A DIY Kayak

A wet exit

2014-07-20T10:58:00.001+10:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. It's also been a while since the kayak was last in the water. My step-daughter has recently discovered she loves kayaking and has been going out for a paddle with friends in our Q-Kayaks double. So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to tag a long with them. I had to go anyway to help them get the kayak off the roof of the Subaru and didn't feel like sitting in the car waiting for them to get back.

The kayak is very tippy, or I am, it's also a tight squeeze, so my step-daughter was told by her mum to keep an eye on me, in case I capsized and couldn't get out.

Here's the result.

I was in the water for about fifteen minutes after the capsize, there was no way I would have been able to get back in the boat. It never once occurred to me at the time that Tingalpa Creek is known for Bull Sharks.

The weigh-in

2011-09-10T19:10:00.002+10:00

I finally got around to weighing the boat today, sort of.

The easiest way for a home builder to weigh their creation is to stand on the bathroom scales, pick up the boat, then subtract their weight from the total. The trouble is, once I picked up the boat, I couldn't see the scales. I tried a few different holds and postures and sort of got a decent look at the scales, kind of. Even when I could see them, the boat was blocking the light, so it was a challenge.

I'd originally figured the end product would be somewhere under 15kg, going by the weight of the frame which I could see through back then, then adding the weight of the final ingredients. Going by today's effort, my kayak is somewhere between 17 and 20kg. It doesn't feel like 20kg, in fact having put lots of cartons of frozen chips into the freezer at work, it doesn't feel like over 12kg. I suspect I might have to re-weigh with Donna eyeballing the scales. The scales were the cheapest I could find too, which might explain why my body weight seems to vary depending on the weather.

Even if it's 20kg, it's still easy to put on the roof of the Subaru with one hand, which means it's either not 20kg, or I don't know my own strength.

It floats

2011-08-31T12:57:00.006+10:00

When I got up this morning and saw it was a nice sunny day, I knew there wasn't going to be any postponement of the launch.

There was a minor problem when I put the kayak on top of the car. Because it's a lot narrower than the other kayaks we use, it doesn't really fit the Thule Hullaport Pro carrier. It didn't feel secure enough for me, so I turned the kayak upside-down and layed it flat on the roof-rack. It actually works out well, since it means we can carry two kayaks on the roof.

Because I neglected to put any kind of handle on the stern of the kayak, there was nowhere to hang a safety flag, so I just put it up back-to-front and hung the flag (a red lanyard from the UNE zoology department) from the paddle strap on the bow.

Note the blatant plug for Redlands Kayak Tours on the sticker.

When we arrived at Thompson's Beach we were actually surprised at how high the tide was. Until I got out of the car, I was a bit worried there wasn't going to be enough beach for me to take any photos. The last time I paddled there, a couple of weeks ago, we had to carry or drag the kayaks about fifty metres to the water.

Photo shoot over, I didn't waste much time in donning my skirt and PFD and getting the boat into the water. As you can see in the next photo, I used my paddle as an outrigger to stabilise the boat as I got in. Luckily the batteries in the video camera needed charging, so there's no footage of the boat tipping the other way as I was half way in and nearly depositing me in the water.

Finally, I was afloat and in water deep enough to paddle properly. As you can see from the next picture, she sits pretty high in the water, higher than I'd expected, mainly because my 60kg weight doesn't push it down much.

What these pictures don't show is just how tippy the boat is. Let's just say it was an exciting first paddle. I've heard a lot of people say, and I agree with them, that you can get a nice stable kayak and grow out of it with experience, or get one that's a challenge to paddle, and grow into it. I'm looking forward to growing into this one, because she zips along in the water and, being so light, is pretty maneuverable as well. I don't know if that maneuverability means it won't track well, I didn't paddle it for long enough in a straight line. I do know I'm going to have fun getting used to it.

Experienced kayakers will probably look at the next photo and assume I'm turning to starboard by edging the kayak and using the paddle as a stern rudder. They'd be right about the stern rudder, but the lean to the left is my hips getting a great workout as I wobbled from side to side.

This is the first kayak I've ever paddled that I could actually pick up with one hand. When Donna put this photo on Facebook, she made me delete my comment about having the "weirdest boner right now". I can't help thinking my shadow looks like a well known statue near Newcastle in England.

Now that it's a real kayak and it's had its bum wet, it qualifies to come out of the shed and live in the garage with Tony's Nantucket.

Next time I take it out, I'll be putting a sheet of closed cell foam inside to make it easier for me to slide in and out. It'll also make it a bit easier on my ankles, since the ribs won't be sticking into them like they did today. I also need to work out how to stop the dye rubbing off onto my shirt from the inside of the coaming. It might just be a case of giving it a bit of a wash to get rid of any dye that's left. If I had any goop left I'd give it a coating of that, but I used it all up finishing the deck.

Decklines

2011-08-29T13:14:00.003+10:00

I fitted the decklines today, so there's nothing else I can do now but put the boat in the water and take it for a paddle. The deck hasn't completely dried yet, it's still a little tacky, but I figured it's dry enough to fit the decklines and get it outside for some pictures.

It's sitting in the shed now with a piece of rib stock slid under the lines and over the coaming to keep them clear of the deck so they don't stick.

I've always thought I was pretty good at tying knots. I proved it today by tying off the decklines behind the cockpit one-handed. I also couldn't see what I was doing, so had to do it by feel. The ones in front of the cockpit weren't so bad, since I had enough room to get both hands in there.

The decklines took a little longer to do than I'd thought, but not much. The problem was, I had trouble locating the holes I'd predrilled in the frame for the line on the bow. I ended up having to refer to some photos I'd taken before skinning, then I shone a torch from the other side once I knew roughly where they were.

If you look closely in the top right corner of the next picture, you can see my neighbour Mike, admiring my handiwork.

So, would I do it again? Hell yeah! There's a few things I'd do differently though.

For a start, I'd save a bit of money on materials by ripping the gunwales and stringers, etc, myself, rather than buying them cut to order. Cunningham's book has an explanation on how to rip timber using a normal circular saw, rather than a bench saw. The reason I didn't do it last time was I didn't have a bench saw, nor Cunningham's book.

Mick, from Flat Earth Kayak Sails, recommended bamboo for the ribs. Not only would it be cheaper than the oak I used, but it's a lot easier to bend, so would save me a lot of time and frustration.

