the mixing cup to the plastic bag. You can see on of my filleting tools in the picture it looks like a big tongue depressor.

Photos below of the fillets applied.

Bow section looking toward the bulk head

Bow section looking toward the bow

And with the tape remove...

Masking tape removed.

Masking tape removed.

Next the fiberglass tape is applied and the wood is sealed with unthickened epoxy.

Bow section with fiberglass tape applied over the fillets and the other wood sealed with a coat of unthickened epoxy.

Here is a close up of the bow section looking forward where all three pieces of fiberglass tape come together.

I did the stern section the next day and the center section the day after that using the same technique. All surfaces including the sheer clamps should be coated with two coats of epoxy to seal the wood.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Fitting Bulkheads and Faring the Hull - February 15, 2015

To get the kayak into the correct shape you need to spread it at the correct point to the beam that is indicated in your plan. The Chesapeake 17 has a beam of 24 inches and the widest point is 112 inches from the bow along the center line from the bow to the stern. I just ran my tape measure from bow to stern and at 112 inch I ran a stick across the boat perpendicular to the the tape measure and marked the sheer clamps on each side. Then I cut a piece of the stock I used to create the sheer clamps to a length that spread the boat to 24 inches wide. 

You can see the spreader stick behind the second level in the picture above. By the way the sticks and clamps are supporting the boat on the horses at this point.

The bulk heads also are placed at distance from the bow along the center line just like the spreader stick and I mark their location that same way I did the location of the spreader stick and while I was at it I also marked the positions of the deck beams.

I installed the fore and aft bulk heads with four wire stitches for each bulkhead, one on each side and two on the bottom. The side ones were about two inches below the sheer clamps. The bottom ones were both very close to the center line of the boat one on each side of the center line.

To get the hull shape correct you want the levels to all be level. If you don't have three levels you can just place long sticks across the boat and adjust the boat until they are all level. You level them by adjusting the boat position above the horses with the clamps. 

When you look from the bow or stern at the level of the sheer clamps the tops of the levels or sticks should all be parallel. Now eyeball the bow and the stern to be sure they are perpendicular to the levels or the sticks going across the hull. If not use your hands to twist them so they are straight up and down.

The hull should be fair now, without changing the shape twist all the wires tight. At the chine where the side and bottom panels come together they should meet with a "V" shape on the outside.  Later this will be filled with thickened epoxy and then sanded smooth with a nice radius to accommodate the fiberglass cloth.

Do everything you can to avoid gaps like this. I can tell you right now it will hardly be noticeable in the finished kayak but I'm going to have a thin brown line here between my panels. It will show because I going to finish the boat with varnish. If I were to paint the hull it would not be noticeable at all. 

Above, the hull as seen for the bow, is all wired up. On the interior you want to push the wires down right against the panels so they will get buried in the next step in the epoxy fillets.

 
The wires above have not been pushed against the panels yet. In the picture below they have, see the difference in the shadows cast by the wires.

The inside is now ready for epoxy fillets and fiber glass tape.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - The Hull and Deck Beam - February 9, 2015

I once heard the best way to make progress on a project is to do a little each day. Today I did a little. I took the clamps off the deck beam I made.

I still need to sand it but I'll do that before it gets installed in the kayak.

I also turned the hull over and clamped it to a couple of horses with boards about two feet long and about one inch wide, very similar to the stock that was used to create the sheer clamps. This is the first step in fairing the hull.

Those bulk heads are not installed yet, they are just loosely fitted in the boat. That was it for today. Starting to look like a boat now.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Stitching The Hull Together (continued) - February 7, 2015

Today the first thing I tried to do was correct the way the side and bottom panels met at the bow. I untwised the wires and put in a wooden dowel to use to align the panels at the bow.

This looks much better and more acceptable to me then what I started with.

Hull all wired up from the bow.

And from the stern.

There were some tricky spots to add the stitches in the stern because the space is very tight, these photos illustrate this.

Above is an inside view of the boat near the stern. The wire near the fiberglass butt joint was actually inserted in a hook or "U" shape  from the bottom panel and then I tried to coax the end into the hole in the side panel. Below is the view from the outside. I used my pliers to carefully pull the wire through some more.

The hull is all wired but before I move on to the next steps of fitting the bulk heads and fairing the hull I need to fabricate the deck beam.

The plan indicates one way to build the deck beam by laminating some strips together on a jig you make with a 15 inch radius. I might try this next time but I had experience with a kit in the past where I just glued two pieces together that where cut in the shape of the deck beam. I thought I would do it this way.

On some scrap 6 mm okoume I drew and cut out may arcs that had an inside arc with a 15 inch radius and outside arc of 16 inch radius. Here's a picture.

 

I used copper wires to get the 15 and 16 inch radius. Then I cut out all the pieces and dry fitted them together. Next I mixed up some epoxy with cell-o-fill to a mustard like consistency and glued the deck beam together.

There are 18 spring clamps holding that mess together. I could just get them open enough to fit around the "deck beam". The epoxy needs to cure for at least 24 hours so that was all for this day.