Glassing the deck

Today the UPS driver showed up with my long over due glass cloth and epoxy. I saved BIG money by getting my epoxy from http://www.boatbuilder.org/ . But they were closed down for a family illness for two weeks.

The UPS truck didn't make it out of the subdivision before I had epoxy resin mixing with the slow hardener.

This is one layer of 6oz. fiberglass cloth and the first coat of epoxy. Tomorrow I will put a second coat of epoxy to fill the weave of the cloth. A third coat may or may not be needed to totally fill the weave.

The glass brings out the true colors of the wood.

New table saw

In an earlier post I said I got a new table saw. My buddy Ted said lets see it. So here it is. It works great. Best of all is it hooks up to my dust collector. So now I can saw in the house without covering everything in dust.

When my old saw quit in the middle of a cut, it left me stuck with no way to continue work on the Guillemot. So I put some stuff on e-bay and got enough money to buy the saw. I looked at the one at Home Depot but they would not deal on the price. Amazon .com had the same saw for $80 less then Home Depot and the shipping was free.

This is the planer that I got from Santa at Christmas. I can not believe how much I use it. It makes all my strips uniform in thickness so that all the beads and coves come out perfect.

It took me a full day to sand the Guillemot smooth. Now with all my strips being planed with perfect beads and coves, The Petrel will probably sand smooth in an hour or two.


It's a good thing that I am building two kayaks at once. The Guillemot is stalled again. I ordered all the epoxy and glass cloth, but the order is on hold for two weeks. At least I have the other kayak to work on until then.

Sanding the hull

Yesterday I laminated the stems. Today I carved them to shape with my block plane.

After I shaped them with the plane I sanded the hull. In this photo the hull is not sanded yet.

In this photo the hull has had it's first sanding. Now I will fill in some gaps and holes with epoxy and wood flower. Then it will all get a finish sanding. It's time to order the epoxy and fiberglass cloth so that next weekend I can start glassing the deck.

The stems

Progress on the Guillemot was held up for more than a week because my cheep, got it on sale, table saw died in the middle of a cut. So I sold some stuff on E-bay and bought a new Dewalt table saw.

Now that I can saw strips of wood again, I cut up a chunk of ash and made some 1/8 x 1 strips. Then I laminated them to the bow and stern to make the stems. Tomorrow I will start sanding the hull and get it caught up to the deck.

Removing the deck

Today I took the deck off the forms for the first time. It is very fragile and I have to be very careful not to break it. I swear that it feels like it can't weigh more than five pounds. The color looks a little bla bla but when I wet the wood with water, the colors come alive and it looks great.

The deck is sanded smooth. Next I will mix some epoxy with some wood flower and fill in some cracks and holes. Then I will sand it smooth again.

The strong back and forms are for another kayak. The Petrel. www.louskayakworks3.blogspot.com

This photo shows how the tip of the bow sweeps upward. Click the photo to enlarge and the sweep shows up better.

To the left of the deck is the hull still on the forms. Tomorrow I will fabricate two stem pieces for the bow and stern. Then I can start fairing and sanding the hull.

Cockpit recess

It has been almost a month sense I last posted on the Guillemot progress. Construction of the hull and deck is finished. I just finished the cockpit recess today.

Now it is time to start fairing and sanding. I have a shop vac connected to my orbital sander. It does a great job of catching all the dust so that I can sand in the man cave. I like to sand outside but it is only 6 degrees today.

After all the fairing and sanding is finished, it will be time for the fiberglass and epoxy. The cockpit combing will not be started until after the deck is all glassed up.

My last post was supposed to be a video !!! After fighting with it for over two hours, I give up. Instead of a video, you will have to make do with still photos.

Click on the photo to enlarge.