Although I had no problems with the brickie's twine I used for lashing, I'd use the artificial sinew next time. It sits a lot flatter than the twine and results in less bumps in the skin. Cutting notches in the gunwales isn't really enough to overcome that.

I think I'd prefer to try the methods in Cunningham's book as far as shaping the gunwales, etc. Using windlasses and cutting deckbeams to a certain angle, hoping they would fit right once you tighten everything, is a bit hit and miss. Using forms to hold the gunwales then cutting the beams to fit looks a lot better. I think bending and fitting the ribs before fitting the keelson will result in a lot less shims.

Lastly, I'd give myself a lot more time to finish off the skin, now that I've got the hang of applying the goop. I'd be tempted to leave the skin undyed too. If you do a decent job on the frame it's a shame to cover it up too much. Oh, and I'd round off the edges of deckbeams 5 and 6, the ones just in front of the cockpit a bit more. They aren't a problem now the boat is finished, but they were like speed bumps when I was applying the goop.

If you've been following this blog and thinking about building a kayak yourself, go for it. It can be frustrating at times, but overall it's a very rewarding experience. It's also a bit addictive. I can highly recommend checking out some of the links in my sidebar too. There's lots of helpful advice and inspiration from other people that have built their own kayaks.

It's finished! or day 24

2011-08-28T18:30:00.005+10:00

We ended up not going to the boat show. As Donna said, there's no kayak stuff, it's all boats and engines. So we spent a bit of time putting the roof on a flight aviary for the wild lorikeets we rehabilitate, then I got stuck into gooping the deck.

I'd highly recommend you mix small batches of Corey's Goop and take your time applying it. The results will be much better. In hindsight, the hull doesn't look crap, it just has an excess of character. I must admit too, I've never actually seen anyone else's home built skin-on-frame kayak up close, so I don't really know what they're supposed to look like. I've seen plenty of pictures of them, and it's easy to make them look perfect in a photo.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of mine looking pretty close to perfect (although those ribs look pretty wonky).

There's a few drips on the deck from when I did the hull yesterday. I can't help thinking they'd look really cool if I could get someone to paint bear paws around them.

To avoid any more runs, Donna and I sat in the shed for a while and babysat the boat with a Merlot and, in my case, cigar.

These pics were taken by Donna and they're the first ones where there's actually been a person in them to give it a bit of scale.

Looks pretty sleek doesn't it?

The reason for the silly expression in the next photo was, I was trying to decide whether to have the wine up to my lips, or the cigar when Donna took the photo, she caught me doing neither.

Aah! All done. I still have to fit the decklines, but they aren't necessary. Once the goop has dried it's ready for launch. At the moment, that'll be on Wednesday, since Donna is off work then. High tide is around 11am, so I can launch off a nice soft, sandy beach. Actually, at low tide I could launch off a nice, soft muddy beach, but I don't want too much yucky stuff in my new boat just yet.

When I started building the kayak, I'd always put on some shoes to protect my feet. A couple of weeks ago I was looking at some photos online of a kayak building school in Norway. One thing that stood out was the number of people wearing sandles with socks. Apart from the fact you wouldn't be caught dead like that in Australia, you wouldn't be allowed into a class without proper enclosed foot-ware either. After a while though, I got sick of putting shoes on to go and work in the shed, so I did most of the work dressed as I am in the above pictures. I should mention that I did manage to drop something heavy on my big toe a couple of weeks ago that resulted in my second lot of blood-letting during the build.

I think that was another 2 hours today, taking the total to 80 1/2. The deck lines will take about 10 or 15 minutes to fit. If anyone asks, it took me about 80 hours to build, but you could do it in about 60.

The only timing I'm doing now is the countdown to launch.

Day 23, Goop

2011-08-28T11:13:00.003+10:00

I put the goop on the hull yesterday and I've got to say, I'm a bit disappointed. If you look at the next three pictures, it doesn't look too bad. There's some cloudy patches where I've put it on a bit too thick, but they're actually the better spots.

It's not a problem with the product I used, more I think the fact that I chose to apply it on a humid (rainy) day and didn't give myself enough time. You really need to babysit the boat after you've applied the goop, to get rid of the inevitable runs. I had to go to work, so I couldn't do that and there are runs aplenty. As far as the integrity of the hull is concerned, I don't think there'll be a problem, it should be waterproof. I just looks crap.

That said, most people will see the deck more than the hull, especially when it's in the water. I'm thinking the deck will be a lot easier to do and I can take a lot more care with it.

If you look closely at the right of this next picture, you can see the finish isn't as smooth as it should be. Most of the hull is like that. The cloudy bits are caused by carbon dioxide bubbles forming as a part of the chemical reaction in the goop. If the goop is only thin, then the bubbles can escape to the surface, if not they stay. I actually think it doesn't look too bad where it's cloudy, at least the finish is smoother there.

It actually looks quite good in this next picture.

This is what a lot of the hull looks like though. It's as though it needs another coat to make it smooth, except there are already three coats on it. If I have enough goop left after doing the deck, I may apply another coat on the hull in some of the rougher spots. It won't bond as well when you apply it to a dry coat. When you put it on wet-on-wet it chemically bonds, if it goes onto a dry coat it's only a physical bond, so it won't be as strong. It might still improve the looks though. I'm wondering how a coating of surfboard wax would go once it's finished too.

I'll hopefully do the deck tomorrow, the hull is still a bit tacky at the moment, so I'll give it more time to dry before I turn it over. The Brisbane boat show is on today, so we're off to that soon.

That was about 2 hours of work yesterday, taking the total to 78 1/2.

Day 22, so close to finishing

2011-08-25T12:21:00.003+10:00

I must admit, dyeing the boat was a bit more nerve wracking than I'd expected.

After reading the instructions a couple of times, where it says to mix a litre of water with an ounce of the powder, I weighed the powder I had and found there was only half an ounce of it. The website where I ordered it said there should be enough to dye a boat the size of mine (about 16 feet), but I thought I'd make sure before I mixed it.

I emailed Elroy who has just finished building the same kind of boat and got his nylon and dye from the same place, and he confirmed that half an ounce, mixed with half a litre of water is indeed enough for the whole boat.

