Day 3

Today was glue day. The idea was to get the gunwales, stringers, keelson and all the other stuff glued to the profiles and end up with something that looked vaguely like a kayak.

The day started with a trip to Mega Mitre 10 for some Gorilla Grip glue, a bit more timber and a wood rasp. Ended up with the Gorilla Glue, some measuring tapes and saw (they were on special), some ties (longer ones... 15cm ties are not much good so I bought some 30cm ties) and no rasp or timber. Had to go to Bunnings for the timber and the rasps were just too expensive. Will probably have to buy one tomorrow but I will look for something under $20.

I started at about midday. The gunwales went on the profiles first and then I worked my way down the hull to the keelson. Putting on the gunwales is a two person job... at least to get the ties on. After that however I glued and them and all the stringers by myself.

A good trick is to check that the stringer notches cut into the profiles are big enough for the stringer, prior to gluing up. I have 4 notches that required extra cutting at the gluing stage. Not clever.

My first experience with Gorilla Glue was interesting. Great glue as far as I am concerned but i got a lot on my hands during the day and now they are black. The glue on my hands is going nowhere. :-) DOH!!!!

In the end the kayak is all glued up except the bow and stern. That's tomorrows job. But it looks great and I am very happy with the outcome. Only fly in the ointment is that the keelson at the bow end has a slight bow and I am concerned that it will not straighten. Will work on this when I build the bow.

BTW. Following Tony Calverts good advice I contacted Norm McDonald from Hollingsworth Agencies - Chch about fabric. He is a friendly fellow and very willing to send down some fabric, so long as I pay first. :-)

Well. So far so good. I had no idea how to do the next bit. Common sense suggested the gunwales should go on next. Worked for me.

On go the gunwales.

Gunwales and glued and screwed. Note my useless attempts to use duck tape to keep the kayak sort of upright. Need to devise a better plan next time around.