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.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Stitching The Hull Together (continued) - February 6, 2015

Today I continued with wiring the hull together. I set the side panels on the table with the sheer claps down by the table. I placed a couple of boards across them to support the bottom panels which I unfolded and set on top like this.

I used my square to make a line on the side panels 3/8 of an inch in from the chine edge, this is the edge that is meeting the bottom panels. I then drilled and wired the bottom to the side panels doing five stitches on one side and then five on the other. I continued alternating like this until both sides were wired all the way to the stern.

Above the first five stitches have been put in place on both sides.

You want to avoid this. The bottom panels should not over hang the side panels like this at the bow. If you can get them to be closer it will save you a lot of sanding later and your boat will look nicer. 

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Stitching The Hull Together - February 5, 2015

Well the Patriots won the Superbowl and I'm anxious for all the panels and other pieces I have fabricated to turn into something that looks like a boat. So I started to stitch the hull together. This is the stitch part of stitch and glue construction.

Cooper wires are the stitches

Cutting the coil of copper wire in thirds yields wires of about the correct length. The coil of wire is about 4 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter.

First stitch the side panels at the bow and the stern. Oops, whats wrong with this picture.

Side panels wired incorrectly, the sheer clamps should be on the inside facing each other.

The sheer clamps need to be on the inside facing each other.  I'm glad I caught this mistake after only four stitches. But let me back up some here, you need to make holes all along the bottom panels about 3/8 inches from the edge and 4 inches apart. 

I used my square set to 3/8 of an inch and then ran it all around the bottom panels. Both panels are stacked one on top of another so when I drill I'll be making a hole in both bottom panels.

I then used the ruler on the square to make marks that were 4 inches apart. Again I went all around the bottom panels. Below is the stern all marked ready to be drilled.



Below is the bow drilled and wired. A 1/16 inch drill bit is all you need to create a hole that the 18-gauge copper wire will pass through.

This is the stern drilled and wired.

Below are the bottom panels wired together. Note the side of the panels you wire together is the almost straight side, also know as the keel edge.

The side panels are also pictured above wired together at the bow and stern. Yes, that is an insulated bait bucket used for ice fishing separating the panels. You want to separate the side panels with something, it makes it easier to get the ends together to wire when the panels are on an angle otherwise the sheer clamp which need to be on the inside get in the way here is a picture of the bow wired correctly.

That is where I wrapped up this day.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Cutting out the Cockpit Coaming and Bulkheads - January 31, 2015

I transferred the drawings from the plans to the 6 mm okoume the prior day. Today I cut out all the drawings with my Bosch jigsaw.

First the inside of the coming ring came off.

Then the coming and the single spacer that I transferred from the plans. I drew the rest of the spaces using the first one I cut out as a pattern.



Then I cut out the rest of the spacers and the bulk heads. Here is everything cut out and in most cases sanded right down to the lines I drew.

Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Cutting out the Cockpit Coaming and the Coaming spacers - January 30, 2015

If you buy a kayak kit all the pieces come cut out and ready to assemble but since I'm working form plans I need to cut out or in some cases build the pieces myself. Today I laid out the pattern of the cockpit coming rim and the spacers and cut them out.

Above the plan with the full size drawing is taped to a 6 mm sheet of okoume. I used push pins to transfer the drawing to the okoume and then with a very flexible piece of wood I connected the dots to complete the drawing on the okoume.

I did the same thing with the bulkheads, notice that in the plan the forward and aft bulk heads are drawn one on top of the other. In the image above I'm transferring the aft bulk head to the okoume. You can tell this because the green push pin is in the out side right corner of the picture and there are some clear push pins on the left side where the notch for the sheer clamp will be located.

Above is the cockpit coaming rim drawn on the okoume and one of the coaming spacers. The hole is where I will begin to cut out the inside of the cockpit coaming rim.Below are the blukheads drawn on the okoume.

I decided to draw the coaming spacer only once and then use the one I cut out as a pattern to draw the other five. Yes five, because it's 6 mm okoume the plan calls for six coaming spacers, three on a side.

After transferring all the drawings to the okoume it was late. So I took all the clamps off the side panels where I had glued on the sheer clamps two days prior. There were some spots that had epoxy on them.

A couple of stray spots of thickened epoxy above and  below.

I sanded these out even though they are on the inside. I want the boat to look as good as it possibly can when I'm finished and sanding these spots off now is the thing to do. The next time I build a boat I'll be more careful to avoid having to do this.

Above is one more stray spot of thickened epoxy. While sanding it off I also sanded the fiberglass tape I used to make my butt joint. Then I sanded the other put joints smooth too.

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.