Wood Duck build tips

I started a wood duck hybrid build last September and will hopefully be finishing up sometime at the end of this month.  I learned many things along the way from this forum and making my own mistakes.  Two things that I thought might be helpful to others are two things I discovered when joining the deck to the hull and applying the graphite bottom.

Joining the deck - As many have experienced, when the deck and hull come apart to remove the forms you then need to join them together at the seams, but in many cases the hull springs inward without the forms.  To combat this I used hot glue and the little clamps shown in the picture.  I was able to temporarily install a few of these in areas where I could not get far enough up the inside to push the hull out to the edge of the deck.  I think their operation is fairly self explanatory.  Then you can just hot glue the outside seam, remove the clamps and the metal piece, and fillet and tape the inside seam.

 Getting a clean line of paint/graphite- My first coat came out with a  dreadfully uneven line along the taped edge.  I figured out my problem was I was taping along a sanded surface.  (Creating a wicking effect from the rough epoxy surface under the tape).  I laid on a very thin layer of unthickened epoxy to create a super smooth surface to lay the tape on, then burnished the painted edge of the tape to ensure there were no parts unadhered.  After painting I pulled the tape off right after the epoxy/graphite mix set up making a clean crisp line.  


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RE: Wood Duck build tips

RE: Wood Duck build tips

  OMG... a toilet in the shop! That's pretty close to heaven if you ask me.

  Seriously, I wish you had posted this a couple of weeks ago when I attached my 12' deck. I had a hard time and my fix involved drilling holes in the sides. Great idea here.  Thanks!

RE: Wood Duck build tips

Hah, yeah I can literally sit and watch the epoxy dry!

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