Re: watch your legs!

Posted by Dave Houser on May 12, 2005

Been there done that.

I like to use internal forms and tab the outside then fill the seam and glass the outside. I find it easier to eyeball the lines of the seams on an upside down hull to fair them out during stitching. And no unwinding is necessary using forms on a strongback. The trouble with tabbing the outside is the seam must be sanded smooth before glassing (and the inside is still not taped) which removes most of the seam glue and it is easy to blow open a seam.

Tabbing the inside of the seam first is safer. Small tabs on the inside do not need sanding because they get buried in the fillet. But to sight down the seams the hull has to be elevated and unwound because the bulkheads, acting as forms, are not attached to a strongback to maintain panel alignment.

I have also tried using external forms to tape the inside first and still avoid the unwinding process. But then it is imposable to sight down the hull to fair the seams and a dip or pucker is inevitable requiring spot cutting the keel seam to fair it.

So where am I heading with all this tangential rambling? I get the truest S&G hull building the hull upside down on a strongback. I just cannot move it around (or lean on it to get a tool on the far side of the worktable) after tabbing until the outside is glassed. However, the CLC method of building right side up and unwinding has also built a lot of straight tracking kayaks.

That is the fun part of kayak building. You get to build it the way you like and then get to live with the results.

In Response to: Re: watch your legs! by Mac on May 12, 2005

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