Somewhere around Day 50 or so I guess

So almost a month has gone by since my last post. I've been busy and progress has been slow. I didn't see much point in doing any updates if I didn't have anything to add.

But now I do.

I finally got all the frames cut, properly sized, and rounded.

My original idea of using a router to cut them didn't work out. My templates were too thin (1/8") and I couldn't get the bearing on the bit to properly follow the template. So I ended up using the templates as patterns and cut all of these out with my jigsaw.

Know what this is?

Yup. That's blood alright. But not mine. My friend Sam was over this weekend and decided he wanted to come downstairs and give me a hand. So I gave him some chisels and asked him to start cutting out the notches. I guess my chisels are a little sharper than what he is use to. That WorkSharp 3000 is really doing a great job keeping my chisels and planes "scary sharp". I love it.

I also managed to get my strongback started.

The kayak will be built on this. Some people build very fancy strongbacks, and I may do that one day, but for the moment, the only thing I intend to do is put some 1/2" plywood down the length of it so I have something smooth to work on.

Here's the same pic with the frames laid out.

Does it look like a kayak yet? :) I suppose not. But I'm getting there.

Finally, a little more gloating. My Festool collection is coming along nicely. I really like the way all the containers stack together.

Next I will be oiling all the stringers and frames before I start the assembly.

So, progress is being made!

And I'm having a very good time.

Somewhere around Day 25 or so

Well, I've been doing that work thing for awhile so I haven't had much of a chance for any updates. 


I finished cutting out all my templates

Next I will have to sand them, round them, and then use them to cut out the actual forms. Maybe it would have been easier to just cut them out directly, but it was fun using my jigsaw.

I built a jig to cut my scarf joints. Pretty easy when using a guided rail system

Here are a number of my scarf joints being glued up. I shot a nail through each joint to hold it aligned when I glued. Seemed to work well.

Tool gloat! Here is this cool little round-over plane which I got at Lee Valley. What an easy way to do a round over, and it works great with cedar. For the gunwales I'll have to use a router since I want a 1/4" round over, (the plane does 1/16"). Still, running this little plane down 18' of stringer was lots of fun.

Finally, I must report that our kayak season has ended. Here is a shot of sandra heading out in her kayak through the early forming ice, and the a shot of what it looked like the next day.

Lots of work still to do. Next, I have to cut out the forms, and then build the strongback.

Having lots of fun too!