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Step 4Glue
Once the entire kayak is stitched together, you can begin gluing, but only glue the top half and the bottom half. Leave the side seams alone, so you can separate the two and work on each half separately.
I bought the epoxy with pumps for measuring it out. It's a 2:1 system so pump twice for the resin and pump once for the hardener and mix it in a disposable plastic cup. Epoxy is a sensitizer meaning that it wont immediately harm you, but in time you will develop a reaction to it. It's best to use latex gloves when applying it.
This is the point where I had to decide whether to leave the copper wire in the boat or remove it. It's perfectly ok to leave the wire in and cut off the excess, but I chose to remove it. Leaving the wire in is actually a much faster method.
First I glued the seams and let it cure. Then I separated the top and bottom half and added thickened epoxy in between the wires. Just mix saw dust into the prepared epoxy until it becomes like peanut butter consistency, then squish it into the seam. If you want the thickened epoxy to match the rest of the boat, you will have to experiment by combining the epoxy with different combinations of saw dust, silica, glass microballoons or whatever. Once it was cured I could begin cutting and removing the wires.
Since the seams already contain hard thickened epoxy I had to sand it smooth. When sanding epoxy be sure to where a mask, and eye protection. Since I work outside under the porch I was already in a well ventilated area. At this point I also cut out the cockpit. I used a couple of buckets and straight edge to draw the curved cockpit shape I wanted. Another technique is to tie a string to a pencil and draw the arc. When it looked right I cut it out.
Next you can either tape the seams which is what I did, or you can fiberglass the interior of the boat. To tape the seams, I created 3 in. wide fiberglass tape by cutting the 6 oz. fabric into strips of whatever length I needed. Once the interior was sanded, I added more thickened epoxy to where the wires had been, and before it dried started laying out the fiberglass tape. To wet out the tape I just poured a little epoxy on the tape and spread it out with a brush. Also at this time it's a good idea to paint the interior with epoxy. When water gets into the boat, the epoxy coating will prevent it from damaging the wood.
When the top and bottom sections are complete it's time to join the two halves. Unfortunately they didn't fit. It's probably because of the modifications I made to the design or it could have changed shape when the two sides were separated, but regardless I had to make it fit. The middle fit together just fine, and I was able to stitch it together with copper wire and glue it. The ends however would not come together, so I added some weights and mashed the ends together then filled any gaps with thickened epoxy. The deck actually stuck out about a half an inch over the edge on the front and back ends. I ended up trimming back the over hang and putting thickened epoxy in the gaps.
After the epoxy cured I could remove the side stitches. Reaching into the cockpit I was able to cut most of the wires. The rest of the wires I was able to work out with some needle nose pliers. Taping the final two seams requires you to go in the cockpit with a stick and a flashlight and push thickened epoxy into the seams. To get it into the very ends though, I made some thickened epoxy that was a little runny and let it flow down the seam by propping the kayak up at angle. Next comes the tape. This time I wet the tape in epoxy prior and rolled it down the seam by pushing it with a stick.
I bought the epoxy with pumps for measuring it out. It's a 2:1 system so pump twice for the resin and pump once for the hardener and mix it in a disposable plastic cup. Epoxy is a sensitizer meaning that it wont immediately harm you, but in time you will develop a reaction to it. It's best to use latex gloves when applying it.
This is the point where I had to decide whether to leave the copper wire in the boat or remove it. It's perfectly ok to leave the wire in and cut off the excess, but I chose to remove it. Leaving the wire in is actually a much faster method.
First I glued the seams and let it cure. Then I separated the top and bottom half and added thickened epoxy in between the wires. Just mix saw dust into the prepared epoxy until it becomes like peanut butter consistency, then squish it into the seam. If you want the thickened epoxy to match the rest of the boat, you will have to experiment by combining the epoxy with different combinations of saw dust, silica, glass microballoons or whatever. Once it was cured I could begin cutting and removing the wires.
Since the seams already contain hard thickened epoxy I had to sand it smooth. When sanding epoxy be sure to where a mask, and eye protection. Since I work outside under the porch I was already in a well ventilated area. At this point I also cut out the cockpit. I used a couple of buckets and straight edge to draw the curved cockpit shape I wanted. Another technique is to tie a string to a pencil and draw the arc. When it looked right I cut it out.
Next you can either tape the seams which is what I did, or you can fiberglass the interior of the boat. To tape the seams, I created 3 in. wide fiberglass tape by cutting the 6 oz. fabric into strips of whatever length I needed. Once the interior was sanded, I added more thickened epoxy to where the wires had been, and before it dried started laying out the fiberglass tape. To wet out the tape I just poured a little epoxy on the tape and spread it out with a brush. Also at this time it's a good idea to paint the interior with epoxy. When water gets into the boat, the epoxy coating will prevent it from damaging the wood.
When the top and bottom sections are complete it's time to join the two halves. Unfortunately they didn't fit. It's probably because of the modifications I made to the design or it could have changed shape when the two sides were separated, but regardless I had to make it fit. The middle fit together just fine, and I was able to stitch it together with copper wire and glue it. The ends however would not come together, so I added some weights and mashed the ends together then filled any gaps with thickened epoxy. The deck actually stuck out about a half an inch over the edge on the front and back ends. I ended up trimming back the over hang and putting thickened epoxy in the gaps.
After the epoxy cured I could remove the side stitches. Reaching into the cockpit I was able to cut most of the wires. The rest of the wires I was able to work out with some needle nose pliers. Taping the final two seams requires you to go in the cockpit with a stick and a flashlight and push thickened epoxy into the seams. To get it into the very ends though, I made some thickened epoxy that was a little runny and let it flow down the seam by propping the kayak up at angle. Next comes the tape. This time I wet the tape in epoxy prior and rolled it down the seam by pushing it with a stick.
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