Summary: This section describes building the vertical portion of the combing, and fiberglassing the outside of the riser to the deck.
Marked out and cut the inner cockpit. I then tried to cut to the line useing a jig saw blade in the modeling handle, however ended up just using the modeling saw blade, I cleaned up, and sqauared of the edge with a wood rasp.
I also sanded the recess for the cockpit, and about 2 inches past. That way when I fiberglass the risers, I should get a good mechanical bond with the deck. I figured it would be easier to do the sanding now. I took 2 pictures of the cockpit and 4 or 5 of the over all boat.
I've not been able to work the kayak very much, it's been around a month since I last worked on it. I'm stole 3 hourse of time in these 8 days to build up the cockpit risers.
TODO: put in diagram of how I used the Hotmelt glue to build up risers.
I build the combing risers simillar to the method described in Nick Schades book. Basically building a ring of vertical 2 inch pieces of left over cedar strips. Putting on the risers took a lot less time than I figured. I ended up using a hot melt glue gun to temporarily hold each piece of riser in place while wood glue dried. After reading Nicks book I was a little unclear on the method. Nick describe using hot melt glue to hold the risers in place, while the carpenters glue dried. I was not sure if the deck to riser piece should have been glued with hot melt or carpenters. I'm going to detail what I did here, my opinion being that carpenters glue should be used on the deck to riser joint.
The first pieces require that the edge be beveled so that they meet properly at the front. I have a bench sander, and I just took my best guess. After that I just tried each, and made adjustments until I got a good fit. I Put the two at the front up, and then the two at the back up. Called it a afternoon, and let them set.
To build up the combing the technique is fairly fast and simple. First though, cut a bunch of 2 inch pieces of bead and cove strips. Then run the carpenters glue along the edge of the strip, and along the edge of the deck. Place the strip, and tack it with a bead along the deck, and a 'stitch' of hot melt glue up on the front near the top. Hold the piece in place for about 30-45 seconds and voila, on to the next.
Over the days I'd sneak down and put up a 1/2 dozen, or dozen strips. I'd peal off the hot melt glue from the previous day.
I mentioned previously that I had been pealing off the hot melt glue, well this did not remove all glue, a layer is left on the wood. This layer will not sand off well, as it is quite rubbery. I spent about 30 minutes cleaning off the hot melt with a sharpened screwdriver I had laying around. Once this was complete, 5 minutes sanding with 100 grit sand paper ensured all the glue was removed.
Sanded the combing prior to fiberglassing, first 60 Grit, 100, then 150 grit sand paper. After this I still need to clean the hot glue out of the corner better.
Came downstairs today just to finish sanding the hot melt glue out of the corner. It went well, just used some rolled up sandpaper. This took maybe 10 minutes. After this I re-sanded around the surface of and edge of the resessed cockpit so my next layer of fiber glass will have a good mechanical bond. I used 150 grit for this, hope that is the right one, This too 5-10 minutes.
Things are going good today I decide that I'll fiberglass up the outside of the combing rise today
The first step is a fillet. A trick I read off the the Bear Mountain Boat - builders form, was used. Put the thickened epoxy into a sandwich bag, and snip off the end. Then to run the fillet, just squeeze the bag, and use it like a calking gun. Worked really well. Then I used a plastic spoon to smooth out the fillet, this worked well too. It also was a tip from the builders forum. (TODO: find .posters name)
The fiberglass strips were just left over scrap fiberglass, I placed these directly into the fillet. I used 3 pieces of fiber glass, it worked out pretty well, although my edge of fiberglass to deck is pretty ragged after the first coat of epoxy. I placed the fiberglass so that it overlapped the recess, an then to the deck by about 1 inch. this gives the recess extra strength where it joins to the deck.
The second fill coat is done, but to thick, I ended up with lots of runs, later while it is still green I scraped down the edge of the fiberglass with a paint scraper, and put a final thin 3rd coat of epoxy on.