Չորեքշաբթի, 20 Հուլիս 2011

Hey there!

I've learned a really important lesson since we were last together. 

I can work on the kayak building -or- I can blog about working on building a kayak. 

Sigh. I want to do both. I even thought about video recording some of the work. Then, I thought better of that (yikes!). So it will have to be what it is. Sporadic, yet informational.

Jobs accomplished this week:

four pieces of  accent strip cut and rounded

inner stems trimmed and shaped to accept outer stems

two outer stems cut, sliced and epoxied in place

football made

additional strips added to hull

In the past week, I have acquired new skills. Yay. I used the band saw. All by myself.  The saw with a very fast, sharp continuous loop saw blade that does a splendid job of cutting wood, especially smaller dimensions as in cutting off a mere 1/16th of an inch from a piece of wood that is 1/4 inch thick.  And, because I really enjoy using my fingers for all sorts of crafty things, you can trust that I am very, very careful when using this machine! I used the bandsaw to cut an accent strip that is roughly half the width of the normal strip. The wood strips come with a cove side and a rounded side like this:

                     ___________                                             _____
                     )___________)      and when I cut it half:   )_____   I had to round off the edge again.

More fun with planing! I made some lovely shavings again. A nice big fragrant pile of them. It only took an hour or so. But it was also nice and cool in the workshop, so it was not really a hardship other than the fact that we don't get radio reception in there. 

I really need to find the best way to wear ear buds and a tiny mp3 player so I don't destroy the wires. When I am making beads, I tuck everything down in my shirt behind me. It works because my range of motion is limited while I am working - when I am doing more rigorous work, the system doesn't work quite as well, and the wires start either pulling the ear buds out of my ears, or get hung up on something they shouldn't. I don't really want to resort to duct taping my gear to me, but it may happen. There's plenty of used tape to go around. Or, I suppose I could climb the stairs once again and bring down the device that acts as external speakers for the mp3 player. Lol.

The kayak as of yesterday:

Strips trimmed in order to epoxy the outer stems in place, but NOT TO THE KAYAK yet. Just in place to get the correct shape.

You might remember the stem pictures from an earlier posting... the prehistoric kayak pix? Well, making the outer stems worked pretty much the same way with the added attraction of keeping the dripping epoxy from getting on the already applied wood strips, or epoxying the clamps to the stem. 

We weren't entirely successful in preventing clamp inclusions as you can see. I  need to figure out (with Alex's help - they are his good clamps and he has a vested interest in this) how to remove the clamps. The lesser quality quick clamps fortunately came with rubber guards, which apparently one cannot epoxy things to. Yay. The stems are currently resting and thinking about letting go of the clamps. The stems then need shaping and affixing to the hull.

You may be wondering what the heck I made a football for... and how?

This is the one I made:

A "football" (no, I don't know why it is called a football - maybe the shape when it is eventually used?) in this case is a patch that is constructed the same way the rest of the kayak is made; cut the wood, glue the strip and staple it in place. It is used to fill in the space that is left when one can no longer add strips easily from the sides up to the bottom. Huh? - remember the kayak is upside down at this point. I will remove the football today in order to finish stripping the sides. When I get to the point of needing the football I think you will readily see why it is called a football. Or we could just call it a patch.

The stripping gets a little complicated as the hull shape changes. Right now the pieces end at the stem, but in due time the pieces will meet each other. The most popular technique in bringing the strips together is to  stagger the ends, or herringbone the pieces. It is usually done in pairs...I wonder what it would look like in singles? Too fussy maybe.

Isn't the wood pretty? It is yellow and white cedar.

Kayaks have such beautiful lines. Oh, here is another thing I have learned. Although these 1/4+/- inch thick strips are very flexible - especially when you are trying to carry them around and change direction; when it comes down to stapling them down to the frame, they will happily conform and fit in the appropriate manner until you try to bend it in more than one direction at the same time. Like down and around a curve. Here is a good example:

Happy strips:

Not so much strips:

The clamp is being used to convince the strip to conform to the shape of the others. Often, boat builders will use special cheater strips to prevent excess stress near the bow or the stern. The are about 18 inches long and are cut on the diagonal from one edge to the other across the length of the strip. They may use one or two to help relieve the tension of the over-flexed strips. Alex did not appear to use them, and I like the look of his kayak. It hasn't exploded... so, although I could use the cheater strips probably about now, I don't think I will. We will see how the next couple of strips go.

Okay - you can stop reading now and get on with your day, and I can go work on the kayak!

See ya...