filling the holes

Just curious. If I'm going for the varnished wood finish on my kayak, is it still possible to fill the drilled wire holes with a little epoxy and wood powder, making sure any excess epoxy is scraped off and sanded without it discolouring and affecting the final finish? Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

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RE: filling the holes

Yes you can. The method you describe will leave little dark dots, but the rest of the finish will be fine.

There's nothing actually wrong with the little dark dots. They are an attribute of S&G construction, the way rivet heads are for iron ships, seams for welded ones, etc. If you click on the picture below, it'll open a larger image and you can see what these dots look like on a bright finish. Some builders try to minimize them by plugging the holes with toothpicks or custom mixing woodflours in an attempt match colors.

Laszlo

RE: filling the holes

If you have tacked the hull together with dabs of thickened epoxy between the stitches I would remove the wires and fill the holes from the outside with a mix of "Titebond Molding and Trim Glue" http://www.titebond.com/IntroPageTB.ASP?UserType=1&ProdSel=ProductCategoryTB.asp?prodcat=1, and okoume sanding dust. This glue dries as clear as any I know of and should result in a filler that is slightly darker than the unfinished ohoume. When you varnish over this filler should match as well as anything I know of. This is a tedious step however any thickened epoxy that gets in the holes during the filleting process will probably be darker than the wood and if thin enough could cause a run on the outside that would require a lot of sanding, so filling the holes first is a must. Good luck. SEEYA Jack

RE: filling the holes

Thanks for the info chaps.

 

RE: filling the holes

I am at exactly this point and was wondering about the holes, I tacked my hull first, removed the copper and then taped and fillet-ed.

I must comment on Laslo's photo, is that hatch held by earthmagnets, or bungies, you did a beautiful job!

 

Ted

RE: filling the holes

Really, no filling required.  As you saturate the glass cloth in the intitial step of fiber glassing the hul, the holes will fill with resin.  All you will see is a dark dot under the glass.  I hesitage filling the holes with filler of any kind as the result is often not as nice as a simple black dot.  Jer.  aka mtsailor  http://gallery.me.com/jermcmanus

RE: filling the holes

If you'd prefer a light spot vs a dark spot, try those nice round toothpicks pushed in after the tip was dipped in a bit of white glue. When dry, snip and sand.

Really fun to have your project look like a hedgehog for a while - and you get to see just how many of those stitches there were. Impressive!

Have fun.... 

 

RE: filling the holes

Thanks Ted.

The hatch is held down by bungees with a tension-adjuster. I didn't want to mess up my compass readings. If you'reinterested in the details, they're at:

Building a Wood Duck 12

The hatch-related stuff is sort of scattered throughout the website.

Laszlo

 

RE: filling the holes

I put light round tooth picks in a bunch of holes until I got bored with the process and just proceeded with the balance unfilled as suggested by CLC. I can't tell which holes got the tooth picks because they turned dark like the unfilled holes. It is the end grain of the tooth picks showing, which apparently turns dark when coated etc. On my current build, I am contemplating other ways to fill those holes. Again, it is nice to see the process trail = stitch holes.

Lew

RE: filling the holes

I saw one post in which the person punched a small round hole and inlayed mother of pearl dots to accent rather than hide the holes.  Looked pretty.

 

I just epoxied over mine and never notice them until I explain how the boat is stitched together.  Then people look hard to find them.  

I'd say, "Save your time for paddling.  Ignore them.  They take care of themselves. "

 

Ed

RE: filling the holes

I filled the holes with toothpicks.  The attached pic shows a closeup.  This only added one extra day to the build.

 

RE: filling the holes

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30300189&l=f19866d2c4&id=1124156327

 Not sure how to post the pic.

RE: filling the holes

Okay, those tooth picks look good, they didn't turn dark like mine did. Maybe I didn't cut them off cleanly which possibly left the end grain open. I will use the tooth picks again, this time on the whole boat, cut cleanly leaving material to be sanded flush. Thanks Howard H. for the picture. I think they will also be stuffed into staple holes as well. 

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