The Things You Can Do with Epoxy

The other morning I decided to fix the loose hinges on the door to our basement. The screw holes in the mdf door had loosened so that they didn't hold the hinges tight anymore. Like most boatbuilders would, I turned to epoxy for the solution. I took the door out to the garage, removed the hinges and dribbled some mixed epoxy (West System 105 resin, 207 hardener) into the holes then painted on a bit of epoxy thickened with 406 colloidal silica and screwed the hinges back in place. Those hinges should be very secure now!

While I was fixing doors, I fixed a hole in a hollow core bathroom door, again with epoxy. The hole, about 5" in diameter, was made smaller by hot-gluing most of the pieces back in place. A larger gap that remained was filled with half of a popsicle stick. All the cracks were painted with unthickened epoxy then the area (which formed a valley) covered with epoxy thickened with 407 "low density fairing filler." The advantage of this stuff is that it forms a smooth surface and sands easily. It required two applications to get a smooth and flat surface on the door. It has since been primed, the door replaced, and once it receives paint will be hard to notice.

The third epoxy-realted task of that morning was to fix my sandals (actually, it was the sandal fix that got me started in that direction in the first place). The strap had pulled out adjacent to the heel on each sandal rendering them useless. Good sandals are expensive so I was motivated to attempt to get this pair back in service for a little longer. I filled the void where the strap was supposed to be with unthickened epoxy (a fair amount of epoxy went into that space, I think it partly filled a cavity under the heel), shoved the broken strap in as far as it would go, then drilled a 1" screw in from the side through the strap and into the footbed below the heel. After over a week using the repaired sandals, it seems like my fix was pretty effective and I have, for now, crossed sandals off of the shopping list.

The final epoxy project of the morning was a craft conceived by my daughter. She likes going through the wood scrap bin to see what she can make of them. This time she picked a 4"x4" thin piece of scrap and wrote on it a note to Mom. She then found some colourful glass pieces and used the epoxy I was repairing my sandals with to glue the pieces onto the wood (with my help). Voila, instant craft and a gift for Mom.

Epoxy Final Sanding

.... or perhaps that should be Penultimate Sanding?

I have sanded the kayak in preparation for varnish. As per Martin's suggestion I "sand(ed) to at least 150" using my random orbital sander working progressively through the grits.

In the photo above I have just started with 80 grit on the hull. The spots that still have the gloss of un-sanded epoxy are low spots. Since my fiberglass job was imperfect, there are areas where I cannot remove all of the high spots without sanding into the glass cloth, something to be avoided. I have the dust collection bag container on the back of my sander removed and vacuum hose connected in it's place. With the sander connected to the shop vac the majority of the dust is collected. The use of a HEPA filter in the shop vac prevents the vacuum from simply acting as a dust pump & exhausting the very fine dust into the air (where it would be inhaled: the finer the dust => the more it goes through a regular filter => the deeper it is carried into the lungs). This reusable filter is highly recommended and will protect your shop vac motor as well as your lungs.

To avoid breathing in the dust that is not sucked up by the vacuum (a fairly small proportion) I wear a dust mask. If working with epoxy which is not fully cured, I use a more substantial mask with carbon cartridge filters.

Now with the boat entirely sanded it doesn't look too pretty anymore. In sanding I found a couple of spots where I would like to touch up the epoxy. One of these spots is at the area surrounding the paddle park hook that I installed. Another is at the tip of the stern where the bow and hull were joined - the halves did not meet perfectly there and as a result the tip has a small gap (perhaps 3/16" long) on one side that remains. The third spot is at the location of the bubble that kept reappearing when glassing the outside seam and the subsequent fill coats.

My plan is to touch up those epoxy spots, let them cure then get them faired into the rest of surface. With that done I can then clean up the shop, rid my life of every speck of dust (ha!) then begin the varnishing. In the meantime, here is an article on varnishing courtesy of Martin Step at Green Valley.

Scraping By

Much is said in the boat building forums in favour of the lowly paint scraper for fiberglass work and I finally figured out why. When well sharpened the paint scraper works very well for removing high spots, bumps, drips, runs, edges and excess glass/epoxy. My success with the scraper was initially limited, but since then it has been very helpful. The trick is getting the tool sharp and keeping it that way. In order to sharpen the scraper I clamp the handle into a bench vise. Then with a flat file (nothing fancy here, just a hand-me-down from the toolbox) held horizontal I move the file across the scraping edge a number of times. Every once in a while I remove the burr from the back-side of the cutting edge by passing the file across the back edge, holding the file flat against the blade back. Thirty seconds of attention will restore the edge allowing effective scraping with little effort. Since this is not high carbon steel, the edge dulls quickly so requires resharpening after a few minutes of work on fully cured epoxy (green epoxy, being softer is less harsh on the blade). My one caution while sharpening with the file is to ensure that all of your digits pass well clear of the blade. I once allowed my thumb to be sliced open during sharpening of the scraper.

