Make one hole at each end of the Gunwhale. First you make very opposite 2-3mm holes with a drill. It might help to fasten the drillbit a little furter out than normal. If you’re unsecure about drilling straight through, release…
Stefan upgrading his social profile to “Boatbuilder” and Niall doing burpees of happiness… or something 🙂 The satisfying feeling of chopping dowels! You need at least two each in the bow and stern and two for each deck beam. That’s…
Stefan made all the holes with the plunge router and did not fail once! Unfortunately I have no pictures of him in action but will make better next time. Being this fast has it’s cost though. The other mortises didn’t…
Today the rain got frustrating so Clara, Stefan and I moved out to our new hangout. They both got some action with the plunge router and Clara is even done. Suddenly her kayak took it’s shape! Day after *someone* got…
So satisfying to see people go from shaking their heads to “this is great fun” with a bare minimum of instructions and having to figure out how stuff works for themselves. Julijana took a few pictures of Niall’s practice run…
Clara decided to do another coaming. This time after she measured one she likes. It’s tiny! The cool thing is she did the form (mostly) herself, calculated the length of all parts, worked them into shape and glued the whole…
For a city slicker who understands trees can be bought as planks and not much more, it’s a miracle to plane wood down into the thickness you need for a specific project. Strength to weight ratio is slowly sinking in…
Science has it that a wood joint bigger than 1:12 slowly starts being stronger than wood without a joint. At 1:15 it is clearly stronger but stiffer. So, how do you want your joint? Scarfing is not just about tall…
When your Gunwhales are sawn and you start measuring for ribs and deckbeams, that’s when it feels like the kayak build is starting. Today, the old plunge router gave up and before that, the camera “stand” I used for recording…
Today at 7.05 a trucker walked in to the boatyard and said: -“I can’t deliver down here. The tree canopies scrape my brand new 4,5m high truck. You have to get your goods at the bridge“. -“With what?” I said.…
We be laminatin’. Some paddles already tested. None broken so far. A new technique emerged after a tip from one of the gnarly sea cat boat builders at the club, namely the use of an angle grinder for compound curves.…
I was thinking about how to easily draw and make a jig for a good looking and functioning cockpit coaming and came up with this idea that lends itself to easy drawing with a pencil and a piece of string.…
