In our last episode of Building a Kayak we chose our kit from Chesapeake Light Craft, unpacked our components, and started some Stitch and Glue construction on the side panels. Join me here in Part 2 to check in on our puzzle joints and get started on the sheer clamps! Mistakes will be made as we figure out how to build a kayak!
The First Problem
The first issue to tackle this week is a puzzle joint that arrived broken. However this should be easily fixable by just gluing in the puzzle joint as normal and popping in the broken piece.
Moving on!
No matter, first we’ll get to work on today’s primary project, the sheer clamps. First, what is the sheer clamp? It’s a longitudinal piece to which the deck and side panels are clamped to make the hull-deck joint. As the name would imply, it’s position is at the sheer line of the boat. Due to shipping via USPS we’ll need to first get them attached so they are the full length of the boat. This is done through a scarf joint.
The scarf joint should yield a barely visible glue line and lend strength to the sheer clamps once dried. However we shall see how it goes!
Lining up the scarf joint and it looks good. We will mix some epoxy to glue together and clamp into position like so:
Fixing our puzzle joint
Now we can return to our broken puzzle joint and see about getting the panels glued together. Here is what it looked like once glued into position and dried:
Looks good! It looked even better once it had been sanded smooth, you can’t even tell there had been an issue!
We’ll let the scarf joints dry for now but join me next time as I start to get them glued to the side panels and begin the Stitch and Glue construction!
What projects are you working on these days?