John's Cedar Kayak
Page Eleven: Finishing
(Click photos for a larger image)
Topping off the End-pours
It
was really cold during the week I wanted to finish the end-pours, so I did it in
the living room. The ceiling was only about 14 feet high, so the boat was
tilted on the corner.
Most of the end pour was already completed before the deck and hull were joined, so this just needed am ounce or two of an epoxy/microballoon slurry at each end to help join the deck and hull
After fiberglassing the external hull/deck seam and sanding the entire boat, I added a skim coat of epoxy over the boat to cover the weave in a few spots where I sanded into the cloth, and to fill and smooth a few other places.
Deck Fittings
My
wood deck fittings were almost finished when I read an interesting internet
message about making deck fittings from loops of webbing. The webbing
loops fit through slits in the deck and provide a place to thread shock cord to
anchor them without protruding from the deck. The wood fittings look nice,
but their higher profile is more likely to catch on something and break.
The wood fittings in this photo have a strip of fiberglass added for strength. They still need another fill coat of epoxy to finish them.
The
web fittings are simply a 4.5" piece of 3/4" webbing epoxied to the
underside of a small plywood base. The base is attached to the underside
of the deck with silicon bathroom sealer.
Installing Bulkheads
Caulking
the bulkheads into position was an awkward task, requiring me to squeeze into
the hatches and cockpit with the caulk gun. I injected a
marine sealant between the foam and wood.
When I first installed the bulkheads,
I made a little rounded fillet from the sealant, and realized I must be adding
at least half a pound of caulking to the boat! Well, I went back to the
Kayak Building Bulletin board to search messages on this and learned that the
fillet was not needed. So back into the garage I went, in my pajamas, to
scrape the fillets off. It made a little mess, but I feel better about the
weight now.
An identification label was added to the boat with my name and contact information. It reads "Built by John Caldeira. If found adrift or to verify ownership, contact....".
Varnishing
Dust doesn't look very attractive when embedded in a coat of varnish. It would
be incredibly hard for me to get the garage relatively dust free, so I built a
"clean room" tent instead.
After blowing as much dust as I could out of the garage, sweeping and mopping the floor, I hung ropes and draped plastic painter's tarps to form a clean room around the boat.
The boat was hung from the ceiling so
I could varnish the deck and hull at the same time. This accelerates the
time required to varnish, but it's harder to keep a wet edge all around the
boat.
[post-building comment: On my
next boat, I will hang the boat to apply varnish to the whole boat at one time,
just like I did here, except for the final coat. To get a better
quality finish, I will do the final coat in two stages: hull first and then deck
when the hull is cured enough]
Good lighting is important when applying varnish, so I gathered a few lights from around the house and placed them to light the boat from all angles. This helped me avoid missing very places with each coat.
Varnishing can't be good for one's lungs. To prevent dust from blowing around, I varnished without any ventilation. The smell wasn't very noticeable while I was varnishing, but when I went in the house and them back into the garage, the smell was really strong.
Between varnish coats, I wet-sanded with 320 and 400 grit paper. The wet sanding hardly creates any dust because it stays in the water and is wiped clean. I brushed with 3" foam brushes.
Four coats of varnish was all I could stand. I want to get this boat in the water! Judy Lewis followed me around the boat as my quality control manager during while I applied the final varnish coat, pointing out dry "holidays" that I missed. Even with her help, we missed a few small spots.
Gear Box
The gear box was finished with a few coats of varnish, so it's done now!
Next Steps
- Deck rigging
- Attach hatch covers
- Install seat
- Grab loops
- Paddle!
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Created: March 15, 2003