wood duck kayak

Mixing a batch of epoxy. The epoxy comes in two parts. Resin and hardener. Once it is mixed together you have about 15 or 20 minuets to work with it before it starts to set up. It works faster if it is warm, slower if it is cool.

wood duck kayak

This evening after work I spent about an hour finishing the hull interior.

I put another coat of epoxy over the glass cloth to fill the weave. Then I brushed a coat of epoxy over all the bare wood on the interior to seal the wood and make it water tight.

Tomorrow is my 12 hour day at work so have to wait until the day after to start sanding the exterior of the hull.

wood duck kayak

You can see the wet tape over the panel seams.

After two hours, I put fiberglass cloth over the now tacky tape.

This is the inside of the cockpit where you sit.

wood duck kayak

The new fillet's are about two hours old and are tacky to the touch. Time to cover them with fiberglass tape.

Once the fiberglass is soaked with epoxy it becomes clear. The wood grain will appeare natural.

Once the epoxy sets, It is very strong but still very light weight.

wood duck kayak

Today I put fillets on all the hull panel joints. I used epoxy mixed with wood flower and filled all the joints with a 1/2 inch radius.

In about two hours the epoxy will be tacky enough that I can start laying glass tape over the joints.

wood duck kayak

Today I spent the day with my Dad. We went to Johnson's Workbench in Charlotte MI. I wanted to buy all my cedar for the kayak deck. I was able to get northern white cedar but they were all out of western red cedar. ( It's a 90 mile drive to Charlotte from home ).

I wanted to get all my cedar and rip all of it into deck strips all in one day. Now it will take another full day to do it all over again.

Oh well, I need to spend more time with Dad so this will be another day together.

In the photo I am riping a 1x6 into 1/4 inch strips. I got 17 strips out of each board. I cut up 4 boards, all on Dads table saw at his house. I fed the cedar into the saw and Dad pulled from the other side. It took about an hour to cut all four boards.

wood duck kayak

I could build much faster but I have to wait for the epoxy glue to set up. It's like you work for an hour or two, then wait until tomorrow before working some more. I think I could build this thing in 4 or 5 days if I did not have to wait for the epoxy to set.

In this photo I have just glued all of the hull panel seams. ( WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW ) Then I will remove all of the stainless steel stitches and all of the temporary hull forms.