Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Proudly gluing the sheer clamps on to the side panels - January 28, 2015

Yesterday I dug out from the blizzard of 2015, and watched "The Interview". Today I was back in Geiger's Boat Shop and glued the sheer clamps on to the side panels.

In preparation for this I put clear packing tape down the top edge of what will be the outside of the side panels and laid the panels one atop the other so the packing tape was on the inside.Then taking the measurement from the full size section of the plans I measured three and three quarters inches from the stern and made a mark that will indicate the end point for the sheer clamps at the stern end of the kayak. Then I measured in five inches from the bow and made another mark. This will be the end point at the bow end of the kayak for the sheer clamp.

I put the end of both sheer clamps at the stern mark and then made a mark on each sheer clamp where they crossed over the mark at the bow. I cut the sheer clamps at this point to get the required length. 

Using one of the pieces I cut from the end of the sheer clamp, it was about 15 inches long, I made a line three quarters of an inch in from the top of the side panel from the bow mark to the stern mark. This is where I want to glue the sheer claps and it will allow the one inch wide sheer clamp to stick up about one quarter of and inch over the top of the side panel.

I mixed up some epoxy with cell-o-fill to a mustard like consistency and spread it in the area between my line and the top of the side panels. My panels are back to back so I did this on one side and then flipped the panels over, still back to back, with the portion that already has epoxy on it hanging over the edge of the table so the panels don't get glued to the table by mistake. Then I applied epoxy on the other side.

The I carefully clamped the sheer clamps to the side panels making sure the sheer clamps lined up with the line I drew.  Using my gloved finger I wiped up and excess epoxy that oozed out from under the sheer clamps on to the side panels.

Note, I put little tabs of wood under each clamp to keep it from dimpling the wood. One spring clamp at each end of the table and the yellow tool box are all that is keeping the side panels from falling off the table. Here are two other pictures, one from the bow and one from the stern. In the picture from the stern you can see the packing tape sticking out. The tape keeps the panels from accidentally getting glued together.





I'll let the epoxy cure for 24 hours.