The replaceable blades are double edged. I have reshaped one side of the blade currently in the tool so that it is curved. I used the flat file for reshaping but this could probably be more quickly done with a grinding wheel. A curved blade allows the tool to be useful in concave areas, a rather handy feature for the interior of the boat. Another tip is to take the sharp corners off of the straight scraper blade. The sharp corners, if left on, tend to catch and gouge or slice into the epoxy. To remove the corners, simply round them off with the flat file.

Waterwalker Film Festival, Bulkheads & Mobies

The Waterwalker Film Festival this weekend was great. We had three fantastic guest speakers and many great videos. Thankfully, there were only minor glitches in my area of responsibility - the A/V aspects (thanks Rob!), such as a DVD that refused to play the portion we wanted to watch (we receive burned copies of the films from Paddle Canada). Lynda Holland told us about her travels in far northern Saskatchewan, NWT & Nunavut, and stories of the Dene that historically inhabited the region. Laurel Archer presented photos and told us about paddling the rivers of northern B.C. Paul Lapointe gave us a totally unique version of a trip report slide show wherein rather than photos of the trip, he showed us 48 of the paintings he produced while on the Fond du Lac River. The Waterwalker Film Festival this weekend did have a boatbuilding connection - Martin & Heather of Kisseynew Canoe Company rented a display table at the event and had a very nicely done strip canoe on display.

I also managed to make some progress on the kayak over the past few evenings. The cheek plates have been glassed (4 oz) both sides with a fill coat of epoxy on each side. The bulkheads have been similarly treated but the front bulkhead (support for the footbrace) received 2 layers of 4 ounce glass on one side and one layer on the other. The bulkheads were trimmed and installed into place using a fillet of epoxy. For the record, epoxying bulkheads into place on a fully decked boat is a real PITA. The fore bulkhead was some distance (18"?) from the hatch opening so in order to get in there and apply my fillet, I turned the boat upside down on the stands then crawled underneath and poked my head in through the hatch opening. However, there was no room in the small opening for both my head and my arm, so the actual applying of the fillet (and associated clean up of gobs of epoxy) was done mostly blind. I used a 20 ml (?) syringe with the tip bored out to 1/16" to apply the thickened (WS 406 colloidal silica) epoxy then smeared it smooth with a gloved finger. The same thing was done from the other side but, thankfully, the cockpit opening is a bit larger than the fore hatch and the space less cramped (though the bulkhead is farther from the opening). The rear bulkhead was a much easier beast to tackle, though it too involved reaching into cramped quarters through the nearby hatch opening. The much, much easier to tackle cheekplates were installed with a fillet covered with a strip of 4 oz glass cloth for strength.

It was nice to also get the "mobies" installed on the underside of the hatches this weekend. They too were filleted in place using epoxy thickened with WS 406 colloidal silica, overlaid with a strip of 4 oz glass. The bungee cords that provide the tension can be installed after I double check that all wood is sealed with epoxy (I think I can probably use varnish on the spots that may have been sanded through to wood during their manufacture). I will create a separate blog posting (with photos) about manufacturing the Moby Latch System someday soon.
Now I have a couple of small sections along the seam to better fill the weave on (I started on this yesterday but I have to have a close look to see if there are more spots). Once that cures I will need to do final sanding on the whole kayak. Then it's time to get ready to varnish this boat! (Yay!) Once varnished, I will install the deck padeyes & lines and head out for a paddle. (I guess I should also make a seat, make the footbraces, and complete then install the backband.)

I have also been working on getting some paddles ready for the season and they too are now just about ready for varnish. Last fall on a trip I suffered two broken canoe paddles. For some unknown reason the blade of my wife's bent shaft paddle split (which is a problem since she wasn't even on the trip). Also, my own bent shaft suffered a broken grip when one of our esteemed members of North Star Expeditions used it to put a nice walleye out of it's misery and hit a rock instead. This paddle too had cracks beginning to develop on the blade. Thus, both paddles received 4 oz glass cloth patches at the cracks on one side (non-power face) while the lower 75% of the other side was covered in sheath of 4oz glass and the weave filled by squeegeeing very thin coats of epoxy on. The handle of my wife's paddle was also wearing from abrasion so it received a coating of epoxy (something I had done to my own paddle years ago and as a result of which has not deteriorated at all since). The third paddle I'm repairing is a fiberglass whitewater canoe paddle, recently purchased used from Jimmy MacDonald (he sells new paddles and other paddling stuff so get in touch with him if you need something). As this is a used paddle, it has seen the occasional rock and there was some damage to the edge. I repaired the damage and reinforced the rest of the edges by adding a strip of 4oz cloth to both sides. Both of the wood bent-shaft paddles will receive full varnish, while the whitewater paddle will receive varnish on the repaired areas of the blade to protect it from UV. At the same time I will also add a finish to the greenland paddle I built some time ago. I think I will give that one a tung oil finish.

EPOXYWORKS - Fiberglassing a woodstrip hull

I just came across this article by Ted Moores on the West System's website from issue 16 of EPOXYWORKS magazine. It's a good review of the Moores method for applying epoxy and filling the weave as described in his books. Note that this method is quite different from that described by Nick Schade in his book - Schade advocates using a squeegee to apply very thin coats to fill the weave. Moores is more about applying thick coats of epoxy to build up a thick layer over the glass cloth.

