Questions about strip deck on a Kaholo

I'm a first-timer, building a Kaholo SUP with a cedar strip deck.

I built the deck in two halves, and it's time to join the halves together...

First question:  Apparently the "straight" edge i used as the brace for gluing the strips together wasn't straight.  As a result each half of the deck is bowed along the edge where they are supposed to mate together.  With the deck halves touching at both ends, I've got about a 1/2 inch gap in the center of the deck.  What's the best solution for this? 

I have one strip that i could possibly trim by hand to fit in the gap.  But that could be a bit of a challenge getting the fit right.  Otherwise, should I carefully plane some material off of each deck half, starting at the ends, until the gap closes?

Second question:  Obviously I used wood glue when gluing the strips togehter.  But what should I use when joining the two halves?  It seems as though wood glue would work IF they mated togher perfectly.  But given the problem described above, should i use epoxy thickened with wood flour to help fill any gaps?  (Note that the beads were cut off the two centeline strips, so I'll be butting two square edges together...)

Final Question:  Some of the strips didn't have perfect beads/coves, or otherwise didn't mate together perfectly.  So I've got a few spots where, even after sanding, I've got lillte hairline gaps an inch or two long.  (they aren't deep, but they are visible...)  Should I try to fill these with something?  Or will they dissapear once the fiberglass and epoxy are applied?

Thanks in advance for helping the rookie!

 


3 replies:

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RE: Questions about strip deck on a Kaholo

Well, I answered my first question.  After staring at the deck for too long, I decided to try planing material off the deck halves to make them fit.  I figured if it didn't work out, I could still try to fabricate a strip to fit between them.

By carefully taking material off i was able to close the gap.  All i can say is a really sharp, quality block plane is a wonderful thing.

I could still use advice on the second and third questions if you have any. 

RE: Questions about strip deck on a Kaholo

   2nd question:  epoxy mixed with wood dust or other color (see below).

  3rd question:  they will get filled by the epoxy while glassing.  You can run a strip of packing tape under the seams in question to control any drips.  If, by chance, they are a little larger than stated and you want a different approach, I often use sanding dust from the same wood as the strips mixed with epoxy and pressed into the offending seams, then sanded smooth after the epoxy sets up.  You can also use black fresco color powder, mixed with epoxy, in the same way.  Black seams often work very well, imho, for some reason, especially with darker wood.  

RE: Questions about strip deck on a Kaholo

with respect to your question 2:   you can still use wood glue for the two halfs.  wood glue is plenty strong enough.  that said, its the composite structure of a strip built (wood glued strips encapsulated with sheets of epoxy-filled glass that gives it its ultimate strength/waterproofness)   my personal perspective for matching with the other work is to use the same glue between all strips.

with respect to your question 3:  a technique i recently learned for filling small gaps between strips (~ 1/16 inch or less) is to force some wood glue into the crack and then, while the glue is still wet, sand over it it with 100 grit paper moving the paper in the same direction as the grain/seam.  litterally made these little imperfections disappear and the colour-match is coming from the dust of the wood itself.

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