So this morning I got everything ready, put on an apron and some pink rubber gloves and started dyeing. The reason I found it nerve wracking was that by the time I got past the cockpit, about two thirds of the boat, it was starting to look like I was going to run out of dye after all. Well I did have enough, but only just. I suspect the towel I was using as a brush may have soaked a lot of it up and a foam brush, or smaller piece of towel might have been better. There's also a few drops of it on the ground and on the saw horses too. The shed looks like someone's been bleeding in there, which is a bit of a worry since there was a police car and an ambulance parked across the road for a while this morning. I have no idea why.

The colour I chose was russet, which is a kind of reddish-brown. It looks almost maroon at the moment, but that should change once it's dried and the poly-urethane has been applied. It'll probably fade a bit and look more weathered after a while too. I'm told the Goop tends to yellow a bit after a while.

Once the dyeing was finished, I used an old iron to shrink the fabric. The instructions on the skinboat school website say to just shrink the deck and only do the hull if you feel it needs it. I decided to do the hull as well. There are a couple of patches where the iron was in one spot for a bit longer than it maybe should have been, but I think that gives it a more authentic look than it would if the whole thing was completely even.

The dyeing and ironing only took me about an hour and there's nothing else I can do on the boat now until the dye has dried properly. I'll probably leave it till Saturday before I tackle the next step. That way I can get Donna to help out and I'll be sure the dye is dry.

That's 76 1/2 hours. I wonder if I can finish it in under 80.

Day 21 and it's now a boat

2011-08-23T13:49:00.004+10:00

The good thing about sewing on the skin, as long as you haven't cut off too much material, is that if you aren't happy with how it looks, you can undo the stitches and redo them. I wasn't happy with the way the bow looked, especially after I sewed up the stern, so I undid the stitches about half way and resewed, taking out some more slack. It's still a little wrinkly on the deck, but the hull is flat, and hopefully when I dye and shrink the skin, some more of those wrinkles will come out.

After doing the first row of stitches fore and aft to get the skin nice and tightish, I cut off the excess and did another row of stitches. I think they call it a blind stitch, since if you do it right, you don't actually see the stitches. This bit made me nervous, not the sewing, but the cutting. If I got too close to the first row of stitches when I cut, I wouldn't have enough to sew. It's worth leaving a little more than you think you'll need, since the excess is tucked underneath when you sew and you'll end up with neater stitches.

Here's an example of what fairly neat stitching looks like. The stitches at the top are the initial running stitch, used to take out all the slack and basically hold the skin on the boat. The other stitches are the blind stitch that hides all the excess.

Below is a less attractive bit of stitching. Because I had less excess here and not a lot of room to work due to the narrowness of the deck, it's a lot more bumpy and uneven. That said, I don't mind it. As I told my neighbour, it gives it an authentic look.

Once that lot of sewing is done it's time to fit the coaming. There were two things that concerned me here. The first was that when I cut the skin to size I'd be going through the seam I'd just sewn down the middle of the deck. I was a bit worried it'd all come undone, but it turned out not to be a problem. The other concern was that I'd get half way through sewing in the coaming and the strap I was using to hold it down would slip, allowing the coaming to move. I had three more straps I could have used, but they were all in the car and the car was at work with Donna.

As it turned out, the strap didn't move. I would recommend two straps though, for piece of mind. I'd also recommend you take care with placement of the straps, otherwise they cover up the holes in the coaming and make it really interesting when you're trying to sew.

I like the way there's now a slight curve in the coaming with the tension on it.

As I cut the cloth to size I put 40mm finishing nails through the holes to hold it in place. The only trouble with using the nails is they made my fingers dirty and they also left black marks where they'd been through the cloth. On the plus side, this made it easier to find the holes when you removed them and sewed.

Coming to the end of sewing the coaming was a bit like finishing a long race. I could see how many holes I had left before the whole thing was finished. Once I got there and tied off the thread, that was it, the actual building of the kayak was done.

There was a satisfying thunk as I loosened off the strap and the coaming ring sprung back to take the tension of the skin it was sewn to.

It's now a kayak.

All that remains now is to dye it and coat it in Corey's Goop, then fit the deck lines. I'm hoping it'll be on the water in about a week, the following weekend at the latest.

The last lot of stitching took about four and a half hours. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. 75 1/2 hours total time.

Kayak Build, Day 20, the afternoon shift

2011-08-22T00:20:00.002+10:00

After my earlier blog entry I thought I'd take it easy, fix the kitchen tap that's been leaking for ages, maybe do some more work on the aviary that's half built next to the house, feed the birds, more importantly, read another chapter of "Insect Plant Biology" by Schoonhoven, et al, for uni. I only have one subject left to go to finish off my science degree.

But no, there's a heap of wood in the shed with nylon draped over it, alluringly, just waiting to be turned into a boat. Its siren call was irresistible, so I spent a couple of hours sewing.

I should mention here that I've heard a lot of SOF kayak builders mention to their wives that traditionally it was the wives that did the sewing on Inuit kayaks. Traditionally, modern day SOF kayak builders wives, when told this, say naughty words. Donna is very traditional, she said a naughty word. She did however sit and watch me sew, which is heaps better than standing there by yourself on your lonesome. I did mention the other day that she's going to be doing some of the work on her kayak when I build it. I'm not sure if that's sunk in yet.

Anyway, below are a few pictures of the front part of the skin sewn. After I'd done this part of the job, taken a few pictures, locked up the shed, had a drinks and a cigar and started cooking dinner because it was my turn tonight, I mentioned to Donna that some people have a problem with getting a straight line when they sew the skin on their kayaks. I really think it depends on the method you use. I know my stitching wasn't straight, and it didn't need to be, since this row of stitching was mainly to pull the skin tight, but it looks pretty good to me. I'm really hoping that the next stage, after sewing, will pull the wrinkles out. I read in a forum recently that the best way to build a Greenland kayak is to follow Chris Cunningham's instructions in his book, but when you get to the skinning stage, follow Corey's instructions on his website. The link is on my sidebar under skinboats.org and I recommend you read the whole website.

The instructions I was using to build the frame tell you to sew from the pointy bits toward the cockpit, Corey's instructions say the opposite and I've seen advice elsewhere that says the same thing, start at the cockpit. I don't know which is best, but since I bought the material from Corey and I was following his sewing videos, I figured that sewing in the direction he suggested was a good idea.