Bubbles!

No, not that one. Having saturated the glass with epoxy on the final seam between the hull and deck and monitored it for a period to ensure that no dry spots or bubbles developed, I left the seam to cure on it's own. As soon as I turned my back a bubble developed, lifting the glass cloth and forming a pocket about 1 3/4" long. Once the epoxy had partially cured I excised the cloth over the bubble, trimming away any loose glass. In the photo below you can see the piece of glass/epoxy which has been cut out

I then scraped the edges in order to allow a smooth transition.

Later, while adding a final fill-coat of epoxy to the hull, I epoxied a patch of glass in place. This time I baby sat it for a few hours in order to prevent the repeat of the bubble. The bubble did come back (the air seems to have been coming from the slight gap that is the seam between hull and deck) but at least I was able to minimize it by pushing out the air as it accumulated. In the end I had to be satisfied with a small bubble in the glass which was largely filled with a subsequent application of epoxy.

With the seam taken care of, I rolled on a final coat of epoxy onto the entire boat to completely fill the weave of the cloth and add a layer of protection for the underlying cloth. With the shop temperature stable at about 20C, I used a West Systems foam roller cover* which I cut in half and used on a small paint roller handle. After mixing the epoxy in small batches I poured it into a paint tray with a small disposable insert which has the added benefit of allowing heat from the exothermic curing epoxy to dissipate better than when it is pool into a mixing container. I started in the morning by rolling a coat of epoxy onto the hull. The foam roller applied the epoxy in a nice thin layer, but left a million tiny bubbles behind (it made little difference how much pressure I applied nor how much epoxy was loaded on the roller, and the epoxy was warm). Thus, I tipped off the epoxy coat as described on the West System web site. The strategy I used was to roll out a section of epoxy on the hull running the roller perpendicular to the boat, doing about 3 feet on one side, then going to the other side and doing another 3 foot section, reloading the roller as necessary. I would then go back over both with a dry foam brush and brush the epoxy parallel to the boat then start the process again on the next section. Once the coat was complete, this was allowed to cure for about 10 hours until late in the evening I repeated the process on the deck. Both coats overlapped at the seam so that the seams received two fill coats of epoxy. The boat now looks pretty good again with that nice wet look of fresh epoxy. At some point I will have to ruin it all by wet-sanding the whole thing to smooth out all the little bumps (the epoxy does not give a very smooth finish in my hands) and prepare it for the varnishing.

Here is what that bubble looked like after the repair and a fill coat of epoxy:

I may have to add another fill coat to this area, but otherwise it should be barely visible by the time everything gets smoothed out and eventually varnished.

I also set my daughter into the kayak so that she could try it out and to pose for a couple of photos.

*I picked up a couple of WS roller covers at a local woodworking store which was having a closing out sale in June. I took the opportunity to purchase on sale some of the "800" polyurethane foam roller covers, a couple of the "804" mixing sticks, and a couple of the "808" plastic spreaders (squeegees). A couple of weeks later the rest of the inventory was auctioned. I had hoped to be able to pick up a number of items for a low price, including a dust collector, bench sander, etc. but everything went for way more than I could afford. I was getting rather annoyed at the fellow who kept bidding on everything I wanted and obviously had more money than me to spend (which isn't saying much, I was really only willing to spend a small amount of cash). I found out later that this fellow was starting a woodworking shop for inner city youth which produces custom furniture for sale. It seems the tools were being purchased for a very good cause. Everything I chose to bid on I was quickly outbid by others in the room. In fact, I usually didn't even get into the bidding before the price went beyond my limit (I believe some of the items went for more than retail price!). The one area where there was very limited interest was in the inventory of fiberglass related items. They had a couple of gallons of WS epoxy and hardener but this too went for more than I was willing to pay (I didn't really need more epoxy after all), but there was a roll of 6 ounce glass cloth on a large stand that I think only one other person bid on and they were not very enthusiastic about it. Thus, I was able to purchase about 10 yards of West Systems brand 6 oz cloth for $30. Now of course I'll have to build another boat in order to have a reason for using it.

Green Tape & An Unemployed Bum

I've started to work on the kayak once again with a bit more regularity. With recent warm temperatures I decided it was a good time to do some epoxy work over the past week before we get another cold snap (we have had unusual quantities of cold and snow so far this winter). You may recall that back in June I joined the two halves of the kayak, fiberglassing only the inside of the seam, then packed everything up because we moved to a new house. Well that move threw me off and I lost all momentum with my energy being directed first toward moving, then towards finishing up the renos I initiated during the move. Add in the parenting of two energetic girls and being busy at work and there was little time or energy to work on the kayak. However, at the end of November I was laid off from my job as a "Research Associate" and now I have a bit more time on my hands (not a lot mind you, I still have to take care of the kids - the youngest started walking this week - while my wife picks up extra shifts at her job). Thus, I moved the car out onto the driveway, warmed up the garage, and fiberglassed the outside seam. I used the technique of masking off the edges as described on the One Ocean Kayaks web site.

