Plane

It's time to plane the wood.  The weathered and rough surface has to go and the boards needed to be a consistent thickness.  My new Dewalt DW734 thickness planer arrived from Amazon last Monday and was ready to roll on Saturday. 

 I fed the wood from my truck bed through the planer then stacked it on the table in the background.

I started out with the thickest board in the pile and slowly planed it down to 3/4".  I passed the board through, lowered the cutter head 1/64th of an inch then flipped the board and passed it through again.  I repeated the process until both surfaces were smooth and clear all the way across then I planed the same side to remove any blemishes.  I set it aside, grabbed the next board and continued the process until all were complete.

The Dewalt DW734 in action.

Some of the boards were a little warped so several successive passes were needed just to get the surface flat.  I also had a couple of boards that were already 3/4ths of an inch before planing.  I went ahead and fed them through the planer but removed as little as possible.  They'll probably come in handy for the chines where more narrow strips will be needed.  I also edge planed the boards that were previously set aside for scarfing so they're a consistent width.  The black bar across the top of the Dewalt's knife head will lock it in place which prevents snipe.  Very useful.

I ended up with a stack of beautiful paulownia that's ready for the table saw.  I plan on scarfing the boards next then quickly planing them a touch more before ripping.  Right now I'm having trouble figuring out how to taper the ends of the wood to make the scarf joints.  I've tried a band saw, block plane and wood chisels but the 1:8 ratio for the taper is going to be really had to achieve.  You can see a 1:4 taper in the picture below and that's really tough to do.  I have three options to make the taper.  I can carefully saw, chisel and sand each end, take the lumber to a mill work or cabinet maker and let them taper the ends or I can go ahead and rip the boards then make scarf joints on the individual strips prior to putting them on the forms.  Right now I'm leaning towards making the joints on the strips.  It'll mean more work but it's probably the most practical solution to the problem.

 Note the tapered board.  That was done with a hand chisel then sanded on my benchtop sander.

 I love the light color of the wood.  Beautiful grain too!

I'm finally putting the rungs under the strongback mount to use as a storage place for the boards.  They're out of the way but still handy to grab.

Form

After building the strongback I put together a set of spacers for the forms.  This allows me to lock in the form boards without screwing them in place.  Each spacer is precisely 11.5” with the exception of the center locking spacer.  This one is cut into two parts and made to accept wedges so I can snug the whole setup together from the center.  The rest are simply 1” x 4” boards screwed & glued to form a U-shape that slide over the strongback between the form boards.  After they were built I was careful to square up each end with the sander.  None of the spacers are screwed to the strongback.  Below you can see the center spacer with its wedges.  I used pressure treated hardwood because that’s all I had left after assembling the others.  There are 13 spacers in all. 

 

As you can see we here at KudaMuda’s Kayak Shop undergo some pretty rigorous QC by our in-house lab.

The form boards are made from particle board and have little nubs on the outside edge and inside where they slide over the strongback.  I used a file to remove the ones on the inside and my bench top belt sander for the outside (Ryobi model BD4600 4" belt and 6" disk sander).  Once removed it only took a few minutes to slide on the numbered forms and insert the spacers.  The plans include a measurement from the bow end to the cockpit.  In the pictures below the forms are in place but not secured.  I will need some shims for the nose pieces before I can screw them to the strongback and I won’t have those until I rip the lumber.  Everything right now is just test fitted.

 

Note the nose piece for the stern is not in place here.

There are virtually no instructions for the kit.  You do get a few key measurements but there are absolutely no written instructions on how to proceed with assembling the strongback or forms.  They don’t even tell you in what sequence to install the forms.  The only written instruction is an update to Schade’s book which I suppose is intended to be your construction guide.  For the cost of the kit I don’t think including a one page assembly guide would be asking too much.  Just be aware if you do purchase a kit it’s also a good idea to buy Schade’s book.  While it won’t provide specific instructions on what to do with the pile of wood that comes in the box it will give you enough insight to figure it out on your own.