Over the last week I have tightened all of the staples and made sure all of the lines of the boat appear true. After a flip of the boat and an hour or so of working with the bow and stern lines it appears ready for glue.
The temporary pieces of plywood that I attached to the bow and stern temporary frames allow some wobble in the boat as I work so I would recommend something a bit stiffer and higher than outlined in the manual. A stiffer frame will allow better work on scraping the excess epoxy off the seams and if it is higher one could move it with ease towards the edge or the work table and not have to lean into the middle so much when applying the epoxy for the seams.
I expect that the seams should have enough epoxy in them so there won't be a gap under the fiberglass, but the instructions are not that clear. I will try to end with all seams flowing smoothly between
Glueing the seams did take longer than I expected, but it was steady progress. In the work done by other builders I have seen drip marks from this process on both inside and out. To keep less work sanding later on, I tried to work cleanly and wipe up any drip marks or wandering syringe mistakes. The paper towel took off the excess without really taking any epoxy off the seams.
Tomorrow and the next day I will finish up with the more vertical sides of the boat by leaning the boat on its side. Two quick work days to get that all done.
I am working on some graphics for the boat that include an image for the name of the boat, Pinguino, and one for my personal brand, REO. We will see if it catches on. Those of you with first edition hats should hold on to them! :)
The Hull comes together!
Wire, wire, and more wire. It took one full spool and a portion of the second spool to stitch the hull. Roughly 5-6 hours will get panels 1-4 and two of the temporary frames in place.
I did have a problem with the left keel panel sliding back roughly a 1/16". I took out some of the staples and lined it up a second time, but in the end it still when back a fraction. My best guess is that I did not have bow and stern ends tight enough to keep them from sliding. My second call to Pygmy assured me that it will not affect the performance of the boat in the end.
Throughout the stitching I snapped shots of the progress and made a slideshow. The first choice of music made Jill, my wife, tear up so I switch it over to the Black Keys for a more up beat showing.
I still have to add the two stern panels and the last bow temporary panel. Once those are done I will post one final picture before I glue the seams.
Keepin' on, Keepin' on
I have finished all of the prep work and I am now ready to start stitching the hull together. My final welds went much better than the beginning ones and I look forward to starting the next boat with a few skills under my belt.
My last work was beveling the edges between the deck and the hull. This involves taking down 2 layers of the plywood on the 4th and 5th panels. I tried a few things, but a sharp block plain and a sanding block with 120 grit sand paper did the best work. I did use a file on the epoxy portions and even tried a rasp. The rasp tended to take out to much wood at a time for me, so I just used the curved side of the file to take down more of the wood. Check out the photos below.
I would recommend only sanding the last inch towards the tip. I had the middle ply leave in a single chunk on a few tips. Overall it was easy and each edge took about an hour. Just make sure you bevel the right edge!
Drilling the holes was about a 3 hour Saturday morning listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait Don't Tell me. The recommended jig in the manual does make spacing the holes easy and quick. I did break one drill bit, so have an extra or two on hand.
Next step: Bringing the panels together!!!!
Panels are on the way and I fix a mistake
I have finished 6 of the hull panels and the epoxy and fiber glass tape is easier to work with now after the first few. I did rush one of the Mylar covers and pulled up a corner of one of the pieces of glass (see below).
I dabbed some more epoxy underneath and let it cure over night with the Mylar back on and it looks fine.
The other pictures show how the panels look when the Mylar comes off and before sanding and filing the edges flush. I am using metal files rather than a wood file to have better control. A few of panels left and then I am ready to drill the holes.
Opening the box!
After building a workbench that fit my height and was long enough to accommodate a sea kayak I opened the present I bought myself for my 35th birthday. The kayak is a 14.5 ft Pinguino from Pygmy Kayaks.
I started by only gluing 5 of the panels at a time, but in the future I would lay out all of the panels on the floor with plenty of weights to keep the panels from bowing. My shop is warm and I have had difficulty with edge gluing the panels .
The keel panels bowed a bit and I had to try again. I saw some of the glass tape along the seam and after a call to Pygmy I was using the hair dryer to take of the first attempt at epoxy and fiberglass.
I would recommend that you press out most of the bubbles and epoxy from under the plastic mylar before placing the weights on the seam. I found that you cannot work it to much as long as you don't get epoxy on your gloves. The next post will show what a seam looks like for me.
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| Left side hull panels |