I laid down strips of masking tape to either side of the seam leaving about 3/4" to 1" on each side of the joint. I folded the edge of the tape to prevent drips from running away.

I then rolled on the 3" wide strips of glass cloth that I had cut for this purpose.

In the picture above you can see that in addition to the green masking tape that I ran out of, I also used brown masking paper. This paper has a light adhesive on one edge (like a sticky note) and I turned to it because it was what I had available at the moment. However, I would advise against others using the same stuff - although waxed, the epoxy soaks through the paper and gets stuck to the kayak. Thankfully it scraped away fairly easily and at least the brown colour matches the boat so if I missed anything it should be inconspicuous (at least it's sufficiently inconspicuous that I couldn't find any more of it).

The fiberglassing of the seam went pretty much as the rest of the glass/epoxy work but on a smaller scale. Once sufficiently cured, I then trimmed away the masked tape. In the above close-up photo you can see that I went over top of the hole drilled for the grab loop; I trimmed the glass cloth from the holes while trimming the masked edges.

However, I sort of forgot one minor detail from Vaclav's instructions - I should have lifted the masking tape, pulling it away from the kayak and bending the glass right at the edge of the tape. As it was, on the first side I scored/cut the glass with the tape flat which didn't work all that well. On the other side I lifted the tape/glass as I was supposed to and it made trimming the excess much easier and in the end I was left a fairly nice edge which was easily scraped to a smooth transition. I now have about 70 feet of fiberglass reinforced masking tape - that's gotta be good for something right? I can see why people seem to always want to build another boat - next time the whole seam glassing process would go much more smoothly.

I have more on the subject of glassing the seam and addtional progress to report, but I'll address those in the next posting or two.

p.s. If you are in the Saskatoon area and would like to hire a molecular biology technician for generous sums of money, please let me know! ;-)

Back Adder

As of this week I'm back at it, continuing my slow progress on the boat. The other night I sanded the outside seam smooth, taking the edge off a fair bit in a few places where the deck did not quite conform to the hull. This left some bare wood in places and may in the end be visible but I'm not too worried about it. This area will be soon covered in a strip of fiberglass.

Inspired by a photo in Dan Millsip's journal detailing the building of his kayak, I decided to build a device to help me scrape/sand smooth the inside seam in those hard to reach and curved portions of the kayak. Dan credits Daren Neufeld with the pole sanding device.

Here is the problem I'm trying to fix:
In the photo above, the boat is upside down. The tip of the bow curves down and away from the camera (and the guy trying to work in the confined space). The seams are to the sides of the photo. Below are a couple of the closeups of the bumps and glass fibers which stick up (cropped from the right side of the above photo). The whole thing is a big mess of epoxy and fiberglass. I stopped by the local Co-Op hardware store on my way home to look for the highly & repeatedly recommended sureform rasp. Not finding one, I picked up some other rasp thing, designed for drywall but the package says it can be used for autobody work. It was cheap so I figured what the hell. I also picked up a couple of small hinges. Here is the first version of my inside seam tool, Inside Seam Tool, MKI:

I fitted the rasp blade to a block of wood which was then attached via a small hinge to a 3 foot length of scrap spruce. This first version did not work very well for 2 reasons - the sole was too flat, and the rasp did not cut the fully cured epoxy very well. I fully expected both of these to be a problem so there were no suprises there. I attempted to curve the rasp but was not very successful and quickly tossed the rasp aside. It was a good thing I sharpened my plane blade last night because I put it to good use by planing down the sole of my block of wood to form a nicely curved surface. While I was at it, I planed down the square corners of the handle to give a handle that I can comfortably grip without fear of gaining a mitt full of splinters (working with a plane and a piece of wood is so much nicer than scraping cured epoxy & fiberglass). I then stapled a piece of 80 grit automotive sandpaper (from a Princess Auto variety pack) to the bottom and voila, Inside Seam Tool, MKII:

Thankfully, the rounded sanding version works much better. It's still gonna be a lot of work and rather slow, reaching with one arm in through the hatch with your head crammed in there too so you can see what you're doing, but my wife has indicated that she'd like to help with the kayak so maybe I can get her to do it.

Reunification

The kayak is now "one".

The inside seams have been fiberglassed using the method described on the Outer Island Kayak web site. The basic process is to cut strips of fiberglass cloth (I made my strips 2 - 2.5" wide, 6 ounce cloth) and use small dabs of hot glue to tack the cloth in place along the shear line of the hull so that the cloth will end up evenly spanning the seam. The deck was then carefully laid over the hull and the ends taped into position. The hull had pulled inwards so the hull and deck did not mate perfectly and I needed to even things up. I found that trying to use tape and straps to bring the hull and deck flush was not that effective, partly because this method can only push the deck inward and does not allow the hull to spread to meet halfway. Also, since the hull overlapped the deck, the pressure from tape and straps pushed the edges past each other rather than causing them to meet. Instead, I used a method I had seen described on the KBBB where u-shaped pieces of wood are tacked to the hull with hot glue near the top edge, then a wedge is driven in past the deck which causes equal pressure pulling the hull outwards and pushing the deck inwards. I found this worked very well and it was easy to convert a bunch of plywood scraps (former strip-holding jigs from when I thought I would build this boat "staple-less") into u's and wedges. I placed a bunch of these jigs along the seam on each side, wherever things needed to be pushed into alignment and used fiber-reinforced strapping tape to tape the halves together. I then attempted to use clear packing tape (too thin, too cheap) to seal the seam but could only manage to do this between the jigs.