One thing that intrigued me once I'd done this part of the sewing was that I've seen examples of people sewing their skin on where the seam was all over the place. I know my sewing wasn't that straight, but the result at the end looked pretty good. Keeping in mind that this row of stitching is just to tension the skin and the next lot is to tidy up the excess cloth, I'm surprised at how good it looks. I suspect that people that have trouble getting a straight seam on their boats are using a different technique. Not that their way is wrong, I think a crooked seam on this type of boat will look just as good as a straight one. In fact, I think a straight seam would look out of place on a Greenlander.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of my effort at skinning the front end of the boat. As you can see there's plenty of wrinkles. I'm hoping they'll disappear when I get to the dyeing and shrinking stage. There's also an obligatory, inside-the-boat picture that all SOF builders show. I'll also be posting similar pictures once the skin has been dyed.

I think the picture below needs a bow-tie. I recall being best man at a friend's wedding in a shirt that looked like this.

Considering my stitching seemed to be all over the place, this looks pretty straight. At least the skin sounds like a drum when you tap it, and that's the main thing.

The excess will be trimmed and another row of stitching done before it's all dyed, then coated with poly-urethane, in this case, known as Corey's Goop.

Two more hours on the job this afternoon, that's 71 hours total. I should mention that my times on the job are getting very guesstimated, if that's a word. I'm really putting times on here because people ask the question, how long does it take to build one of these? And because I'm curious myself how much It's taken me. Another question I get asked is, how much would it cost to buy one? So working out how long it takes me to build the boat and multiplying that by a labour cost of $20 an hour (less than what I get for filling shelves in a supermarket) gives me an idea of what my boat is going to be worth.

Sewing, or day 20

2011-08-21T14:23:00.005+10:00

There's lots of information available online about sewing the skin on a kayak, but not a lot on sewing leather seats into them. The best information I was able to find was this video, and it's similar to the method I used.

I used two needles and a piece of artificial sinew about four times the length that I need to sew. In the picture below, you can see half of the thread hanging down below the seat. To do a stitch, I push the needle through just like you would a normal running stitch.

Below is the view from... well... below.

Pull the needle through and make sure both ends are tight. The good thing with the artificial sinew is you can let the needles dangle like this and they don't usually fall off.

Take the second needle and push it up through the hole that the first needle came through.

Once you've pulled it through and made sure again that both ends are tight, just repeat until you get to the end.

With the smell of leather and wood, and the sound of Don Burrows playing jazz on the stereo in the shed, I couldn't resist lighting up my pipe.

A pipe and a comfy chair, what more could a man want?

And the frame is officially finished.

This is what six yards of ballistic nylon looks like. I remember having to roll my bedding up like this when I was in the air cadets as a teenager.

After finding the midpoint of the cloth, it's layed out along the hull and a pocket, about four inches long, is sewn at one end to hold it in place. You then you slip it off, go to the other end of the boat and you have two choices. You can either a) pull the cloth to take out the slack, then make a mark about four inches in from the end and sew there, or b) pull the cloth as thight as you possibly can, make a mark at the point where the end of the boat is and sew there.

I got a little confused at this point and ended up combining both methods. After lying on the ground with one foot against a deck-beam, much to Donna's amusement, I made a mark in the right place and sewed the second pocket from that point in about four inches. Then I rolled up some of the cloth for a better grip, put my foot against the deck beam and pulled with all my might. The boat was creaking and occasionally lifting off the sawing horse at the other end, I was grunting and straining, and I still couldn't get the pocket over the end of the boat. I decided I was going to have to remove a few stitches, that's when I realised what I done wrong. It's not really a pocket you need to sew the second time, just a few stitches to hold the cloth in place. Once it's there you can let go and sew in a pocket.

Below is the first pocket on the bow of the boat, once I'd got the cloth pulled tight and sewn on at each end, and the boat was turned up the right way.

I then got out my soldering iron and cut off the excess material. In this last picture I've only removed the excess from one side. It was getting way past my lunch time, so I though I'd take a break. Incidentally, the soldering iron is only a cheap 45w one, but it did the job okay once it'd heated up properly.

Once I've trimmed both sides it'll be time to start the first line of stitches down the centre of the deck. I think I'll refresh my memory on the technique by reviewing Corey's instructions a few times first though.

Another 3 hours today, that's a total of 69 hours. I should do up a spreadsheet listing how long it takes for each part of the job, although I have seen one online already. I'll see if I can find it again and post a link to it.

Kayak Build, Day 19

2011-08-20T13:24:00.002+10:00

I finally got the skin on Thursday, but didn't do anything on the kayak until this morning. I've been trying to decide how to do the seat and this is what I came up with.

At the moment the seat is just lashed in place underneath to hold it in place. It works quite well as it is, but I'm not sure the holes used for lashing would hold up for too long, so it'll be sewn in properly.

The backrest is sewn up with artificial sinew, that came with the skin, which is why I hadn't done it earlier. The padding inside is just a piece of closed cell foam, cut from and old camping mat and folded in half. It'll simply be tied to the deck beam.

Below is the first row of stitching on the seat. It doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself.

Once all the stitching is done I'll slide another piece of closed cell foam in underneath it. The only thing left then is to put the skin on. Then it'll be a real boat.

I think I spent about 2 hours on the job today, taking the total to 66 hours. Keep in mind though that it's 2 hours of unnecessary work, since a lot of people don't fit seats to Greenland kayaks. If nothing else, I think it really adds to the look of the boat, and it's a great way to personalise it.

Still waiting

2011-08-18T12:24:00.001+10:00

Not much has happened in the past week, as far as building the boat is concerned.

According to the USPS parcel tracking service, the material I've been waiting for to finish the boat was in customs clearance on Monday. Now I don't blame customs for the delay, since we've had a couple of public holidays this week, one on Monday and one yesterday. In fact I suspect it actually cleared customs on Monday afternoon and it's Australia Post that I've been waiting on. I know it's Australia Post I'm waiting on now, because I saw their delivery driver turn up this morning. He got out of his van, rearrange a few parcels, stuck a card in our letterbox, then drove off without bothering to come up to our door and see if anyone was home. Not that he needed to check anyway, he could have left the parcel on our front doorstep, like the guy that delivered a case of wine later this morning. So now I have to wait until 4pm so I can drive to the post office and pick up the parcel. As I'm going out for a paddle tomorrow morning, then working, it doesn't look like I'll be progressing much with the build until Saturday.

So, what have I done in the past week?

I put a bed sheet over the frame the other day to see how it would look with the skin on. I'm not too happy with the way the chines end up at the bow, they'll be a bit prominent once they're covered up, so I cut about an inch off each one and planed them down a bit. The picture below was taken last week and you can see how far forward it goes. It'll still stick out a bit now, but not as bad as before.

