Another Kayak

I wasn't really planning on blogging this project, so I didn't really take a lot of pictures.  But I have a few so I will attempt to take credit for another sorta cool project. 

Long story. 

I'll try to use links to avoid 'splaining too much here. 

Ah, found it: http://teambluemonkey.com/bz/Kayaks/default.htm

That gives the initial and interim storyline of building kayaks and earlier trips. 

So I've built 9 kayaks:

1) Big Green two holer canvas on frame kayak. 

2) Joey's (yes, I experimented on my boy before risking my own life)

3) Mine (Wave, rebuilt once and needs another)

4) Elaine's. (Spot)

5) Nan's. (Skye)

6) Jason's. 

7) Joe's second (he outgrew the first)

8) Elaine's second (Vincent)

9) This one. 

The above link should describe the transition from oil-base paint-impregnated canvas skin on wood frame to fiberglass skin on frame, to glass on cardboard skin on less frame, and the continued evolution of this method. 

This is the first pic I have of this kayak, though Nan has a few earlier ones. You can see why I use this method. We get a really nice shape in exactly the size we want using only $25 worth of cardboard and a couple of 2x4s. 

Actually, I want to use this method to make a formula1-ish three-wheel electric vehicle someday. It is important to select the right curves in a number of parts of the boat, including the stem, stern, keel, sheer line, and deck profile. I must be getting better because this boat turned out better than any I'd built before. 

Here the top has been glassed and the hatches cut. 

I invented a new way to put the coaming on, eliminating the tedious old method of hand fitting numerous small pieces of 1/2"x1/2" plywood around the 3D curve of the cockpit opening. Instead I cleaned out a used up calk tube, and filled it with peanut butter consistency resin, made with talc filler, and squeezed it out around the coaming. Using a quick handmade tool we shaped the goo into the desired 1/2" square cross section. After curing and a bunch of filing with a wood rasp (that stuff is hard), we glued a 1/8" strip of plywood onto that. Voila! Coaming!

I tried a new process of smoothing the skin by filling the cured weave with resin thickened with talc (standard inexpensive filler). That turns out to not sand so well because the heat of the sander causes the filler to melt, gumming up the sandpaper in seconds. I could only wet sand it by hand. Very laborious but it left a silky smooth finish that paints extremely well. And shiny.

Oh yeah, the green is just the base paint coat. Other design motifs will be painted on later.

Here it is painted and fitted out, ready for its maiden voyage. We had to hurry and get the boat done so we could get up to the cranberry bog prior to the season ending. That adventure is linked here: http://bzkayak.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-trip-to-cranberry-bog.html

And here is the new boat (middle).

Not a bad project, and a great way to spend time with my daughter's boyfriend. I started sometime around the start of August and finished in mid October. About 10 weeks, though once school started I had a hard time getting to work on it. Thoroughly enjoyable project. 

Coffee Table / Wine Rack for Paul's Wife

Paul, a friend from work, asked me how to edge glue to boards together.  Having learned from the greatest (Jim Strawn) early in my career at Boeing, I asked: "What are you trying to do?"  "Oh, you're making a coffee table." After a bit of discussion I invited him over to my house because he'd never done anything like this before and I already have all the tools and a reasonable shop. 

We also discussed design ideas, and two things shaped this table:

1) Four-foot, 1"x8", pine boards.

2) Paul's wife likes wine. 

So we decided to make the table with a wine rack underneath. 

It's hard to find pine in large dimensions, so we just cut three 4'x1"x8" boards into a bunch of 16"x1"x3.5" and glued up each leg out of four of them. Serious clampage needed. We ran out. There was a trick to cutting the grooves in the legs for the horizontal table and wine rack supports (2"), but I don't have pictures and will forego the description here. Suffice it to Say that it was a very cool trick that worked quite well. No fasteners whatsoever. The glue-up left the table legs a bit crooked, so we stacked some bricks on the high corners to hold it flat while the glue set. 

We used a couple stray sticks and wine bottles on the table saw to model the proper structure for optimal wine stackage and came up with 2" gaps between 2.5" supports. Here is the lower wine rack being glued up. 

The length and width of the table was determined by the size of the table top, which was 3 boards edge-glued with biscuits after running the interior edges through a jointer. About 21" wide and 48" long. The outer edges of the legs are 2" in from that. 

It was a trick getting the lower wine rack into the box after it was glued. I thought I could triangle it in one of the sides or the top, but ended up having to cut off and reglue one of the end tabs. Here it is being reglued, and it will never come out of there again. 

Here is the table unfinished (Paul says he will stain it dark), and in Paul's living room. 

The whole project took about 5 hours of shop time.  Three easy evenings.