With everything aligned and taped up, I turned the boat on it's side and hoisted one end up with a strap from the ceiling such that epoxy poured onto the seam through the hatch opening would run downhill and into the end. I attached a sawed-off brush at a 45 degree angle to the end of a stick and used this to reach in through the hatch openings and push the pool of epoxy where it needed to go to wet out the cloth, ensuring it reached the extremities. With one end epoxied in this way, I raised the other end and did the rest of the seam, then returned the boat to level (still on side). I added a second layer of glass (3" wide, 4 ounce cloth) in the cockpit area for extra strength.

Once this mess had cured for about 24 hours, I knocked the alignment jigs off with a mallet then scraped/cut/sanded away the excess hot glue and all the epoxy that came through. Because my packing tape was crappy, I had trouble getting it off. Because the jigs were in place before I put on the tape, it did little to prevent epoxy from coming through the joint and caused it to pool in many places. As a result, most of my jigs were epoxied in place, though since the epoxy was still only partly cured, they came off without too much trouble.

With the starboard side taped, I then turned the boat over and repeated the process for the other side.

Some comments I have at this juncture:

• Sheer clamps as used on some kayak designs look like a pretty good idea right now. Sheer clamps are strips of wood which extend the length of the boat along the sheer line, providing a surface to which the deck can be attached. Sheer clamps are common on boats which have a fairly flat deck where the deck and hull meet at a sharp angle (not the case in a guillemot).
• Purchased 2" wide fiberglass tape with selvaged edges may produce a neater job than my version of cutting my own strips from regular width cloth on the bias since this would avoid all the loose strands and frayed edges.
• I'm not sure how I'll clean up the rough/sharp surface of the inside seam. I guess I'll have to shape a sanding block of some sort and attach it to a pole. It'll have to be narrow enough to fit most of the way into the tips. I'm not worried about aesthetics here, but the sharp bits of glass fiber that protrude along the seam will shred whatever I put in the hatches.
• The current weight is 35 lbs (no seat, bulkheads, etc) according to the bathroom scale.

I had hoped to be finished with the kayak by now. This weekend we are getting possession of our new house and thus, the rest of the work to finish the kayak (outside seam, hatch closures, bulkheads, seat, foot brace, back rest, thigh braces, varnish, padeyes, deck lines) will have to wait until August once we are settled in the new place. In the meantime I have one heckuva mess to clean up/pack up in the garage.

See you in August!

Fiberglass, Stage III

My wife helped on Saturday and we glassed the underside of the deck. I used 4 ounce (4 oz./sq. yd.) cloth (West Systems 740) for this step in order to save a bit of weight and use a bit less epoxy (the rest of the boat has been sheathed in 6 ounce cloth). I had actually intended to use the 4oz cloth on the topside of the deck as well but 'accidentally' used the 6oz cloth (I grabbed the wrong roll but convinced myself it was the correct roll). I put an extra strip of cloth just in front of the cockpit and two extra layers behind the cockpit to strengthen these areas for getting in and out of the boat. I really liked working with the 4 oz cloth - it wet out easily and conformed easily to curves, particularly the radius of the bottom side of the coaming riser.

My father-in-law was on hand to take lots of photos (in fact, I think the flashes may have prematurely degraded the epoxy) so I'll post some photos later.

While I had the epoxy out, I also made a curved panel that will become the backband. I made a form to the desired backband shape (a more rounded version of the cockpit back shape) out of 1" thick particle board and tacked a piece of 1/8" birch plywood to it, allowing the ply to assume a fair curve. I then used a scrap of 6 oz cloth to glass over top of this and allowed it to cure (where it remains). Once fully cured, I'll remove the glassed plywood from the form, then may glass the inside of the curve (maybe - I'm not sure if the second layer is necessary and may make the backband too stiff). I'll then use this curved piece to cut out the final backband shape, adding slots for the webbing which will hold it in place behind the seat.

With the whole boat now sheathed in fiberglass, I'm practically done right? Here is my current "To Do" list:

1. Build cockpit coaming lip
2. fiberglass the coaming
3. sand epoxy smooth on hull and deck (external)
4. apply 3rd fill coat to hull & deck?
5. sand the epoxy some more
6. cut hatches
7. build hatch lips
8. build & install moby latch system
9. make & install soft padeyes
10. make & install regular padeyes (internal tie down points)
11. make & install cheek plates
12. carve pieces to fit into the extremities to fill the cavities that will be impossible to glass at the seam
13. mate the deck and hull once again and glass the interior seam
14. glass the exterior seam
15. make the seam glass transition "seamless"
16. make & install bulkheads
17. carve seat out of minicell foam
18. build and install backband
19. drill holes at bow & stern for grab loops
20. varnish
21. sand
22. varnish
23. sand
24. varnish
25. install deck lines & bungees
26. install grab loops and toggles