Until I get the seat fitted and some kind of backrest sorted out, I'm not sure if deck beam four, the footrest, is close enough. So, I've been cutting a piece of pine to size to fit as a foot rest in case it's needed.

The coaming ring has about three coats of marine grade varnish on it at the moment and is looking better with every coat. I'll put at least six on in total and see how it looks then.

One of the tools I bought off eBay to use on the kayak was an old Stanley spokeshave. When it arrived I tried it out and couldn't get the hang of it, so I haven't used it on the boat yet. I gave the blade a sharpen yesterday and tried it on a scrap piece of wood (I have lots of them now). The difference between a blunt blade and one that's had two minutes on an oil stone is amazing. When I made Donna's Greenland paddle, at the beginning of this blog, I made the handle a bit too thick. Yesterday afternoon, after I'd sharpened the spokeshave, I sat down on a little camping stool and started trimming the handle. I wish I'd had it when I first made the paddles, it's a joy to use once you get the hang of it.

The only other thing I've done, kayak-wise, is to start marking out some of the leftover 1/2" ply from the coaming for the cross-sections of Donna's boat. I'll be building her a Tom Yost designed Sea Bee 13. No rib bending to do with that design and it's a bit more roomy than a Greenlander. Donna has specified that she want's a boat that is easy to get in and out of and I think the Sea Bee fits the bill there.

Deck Lines, or Day 18

2011-08-12T15:16:00.004+10:00

It's amazing how much time you can kill, just doing something like hand carving bits of wood.

I spent two hours today making the other three toggles for the deck lines and I must say, it was a very enjoyable two hours. It would have been even more enjoyable if I'd known then that I wasn't going to get a call for me to go into work. Another evening off.

The photos below give you an idea of what the deck lines will look like once they're installed on the finished boat. The paddle, or whatever else you want to secure on deck, slips under the toggles, or the lines, then you slide the toggles outward and they tighten. The way I have the paddle in these photos, it will work as an outrigger. That way I can rest one end of the paddle on the beach while I get into the boat and it shouldn't fall over and embarrass me.

You could, if you wanted to, put one in front of the cockpit out to one side and one behind the cockpit to the other side, with floats on the ends and you'd have a pretty stable boat. I suspect it might be a bit harder to turn though.

The skin hasn't turned up yet, but the Cunningham book I ordered from Amazon a week before the skin, arrived early this week. Hopefully, that means the skin will arrive Tuesday. It won't arrive on Monday, since we have a public holiday then.

Total on the job now is 64 hours. I should mention that a lot of the stuff I'm doing on the boat now isn't really necessary. You could build it without a seat, or deck lines, and you don't need to oil or varnish the frame. By leaving those steps out, you could save yourself quite a few hours.

Kayak Build, Day 17

2011-08-11T16:57:00.005+10:00

Although I didn't do a whole lot to the kayak today, what little I did do made a hell of a difference to its appearance.

If you compare the next picture to the first one of yesterday's post, you can see what a coat of linseed oil can do to timber. It really shows most in the cedar.

Wolfgang Brink says in his instructable, that it seems a shame to cover it all up with a skin once you get to this stage, and I can see what he means now. I can understand why some builders don't dye the skin of their kayaks, instead leaving them to show the colours of the timber through the fabric.

One of the things that came up quite well with a coat of oil was the aft breast hook. I'm actually quite proud of the way it looks, so proud I photographed it more than once.

Once the skin is on and covered in Corey's Goop, the last job will be to add the deck lines. While the oil was drying today, I figured I'd get started on the toggles that will form part of the deck lines. These are made from a piece of left over cedar from one of the chines, carefully carved out using a 1" chisel, then oiled. It doesn't look much now, but it should look great once it's installed on the boat. There'll be four of these in total, two in front of the cockpit and two behind. They'll allow me to slide my paddle in under them and use it as an outrigger when I squeeze myself into the boat, or I can use them to carry an extra paddle.

Below is an idea of how the seat will look once it's sewn in place. I'm thinking of making some kind of back band with some of the leather so that I'm not leaning against the deck beam. I just need to work out how I'm going to do it.

The only other thing to do is to varnish that coaming. It looks kind of out of place at the moment in its raw form.

I reckon I spent about two and a half hours on it today, some of which was just doing little touches, like wiping off excess oil, or fiddling around with the leather for the seat. That takes me to 62 hours total.

Kayak Build, Day 16

2011-08-10T16:54:00.004+10:00

Lots of little jobs on the kayak today mean the frame is finally finished.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I needed to put a couple of blocks under the coaming so that it would fit. The one in the picture below is the aft one, behind the cockpit. Because it's doubled the surface area of that deck beam, it makes it a bit more comfortable when I lean on it too. Although, I'll probably put some kind of padding there anyway. I'm still working out the fine details as far as the seating arrangements are concerned.

I also fitted the aft breast hook and did a much better job of it than I did with the forward one. The ribs that needed lashing have all been lashed and everything has been sanded. The coaming has been sanded and the lacing holes drilled, all 44 of them. That'll need to be varnished, otherwise water will soak into the end grain and probably buckle it. I've also pre-drilled the holes for the deck lines.

All that's left now is to give the whole thing a coat of linseed oil, then put the skin on when it arrives. Oh, and fit the seat, but I can't do that till the needles and sinew arrive with the skin.

If you're wondering why the outdoor shots are taken with the boat on sawing horses instead of laying on the ground, I couldn't find a chook poo free spot to put it.

Here's the obligatory inside-the-hull shot. I'll probably do another one once the skin is on. In fact, once the frame is oiled I'll probably dig out my studio flashes and take some high quality pictures of the whole thing.

I think I spent about 4 hours on the job today, taking the total to 59 1/2. I'll definitely be taking longer than 60 hours overall, but I reckon 60 hours is a good average. I know of people that have bent all their ribs in under an hour, it took me all week.

Kayak Build, Day 15

2011-08-09T22:08:00.003+10:00

Bit of a varied day today, so I thought I'd show you something different to the usual kayak building photos. We have a passion-fruit vine growing around our vegetable garden. The local Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos usually eat seeds, but they're pretty partial to passion-fruit, so they have a habit of stealing ours.

The bush behind with the pink flowers is a Grevillea. The lorikeets we look after love them, and apparently they're rather nice dunked in a cup of tea too, but I haven't tried it yet.

