Hi guys,
I've been lurking on this BB for a while but seeing posts from a couple of Kiwi's I figured I better set up a profile and join the discussion..........

Firstly, I'm in Rangiora and I'd be real keen to meet up with anyone local to talk kayaks, and/or go for a paddle. I'm very much a novice paddler but keen to learn. Currently paddling Cunningham style Greenland SOF with a GL paddle.

I finished building a strip-plank Bear Mountain Boats Endeavour 17 for a friend just over a year ago. I absolutely loved building it and it's a lovely boat in the water. I used WRC purchased from Herman Pacific in Christchurch. I think I bought about a dozen planks (6x2) and with the help of a friend ripped it all up on my sawbench and coved and beaded it on a real basic router table set-up I cobbled together. The secret to getting good consistent strips I think, was having nice long infeed and outfeed tables and a good system of hold-downs to keep the strips tight against the fences. I used routerbits that I purchased as a set online from Lee Valley tools. I remember calculating that between ripping and coving and beading, we did something like 6km worth of passes of timber thru one cutter or another. But that will probably do at least 5 boats. Also, it's nice if you can keep the strips from each plank together as you cut them as we found quite a bit of difference in colour and texture.

I used Selleys Aquadhere and found it good to work with. It dries nice and hard which is good when you get around to sanding as it doesn't gum up the sandpaper like some of the more rubbery PVAs can. I agree with Mike re doing any filling at the end of the stripping process. I was pretty careful and didn't have too much to do. If you're going to add wood-dust to your filler you'll find it will come out much darker than the surrounding wood. Don't know what others do but I did my filling with epoxy and I mixed up different colours by blending wood-dust and West System microlite (light tan colour) and sometimes a bit of glue powder (white) to get whatever colour I was after. You might want to wipe the area around where you've filled with a rag moistened with acetone to remove the filler from the fibres of the surrounding wood. I nearly had a pretty bad visual disaster with this...........

I used staples as it was my first attempt and I was more concerned about making the strips do what I wanted them to do than I was about the appearance of staple holes. I filled the staple holes with my different coloured fillers and you're hard pressed to see them from more than a couple of metres away.

Well, that's my 2c worth. Rip into Simeon - you'll love it and I'll be surprised if building just one satisfies you.........

Cheers,

Al.

: Hi Simeon,

: good to hear anotKer kiwi building a stripper. I am too, here in
: Christchurch.

: I have played about with several glue systems for wood and have used Selleys
: Aquadhere for the strongback and horses for a Cape Ann double. Very
: strong, clear when set and gap filling up to about .5mm. Sawdust filler
: with glue is likely to be tedious and slow you down lots at the stripping
: stage I think. Fill significant gaps later. Cleaning off excess glue
: scrupulousy with a damp cloth on the inside and outside will pay greater
: dividends than trying to achieve a gap free hull by filling at gluing
: stage. From experience with other projects dry fitting to achieve a good
: fit 1st time will also reward you well. Plane fit plane fit...then fit and
: glue.

: If you change your mind about routing B&C there is a NZ kayak building forum.
: I have finished routing strips using a cheap chinese router table. After
: initial teething problems with set up (50% my inexperience, 50% cheap
: tool)and it took about 18 hours by myself to do enough B&C for a boat and
: a half. I'm happy to share.

: I have used paulownia,some grown in own garden,some bought & very light
: and very cheap compared to American cedar, and some NZ cedar, libocedrus
: bidwillii or kaikawaka, which hass machined beautifully.

: Have fun. Mike