Once the above list is completed here are a couple more items I could turn my attention towards:

1. carve paddles
2. make spray skirt
3. make paddle float
4. build cradles for car-topping
5. build cart
6. make pump
7. make tuuliq

Fiberglass, Stage II

With the help of my brother on Sunday, I was able to fiberglass the deck then the inside of the hull. The deck fiberglassing went quite well and in the end I was happy with the way it turned out, smooth with a minimum of excess epoxy. One obstacle that caused us a certain amount of grief was the coaming area. While I was doing most of the mixing and applying the epoxy to one side, my brother Ken applied the epoxy to the other side and as he went along, a wrinkle developed in the cloth. This came to a head at the cockpit. We had troubles resolving this wrinkle and also with trying to get the glass to lie flat and make the turn up the coaming riser. The glass repeatedly wanted to pull away from the fillet at the base of the riser. In order to rid ourselves of that nasty wrinkle, we cut the cloth, allowing the glass to overlap itself beside the cockpit an inch or two and eliminating the wrinkle. The overlap created a bit of a step which I later scraped away quite easily. In retrospect, this cut was definitely the right thing to do. The glass wanting to pull away from the riser fillet was a bit more tricky and required a lot of babysitting to get it to stay put until cured. There are still a few bubbles there but I won't tell if you don't. In retrospect, it probably would have been better not to have put in the riser until after the deck was glassed, then to add glass to the riser afterwards, extending that glass down onto the deck. My reason for doing it the way I did was so that I would gain the strength of having continuous glass from the deck and up the riser, and it seemed like it be a bit simpler rather than spreading it out over two glassing operations. The other, and perhaps main reason I installed the riser prior to glassing the deck was that I had time to do so since I couldn't do the deck fiberglass last weekend with my youngest daughter being sick.
Above: The 1/8 birch ply coaming that caused some grief while glassing, and the region of where the wrinkle was cut out. Below: A close-up of the cut and overlapped region.

One spot I was a bit concerned about was on the fore deck ahead of the cockpit. I inserted into the deck a hand-carved feature (which I'll discuss further in some other posting) which had a fair bit of relief to it. My concern was that the hollows of the carving would trap air and not fill properly with epoxy (although the carving had been previously coated and the hollows were partially filled). We took care of this area by lifting the cloth and filling the hollows of the carving with unthickened epoxy, then laying the cloth back down, and continuing to brush on the epoxy on the deck as we had been doing. It seemed to tun out fairly well with only a couple of smallish bubbles trapped under the glass (I may try to get these out with a syringe & needle). I must be getting better at squeegeeing because this went much better this time than on the hull. All in all I'm extremely happy with how the deck has turned out so far.

Above: The glassed deck in the foreground, the hull in the background.
Now the inside of the hull on the other hand .... Well let's just say it's a good thing it'll be under the deck and if someone examining the boat has the audacity to stick their head into the hatch to have a look, I'll just hit them over the back of the head with a greenland paddle. I didn't fill the gaps inside the hull and I didn't sand to the same level of perfection as on the outside. I chose to get aggressive with those epoxy drips and that meant attaching a 36 grit sanding disc to the drill and going after them. For the record, 36 grit will chew through cedar and anything else in it's way VERY quickly. Although I never went all the way through, there is the occasional divot (read gouge). I sanded the hull to 80 grit with the ROS to take most of the gouges from the 36 grit disc out, particularly in the cockpit area. Working in the concave and confined regions of the bow and stern was a bit tricky and I didn't spend a lot of time there to fair things out. I used a fillet in these regions so that the v of the bottom and the stems were rounded out to allow the glass to lay into the hollow a bit better. Getting the glass to stay tight in at the bottom of the stems was still a bit difficult, with the glass wanting to pull up and away. One thing I thought of but didn't try was to use bags of sand in these areas to weigh down the glass, pushing it tight into the cavities. This method would have the added benefit of squeezing out the excess epoxy. I also found squeegeeing inside the hull to be difficult. It seemed that no matter how careful I was, the squeegee would pull the cloth away from the relatively sharp corners at the chines (imagine the troubles I might have with a hard-chined boat!). As a result of this combined with the difficulty of squeegeeing in the confined space at the bow and stern, I am sure I have more epoxy in the hull than I should. Incidentally, I added a second layer of 6 oz. glass in the bottom of the cockpit area (layed out underneath the larger glass cloth sheet covering the rest of the hull).

Below: A pretty pattern of swirl marks left behind by the 36 grit disc on the drill. Most of these were sanded out in the cockpit area but these shall remain for eternity.

