Go!

Today I officially started on the project.  I lined up the side and bottom panels and "glued" them together by mixing epoxy with some silica to thicken it.  I was supposed to mix it to mustard consistency, but I'm a little worried it was more like honey towards the end of the batch.  Also, I pre-cut pieces of plastic to place between the sheets of wood (I glued the identical pieces in pairs) to prevent from gluing one piece to another piece.  However, even doing this in advance, I forgot to place one piece of plastic in between...luckily  I noticed it right away and put the plastic in place.  I was using a shop light and space heater to keep the shop warm today, and the parts will need to cure for at least 24hrs.  I may leave the light on overnight to keep the temperature in the garage up, but I'm too nervous to keep the space heater on overnight.  I will remove the wood "clamps" tomorrow to see how the pieces glued up. 

Ready, Set...

 

Today I lined up the various pieces that need to be glued (epoxied) together.  I also made a couple of "clamps" (pieces of scrap wood with screws at either end) that I will use to hold the glued joints together while drying.  I plan on gluing all the panels at the same time with the symmetric pieces being glued back to back.  I will separate each layer with plastic wrap, so that I don't glue the adjacent pieces together accidentally.  Today I just dry fitted everything, and I hope to glue tomorrow.  I also bought a small space heater since I'm not sure what the temperature is going to be doing the next few days, and I want the epoxy to cure properly.  Also, you may notice a difference in picture quality at times.  While I will try to use my SLR camera with higher resolution as much as possible, I will at times just shoot some quick pics with the iPhone like the ones above.

More Prep Work

I finished the second pair of stack-able sawhorses today.  I haven't been able to work on the project much between work and a family trip to Disney World.  I used another sawhorse that I had, and built it up with a couple pieces of scrap wood to match the height of the other sawhorses.  I then temporarily screwed the two 8x2 foot pieces of plywood to the sawhorses to make a temporary workbench for fitting the first pieces of the kayak together.  I started to sort out the various pieces today, and hopefully can get officially started on the project in the next day or so.  The temperature is dropping to the 30's tonight here in Jacksonville, so I may have to wait for a little warmer daytime temperature to do the initial epoxy work.  Epoxy apparently needs to cure with temps in the 70's, and our garage is not heated.  Stay tuned...

Setting Up

 

 Much of the work for this project is in the preparation.  Yesterday I built 2 heavy duty sawhorses, and started 2 additional ones.  This will allow me to place a ripped (cut in half long ways) piece of 4x8 plywood end to end--creating a 16 foot long work space.  This will make it easier to glue the 8 foot long panels that make up the kayak.  (Remember this kayak will be close to 17 feet long when completed.  You can also see the large number of clamps hanging around the shop.  These will be put to use later in this project, and hopefully with future projects.  Today will entail yet another trip to Lowes's to pick up a few more screws for the sawhorses.  Today will not include much project time since I'll be hanging out with the lil' boy.

Inventory

I received my kayak this past week and inventoried all the parts on Friday (11/19).  Everything was there, although one of the parts (deck beam) was broken in half and another one was damaged.  I emailed the company and they are sending replacement parts.  Very good customer service!  You can see the thin plywood that will be the basis of construction.  This is a marine grade plywood that eventually will be covered in epoxy and fiberglass.