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Long Shot Blog


jerryg

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Hi everyone,

So I decided to keep a blog of my Long Shot building experience. I want to share it with some friends and family members, but also provide a record so I can learn from my mistakes, since I suspect that this won't be the only boat I'm going to build.

While I will still be posting questions, and a couple of pics here, if anyone would like to follow the blog you can find it here

YoYo builds an akyak

As updates become available I will post here as well.

Have a great day everyone.

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You wanted more pics? Here are more pics.

Lots of stringers waiting to be scarefed.

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Decided to layout the patterns on some hardboard. I want to make some templates.

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One mistake I made was using 1/8" hardboard instead of 1/4". Much harder to work with. Unfortunately, by the time I figured that out, I had already glued down all the templates.

Another mistake? Yup. I had my wife do a detailed cutout of the templates. Bad idea. This made them flimsy and difficult to lie flat. Should have followed Jeff's advice and simply do a rough cut out, and then do the fine cutting with my jigsaw (I don't have a bandsaw).

Anyway here is how some of them came out.

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I used a chisel to cut out the notches for the stringers.

Here is another (not terrible) mistake

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These should have just been put directly on some 3/4 ply and cutout. Not really an issue though, since I still have to cut out the ply to make the brackets, and these can stay as references if I ever need them.

Speaking about chisels, it's time for a little tool gloat

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I picked this up last week, and boy has it made my chisels scary sharp. It uses abrasive pads which are stuck onto glass plates. There is a jig preset to 20, 25, 30, 35 degrees. Easy and fast. I'm shaving hair off my arm.

Finally a shot of two blue kayaks. Hopefully by next summer one of them is going to look quite a bit different.

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I am curious why you glued the patterns to hard board, cut these out, then used them to draw onto the real material? One thing I have found about patterns in general is that every time I use a copy to make another, instead of the original, I amplify errors. Any imperfection in cutting out the hardboard will be traced onto the plywood. It is hard enough getting one cutting process accurate, but to have the errors of 2 cutting processes only makes it worse.

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Actually the plan is to use the hardboard templates as guides. I have a template bit for my router, so I can (hopefully) shape the frames quite accurately on the first pass. Sanding and smoothing the template should be easier than working on the frames themselves.

But I do wish I had used 1/4" rather than 1/8"

The other reason is in case I ever want to build the boat again, the job of cutting the frames should go fairly quickly.

At least, that's the plan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone,

It's been a week or so since my last update. I had to do this thing called work, which really got in the way of important things like kayak building! Here is what has been happening.

I finished cutting out my templates, and have started sanding and smoothing them.

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I build a jig to cut my scarf joints. Since I use a guided rail system, my jig looks different than the sleds others have built for use with a table saw. But it worked pretty well.

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Here's a bunch of them clamped and drying. I found it easier to shoot a 3/4" nail through the middle of the scarf using an air nailer. This kept everything pretty lined up and made for an easier glue up. Because the air nailer drives the nail 1/8" under the surface I had no problem when I did my sanding. I tried using 23 gauge nails first but they didn't really hold. 18 gauge worked just fine though, and you can't even see the hole now.

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Speaking of sanding, I got a new small round-over plane from Lee Valley. It is the fastest easiest way I've ever found to give a really nice round over to an rough edge. Works great on cedar.

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Finally, the last kayaking shots for 2011. The first is my wife getting into her boat on Tuesday just as the ice was forming on the lake. It was very cool to plow through some of the thin ice. It made wonderful crackling and vibrating sounds.

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By Wednesday our season was done. Good thing we decided to take the boats in on Tuesday, eh?

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Today I started sanding all the stringers. Almost finished but I still have the gunwales to do, which I will round over with a 1/4" router bit since I want more of a curve than with the new plane.

That's it for now!

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I had to do this thing called work, which really got in the way of important things like kayak building!

Had the same problem. People wanting me to build them frame kits and sell them supplies. Don't you guys know I want to build my own boat instead! ;)

Good thing is the River/lake never ices up. We get to paddle year round. But it gets cold enough to kill!

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You are moving right along with yours, Jerry. Looking good. I envy you guy with all the room to build these. It is a struggle in limited space.

Thanks. Yes, it's nice to have lots of room. One of the reasons I bought the house was the large unfinished basement. I never had that before, and so never really tried any woodworking at all before 5-6 years ago when we got the place. While the women are never impressed with it, any guy who has ever seen it have been envious.

