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wayward stitches and dimply scarphs
A couple of questions from a 1st time builder tackling the wood duck 10...
I'm still at the part of the builders manual which says "plans builders must first assemble a 'kit' of parts before beginning construction." I've scarfed my plywood, transferred and cut out all shapes but transom, hatch pieces and coaming spacers. The last thing I did before taking a lengthy enforced break from the process was drill stitch holes in my deck pieces. All my planks are more or less to size but I haven't drilled any holes in them.
Now that I'm ready to get back to it, I found out something very distressing: I've been final trimming, laying my pieces down atop the plans to check for any bumps and waviness that doesn't belong, and realized that all the stitch holes I drilled in the aft deck seem to be off their marks by about a quarter of an inch. Would any harm be done if I leave these holes be (with the exception of the forms and bulkhead locations) and adjust the locations of corresponding holes in the side and sheer panels? It seems that as long as the bulkheads and forms are properly located, the plank to plank stitching can be tweaked by that much, and since I haven't drilled any holes but these bad ones it seems neater to adjust where i can than to fill everything and start over.
The other question I have is regarding the scarph joints. While I was astonished the process was apparently successful, especially as a 1st timer, I'm pretty apprehensive about bending and twisting them, and there are some unpleasant looking dents here and there which make me nervous. So for filling these dents along the scarphs: is this typically done with unthickened epoxy, or epoxy/woodflour? Does filling them strengthen the scarph, or just smooth it?
3 replies:
RE: wayward stitches and dimply scarphs
I built a Wood Duckling from a kit. Really don't worry about 1/4 inch. By the time the panels are curved about, you'll have all sorts of small shifts in alignment, it will work fine. I like a painted hull, I think it sets off the line of the deck rather well.
RE: wayward stitches and dimply scarphs
Thanks for your responses flyrods and Beaker. As a rank beginner I'm trying to learn which things to panic about and which things to just shake off and bear in mind about going forwards. There's already about ten things I can think of that fall into that category of "Do more carefully next time, this is within acceptable tolerances, but it would be easier if it was done more carefully to begin with."
Part of the reason I went with this project was the often repeated "this is a forgiving process." It's also a handmade process, which for beginners is a constant test of unfamiliar handiwork, but it's amazing! I think that's the genius of Stitch and Glue, that the allowances built in to the method can pull the beginner through the process. At least that's what I'm hoping.
I'm continuing to smooth my edges down and I've drilled all my holes, getting ready to bevel and start cutting wires to see if any of these pieces fit together. Thanks for the encouragements and reassurrances, folks.
RE: wayward stitches and dimply scarphs
» Submitted by flyrods - Thu, 11/17/11 » 11:13 AM
Al
I have built a Hybrid Wood Duck 12 and am finishing up a hybrid WD10. i think you can leave the offset and try to pull the pieces together with just the additional redrilling where the bulkheads are. Check out by blog rodskayakadventure.blogspot.com . you will notice that I painted the WD hull from just above the side/bottm panel seam. This covers up some aggressive sanding(easy to sand thru the top layer of plywood) and covers up some extra holes that I had drilled in panels to get them to come together. You will notice the various postings of WD kayaks that many are painted in this manner and some paint the entire hull that covers up some cosmetic blems.
Thr dimply scarfs : I would fill with clear epoxy and sand sooth. Any filler mixed with epoxy will make a different color than the clear epoxy over wood. I think it does not add any strength and you will be just fixing cosmetics.
Keep on building....does not sound like a Viking funeral yet!! Almost anything can be fixed during building...paint covers up many errors!!
Remember to use the CLC tech support, those guys were great during my build.
Check out posts by Lazlo and Lou Farhood. Both very helpful dtring my builds also.
Rod