Bcone1381 Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 I used an old kitchen knife, and heated it up with my propane torch. Once the blade is hot it melts the fabric like an expensive hot knife. I tried the soldering iron and hung it back up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P Doug (WA) Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 What ever works is good. I used a soldering gun with a homemade blade on it made out of 14 or 12 gauge copper wire. It worked great also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted April 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2014 In the end got a Dremal wood burn/solder/xacto thingy. The xacto blades are too thin (ie. looses heat) to make it an effective hot knife but made it work. Hope to finish sewing the skin and getting the coaming/hatch on today. If I ever do an off grid kayak I'll use a propane heated steak knife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted April 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2014 All sewn up. Heat shrink next. Might be some time before my next post/paint job. Included a photo of how I finished the ends with the two cord stitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msaxton Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Just wondering, Are you adding a lip to your coaming for spray skirt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted April 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Just wondering, Are you adding a lip to your coaming for spray skirt? Already built in. I used the standard 3 layers of plywood coaming that Jeff puts in all his plans. The 2 smaller outer diameter rings clamp the skin and the larger outer diameter ring sits on top making the lip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msaxton Posted April 24, 2014 Report Share Posted April 24, 2014 Gotcha, my eyes were deceiving me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted April 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 Just finished putting on the last bottom coat and will let it sit for a few days before starting the top in blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted April 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2014 Deck coats started. Never worked with oil based paint before so lots of learning. Might hire one of my artist friends to do some deck art (take the eyes away from my many small mistakes ). Not too worried about making a work of art out of a kayak as I'm planning on paddling the sh*t out of it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Peter Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Looks great. Congratulations on finishing. I hope to be there too some day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msaxton Posted May 3, 2014 Report Share Posted May 3, 2014 very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted May 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Rigging underway. Got it to the point where I'm going to try and get it on the water today to see how she floats. Driving hard to get it done for next weekend as it is the guides exchange so the perfect opportunity to test and abuse the kayak (3 days of training, fun and rescue scenarios). I'll save the art for later. I switched at the last minute from traditional rope and toggles to bungees for deck rigging. Used a bungee to hold the seat pad and it is big enough I can store my farmer john wet suit as the seat pad on expedition (when it is not needed of course). Still used the toggles on the back deck for holding a paddle/out rigger (bungees pulled tighter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudzu Posted May 4, 2014 Report Share Posted May 4, 2014 Looks good! You have a lot of experience and seating is personal choice. But to new paddlers, I am a big advocate of the Redfish minicell seats. a tad pricey but after trying a few it is my hands down favorite. I can spend hours in that seat and that is all I want in my boats now. Just by the base and have Joe trim it to fit. He has patters on some of my boats and I can send him anyone he doesn't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted May 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2014 Finished rigging deck and putting on some keel guards. No water time as I want to give the sealant on the keel guards the time to cure. Keel strips are only 13 inches long so they might be too small and need replacing in the future ($1 medium sized cutting board donated the plastic). Reflective cord used as grab lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarbaker Posted May 5, 2014 Report Share Posted May 5, 2014 Your shad looks great. Great idea with the reflective grab lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudzu Posted May 5, 2014 Report Share Posted May 5, 2014 Cutting boards do make good rub strips. Bad side is they only last maybe 2 seasons and then they cracked on me. But the price is right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted May 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2014 Ran out of time to pond test the kayak and am away teaching Outdoor Ed for the next 4 days. Did take the time to fill it with water. The hull is bullet, errr water proof. Pant seam on the side has one very small area that seeps water. Top sewn seam however leaks in many places and will need some work. Not sure if I should just keep coating it in pant or use something like aquaseal. Moot for now as I have a 3 days of hard paddling with it when I get back and I'm confident that it will handle it until I get some time to "polish" everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudzu Posted May 6, 2014 Report Share Posted May 6, 2014 Deck seams usually leak a little and for most of us that is not really a problem. I will any obvious ones but I figure it is going to get water inside anyway so what little bit comes in from a deck just doesn't matter. Your the best judge of what needs to be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted May 6, 2014 Report Share Posted May 6, 2014 I had some rather large holes along the seam on my first build. I used BoatLife LifeCaulk (polysulfide). It stays soft and flexible, and it is paintable. I just worked some into the holes with my fingers before the last coat of paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gingerbread Posted May 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2014 News of my demises has been greatly exaggerated. Been working solid for over a week from my shad (Christened "Enertree". Combine the words "energy" and "tree" and you got it) as my boss ran out of kayaks. Started off with a trial by fire with 5 hours of rescues and rolls (professional development days), then a week of day tours followed by an overnighter and then a quarter of the way around the island to get home. The rescues session ran the gambit of regular "T" rescues to specialty stuff like Hand of God and Cleopatra's Needle. Cleopatra's Needle is the key one as that would be what you would need to use with a swamped skin boat with or without float bags (and I did for another SoF kayak). Never did needed it on my kayak as the sea sock worked amazingly well. For rolls I found I could C to C roll the kayak without thigh braces by pinning my knees under the coaming but it is not reliable and very uncomfortable. With a foam Masik for the knees Greenland rolling works well but I'm out of practice. Right now I'll be using a back sculling roll to get back up until I get time to practice quicker Greenland stuff. Got out in the white caps on a 25 knot wind day and am very happy with the performance. The initial stability of the kayak is much greater then I'm used to but is enjoyable. Still playing with it to get it on edge comfortably as the initial stability makes it a bit harder. Packs gear for an overnight much better then I though with the only problem piece of gear being a sleeping bag as it didn't fit in the hull any where so I took out the back rest and replaced it with the stuffed sleeping bag (its not even a big bag). Right now I'm just painting over all the scratches and where the paint came off (pulling it 3 miles home on wheel caused the bow under the keel to lose a lot of paint for some reason into my hands). I filled it with water when I was cleaning the kayak out and the spots that had been stripped down to the base cloth didn't leak so thats good. I'm re-rigging some of the deck and doing some wood burning art on the coaming. I've put glow in the dark toggles on the extreem end of the bow/stern bungies to make sliding a paddle under easy. I need to figure out how to put in the bow/stern handles. The holes were drilled before skinning but I'm still hesitant to use them as all the Sof owners I talk to tell me their handle always leak a bit of water. The seat ripped out of its screw holes and was tied off to the ribs for the rest of the week after rolling so I am now screwing them in with different screw in a better spot. Sealing a bit of the top stitch but am not looking to fully seal it as even with waves constantly breaking over the bow seam it doesn't let in more then a few drops and it is nice to be able to let water drain out of the seams after washing out the kayak and leaving it upside down on the rack. Hand me down camera finally died so don't have any pictures of the current work. I'll be doing a write up on my thoughts for the sea sock in the next few days. Happy Paddling, -Nathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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