Alignment

It's been almost two months since my last post.  That should give you an idea of my progress - slow!  From Thanksgiving through New Years I barely even thought about the kayak but I'm picking up a little steam and hope to recover some ground on my schedule.

At this point aligning the forms and finishing the internal stems are the last items needed before stripping can begin.  Earlier I placed the forms on the strongback for rough fitting and made a few wood u-spacers.  Everything checked out without problem.  The laser cut particle boards in the kit only needed a few little spurs ground down and smoothed out.  To prepare for final alignment I removed all forms.

There are a total of 16 form ribs that mostly slide over the strongback with a few that 
will need to be glued to the protruding end forms at the bow and stern.

I then took the necessary measurements from the sparsely designed plans and marked the front of cockpit on the strongback and located the nearest form.  On this design it's #8.   Form #8 was placed in its position and I marked its placement on the top, bottom and sides of the strongback.  I then flipped the bare strongback deck side down and replaced the forms.  I secured #8 temporally then installed the remaining spacers and forms from the inside out.

With #8 secured I placed my key spacer between it and #7.  The plans call for 11.5" between forms and I left the key spacer at roughly 10.5" so there would be plenty of slack.  I then measured and placed the #3 and #14 forms in their final spots then screwed them into place before placing the remaining spacers.  I gently tapped the key spacer wedges to tighten towards the bow before finally removing the temporary screw holding #8 in place and snugging the rest of the forms from the inside out.  For the final placement of the nose forms I installed a wood screw through the adjacent forms directly into the end forms.  

 

This is the key spacer in the middle.  It's in two parts and can be expanded by hammering the wedges in the center.

It evenly snugs the forms and spacers the entire length of the boat from the inside out.

The #13-#14 spacer screwed in to place.  You can also see the screw through #14 back into the spacer.

 

Here you can see the wood screw that was placed through the #15 form.  It's ready to accept the stern form.  

You can also see the reference lines for the sheer strips and alignment.

Each form has reference marks indicating where the first strips or "shear strips" will be placed.  I used these to visually check down the length of the boat and adjusted the forms where necessary.  Very little needed to be done because the strongback is straight and the forms were precision cut.  I've clamped short strip pieces to the form following the reference line.  This will aid the installation of the sheer strips.

The reference lines and sheer strip support tabs.  Sorry for the shoddy quality.  The QC inspector was getting a little antsy about the overtime and late dinner.

This then is the final placement and alignment of the forms.  I'm finished with this step and can confidently move on to making and placing the internal stems.

Or maybe not...