Anyway, back to the job at hand. I got up early today and visited Bunnings after dropping Donna off at work. I bought a 1200mm x 600mm piece of 12mm plywood to make a coaming. The coaming is basically two rings glued together, one bigger than the other, to attach a skirt. It wouldn't have hurt to add a third ring for more depth, and I'll probably do that for the coaming on Donna's kayak, but it'll do. The only problem I found was that there wasn't enough clearance between the coaming and the deck stringers, so I'll need to add a couple of, for want of a better word, bits of wood, to raise the coaming up. It fits perfectly between the stringers, but that will cause problems when it comes time to skin the boat, if I don't add the bits of wood.

I glued the two pieces of coaming together just before heading off to work this afternoon. It's only sitting in place for the benefit of the camera, and my step-daughter and her hubby who came over for dinner tonight. I know it's not traditional, but jigsawing plywood is so much easier than bending oak. Another layer of ply would have been good, but I'm a cheapskate, so an inch thick coaming will do the job. When it comes right down to it, it's only there to hold a skirt.

Yes, the coaming looks wonky in the next picture, but that's not how it'll be fitted eventually. It's pretty much sitting there for somewhere to dry.

I did a bit more lashing tonight, six more ribs to lash and another breast hook to fit. then the frame will be right to skin. The coaming needs sealing with some marine type varnish, then drilling for when the skin is fitted. I'll oil the frame as well.

The leather turned up today for the deck lines. The only thing I'm waiting for now is the nylon for the skin, which is coming from the states.

I reckon I only spent about 2 hours on the job today, I had so many interruptions, it's hard to say for sure, but 2 hours takes the total to 55 1/2.

A paddling day

2011-08-07T18:15:00.003+10:00

I didn't do much on the kayak today, just drilled a few holes so I could lash some of the ribs where I'm not happy with how they're sitting in the mortises.

I tried bending the outer ring of the coaming today and it broke right where the main ring broke, probably because of the tight bend there. So I'm going to try something else with the coaming, instead of stressing out about trying to bend it. I'm going to get some 1/2" marine ply and make a laminated coaming instead. I'm a lot better at wielding a jigsaw than I am at bending wood. Also, I'll be building Donna's kayak to a Tom Yost design and the coamings on Tom's kayaks are mostly plywood.

It wasn't a wasted day today though, since we got the double kayak out and went for a paddle. It was Donna's first chance to try out the Greenland paddle. The one I made her is a bit too thick in the handle, so I need to trim that down a bit. The only complaint Donna had was that she ended up a lot wetter than she usually does with the old Euro paddle. She also got to try out a Werner carbon fibre paddle for a few minutes, as we tagged along with Katrina and Tony from Redlands Kayak Tours. Tony's asked me if I want to help out with a big tour they have happening on the 19th, so hopefully I'll have the Greenlander launched by then. If not, I'll be doing it in the Nantucket.

Sorry there's no piccies today, but the only ones I took were of people on the tour since Tony forgot to put a memory card in his camera.

Kayak Build, Day 14

2011-08-06T20:01:00.003+10:00

It was a bit of a relaxed building day today. I did some lashing, took a break, did some more lashing, chatted to Donna, who was sitting in the sun watching me work.

The chines are now in place. My thumbs were aching at the end of it, mainly from holding the lacing against the chines to keep tension on it. I reckon you could play a tune on the lacing. Once the skin is on, you could accompany yourself, playing percussion.

Once I'd taken a couple of pictures out in the yard I tried the boat on for size. It's a tight fit. Because of where the ribs are in the cockpit, it tends to force my bum a bit further back than I'd like, so my feet don't reach deck beam three properly. Deck beam three is the footrest. That may change once I fit the seat, but if it doesn't I have plenty of offcuts of timber to fashion another footrest.

Once the outdoor pics were taken, I fitted the forward deck stringers. They could do with a couple of extra pegs in each one, as could the rear stringers, but they don't really need it.

I also fitted the forward breast hook, which involved making lots of cuts with a tenon saw then knocking them out with a hammer and cleaning up with a 1" chisel. I did a pretty good job of that part. It's a pity I wasn't as good at actually fitting the breast hook.

As you can see from this picture, it's a bit wonky. When I do the aft one I'll cut it a bit too big, then I can trim it down to size.

That's the frame almost done. Just the aft breast hook to do and the coaming. I took the coaming off the form today and it went a funny shape due to those two kinks I mentioned previously. Once the outer ring is fitted though it'll fix that up. It'll be a bit like laminating.

I weighed the frame today too. A lot of people have said to me, it must be heavy with all that wood. It weighs 10kg. The skin shouldn't weigh more than about 2kg, so it's still going to be a boat I can put up on the car roof rack with one hand.

Another three hours today, taking the total to 53 1/2 hrs.

Kayak Build, Day 13

2011-08-05T21:05:00.005+10:00

The ribs are finished. I'm finally past the hardest and most time consuming part of the whole project. Am I happy? Ooh yeah!

As soon as I finished lashing the ribs I took the whole thing out of the shed and took a heap of pictures. I also took a couple of pictures on my mobile so I could show my workmates how it's going.

As you can see, there's not a lot left to do to finish the frame. The forward hull stringers need to be fitted. They're already cut to size, so it'll probably be a ten minute job there. The breast hooks will take longer, since they need to be shaped just right. Then there's the coaming. I still need to bend the outer ring and fit it to the part of the coaming I've already bent.

Before finishing the deck though, I need to fit the chines. They've been cut to size and I've lashed the forward end. They're clamped into place, so now all I need to do is lash them to the ribs and that'll be the hull finished.

Another three and a half hours spent today, taking the total to 50 1/2. If the nylon for the skin arrives early next week, it could be launched next weekend. Fingers crossed.

Kayak Build, Day 12

2011-08-04T17:19:00.004+10:00

No work this evening, so I spent quite a bit of time on the boat. I still haven't finished the ribs, but the end is in sight.

As you can see below, there is still a bit of frustration, some of the ribs ended up in the backyard.

That rib above did end up getting used though. I knew some of the ribs toward the bow were never going to get bent properly without breaking, so I decided to use some of the ribs that had already broken, but had a bit of a bend in them. Ribs 2, 3, 4 and 5 have all been fitted as two halves and lashed to the keelson to keep them in place.

