Chesapeake 17 - cutting blanks from 4 mm okoume plywood - January 6, 2015

This evening I cut two of the 4x8 sheets of okoume plywood into the blanks indicated in the plan. These blanks will be glued together with fiberglass tape and epoxy and then I'll layout the pattern for the side and bottom panels on them.

I used the pine board I'll be using to make my sheer clamps as a guide and held it in place with a spring clamp on each end. Then adjusting my skill saw blade to be just a quarter inch deeper then the thickness of the two sheets of okoume I made the cuts. I had both sheets clamped together so I would only have to make three cuts instead of six.

I have already cut one of the blanks in the photo above, in the photo on the right the last cut is read to be made. Three of the blanks are eleven inches wide and the last one is the remainder of the sheet about fifteen inches.

Next time I get into the shop I'll glue the blanks together with a butt joint. The plans call for a scarf joint but I saw a video from Pigmy Boats, another company that sells kayaks in kit form, and in the video they said the butt joint will work quite well. I have used these in the past with excellent results.