Posts

More strips

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  I have now put eight strips on each side. As I am getting further down the hull, a lot more twist is needed to get them to fit...more clamps, more tape, the occasional screw and one split scarf joint and a few more gaps than before!  After the next layer, I will switch to focussing on one side only, up to the centre line. I can then use the router 'cheat' to make a straight seam.

Stripping (the hull)

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 Fixing the strips to the hull is now underway. Here is the forth one on the port side going on.

Scarfing

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 With all the knots in my whitewood, I will be doing a lot of scarf joints. To make this as easy as possible I have made a little jig for my bandsaw that cuts the strips with a 1 in 8 slope. Its just an angled fence and some toggle clamps to make things quick and easy. Once the scarfs are cut on the two ends, I am joining them using a 3d printed guide. This is made from PETG as this has poor adhesion to pva based wood glue (I am using Titebond original), so I don't need to use bits of polythene all over the place. The method seems to work very nicely. I had also tested (and rejected) using a router or a disk sander to make the scarfs. In my hands both these methods gave untidy joints, and made too much dust and noise.

A spooky form

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I've started construction of the kayak. The first job was to make a batch of wood strips (6mm x 20mm). Rather than buy cedar strips (which would have cost about £500), I have made my own by milling down 'whitewood' from Wickes. I bought twenty  18mm x 44mm x 2400mm pieces which each yielded four strips after two table saw cuts and a run through a thicknesser. They are quite knotty, so I may come to regret being a cheapskate. I will remove any bad knots and join smaller pieces together with scarf joints. I made the forms from plywood, and the strong-back is a straight piece of  ' two by four', also from Wickes. The fittings to attach the forms to the strong-back were designed in Openscad and 3D printed. Here is the assembled form, lit by green laser light from a level finder (to help get everything lined up nicely).  

A new boat - REC126

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I have decided to build a second boat (strip-built). I like the mill creek double, but it is very big and difficult to manhandle on my own. The new kayak will be designed with the following factors in mind: short enough, and light enough for me to lift onto a car roof, and in and out of the water. I am aiming for a length of 12 foot 6 inches (375cm), and a weight of 15 - 18kg. Room for my feet (size 12), and me 6 foot 2 inches and 95kg, and a bit of 'lunch' (say 10kg) nice and stable, but not too sluggish. Tracking well without a skeg or rudder. not too expensive to build I have done the design in some freely available software (Kayak Foundry), and have arrived at the following: A few other design points: No deck hatches. I intend to store 'lunch' behind the seat. Two removable bulkheads - one at the front which will also provide a support for footrests, and one well behind the seat to create a watertight chamber for buoyancy. Deck lines with flush fittings 3D printed. ...

Off to Paddle and a Pint

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  Tested out the new seat position on the canal at Tring. It worked really well!

Fitting a middle seat position

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  I fitted a set of seat runners in the middle, and added a set of bolts to move the front set of foot pedals aft for solo paddling. I also repainted the hull to remove all the scratches from the bottom of the river Wye!