In addition to the troubles already mentioned, in the hull I also had bubbles forming from air coming out of the wood itself. I had heated the shop to 20C overnight and things were a nice steady temperature by the morning and the heat was turned off (everybody knows you want the temperature to be steady or dropping while doing the fiberglassing). We started our epoxy work in the morning on the deck and after lunch moved to the hull. As we worked on the hull, we noticed it starting to get rather warmish in the shop. The weather outside had risen to a beautiful 20C in bright sunshine, so that may have been helping to warm the shop, but I didn't think that it would make that much difference in a well-insulated shop with a concrete floor that is still holding the cool of a Canadian winter in it's mass. I am therefore led to wonder if the rising temperature was due, in part at least, to the exothermic reaction of curing epoxy. Through the afternoon the temperature inside the shop rose to 24-25C. The temperature rise produced the promised result - bubbles formed under the glass as expanding gasses escaped the wood but then with the wood sealed on the outside, were trapped in thickening epoxy on the inside. Many of these bubbles did actually find their way to the surface, but at least a few did not despite my encouragement. I'm not overly concerned about their presence, but I'm glad it happened on the inside of the hull and not on the topside of the deck.

In the end, I'm not too concnerned about the imperfections inside the hull. My wife suggested the extra bubbles should be considered flotation and I think that's a good approach at this point. The glassing of the underside of the deck should go a bit more smoothly - the curvature is much less than the hull and there are no tight confines to work within and no chines to deal with. Also, the gaps between strips are much less than occured on the hull (again due at least in part to less curvature) so the surface is smoother. My peak this morning under the deck also indicated that there are far fewer epoxy drips coming through to deal with. I think I'll put the 36 grit sanding disc away and stick to hand sanding or a random orbital sander with at least 80 grit paper. For glassing underneath the deck I'll be using 4 ounce West Systems cloth, doubled (tripled?)around the cockpit to provide some extra strength for sitting on the deck while getting in and out.

Below: One final photo for the night - taken on Saturday when my daughter was helping me sand/scrape/grind the inside of the hull in preparation for fiberglass.

Fiberglass, Stage I

I had a very satisfying moment late Saturday night. In the final preparations prior to fibreglassing the hull, I wet down the hull with a damp rag. This brought out the colours of the cedar from the dull tan colours I've grown familiar with, to vibrant rich browns ranging from deep chocolate to bright amber and that beautiful cedar colour that people love. It was amazing.

It was about 12:30 am and my wife had been asleep for some time. I wanted to run in to the house and get her so that I could show her, but I decided against that. She assures me that that was the right decision. Instead I posted a note on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board – those folks are much more appreciative of this sentiment, and some of them also happened to have been up late working on their boats.

The above photo shows the hull supported on the forms & internal strongback, which in turn is supported on the stands. The deck has been removed from the forms for the moment and is sitting in the background. I'll put the deck back onto the forms prior to fibreglassing.

Early the next morning I gave the hull a final sanding with 120 grit paper and wiped it down with acetone to remove the dust and any contaminats. With the aid of Rob & Martin (the latter of Kisseynew Canoe Co.), we began the task of fibreglassing the hull. Initially, I was going to lay on 3 layers of fibreglass: a full layer of 6 oz cloth, an additional layer of either 4 or 6 oz over the central bottom area (the football), and another layer of either 4 or 6 oz along the keel line towards the stems. Martin cautioned me against this approach, feeling that it would add a lot of weight, but not much strength or abrasion resistance (my main reason for the additional layers). Instead, we used the full layer of 6 oz cloth with a strip of the same approximately 4” wide along the entire length of the boat. After some deliberation, we opted not to put the smaller piece on top as suggested in Nick’s book, but rather to hide it underneath the larger sheet. In the end, I believe we were correct to do it this way, as I had a very smooth transition at the edge of the lower layer rather than a step which can be sanded into as described in the book.

The above photo shows Martin & I rolling out what is to become a second layer of cloth. In the photo below, we're probably discussing the merits of various quantities of cloth.

The fibreglassing went well I think. Martin pumped & mixed small batches of epoxy while Rob & I brushed it on with paint brushes to wet out the cloth, working from bow to stern. As we did this, Martin kept watch to ensure we were doing things correctly and keeping a watch for areas where the wood had soaked up much of the epoxy. We then squeegeed off the excess resin, again working bow to stern, just as the epoxy began to thicken. It would seem that I was not as efficient at this as was Martin. While sanding later I could tell the difference between which areas he had squeegeed and which I had. The areas he had done were largely flat and even. The areas I had done were less so. I think I did not remove sufficient resin in some areas as there were hills and valleys (albeit slight ones) present. At first I thought the hills were excess epoxy on top of the glass, but when I started to scrape & sand, I realised that the areas with visible weave were not the valleys as I first thought, but rather the hills. The areas where the glass was completely buried in epoxy were actually lower. It seems to me that the glass must have floated up on excess resin, creating the hills. Damn! That gives me something to work on for the deck I guess.

In the above photo Rob & I pour on the epoxy while Martin waits to mix up a new batch of epoxy.

Below, Martin mixes.

Once the fibreglass had cured to a “green” stage (no longer soft, but not yet hard) approximately 4 ½ hours later, I applied a second coat of epoxy, brushing it on then removing the excess by squeegee. I then allowed this to cure overnight before spending an hour the next morning sanding the whole hull with 120 grit to take off all of the high points. I’ll have to add a 3^rd coat to completely fill the weave, but I think I’ll wait until the hull and deck have been reunited and the deck seams glassed before I do that.