Some of the ribs have turned out really well, especially toward the middle of the boat, where they're long and the bends are nice and gradual. However, once they're in place there's a lot of gaps between some of them and the keelson, so I've done a lot of shimming.

I've temporarily fitted the hull stringers, or chines if you prefer. That gives me a better idea of how the finished boat will look and where I need to make adjustments. There is going to be a lot of shimming on the chines as well, otherwise the finished boat might end up paddling in circles.

You can see in the next to photos that there are a couple of ribs that are very asymmetrical and that's where I'll need to add shims to make sure the chines themselves are symmetrical. I must admit though, it is starting to look pretty good. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking at some of the crooked ribs got me thinking about a name for the boat. I tried a few different ideas in Google Translator, translating from English into either Icelandic, or Russian. They didn't have Greenlandic, or what every you'd call their language. Since the boat should look pretty good with the skin on, and you won't be able to see the rough bits, I put "skin deep" into translator and it came up with неглубоко, pronounced nyergubaka. If you translate it back to English it means shallow, which also suits the kayak, since it has such a shallow draft. I'll have to see how I go at painting it on the back of the coaming.

Only three more ribs to go. Hopefully they'll get fitted tomorrow, then I can fit the chines and that'll be the hull finished. Then I can turn the boat over and fit the breast hooks and forward deck stringers. I fitted the aft stringers today. Since the aft stringers get sat on when you enter the boat, I figured I'd better make sure they're the right distance apart. So I made sure the neighbours couldn't see me, then measured the distance from butt cheek to butt cheek. You can just see the stringers in the photo above. Yes, I have a small bum.

I'll be using a piece of leather for a seat and that'll be lashed to the two ribs that are in that part of the cockpit. The piece I bought on eBay last week for $25 should be enough for at least two kayaks and probably a couple of wallets or a handbag as well. The 8mm wide leather I bought for the decklines on the same day as the seat only just got dispatched today. I'm not impressed with that particular eBay seller. The skin is coming from the states, so hopefully it'll arrive just in time for me to use it.

Six hours on the job today. What with stopping for lunch, feeding a couple of baby birds we're looking after, and doing some studying, it was quite a full day. The total 47 hours. It's looking more and more like 60 hours is a decent estimation of how long it takes to build one of these boats.

Kayak Build, Day 11

2011-08-02T13:47:00.003+10:00

Not much to report today. I've spent approximately four and a half hours over the past couple of days, but not achieved much.

One thing I am quite pleased about it how the coaming has turned out so far. It's not perfect, as you can see from this first photo, it has a couple of kinks in it. They're not bad enough for me to throw it out and try again though. I bent the coaming by clamping it to the form and pouring hot water on it from the kettle. I think it took about six refills of the kettle, but I eventually got there. Interestingly, the kinks are at the front and back of the coaming. That's not because it's a tighter bend there, which it is slightly, it's just the way it turned out. Hopefully they won't look out of place once it's on the boat.

As far as the ribs are concerned, it's a really frustrating job. I have about eight of them fitted and a couple of those I'm not too happy with as they're only just sitting in the mortises. They'll need shimming to make sure they stay in place once the frame is finished.

I've gone back to using the steamer to do the ribs, mainly because it's very hard to keep the bend in one side of the rib when the other end is boiling. What I'm doing now is putting a hand towel in the steamer with the ribs. As I take out a rib, I wrap it in the towel, and that keeps it hot so I have more time in which to bend it. This allows me to bend the whole rib at once. I've got about as far as I can with the ribs at the moment though, since I need to buy some more wood.

Bending the ribs is a really time consuming job, as it involves a lot of standing around waiting. So I've done a few other bits and pieces while I wait. I've cut and shaped the rear deck stringers. I could fit them now, but the kayak is upside down and turning it the right way up would involve too much cleaning up of bits of rib and clamps.

I've also started on one of the breast hooks. These are small pieces of wood that will fit at each end of the boat to smooth the transition between the gunwales and the stem and stern pieces. I suspect fitting them and the deck stringers will be a couple of the easier jobs for this project.

As I said at the beginning of this post, another four and a half hours, taking the total to 41 hours.

Kayak Build, Day 10

2011-07-31T14:46:00.004+10:00

The day I'd been dreading arrived, rib bending day.

I decided to try one rib yesterday afternoon, after I got home from work. The ribs had been soaking for a couple of days, so I figured I'd see how I went with it. I had all the ribs numbered, so I thought I'd try rib number 13 first, that way I wouldn't feel so bad if it didn't work properly, and if it did, I'd feel more confident with the rest. There's also the fact that rib 13 is closest to the middle of the boat and so has the gentlest bends.

Well it didn't turn out. The main reason was not enough heat. I could only get the steam box up to 75C (167F), which isn't enough. Part of the problem was the camp stove I was using was struggling, it would boil the water, but only just. That improved when I put another gas canister in. Putting a styrofoam box around the steamer also helped, but I could still only get the temperature up to about 93C (199F). That's probably hot enough, but as soon as you take the wood out of the steamer, it starts to cool.

So I called it a day and did a bit more research on steam bending ribs. The general consensus on the QajaqUSA forum is that soaking the wood is a complete waste of time, since it'll take months for any moisture to really soak into the wood. It really comes down to the heat. You need to be able to get the wood up to boiling point, or very close, and bend it while it's at that temperature.

The best way to get the wood to boiling point was to actually stick it in the boiling water, so that's what I did.

After a few failed attempts I finally managed to get a decent bend, as you can see from the next couple of pictures.

The trick is to keep the wood in the steam while you're bending it, and to bend it slowly. If you rush it you'll end up with a kink in the wood, and splinters. The splintering in the picture below isn't too bad, it hasn't really weakened the rib. Once it was dry and had cooled down, I shaved that part off with a 1" chisel. That part of the rib is slightly thinner than the rest, but some of the ribs are a little thicker than they should be anyway.

Because I can't get the whole rib into the boiling water, I found the best way to do each rib was one side at a time. I'd bend one side, clamp it to the gunwale and keelson, then when it had cooled I'd boil the other side and clamp the whole thing to the gunwales.

I found I was still getting some ribs breaking though, or at least splintering so much they weren't really useable. The reason for that is the grain in the material. If you look closely at the next picture, you can see the grain follows the bend in the wood, because it was straight to start with.

In the next picture, you can see where the grain doesn't quite follow the length of the wood, it's at a slight angle, and where that grain comes to the surface is where the rib is going to split.