Now if I could only figure out how to make something besides sawdust!

Hey Jeff,

I'm a little envious that you get access to water year round, but otoh I get to ski and snow shoe from Dec-Apr and that is something I couldn't ever give up. Besides, come spring time, I'll ski in the morning and paddle in the afternoon, which is lots of fun.

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It's a bit off topic but can you tell/show us a bit about the paddle that we can see the blade of in the foreground of the second last photo?

Hi Labrat,

The paddle is made by a Canadian company called Grey Owl and the model is called a Zepyher. My wife bought it for me as a present. It is a wooden blade on a carbon shaft. Very light, and the blade is quite thin for easy entry.

I like it lots, though I am thinking of getting a Greenland paddle to try out, since I see so many people using them.

Hi Jeff,

I prefer water in the liquid state.

I understand, but you can't do this when it is liquid

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That's me ripping it up somewhere out west.

And here's another thing you don't get when it's liquid

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That's my bestest ski partner.. who also happens to be my wife.

Besides, it's a well known fact.. skiers make better lovers.. it's all in the hips! :D

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everyone,

Well it has been almost a month since my last entry. 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, and rounded over.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Looks like progress to me. Jerry have you ever made it out to the big Intra West Flagship resort of Whistler Blackcomb? Simply some of the best skiing I have ever done.

Hi Lombard,

Thanks.

Yes, I sure have made it out to Whistler/Blackcomb on a couple of occasions. Great skiing up on top, especially Couloir Extreme, though it was stilled called the Saudan back when I skied it. Whistler has some great high speed carving runs.

Though for me, top marks for best skiing is Snowbird, Utah. Best power I've ever floated through.

Though I haven't been heli-skiing... yet. :)

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Work continues.

I cut some dadoes in my strongback so it would sit more securely on the sawhorses. I then screwed them down.

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I then skinned the top with 3/4" ply to get a (more or less) level surface.

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I started aligning the brackets but ran into some problems cause things weren't getting even close. Happily, some of the nice people here gave me some real good suggestions. I love the Internet! And the people on this forum too!

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Even though things still aren't quite aligned (more work to do today) I could resist doing a test fit of the keel stringer.

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Wow! It may even be a boat someday. :)

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  • 2 months later...

Hi everyone,

Well, it has been some time since my last post, but progress is continuing and I thought I would upload some pics.

Here is the how it is currently looking:

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I pretty much have all the stringers attached. Everything is pretty loosely held together with bungees. I still have some filing and sanding to do to get everything lined up properly. I also have to build the bow and stern pieces, attach them, and get everything properly fitted. So, still much to do. But I'm having a fun fun time.

The outermost frames (at 1', and 16') are almost impossible to attach to the brackets with any strength. Next time I will figure out a better way to do it, but right now I will have to take these frames off, attach the bow and stern pieces, and then start fitting everything properly.

BTW - when Jeff said in the manual that bungee cords are your friend, he wasn't kidding. I went out and bought a second box of them yesterday, and I may have to get more real soon now.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone,

Been a couple of weeks since my last update. Here is how I am doing.

The frame is pretty much all built and I am oiling it with tung oil now.

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I built a steamer to make the laminated coaming

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It worked pretty well, but I think I cut my strips a bit thick, or perhaps it is because I am using maple, but they were really a bugger to bend and glue. I needed lots and lots of clamps

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But it seems to be working okay, although now I will have to see about trying to bend the coaming when I want to sew up. I may end up remaking it. Frankly, I can't see how the think will bend at all.

Finally, here is the lake two days ago, and then today. Boats will be in the water this week, about 3 weeks earlier than normal.

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Have a good one.

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Well some great progress. Frame looks real nice.

The coaming was the most stressful part of the project for me. I have never been very successful bending wood. I just used a heat gun. My strips were a little over 1/8" thick. It worked out. The finished coaming doesn't have to bend much when you put it on the kayak, least mine didn't. It well work. The next one I make, I going to try soaking the wood good, than heat, bend and clamp the strips around the form. Let it dry then undo it and put them back in place with glue. It well take longer, but I think it well work better. I didn't like heating the wood so hot with the glue on it. Seems to me it would weaken the gluing. Maybe not, but I wasn't real comfortable with it. Seems to be holding though.

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