Above: The cloth overhangs the hull and helps to catch drips. Below: Once partially cured, I trimmed the excess cloth with a utility knife.

Below: One final photo for the night, this one of the ash stem on the bow.

Like Wrestling a Greased Pig

I made some more progress over the past week, having made a big push in order to try to get ready for fiberglassing by yesterday (Sunday) morning. I didn't get that far, but at least I'm closer.

I had filled all the gaps on the deck with thickened/coloured epoxy, and I did the same for the gaps in the hull. I then set about scraping all the excess epoxy & thickener off. Well, that has turned out to be quite a chore. I have sanded, scraped (with a sharp paint scraper and with cabinet scrapers), planed in an effort to remove this rock-hard crap. {For future reference: it's probably way easier to do this when the epoxy is in the "green" stage of curing rather than the "granite" stage.} I eventually got all of the extra dookie schmutz (that's the technical term) off of the hull, only to have revealed more gaps in the process. Frankly, I think I'd best leave those alone before things start getting worse. I am only half done cleaning up the excess dookie schmutz from the deck.

I also attempted to get those stems laminated into place. I had wanted to make use of some walnut I had laying around (cutoffs bought from the local Habitat Re-Store) so I cut it into approximately 1/8" x 1" x 3-4' strips on the band saw. These strips were pretty uneven in their thickness and were far from smooth, but I figured they oughta be good enough to do the job of protecting the stems from wayward rocks. As mentioned in my last post, I steam bent them, and taped them in place to dry. I later decided that the job of bending was pretty unsatisfactory at the tips where the bend is greatest. It was hard to get them to bend just the right way and have them align well and remain clamped in place on a rounded tapered surface. I decided instead to try ash, since it is renowned for being easy to bend, and is well suited to the job of protecting the softer cedar while being easy to carve to match the shape of the boat. I went to my local Windsor Plywood and picked up a 4/4 6" x 4' piece of ash and another of walnut. While there, I paid a few extra dollars and had them cut the ash into 1/8" strips and they did a MUCH nicer job than I did on the bandsaw. Before using the ash strips, I decided it was worth a try to cut a solid piece of walnut to fit, rather than attempting to bend wood. I made a template out of cardboard and transferred the shape to the walnut and cut it out on the bandsaw. The fit needed tweaking, but I found working on the concave curve to be difficult, so I turned my attention instead to using the ash strips. In order to make handling the strips manageable, I taped one end of 6 strips together, then taped this bundle to the keel on the bottom of the hull. I then bent the strips to the keel and taped the strips in place as I went. Once the curve became greater near the tip, I used the heat gun to soften the wood fibers and allow the wood to bend more. What I found with my (mis)application of this technique was that I could create a very sharp bend in the wood (a sharp 90 degree bend was easy), but it was hard to get the wood to bend gradually over a short distance. This probably was a factor of my inexperience. Regardless, I got the wood bent acceptably to match the curve of the stem and taped & bungeed in place until it could cool. With the wood pre-bent in this manner I then mixed up some dookie schmutz using epoxy and the 406 Colloidal Silica to create a mayonnaise consistency glue and painted this on to each side of the wood strips, stacked this up then attempted to wrestle this slimy greased up mess onto the bow stem, taping it in place with fiber-reinforced tape. This proved to be a bit tricky, as two gloved hands were required to keep the pile of strips in place, another hand was needed to wrap the tape around, and another hand was needed to cut the tape with a knife. The whole operation is complicated by the fact that the substrate being attached to is round and tapered. Add to this the fact that my rubber gloves kept disintegrating (if Home Hardware made condoms, I think they'd have an awful lot of paternity suits on their hands; if the gloves I used at work were this crappy, I'd probably have died of strep pneumonia or a staphylococcal infection by now), and I was not a happy camper. However, I managed it by myself and soon left the taped, bungeed, strapped conglomeration alone to cure. Thankfully, Rob was able to come by in the evening and this made the repeat process on the stern a lot easier.

I shoulda had a look at this guy's blog - maybe those inner tube straps would have worked better than the tape.

Here's a picture or two of the stern stem laminations taped in place. I used the green masking tape to mask off the area so that there would be less epoxy to clean off of the hull. This is the one Rob helped me with; the one I did alone wasn't quite so neat.

Once I removed the strapping tape a problem at the stern tip became evident:
Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? It seems I didn't have things aligned well enough at the tip and/or it wasn't taped in place tight enough. I began shaping the stem with the block plane anyway.Note that I masked off the hull too close to the stems, trapping green masking tape under the stem edges. This was all planed away in the process of shaping the stem so it's not so bad as it looks. The next couple of images show how I intend to fix the problem of the crappy lamination & bends. I'll cut away all of the poorly laminated section, leaving a gently curving squared off area on which I'll glue some new pieces.

Once those pieces are glued in place, I'll shave them down to match the flowing lines of the stern. The only thing I'm not too sure about is how in the heck I'm going to clamp those suckers in place until the glue sets. One thing I thought of was to maybe use thick cyanoacrylate glue with accelerator so that they wouldn't need to be held for long. Anybody know if this will work? Is it strong enough to withstand the abuse that planing would put on the glue?