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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 3, 7 hours total build time

I only spent a couple hours today before work this afternoon. Man, it was WINDY today, yikes.
I wired in the last former which for some reason did not have holes pre-drilled like the rest. Not sure why, perhaps just an oversight at CLC? The hull had the holes drilled but the former did not. I drilled the holes in the former myself and installed it.Then I began wiring the bow and stern together. I wet the last 20 inches of the bow and stern with boiling water and let the towel steam the areas for about 15 min. I then pulled the ends together and taped them. Next, my buddy Scott that was over visiting at lunch today twisted the wires while I held the ends tightly together and aligned them. Worked great. A lot of folks voiced trouble with this step on the 10ft wood duck since the bend is a bit more severe than the 12 and 14 ft models and it went quite easily for me. "I'd rather be lucky than good anyday." I did drill extra holes and add extra wires on the ends to distribute the load better and keep any wires from pulling through the wood, I think that helps a lot. Next up is to bevel the edge of the side planks and wire them in. I wont work on the Kayak again until this weekend.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Day 2, 5 hours total build time

I spent 3 hours on the kayak today. The finger joints and the fiberglass strips over them finally cured last night. Today, I first beveled the edges of the bottom planks then stitched them together along the bottom edge and opened the two sides like a book. Then I began stitching the formers in loosely with the kit supplied copper wire. A little airplane mechanic trick here is to use safety wire pliers, they make quick, clean, tight twists in the stitching wire.
To tighten things and close the gaps requires two people. So I am waiting for an extra set of hands to arrive home from work. Then we can close the gaps and set the kayak aside for today and go find some pumpkins to carve.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Day 1, 2 hours

The first step in the construction of the Wood Duck 10 from www.clcboats.com is to glue and fiberglass the CNC panels which make up the boats 10' length. You simply lay the parts down so the side that will be the inside of the boat faces up, glue the joints, then, apply fiberglass cloth and wet it out with a brush. The joints are interlocking which makes things very easy.

I was curious why the epoxy had not set much after the first hour. Turns out the MAS epoxy which came with the kit takes much longer to cure than the Glen-L epoxy I used on my Glen-L "Zip" build. Had I known this I would have bought the kit without the epoxy and used the Glen-L epoxy or bought the MAS "fast" hardener. The effects of the slow curing MAS epoxy will be even worse since I am working in cool, autumn, temperatures. I'm going to look into getting the fast hardener.