This means I'm going to have to buy some more rib stock and be really choosy with what I buy this time.

The next two pictures show some of the ribs after bending, already cut to length and fitted into the mortises. I think there's five of them finished. The only reason I haven't done more today is the gas ran out on the camp stove. We have an old gas barbecue I could use to heat the water, but I can't find the hose for it. I have about eight more ribs to bend that should bend okay, then I just have to buy the material for the rest.

Once all the ribs are in place, they get lashed to the keelson, then the hull stringers are fitted and also laced to the ribs. That will be the hull finished, then there's just a couple of jobs to do on the deck and the coaming to bend and it'll almost be ready to skin.

I lost track of how much time I spent on the job today, since we had a visit from Donna's parents, but I'm guessing it was about three hours, which takes the total to 36 1/2 hours.

Kayak Build, Day 9

2011-07-29T12:45:00.004+10:00

The ribs are now cut to length and soaking. The original three were being weighed down in the water by a metal partition from some supermarket shelving that had been thrown out. Years of muck had accumulated on the metal work and it was all starting to come off and turn the water a horrible colour, as well as marking the wood, so I decided to find something else to weigh it down. What do you use to weigh something down in water? More water of course, in a plastic bucket, naturally. See, the two semesters of physics I did at uni wasn't wasted.

Due to my lack of forward planning with the ribs, I was determined not to do the same with the coaming. The coaming also needs to be soaked and bent, but it needs a to be bent around a form. We just happened to have an offcut of kitchen bench top from when we had our kitchen renovated a few years ago, better still, it was just the right size.

Now, the coaming is slightly longer than it is wide, by about 2 inches, so I couldn't just get a compass and draw a circle, nor did I want to do it freehand and end up with a lopsided coaming. What I did was mark out the centre of the form, offset it by about an inch either side, then use a piece of leftover wooden venetian blind as a compass. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

The finished form looks pretty good, I hope the coaming does too.

No more work on it today since I have to work again this evening. I thought I was getting the evening off since I'm working all day tomorrow, but there was no-one else available, so my poor back is getting a rest for a couple of hours. If you're wondering what I do that I get time to build a boat during the day, I'm a filler in the dairy section of a supermarket. That means a minimum of three hours heavy lifting. I'm milk boy tomorrow morning, so that's three hours of lifting 18kg milk crates, then four hours of filling the dairy and freezer load. Years of hunching over a desk in my previous job is coming back to haunt me now.

Anyway, that's another three hours on the build today, taking the total to 33 1/2 hours. I think I've gone over the $400 mark with materials too, as the oak I bought from Bunnings last night was more expensive than I thought. One thing I've learned from this project is how to do it better and cheaper next time.

A bit of a miscellaneous day

2011-07-28T11:40:00.003+10:00

In the absence of enough rib stock I thought I'd do a few miscellaneous jobs on the kayak, stuff that I don't really count as being part of the build, so I won't add to the total time, except for a bit of sanding and cleaning up the ends of dowels.

Below is my steam box that'll be used for bending the ribs. It's made from a piece of 2.4m by 1.2m half inch ply and probably took me no more than two hours to make. Underneath that popcorn tin is a gas, camping stove, one of those you can buy in just about any supermarket. The tin is filled with water, and the steam goes up through a two inch hole in the bottom of the steamer.

The ribs will be placed on the two dowels, allowing the steam to circulate to all surfaces. Yes, I know they aren't square, that's because I measured from the bottom of the steamer and the steamer isn't square. It was a cheap piece of ply that'd sat in the bottom of someone's trailer for months and got wet.

I mentioned yesterday that the only thing I had to soak the ribs in was our bath tub, then I had a proper look around the house. As well as a fish tank and a wheelbarrow that were big enough, I also had three huge photographic developing trays that are just the right size. I decided to start soaking the ribs that I already have so I can steam them on Sunday. I'll buy the rest of the rib stock tonight after I finish work as it's late night shopping tonight. I can then cut them to size and start soaking them tomorrow.

Since it's such a nice winter's day outside today, I thought I'd take some pictures of the frame out in the sun. Finding a spot in the garden without chook or dog poo isn't easy, but I managed.

One problem I have every morning when I start working on the kayak is that the chooks want to come in the shed and explore. Invariably they'll leave a calling card right where I'll step in it, so it comes in handy having Chino, my step-daughter's dog, handy. She likes to lie in the shed doorway, in the sun, which keeps the chooks out.

With the half hour spent today sanding, I'm now up to 30 1/2 hours total. Leather for the seat and deck lines was bought on eBay yesterday. It all still looks like coming in at well under $400. Some of the material I've bought for it will be left over, so it'll be used on Donna's boat. So I won't be able to work out the exact costing till it's all finished.

Kayak Build, Day 8

2011-07-27T11:41:00.003+10:00

I've got the evening off work today, so I could spend a bit more time on the kayak than usual. The only trouble is, I've run out of materials.

When I last bought timber, I only bought one length of 8mm Tassie oak for the ribs. The reason for this is, 6mm is recommended, but they didn't have 6mm, only 4mm or 8mm. So I figured I'd get the 8mm and see how easy it was to plane to the right thickness before buying more. Well I've got to the stage where I'm ready to start on the ribs. The piece of 8mm was very easy to plane to thickness, so I need to go and buy some more. Except, I don't have the car.

Anyway, here's a picture of the finished pointy end. Or at least finished to the point it's ready for the ribs to be fitted. The curve that's been cut out of the stem piece is just to reduce weight a bit, not that it'll make that much difference.

The next two pictures show the three ribs I've cut to length so far. There's twenty-one ribs all together, so I need to get about six more pieces of oak. These are the three longest, so six should be more than enough. You may remember that I originally cut enough mortises for twenty-two ribs. Well the forward most one is so close to the stem piece that I wont be able to put a rib in there, so it'll be left empty.

Once all the ribs are cut to length, they need to soak in water for three days to soften them up, then into the steamer for five minutes before bending. I've had a look round for something that's long enough to soak them in, and the only thing I can find is our bathtub. We only use the shower, so it won't be any inconvenience to leave it full of water and oak strips for three days. I might check a couple of forums first though to make sure it's not going to stain the bath.

Total on the job is now 30 hours, since I only spent two hours on it today. I've heard 60 hours mentioned as a total build time, so I've reached the half way point. Although I suspect it's not going to take me another 30 hours to finish.