Kayak Building Diary - Part IV: Machining strips for the Deck

Friday Dec 28th 1 hr

Well did a bit more putting today. (tomorrow I'm off to get wood for sure). I taped up the edges of the stations, I really should have done this earlier, before I put on the strip to hold them in place. Oh well, I'll have to remember to tape up the section when I remove that strip. I also used the strips to adjust the height of one station, to bring everything into a more fair line. Then I spent a bit of time stareing at the stations trying to figure out how I want to put the pattern on the deck.

I have left over fence boards that I can use to make some short planks for the deck. They are nice and dark, I was saving the more or less clear ones as I was fencing just for the kayak. However I want to go pick up a few longer boards, that are not as dark (for a bit of contrast) as well as some Pine and Walnut which I will used to put some 'racing lines' on the deck.

Dec 30/31st 5 hr

setup for ripping and bead and coving my cedar strips. I ripped some of my whitest cedar down so I can make some fancy curved strips. Unfortuantly I ripped them to thin to put a bead on so I'll have to use a bevel to join the edges of my planks to it. I also ripped down my darkest fence board to thin 1/4 x 1/4 inch strips. this wil be used with the white strip for contrast.

In any account I used my dest top belt sander to put some bevels (around 6:1) which I then used to scarf the strips together to make longer strips. Used good old carpenters glue, and some bull dog clamps.

Jan 01, 2002 - 5hrs - HAPPY NEW YEAR

I ripped down my cedar fence planks to cedar strips for the kayak deck. A very crude estimate shows I'll need only 9 planks for the deck. I kinda think it will be more, but I'm going to stop at that. I also scarf joined the last of the 1/4 x 1/4 accent strips together.

I'm really happy with my fence boards. The previous summer I put up a cedar fence, I knew I had extra wood, so I purdently put aside the ones with few or no knots in it. The darker pieces are very consistent... I like that. Unfortunatly none of the uncut cedar boards really matched each other.

My plan for stipping the deck involves using the accent strips to make nice smooth flowing lines, then fill in with the regular cedar strips. I guess I'll have lots of accent lines, that way I can have relatively small, but areas that are consitent in colour between each accent line

do use a resperator when ripping cedar I ended up hacking and coughing, until I wized up and put mine on.

note: I found ripping the 5ft boards alot easier than the 16ft boards I did with my canoe. I could see the entry line, to the saw, and ensure I was tight to the fence for the entire cut.

In the afternoon I mucked around with the route setup, and ripped some more 1/4 x3/8 white accent strips. I'll have to fix my router tables fence, seems I notched a grouve at the base when I was working with my canoes cedar strips ealier this summer. now the cedar strips do not enter the bit properly... at least I noticed ahead of time

So here is the before picture for the deck, when it is starting life as a bunch of fence planks... hope the deck turns out .

Sat/Sun 8hrs

I was able to get all the beads in coves done in around 5 hours or so. That is great, I hate machining my boards.

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